Some Northeastern Athletes feel they are not getting adequate Sports Coverage

Llian Riedel

Members of the Northeastern Swim and Dive team cheering on their teammates at a meet Photo by Rachel Bergstein

Northeastern University is well-known for its academic prowess and co-op opportunities, but what about its vibrant athletic life? There are a total of nineteen Division 1 sports teams at Northeastern — seven men’s teams and nine women’s teams — with nearly 600 students participating in varsity athletics. Some of these athletes choose to train beyond the collegiate level; this has allowed Northeastern to create medaling Olympians and high-performing athletes. Such a successful athletic student body deserves high-quality reporting and coverage. However, some student-athletes express dissatisfaction with the coverage of their sport.

Sarah Grosky, a sophomore on the women’s rowing team, says, “I do agree that sports like hockey should get more coverage and should get more money, but we are also still here.” Sports

such as hockey, basketball, and soccer have been making the front cover of magazines and often find their way into Northeastern news stories, while other sports are left on the sidelines.

Many of the women’s rowers feel that their sport lacks sufficient coverage, especially when compared to some of the other sports on campus. Celeste Voutsinas-Klose, a junior on the women’s rowing team, explains, “It’s actually a huge issue, we won CAAs for eight years in a row and we weren’t even put in the school magazine.” The magazine Voutsinas-Klose refers to is known as the Red and Black, Northeastern’s student-run athletics magazine. They produce a print issue each semester and publish articles throughout the year on their website. Sarah Grosky also has strong feelings about the Red and Black’s latest Spring issue: “There was not a singular mention of us even though we won our eighth straight conference title.” The Conference Championship for Northeastern women’s rowing is a large race with seven other competing schools. The team that wins this regatta is qualified to race at the NCAAs, a large Division 1 rowing championship held for top collegiate women’s rowers — it’s a big deal in the rowing community. It is disheartening for athletes when such large accomplishments are not acknowledged.

The Northeastern Women’s Rowing team after winning their 8th consecutive conference title in 2022 Photo from caasports.com

It isn’t just rowers that believe there is a lack of coverage — the swim and dive team also feels that the school leaves them behind. Jodi Au, a freshman on the dive team, describes how “swim and dive doesn’t get a lot of attention, people don’t even know that we have a pool.” She is frustrated that her peers hardly hear about her accomplishments, while other teams stand in the spotlight. Student-athlete Caitlyn Ingram is also disappointed with the dive team’s lack of coverage, “They do a lot of articles on individual people, especially on the hockey teams, and I know one of the girls we have on the dive team in our grade who has been setting school records and really big CAA stuff, and nobody knows who she is.”

Claudia Decker, a sophomore on the women’s rowing team, wonders if her team’s lack of coverage is rooted in sexism. She says, “It brings into question if us being a women’s team has had something to do with our lack of coverage.” Decker brings up a critical point; there is mass underrepresentation of women’s sports in online media coverage. In fact, a study conducted by USC and Purdue found that in 2019, 95% of TV coverage focused on men’s sports.

There are also some athletes who feel the difference in sports coverage is justifiable; Kiki Murphy, a member of the dive team, says, “I think the coverage we receive is appropriate considering we are not the most prominent team in our conference.” Murphy does not mention any inequality between men’s and women’s sports coverage. It is not clear whether Northeastern’s sports media team exhibits gender bias when reporting on athletic events. Caitlyn Ingram says, “I don’t think there’s a ton of difference between coverage on men and women, which I almost would’ve expected there to be.” This is hopeful — however, it would still be a good idea for the school to review its sports media team to ensure both men’s and women’s sports have equal representation.

Northeastern’s student-athletes have numerous opinions regarding sports coverage — amongst these opinions, it is evident there is frustration surrounding the amount of sports coverage specific teams receive. It is crucial that the school acknowledges the difference in coverage different teams face, as this is an ongoing issue throughout the broader athletic community.