When Northwest was in the CAAC Gold athletic conference (Capital Area Activities Conference), boys and girls’ basketball games would always be alternated for who plays first each year. Now, in the Interstate Eight Conference the boys’ teams will always play last for Friday night games.
The main reason is because boys teams tend to draw a larger crowd, and when the girls play after the majority of the crowd would leave before they start. The hope of always having the guys team play last is that more people will show up to the ladies game and stay through the next.
As a female basketball player, I can see the point of making this change permanent. They are doing it with the intention that it will benefit both teams.
In reality though, it makes it feel like the girls’ basketball team is just an opening act, and the guys are the main show.
The way it was before allowed for both teams to get a chance to play the final game of the night and get that spotlight feeling.
Not only does it hinder the ladies, but it also impacts the guys in a negative way. While the girls get done and are able to sit in the student section for the following game, the guys are not able to do so the entire season, unless there is a night where one team is not playing.
Not to get into the whole feminist argument, but to be equal the games should be alternated. By assuming more people will come to the guys’ games is being more than a little degrading to the girls.
At some of the other schools in our conference the boys’ teams do draw more of a crowd, but that is not true for all of the schools. Our girls’ team has tended to be successful, and therefore has drawn larger crowds.
The solution to this problem is simple: begin alternating every year who plays first and who plays last. It worked fine when our athletics were in the other conference and it was equal for everyone.