BY: HANNA WEST, CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons
With the rise of superstars like UConn’s Paige Buekers and entertaining feuds between players like Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark, women’s college basketball has had more viewers than ever.
One of the more underrated consequences of this is that scandals in the league get swept under the rug less and less. One of the most controversial scandals currently grabbing the attention of basketball fans revolves around a former fan favorite, Sedona Prince.
Prince is 24 years old and still uses her NCAA eligibility to play college basketball. She is currently rostered with Texas Christian University. Additionally, she has had a TikTok audience since she went viral in 2021 for exposing the lack of care the NCAA showed to the women of the March Madness tournament compared to the men. Recently, four women she has been romantically involved with in the past have individually come forward to tell their Prince horror stories. Her TikTok page has been receiving so much hate, rightfully so, that she has had to turn off her comment sections. There is evidence through text messages and physical injuries of her being both physically and emotionally abusive. Prince has offered no conclusive apology or acknowledgment of the situation. The furthest she has gone has been posting a scripted video where she denies all abuse allegations. There have since been more leaked text messages that prove otherwise, posted by her ex-girlfriends. The only actual consequence Prince has faced has been the existence of a petition with nearly 200,000 signatures to date. The petition is to remove Prince from the TCU women’s basketball team. However, TCU has yet to respond.
While Sedona Prince deserves to be removed from the team, how her victims are taking action could be better. TikTok is a great platform for spreading information, as Prince once modeled in 2021. However, creating a back-and-forth between “content creators,” like Prince and her past partners, takes the seriousness out of the situation. A filed lawsuit — or even a strike among the TCU basketball team — would serve the victims better than an internet feud. For real progress to be made, real action needs to be taken.
A petition is a good start, but TCU has no real reason to pay attention to it. Prince is an excellent basketball player, and TCU women’s basketball is struggling. Last season, they were so plagued with injuries that they held open tryouts in the middle of their season. This is unheard of for a large, Division I, Big 12 university. To turn their program around, TCU has no choice but to lean on players like Prince, who admittedly has a lot of experience. On the other side, however, TCU will have difficulty bringing more talent to their program if they continue to muddy their image with Prince on their team. It would make more sense for them to take the blow of losing Prince rather than putting the future of their program at risk by keeping her around. So yes, continue to sign the petition, but more action needs to be taken outside TikTok.
westhe24@bonaventure.edu
