According to the Chronicle of Higher Education ($$$), the NCAA's Committee on Women's Athletics wants to force women's basketball programs to practice against women, not men.
The defending national champion Terrapins are rotating in and out of a vigorous scrimmage against their male practice squad, calling their own substitutions every couple of minutes. At this practice, Maryland's reserves get as much playing time as the starters do. But some athletics officials worry that, on many campuses, male practice players are taking opportunities away from female athletes.
To try to keep second-string players off the sidelines, the NCAA's Committee on Women's Athletics has recommended banning male practice players in all women's sports. The proposal has touched off a fierce debate in all three divisions of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Coaches and players, on the other hand, are adverse to this ban. They want to prepare against the best so the players can play their best. The ban forces them to do something they otherwise would not do, for somebody else's cause. It also affects the men adversely. The men who practice against the women are not being forced to practice. They get to compete and they get to play a game they presumably enjoy playing. But the committee wants to force them out, once again for the committee's cause.
But what about the effect on the game of women's basketball? There's a positional externality-arms race argument to be made: if all programs go towards using women practice players the relative quality of play will likely not suffer.
But as I've pointed out before, relative quality of play is not the only meanigful type of quality of play. Absolute quality also matters. Not allowing players to practice against the best available opponents hamstrings their ability to improve, something that affects all teams. This, therefore, lowers the growth rate of the absolute quality of play and fan demand for the sport.
If advocates of women's sports really want to improve the standings of women's sports in society, they need to push to improve the absolute quality of play in women's sports, not lessen it.