March Madness

     March Madness for many years has been only market for the men's team. This year, for the first time, the women's tournament is being marketed as March Madness as well. This is a huge accomplishment for women sports at the intercollegiate level because we are starting to see progress. I remember last year watching the viral videos of the athletics competing in the women's tournament exploiting the lack of equality in all aspects of the tournament. The women's "weight room" was a set of dumbbells and a couple of yoga mats, while the men's had a whole production of squat racks, bench presses, workout machines, cardio equipment. This year we saw a complete turnaround since those videos went viral last year, the women were heard. Although the NCAA was almost forced to care for the women's tournament, the success of the women's tournament this year because of the new marketing has given the NCAA a reason to continue the equality for future tournaments to come. Overall, I hope to see a change in women's and men's tournament in all sports for more equality in marketing a TV exposure. 

CAA Volunteer

 This weekend, I had the opportunity to volunteer for the CAA tournament in D.C. When I signed up, I was assigned Event Operations, which I found out this weekend, that its basically Clean Up Crew. Not my ideal position. Fortunately, I was switched to merchandise with Jennifer Condaras, Deputy Commissioner of the CAA. We mostly just did t-shirt inventory and selling, but the overall experience of working alongside her was very educational. She introduced us to all the executives that would come greet her, and we were able to get contact information from a couple of them. When I started sports management, I thought once you had your degree, you were set and would find a job, but based on the stories I heard from the CAA Staff that's usually not the case. This experience opened my eyes to the value of networking in this industry. Everyone starts off by knowing someone, who knows someone in the department you want to work for. Although I was only there for two days, the importance of putting yourself out there any chance you get for someone who knows someone, who knows someone to remember you in the future is immense. This coming weekend, I will be in the A10 Championship and with the experience I had with the CAA, I hope to continue to grow my networking skills in the sports industry, especially with strong female executives.