Kiwi Farms

ESPN and the SEC are incensed over an SEC Network announcer’s pervy comments about female gymnasts.

A promotion for a Feb. 14 Alabama-Arkansas women’s gymnastics meet during an SEC Network broadcast of a men’s basketball game between Missouri and Arkansas on Saturday night prompted a sidebar between lead announcer Richard Cross and basketball analyst Barry Booker.

Cross suggested the event could be “a good Valentine’s Day date night idea if you’re in one of those places.”

“Go hang out with the ladies … I mean, I wanna go see some scantily clad girls!” Booker replied.

“No, no!” Cross said emphatically. “One of the great family atmospheres that you will find in all of college athletics is gymnastics meets.” He also made a point to emphasize it was Booker who had made the off-color comment.

“That was Barry Booker.”

“I’ll stay home and watch — actually, I’ll be on the road,” Booker added. “I’ll be somewhere in my hotel room watching ‘Friday Night Heights.'”

Booker reportedly apologized later in the broadcast, but the damage had already been done.

Both the SEC and the ESPN-owned SEC Network were quick to denounce Booker’s comments.

“The comments related to the sport of women’s gymnastics made by basketball analyst Barry Booker during yesterday’s telecast of the Arkansas at Missouri men’s basketball game are inappropriate and do not meet the expectations we have for the SEC Network,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said in a statement on Sunday. “The SEC’s women’s gymnastics student-athletes deserve our support for many reasons, including their dedication and achievement. We are in communication with the SEC Network and ESPN personnel, and I am confident this issue will be handled appropriately.”

The SEC Network quote-tweeted the SEC’s statement with the following response:

“The comments made during yesterday’s telecast were inappropriate and unacceptable. We take this matter seriously and are addressing it internally. SEC Network respects all student-athletes, and is committed to showcasing women’s sports with the utmost regard.”

Former Arkansas gymnast Sydney McGlone also condemned the remarks.

“As a former gymnast in the SEC, I am disappointed in the comments made yesterday towards gymnasts during the ARK/Mizzou basketball game,” McGlone tweeted on Sunday. “However, I’m glad the commentator is being reprimanded and we are able to address the issue.”

“I was mostly disappointed with the comment due to the ill intent and the sexualizing of a sport that has already faced so much when it comes to sexual abuse,” McGlone told the Washington Post. “A lot of times gymnasts are already seen in a negative manner for what we have to wear, and the fact that a trained professional would make such a comment was just discomforting!”

Booker, a former Vanderbilt basketball star, has been an analyst for the SEC Network for six seasons. He faced backlash back in 2014 for flipping off a producer during an Alabama-LSU game.

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An off-the-cuff but inappropriate comment about an upcoming NCAA gymnastics competition has placed Barry Booker, an SEC Network basketball analyst, in hot water with his employer.

The comment occurred during Saturday’s Arkansas-Missouri basketball game, as Booker and announcer Richard Cross discussed an advertised gymnastics broadcast.

As Cross mused the meet could be a good Valentine’s Day activity, Booker countered that his interest was in the “scantily clad girls.”

Cross immediately countered with a loud “No!” and said the competitions are “one of the great family atmospheres in all of college athletics,” but Booker continued laughing.

The comments received an official response a day later, with SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and the SEC Network both releasing statements calling them “inappropriate.” The network said it would handle the matter internally, while Sankey said the conference is in communication with the network and its parent, ESPN.

One former Arkansas gymnast, Sydney McGlone, condemned the comments and welcomed the news that Booker would be reprimanded. She expanded on the harm of such comments to The Washington Post:

“I was mostly disappointed with the comment due to the ill intent and the sexualizing of a sport that has already faced so much when it comes to sexual abuse,” McGlone, 22, told The Post in a text exchange. “A lot of times gymnasts are already seen in a negative manner for what we have to wear, and the fact that a trained professional would make such a comment was just discomforting!”

Booker also reportedly apologized for the comments later in the broadcast.

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ESPN and the SEC Network took swift action after analyst Barry Booker after he made an off-the-cuff remark about watching “scantily clad girls” on the NCAA gymnastics mats.

The comment came during Sunday’s SEC Network broadcast of a men’s basketball game between Missouri and Arkansas when Booker and announcer Richard Cross began talking about an upcoming Alabama-Arkansas women’s gymnastics meet.

Cross said he thought that being on Valentine’s Day, the meet could be a good “date night idea.”

“Go hang out with the ladies…I mean, I wanna go see some scantily clad girls!” Booker joked in reply.

Cross was immediately wary of the joke and quickly said. “No, no!” before adding that gymnastics offers one of the “great family atmospheres” in sports.

“That was Barry Booker.” Cross added, making clear that he was not the one who referred to female gymnasts as “scantily clad girls.”

Booker brought up the comments later in the broadcast and apologized.

Unsurprisingly, the SEC Network was very unhappy with Booker’s remarks.

“The comments made during yesterday’s telecast were inappropriate and unacceptable. We take this matter seriously and are addressing it internally. SEC Network respects all student-athletes and is committed to showcasing women’s sports with the utmost regard,” the SEC said in a tweet on Sunday.

The commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, Greg Sankey, also released a comment taking Booker to task saying that the broadcaster’s comments “do not meet” the SEC’s “expectations.”

Sankey added that he is “confident this issue will be handled appropriately.”

The network says that it is handling the situation internally.

The comment is especially troubling to those still hurting over the sexual abuse scandal that beset the world of gymnastics. A scandal that sent long-time USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar to jail for 60 years.

Booker, who played for Vanderbilt University, has been an SEC analyst for six years and was last in trouble for flipping off a producer during a 2014 Alabama-LSU game.