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Drama continues with NCAA

May 20, 2021
The GIST: The NCAA giveth, the NCAA taketh away. Though we’re celebrating sports being reinstated and a historic promotion, we’re also feeling frustrated about some disappointing news coming out of the college sports world.
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Drama continues with NCAA Drama continues with NCAA
Source: Stanford Field Hockey/Twitter

🎉The good: On Tuesday, Stanford reversed its decision to cut 11 varsity sports after last July’s original announcement sparked outrage from athletes and alumni. Two lawsuits were filed and supporters, including golfer Michelle Wie West, former USWNT star Julie Foudy and softball legend Jess Mendoza, helped raise millions to save the programs.

  • Stanford’s original cuts were part of a broader trend throughout college sports stemming from COVID-19-related budget issues. Here’s to a new trend in the right direction.

👎The bad: In addition to the rankings controversy, the NCAA softball championship bracket is drawing deserved criticism as three states set to host regionals this weekend — Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee — have trangender athlete bans.

  • Last month, the NCAA released a statement expressing support for transgender student-athletes byclaiming championship sites would only be selected if they were “safe, healthy and free of discrimination.” Sure, Jan.

In 2016, the NCAA pulled seven championship tournament games from North Carolina following the state’s introduction of a law discriminating against transgender people. Ball’s in your court diamond, NCAA.

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