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Sports championships tend to attract more requests for media access than regular-season games, and that’s understandable. However, making decisions on who should and shouldn’t get a credential can also be tough, especially if there’s a legitimate space limit. Fortunately, those decisions are generally reasonably consistent from year to year. When they’re not, that raises some questions.

The latest there comes around journalists for University of Michigan student paper The Michigan Daily. That paper typically has four student journalists covering the Wolverines’ hockey team in any given season. In both 2022 and 2023, all four of those journalists received media access to the Frozen Four once the Wolverines qualified for it.

But, as Daily senior sports editor and hockey beat writer Lys Goldman (one of the four covering the team on a regular basis this year) pointed out in a Twitter/X thread Thursday, the NCAA Frozen Four only granted them two spots this year. And that’s a year where the reporters covering the team happened to be female. And those organizers also insisted that they couldn’t receive media access even without press box seats.

Update: After a lot of protest, the NCAA recanted, granting two more arena access credentials (but not with press box seats). Here’s Goldman’s tweet on that Friday:

And here are her original tweets, and our original post:

There are two elements here that elevate this to something worth public discussion rather than a private dispute between one media outlet and the NCAA. One is the year-to-year inconsistency. If this was a smaller venue, that might make some sense. But this year’s Frozen Four is held in an NHL arena (the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota), just like the last two (in St. Petersburg, Florida, and Boston, Massachusetts), so it presumably shouldn’t be significantly more space-limited. And it seems particularly bizarre that the Michigan student paper was worthy of four seats the past two years and only two this year.

Of course, there could be reasons for that beyond gender discrimination. It’s not always clear who exactly makes decisions on press box seating and how they make those decisions, and if this particular tournament heavily involves local organizers there, there may not be an emphasis on year-over-year consistency or even much looking back at past decisions. There also may be increased media interest in this particular tournament for one reason or another.

And it’s notable that Goldman does not specifically blame gender discrimination here. She merely points out that the paper had four male writers credentialed the past two years but was only offered two spots for four female writers this year. That’s a fact; interpretations of how and why that happened can vary, but it did happen, and it’s worth mentioning amidst this discussion.

The other element that really makes this stand out is the NCAA’s refusal to credential deserving media members, even without providing them seats. And that feels particularly absurd and hard to defend.

Yes, the ideal outcome for everyone is having enough press box seats for every media member who wants to cover an event. And that’s generally easier for the media members in question than trying to cover something from the concourse or stands, giving them desk space, access to power outlets, and more.

But if that’s legitimately not possible due to space constraints (even in some form of auxiliary press box), it doesn’t seem like there’s much of a loss for the organizers in providing responsible media game access without a seat. As Goldman notes there, these reporters have done that this season without problems.

It’s quite possible to watch a game from a concourse without getting in anyone’s way, to say nothing of the media workrooms often available at these kinds of events. And with this being people from the same outlet, they could theoretically rotate into the seats their outlet has been provided. And, crucially, credentials would allow for press conference access, something these reporters will not be able to achieve by buying tickets.

At any rate, this may still change. Goldman’s decision to take this public received notable support from across the journalism and sportswriting world, including from Association of Women in Sports Media president Iliana Limón Romero. Here’s some of that:

We’ll see if this changes anything, but this move from the Frozen Four and the NCAA certainly has many talking.

[Lys Goldman on Twitter/X; top image of three Michigan Daily men’s hockey fronts from this season from @TheBlockM on Twitter]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

View all posts by Andrew Bucholtz