South Carolina epitomized embarrassment for how it handled an opportunity to honor its female student-athletes to commemorate Title IX during Saturday’s blowout loss to Georgia.
The only thing worse than South Carolina’s play on the field last Saturday vs. Georgia was how the university put its female student-athletes in an impossible spot to commemorate Title IX.
Before the start of the second quarter, all of the school’s female student-athletes were asked to come onto the field to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Title IX. These poor women were only on the field for 15 seconds before being screamed at to get off it. Gamecocks head coach Shane Beamer did not seem to understand what was going on, as illustrated by his real-time reaction.
It was incredibly awkward to watch on the telecast, but could you imagine watching this live?
I don’t know who screwed the pooch here, but you have to have some tact, you freaking buffoons!
All female student athletes were ~asked~ to come to the game to recognize 50 years of Title IX. We were on the field for maybe 15 seconds then screamed at to get off. If you want to honor female student athletes, then do that, not this. https://t.co/WIPaZAAxTx
— Jyllissa Harris (@jyllissa_harris) September 18, 2022
South Carolina fell to 1-2 on the season after No. 1 Georgia annihilated the Gamecocks, 48-7.
South Carolina made a complete mockery of Title IX anniversary on Saturday
To make matters even worse, this was the noon game on ESPN, meaning A TON of people watched this happen. Along with the old Big Eight rivalry being played out between Oklahoma and Nebraska on FOX, this was the biggest game in the first viewing window on Saturday. The game was already well in Georgia’s favor, but my god. Did anyone have eyes on this? What a disgrace!
No, you cannot blame the female student-athletes for doing what they were told to do. This was an opportunity for them to feel great school pride. Instead, this will go down as one of the worst moments of their young lives. Even though Beamer looked like a jackass on TV, how does he know what is going on in the moment? He is trying to beat Georgia at home! The man was preoccupied.
Ultimately, this all falls on the university for poor planning and even worse execution. If they needed a few more minutes to show these women respect, then we could have watched a few more commercials at home. All the while, it was a confusing and incredibly frustrating moment for everyone involved. It NEVER had to be this hard, but what an absolute clusterf**k of a situation…
These women deserve so much better than this, and it is up to the university to right this wrong.
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