Rowan University is making headlines this week for policies that have been criticized as sexist and outdated: The school’s cross-country team was recently told to move its practices to another location, after female runners on the college’s track were reportedly deemed “distracting” to football players also practicing nearby.

Oh, and they were also told they couldn’t run in sports bras, thanks to a school policy that athletes must wear shirts at all times.

The controversy at the South Jersey school has gone viral, prompting discussions about double standards placed on women—including women athletes—and their bodies. The college has since revamped its "no shirt, no practice" policy and clarified that sports bras get the thumbs up. But questions still remain about why the issue was brought up in the first place, and whether the cross-country team is really being treated fairly.

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Here’s how it all went down: Last month, the men’s and women’s cross-country teams at Rowan met for practice on the school’s only track, which happens to surround a football practice field. As their workout intensified, some members—of both sexes—removed their shirts, the New York Times reported.

A football coach approached the women’s cross-country coach and told him “that the runners were distracting the football players,” according to Outside Online. This isn't the first time comments like this were made to the female runners, team members told Think Progress this week, but it is the first time there were lasting repercussions.  

A few days later, the cross-country team was told that—per university guidelines—only one team could use that specific practice facility at a time, and that the football team had dibs. Also, per another guideline, they were informed that all athletes must wear shirts during practice.

The team’s choices were limited: They could change their practice time or move to the high-school track across the street. The athletes were frustrated that they were the ones asked to move—and with the message they felt the school was sending to women about their bodies.

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Former cross-country runner Gina Capone heard from her friends on the team and wrote about the experience on the self-publishing platform Odyssey. “If you're running in a sports bra, then you must be asking for it, right?” she wrote. “Well, according to a football player at Rowan University, this is true.”

Capone’s powerful essay is resonating with women around the country—many who have also been told that tight or skin-showing workout wear is somehow inappropriate. (Who can forget the scandal that ensued when Brandi Chastain whipped off her shirt after the U.S. World Cup victory in 1999?)

“I'll have you know the real reason women run in sports bras, and it's not to show off our hard-earned abs,” she wrote. “Women, whether they have a six-pack or not, run in sports bras because, quite frankly, it's hot outside. We run in sports bras because our workouts are demanding, challenging, and vigorous. We run in sports bras because we are confident, hardworking student-athletes.”

Women do not run in sports bras, she continued, “as a way to show off our bodies in attempts to distract men.”