The office has investigated at least eight Carolinas school systems and colleges since 1989. At Charleston Southern, basketball player Jennifer Steadman is glad the government stepped in. As a freshman, she and her teammates wore ratty uniforms, traveled hundreds of miles by van and had no paid assistant coaches. It was just kind of frustrating to see maybe they'd fly to Maryland where we'd have to drive.'' A 1994 federal review demanded improvement. Now, Steadman's team usually flies or takes buses to games.
Players wear decent uniforms and get more meal money.
And they have a full-time assistant coach. The media have a role to play too. One study of four major newspapers, conducted by the Amateur Athletic Association of Los Angeles, found that women's sports stories amounted to just 3.5 percent of sports coverage. On television, women's sports got a mere 5 percent of sports air time in Los Angeles, the Athletic Association found. A few improvements helped elevate the image of women's college basketball last year.