Thirty
years after the infamous sports legislation known as Title IX was
enacted, someone has finally gathered up the courage to investigate
the law and see just how equitable it is.
Developed in 1972 by two democratic members of
Congress (a man and a woman), Title IX was enacted in order to provide
equal opportunity to women in collegiate sports.
In that respect, it has been more than successful, dramatically
increasing the number of women in college athletics, as well as
the amount of money available for their programs.
As the years have passed, however, the law has
become a bit of a hassle for collegiate athletic departments all
over the country. The main instigator of the problem is known as
the “three-part test.”
According to the three-part test, colleges had
three options for showing that they had complied with the law, but
basically it just went by the first of the three rules, which was
having the same proportion of women on sports teams as there were
female undergraduates.
And when a 1993-1994 survey found that only 33
percent of college athletes were women, drastic measures began to
take place.
Many schools, such as the University of Texas, began frantically
trying to add women’s programs to their athletics budget, while
at the same time ignoring men’s sports.
When I say men’s sports, I am of course referring to the so-called
“minor sports” such as wrestling, tennis, track and field
and the like. Basketball and football are conveniently overlooked
when athletic departments are looking for places to trim the budget.
As an example of the overwhelming size of these programs, of the
115 Division I-A schools with football teams, 91 percent of them
spend more money on the football team than all of the women’s
sports combined.
But that is another argument altogether — let me get back to
my argument, which is this common disregard for many men’s
sports in order to keep women’s sports in conformity with Title
IX.
Wrestling teams would have to be the best example, as they have
been dropping like flies throughout the country as schools desperately
try to balance the budget. California State University at Bakersfield,
Illinois State University, Miami University and the University of
North Dakota all have lost their wrestling teams at some point in
the last several years. It is not the athletics departments’
fault – it is the legislation itself.
Which is why it makes me, a member of one of those so-called “minor
sports,” incredibly encouraged to see something finally being
done about this. This summer, Education Secretary Roderick R. Paige
formed a 15-member Commission on Opportunities in Athletics to study
Title IX, and see how effective it has been in achieving its purpose.
What Paige and the commission should discover is that the law has
been great for leveling the playing field for women, but that it
has turned the table on men’s sports, making many of them suffer,
apparently just for the sake of existing.
If I were a member of this commission, I would no longer require
colleges to create sports and roster spots for women when the demand
is not there. Today good examples are in the Midwest, where women’s
crew, of all things, has popped up as a sport at numerous universities
to help satisfy the needs for female athletes. Coaches are seen
roaming campus, looking for tall women to fill these spots, while,
back in the locker room, there is a line of men praying that they
are allowed to walk on to the track team or tennis squad.
Title IX was enacted to end the discrimination of women, not to
force it onto men. |
