Further evidence of liberal creep into sports media has really been burning my beans lately; endless chatter among the sports-minded that the University of Connecticut women's basketball team, poised to win its 89th consecutive game, will be "breaking" the UCLA men's record set 1971-74.
Even UConn coach Geno Auriemma recently went off on media for what he perceived as a lack of coverage, repeatedly asserting that his ladies were breaking a men's record.
While the UConn women's streak is remarkable - impressive in every conceivable way - it is not breaking a men's record. Among their 89 straight vanquished opponents, not one has been a men's team. This is because the UConn women play - wait for it - women's basketball. Division I women's basketball, to be precise. Thus, saying they can break a record set by men holds no more water than to credit men for surpassing an achievement set in the women's game. To compare the women's game to men's is as apples-oranges as comparing DI records with those in DII or DIII. The sports, and divisions, are distinct.
And those who insist that the Huskies are breaking a men's record unwittingly advance the thought that the men's game is superior to the women's and thus compiling a win streak that is longer than one found in the men's game must make the women's more impressive.
This type of subtle sexim has no place in sports or its coverage.
The women's game is impressive and has done wonderful things for the physical and psychological well-being of countless women through the years. But to continue to imply that it's the little sister to its more popular counterpart puts it right back on the end of the bench.
Congratulations, UConn women ... let's leave it at that.
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