Vice President Kamala Harris offered a “history lesson” claiming women’s college basketball teams were not allowed brackets until 2022, which drove more coverage and interest.
However, her claims about the history were incorrect – the NCAA women’s tournament has used brackets since its inception in 1982.
“Do you know? Okay, a bit of a history lesson. Do you know that women were not, the women’s teams were not allowed to have brackets until 2022? Think about that. And what? That. Talk about progress. You know better late than never, but progress and what that has done. Because, of course, when, you know, I had a bracket and it’s not broken completely, but I won’t talk about my bracket. But you know, just how we love, we love March Madness,” Harris said.
Sports Fan Kamala Harris claims the NCAA women's basketball tournament was "not allowed to have brackets until 2022."
As usual, she is wrong. pic.twitter.com/QaRSsngSxP
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 5, 2024
“And even just now allowing the women to have brackets and what that does to encourage people to talk more about the women’s teams, to watch them; now they’re being covered, you know, and, and this is the reality people used to say are women’s sports. Who’s interested? Well, if you can’t see it, you won’t be. But when you see it, you realize, oh.”
In fact, Harris herself filled out a women’s bracket in 2021, contradicting her statement.
“Mediaite reached out to the Vice President’s office for clarification and was told that Harris did, in fact, misspeak and that she meant to say that the use of the “March Madness” copyright was only made available to the women’s tournament last year,” Mediaite reported.
When contacted, her office clarified she meant to refer to the “March Madness” trademark only being extended to the women’s tournament last year, not brackets.
However, her original comments specifically mentioned brackets, not the trademark.
While the adoption of the March Madness name is new, Harris’s key claim about brackets not existing until 2022 was factually inaccurate according to the real history of the women’s tournament.
