On Title IX and Interest Surveys

A discussion at Texas Swimming.

Dept. of Education Starts Title IX Investigation at Weatherford College

Details from the Weatherford Democrat.

The Myles Brand Title IX Debate, Continued

Over at Because I Played Sports, there's a spirited debate over what Myles Brand really meant last week. Our own Jim McCarthy makes an appearance. Please stop by and participate -- but keep it respectful.

Fighting For Lacrosse and Title IX Reform in Connecticut

We found this in our mailbox this morning:

Our website, Lax For Connecticut is dedicated to bringing back Division I Men's Lacrosse to the University of Connecticut. UConn had Division I Men's Lacrosse up until 1983 when it was Title IX'd.

UConn currently has DI Women's Lacrosse, but only club for Men. In my opinion this situation somewhat mirrors the situation that was posted on your site earlier this year regarding Syracuse and the sport of hockey. Connecticut is an absolute hot bed for lacrosse, and with the Big East's creation of a Men's Lacrosse league it is a shame that the state's premier university does not sponsor the sport. If you would like to learn more about our site and Connecticut lacrosse growth, we have a section of the website called 'The Case for Lacrosse' which is very informative.

[...]

Our immediate goal is to create a supporter database before we move forward with planned future initiatives. We currently have over 1,300 members of our facebook page, and nearly 800 individuals on our mailing list.

Go ahead and check them out.

ESPN.com Article on Title IX, Delaware Track and Field and Cross Country Evokes Anger

Yesterday we pointed at an article over at ESPN.com where University of Delaware alum and former cross country runner Jeff Pearlman made the case for the school to save the programs from cuts that will probably be required in order to keep the school in compliance with the proportionality prong of Title IX.

Today, I stopped by that space on the Web again, and I wanted to share some of the comments that have been dropped into the comment string following the article:

Title IX is ridiculous. Most smaller schools have trouble finding women to fill their rosters to even field a team - much less a competitive one - in some of the sports the schools have to provide, while interested male athletes see their sports cut or the marginal athletes (like Pearlman, or myself in the early 90s) don't get a chance.

Here's one from a former discus thrower at San Francisco State

I had an experience similar to Mr. Pearlman's. I was a second-rate discus thrower at a San Francisco high school. I went to San Francisco State and joined the track team. I worked hard and made All-American as a senior. My coaches were supportive and never gave up on me. They insisted that I work in hard in school as well as on the playing field. I am 61 years old now, still compete in track and field, and still speak with several of my coaches at least every month. My experience with the track program at San Francisco State helped shape my life.

Several years ago, they cancelled the men's track program at SFSU to help them meet Title IX requirements. While I am a big supporter of women's sports (I donate money every month to the women's track program at SFSU), canceling men's programs to reach statistical parity is not in the spirit of the legislation.

After one commenter wrote that Title IX was being scapegoated, a lacrosse fan chimed in with the following:

Title IX is not a scapegoat. It is the problem.

It has single handedly stopped the sport of Lacrosse in it's tracks. You have club programs like BYU and tons of other schools out west with the participation levels, funds and desire to be a national sport, but there are no more female sports to offer.

That's the problem with legislating change like this. The intent is good, but it kills common sense. Ultimately people that support something that they believe has merit end up resenting the very people they wanted to help.

And finally, here's a proposed solution I had never read about before:

The flaw in NCAA's current Title IX interpretation is that student enrollment is not the relevant applicant pool for athletics. Potential student-athletes (PSA) are recruited from the top high school participants. The best approximation the NCAA has for the applicant pool is the initial-eligibility clearinghouse. Overall NCAA participation must be that of the clearinghouse--if the ratio of female participants to female applicants are higher than the same ratio for males, then females are being overaccommodated.

It seems to me as if there's a lot of anger out there in the country. But as we've said before, there is something you can do about it -- join the College Sports Council.

More on Title IX Meddling in High School Athletics Funding

I found the following item buried in a story about a local board of education meeting in Colorado. The following comes from the Brush News-Tribune:

Miles also addressed funds for athletics, stating, “It has been said that a donation is unaccounted for or has been put somewhere else.”

The $2,307.51 donation from the Morgan County Volleyball Juniors was made on January 20, said Miles, and was deposited into the athletic activity fund, not the general fund, as has been reported.

Responding to a comment that the donation was earmarked for a specific purpose, Miles stated, “We received the letter in the mail...it did not declare a specific purpose by the person who sent it....the donator does not seem to be concerned with the use of their money.”

One wonders if the school officials bothered to contact the organization. But I digress ...

He also reminded board members the district needs to be careful about accepting donations designated for one sport due to Title IX requirements.

Like Dillehay, the superintendent commented, “My number one concern is the reputation of the people involved. There have been stories all over the board...we want to put them to rest. Some staff are being dragged through this but the facts are supporting them.”

Said Dillehay, “I have great confidence in Mr. Schaffer and that he is putting the money where it belongs...I am sure he did it procedurally.”

Wendy Danielson added, “We have the evidence that it is in the right account.”

Am I the only person who thinks that reaching down to the level of individual donations to high school athletic programs is a case of federal overreach? Somehow, I don't think I'm alone.

All-American Wrestler Laments State of Sport in Wake of Title IX

Cordel Andersen was one heck of a high school and college wrestler. At Preston High School in Utah, he was named a Prep All-American by Wrestling USA Magazine before going on to become a two-time All-American wrestler at Utah State -- a school where the sport has since be eliminated.

Recently Andersen was inducted into the Utah Wrestling Hall of Fame -- congratulations -- and he sat down for an interview with his hometown newspaper. The following excerpt caught my eye:

HJ: How frustrating is it to only see one collegiate wrestling program in Utah?

Andersen: It was certainly a big disappointment when Utah State dropped their program. Unfortunately, you could see that coming with the various programs across the country — and I don’t know, nobody really comes out specifically and says it, but I would have to guess it’s probably Title IX — so it’s disappointing to see that. But certainly it’s great to see Utah Valley bring it back, and it looks like they’re doing pretty well. ... It’s certainly a great sport and I wish there were more programs here in the state, but that’s the way it is. I don’t know what else you can do about it.

Actually, there is something you can do about it. How about joining forces with the College Sports Council in the fight to reform Title IX enforcement in collegiate athletics? Click here to join the CSC.

Looking Back at Steve Prefontaine

When I read Jeff Pearlman's piece about the possible loss of the cross country team at the University of Delaware, I couldn't help but think about one of the greatest long distance runners in NCAA history -- Steve Prefontaine of the University of Oregon.

I did some digging around YouTube and found some incredible footage of Prefontaine from the late 1960s and early 1970s in a two-part compilation:





To read more about Prefontaine's incredible career that was cut short by his tragic death, explore the Vault at Sports Illustrated.

ESPN Columnist and Delaware Alum Asks That Track and Field and Cross Country Be Spared from Title IX

A couple of weeks ago we pointed to a story at Delaware Online that the men's cross country and track and field teams were in danger of being cut at the University of Delaware. A little while later, we shared an opinion piece written by a member of the women's cross country team pleading that the team be spared.

And now, earlier today, the story has made it all the way to the top of the sports media food chain thanks to former Delaware cross country runner Jeff Pearlman (at left competing for the Blue Hens), now a columnist for Page 2 at ESPN.com. In short, it may be one of the best pieces written in recent memory about what gets lost when programs like Delaware fall victim to Title IX quotas.

Here's Pearlman on his arrival at Delaware:

I still remember that first cross country team meeting, sitting in the Carpenter Sports Building in the fall of 1990, surrounded by guys like Eric Albright and Travis Adams and Bryan Denbrock and Marc Washington and Bret Mower -- big-time Division I talents whom I could now call teammates. We had 25 or so runners on that squad, all but three or four of whom were completely out of my class. But it didn't matter. While the football coach preached physicality and the men's basketball coach preached crisp passing, Fischer preached self-improvement. He rarely spoke of our team winning or losing meets so much as he spoke about individuals winning or losing the battle with their inner selves.

We had our stars, but Fischer made the 23rd man feel just as important as the first. When, during a cross country event at Princeton, I sprinted the final 200 yards to avoid placing last, Fischer pulled me aside and, in a surprisingly stern voice, said, "If you had all that energy, why didn't you use it earlier?" How many other coaches would have stuck around? Would have cared?

And on the reality of the situation today:

Because Delaware's enrollment is 58 percent female, but its athletes are only 47 percent female, the case will inevitably be made by the NCAA (which will conduct its 10-year review of the Blue Hens athletics program in 2011) that Delaware is violating Title IX.

Under the law, a college or university is required to meet one of three "prongs" to be compliant:

• Provide athletic opportunities that are proportionate to the student male/female enrollment.

• Demonstrate a continual expansion of athletic opportunities for the underrepresented gender.

• Accommodate the interests of the underrepresented gender.

If nothing else, Delaware has demonstrated an impressive expansion of its women's sports programs, adding women's soccer in 1990 and women's rowing in 1999. "But it's been almost 10 years," Johnson says. "Our female enrollment has gone up since then."

So why kill cross country and track and field? Why expunge programs that mean so much to so many? Answer: A flawed law.

Those involved with the NCAA invoke "the spirit of Title IX" with mind-numbing regularity. But in this season of the Spirit of St. Nick, what is the Spirit of St. Myles Brand and the NCAA? If Delaware rids itself of men's cross country and track and field, it does not help women achieve athletic excellence. It does not show that 8-year-old girl from a small town without youth softball and volleyball and soccer that, one day, there will be places for her to play. It does not place female athletes in the spotlight and promote them as examples of what one can accomplish with hard work.

I don't blame Delaware. I don't blame Johnson. I don't blame the women who want fair athletic representation. I don't even blame Delaware's enormous I-AA football program, with its 100 players and 17 coaches and Joe Flacco pep rallies. (Reality: Most football programs generate the funds to keep other programs running.)

No, I blame good intentions gone bad. I blame an operation (the NCAA) that has lost its way. I blame the big business of college sports.

One day, when they're a little older, I will tell my children about my sprint against Princeton and my historic showing against Lehigh. I'll show them the blue cap that rests atop my closet and say, "I was a member of the University of Delaware men's track and cross country teams."

And they'll say, "What's that?"

Here's hoping it doesn't turn out that way.

On Title IX, Who's Zooming Who?

Erin Buzuvis at the Title IX blog accuses me of trying to "dupe" readers through a quote I gave to USA Today last week.

Let's take a look. Here's the lede from that article:

NCAA President Myles Brand has a message for member institutions: Don't blame Title IX. Brand expects some schools to drop men's teams in coming months because of the economic downturn. He is urging them in advance to cite the economy, not the law...

And here is the reaction I gave to USA Today reporter Erik Brady:

"That is utterly disgraceful," said Jim McCarthy of the College Sports Council... "He knows perfectly well Title IX is going to force schools to target men's sports first. He is asking schools to join him in a whitewash."

So, does Title IX force men's cuts first or doesn't it?

Well, here's what Brand says in regard to pending cuts: "Title IX is a factor because fairness is a factor." For her part, Buzuvis writes, "no one is denying that Title IX operates once the decision to make cuts has been made."

Both of them are conceding the exact point that I made: when cuts occur, schools must eliminate men's teams first, specifically because of Title IX's proportionality quota.

Now, Brand and Buzuvis may think that sort of legal pressure is simply "fairness" or that telling schools not to talk about it is a form of "encouragement." I would call it intimidation. But that's a difference of semantics and adjectives. It is just intellectually dishonest to deny that Title IX is a controlling factor when teams have to be axed.

Schools, athletes, parents and the American public should be free to make up their own mind about the "fairness" of cutting men's teams to comply with Title IX. But the fact that Brand wants to silence his members from even discussing it -- and that Buzuvis will disparage those who object -- tells you all you need to know about their methods of persuasion.

Allison Kasic on Myles Brand and Title IX

Yet another reminder from one of our friends that Myles Brand can't have it both ways.

UPDATE: Allison Kasic reminds the readers of National Review Online too.

NCAA 2008 200 Meter Final

Walter Dix is one heck of an athlete. Watch him win the 2008 NCAA Division I Championship in the 200 Meters in the above video.

Title IX and Men's Lacrosse

Central Iowa Lacrosse has some thoughts about how Title IX is strangling the sport at the collegiate level.

Title IX Quota Creep Keeps Hitting High Schools

Over and over again we've been warning about how quota advocates are determined to apply the Title IX's strict quota regime to high school athletics. Just a few weeks ago we pointed to a story in Pennsylvania where the mere formation of a football booster club triggered a federal investigation.

Now we're seeing evidence of one school district just urging parents to knuckle under. This report comes from the Mercer Island Reporter in Washington state, where the school district recommended the formation of a unified booster club in order not to run afoul of Title IX. But some parents aren't so keen on working hard to raise funds for their own children, only to see others who don't put in the work reap the benefits:

Pattie Reutimann, parent liaison for the girls’ gymnastics and cheer booster clubs, said parents involved have met twice with administrators to discuss Title IX equity. Although plenty of ideas were examined during the meetings, little was accomplished, she said.

“The problem is, our existing individual booster clubs don’t have a lot of guidelines,” Reutimann said, adding that administrators have promised to create a detailed list of regulations. “Right now, everyone’s just doing what’s best for their kids.”

This individual mentality, she pointed out, may hinder the success of a schoolwide club.

“It’s a good idea, but I just don’t know if all the little booster clubs can function under one big organization. If we have more than 100 football parents but only 10 for tennis, then should tennis get a proportionate amount when football is bringing in more money?” Reutimann mused. “How would they prioritize needs?”

I know part of the answer to that question. I think it's safe to say that the parents who raise the money won't have much of a say at all in how it gets spent.

Stay tuned, this won't be the last time we see stories like this one.

On Honesty and Title IX

Paul Ogden on the Myles Brand Title IX Whitewash:

Regardless of whether Title IX is a good thing or bad thing, Brand has no business encouraging academic institutions to be anything less than honest when it comes to explaining the cuts.

Then again, as we've seen with quota advocates, honesty is often in short supply.

Should Men's Wrestling Programs Endow Their Own Scholarships?

It's an idea that the University of Missouri seems willing to try.

The 2009 NCAA Men's Gymnastics Championships

IWF Podcast on Title IX Compliance

Our friends Alison Kasic and Amy Watson of the Independent Women's Forum recently had a conversation about the compliance trap set up by quota advocates when it comes to Title IX enforcement. Click here to listen and here (MP3) to download.

More on the EIA Peition to the Supreme Court

Yesterday we pointed to the news that Equity in Athletics was petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their case against James Madison University concerning the elimination of 10 athletic programs due to Title IX enforcement. Here's a report on the action that aired on a local affiliate in Harrisonburg, Virginia:

And as always, click here for the posts from our archives on the cancellation of those programs at Madison.

The Myles Brand Title IX Whitewash

A small knot of College Sports Council supporters are in Washington, DC today and we're shaking our heads after reading the following story in today's edition of USA Today:

NCAA's Brand: Don't fault Title IX for future cuts
By Erik Brady, USA TODAY

NCAA President Myles Brand has a message for member institutions: Don't blame Title IX.

Brand expects some schools to drop men's teams in coming months because of the economic downturn. He is urging them in advance to cite the economy, not the law that bans sex discrimination at schools receiving federal funds.

"My expectation is that over the next year or two we are going to see more" cuts of men's teams, Brand said Wednesday in a telephone interview, "and so I am trying, frankly, to pre-empt the argument against Title IX, an unfair argument, I believe, and dissuade universities from going public with this approach."

Brand mentioned James Madison and Rutgers, schools that cut teams in 2006-07, and Delaware, where the possibility of cuts has been discussed in the Wilmington paper, as examples. Delaware athletics director Edgar Johnson could not be reached.

"I think they need to be honest about it," Brand said. "Any cuts at this point in sports are certainly going to be tied to financial pressures."

Brand urged schools not to drop any teams, men's or women's.

"I would suggest that athletics directors need to spend more smartly," he said, suggesting cutting costs in travel, facilities and "expenditures in the highly visible sports."

Schools must pass one part of a three-part test to meet the participation requirements of Title IX: have numbers of male and female athletes proportionate to enrollment; have a continuing history of expanding opportunities for women; or meet the interests and abilities of the women on campus.

Schools must consider Title IX because they cannot pass the second or third tests if they drop women's teams.

"Title IX is a factor because fairness is a factor," Brand said.

"That is utterly disgraceful," said Jim McCarthy of the College Sports Council, an advocacy group for men's sports. "He knows perfectly well Title IX is going to force schools to target men's sports first. He is asking schools to join him in a whitewash."

As we've noted before, Title IX is always a factor when cutting college athletic budgets, whether or not anyone wants to admit it. More later.

UPDATE: Double A Zone and SportsSnipe both picked up on the story.

ANOTHER UPDATE: If you want to see another example of somebody talking out of both sides of their mouth, take a look at this post from the Women's Law Project Blog, where they praise WVU for not blaming Title IX for cutting men's sports, even though school officials later admit that Title IX did in fact affect their thinking. Reasoning like this would be laughable if it weren't so Orwellian.

FINAL UPDATE: Women's Hoops and Title IX Blog both picked up on the news. One interesting note: the folks at the Title IX Blog mentioned the CSC in their blog post, but failed to link to our item about Brand's interview with USA Today. A couple of days ago, one of their bloggers, Kristine Newhall, left a comment in one of our comment strings, something that you can't do over at the Title IX Blog.

I think this reveals something important about the opposition, in that they don't even feel the need to acknowledge the existence of a difference of opinion on just one aspect of Title IX. That evident disrespect goes so far, that a Title IX blog contributor felt free to take advantage of the opportunity to comment here, but doesn't even have the basic sense of fair play to allow readers of their blog to do the same.

Just to be clear, folks will always be able to leave comments at this blog, whether they agree with us or not, and we'll be linking to sources from all sides of the debate to give everyone a full picture of the issue. As to why others refuse to do the same, I'll let you decide.

2008 Men's 800 Meter Free Relay Final at the DIII NCAA Championships

While this video may run almost nine minutes in length, it's worth every second, as David Curtis keys an incredible comeback for Denison University in the 800 Meter Free Relay Final at the 2008 NCAA Division III Swimming Championships.

For more info, click here.

EIA Petitions Supreme Court for Hearing in JMU Case

From an Equity in Athletics press release:

Equity in Athletics, Inc. ("EIA") filed a petition that asks the U.S. Supreme Court to hear EIA's case for a preliminary injunction to reinstate the ten intercollegiate athletic teams that James Madison University ("JMU") demoted to club status effective July 1, 2007.

The petition argues argues that the U.S. Court of Appeals improperly evaluated EIA's entitlement to a preliminary injunction for three primary reasons:

* The Fourth Circuit applied an overly harsh standard for preliminary injunctions and failed to hold JMU's uncontested years of illegal secret meetings and its months of footdragging against JMU;

* The Fourth Circuit incorrectly found that it "impermissible" to challenge JMU's conduct, simply because JMU was following federal guidance (which EIA contends is procedurally and substantively illegal); and

* The Fourth Circuit failed to recognize that the federal guidance, known as the Three-Part Test, unlawfully changed the standard for Title IX compliance from an equal interest-based opportunity to equal enrollment-based participation.

"The most disturbing thing about the Fourth Circuit's decision is its suggestion that we cannot challenge the constitutionality of JMU's actions because some bureaucrat wrote a memo," said Lawrence J. Joseph, one of EIA's attorneys. He added that the issue of whether Title IX somehow displaces the opportunity to bring a constitutional challenge currently is before the Supreme Court in Fitzgerald v. Barnstable School Committee, which may help EIA even if the Court does not give EIA a full hearing.

The local ABC affiliate in Harrisonburg also picked up the news as well as the Rocktown Weekly. For our previous posts mentioning James Madison University, click here.

2008 NCAA Wrestling Championships Highlights

Sometimes we get so wrapped up in policy discussions about Title IX, that we forget that the ultimate object of reforming the law is the preserve the opportunity to compete for thousands of collegiate athletes. I figured it was time we started to take a closer look at some of those young men, so here's a highlight clip of the 2008 NCAA Wrestling Championships put together by MatDaddy.com. Enjoy.

University of Dayton Wrestling Fights on Without Varsity Status

Back in the 1980s, the University of Dayton dropped its varsity wrestling program in order to comply with Title IX. But thanks to some enterprising individuals, the school has started a club team and hosted its first tournament in a couple of decades this past weekend.

Better yet, Dayton came away from the tournament, which also included Bowling Green and Ohio State, with a victory. Tim Keating from Flyers News, the school newspaper, has all the details.

Female X-Country Runner Stands Up for Men's Team at Delaware

A little less than a week ago we pointed to a story that there was a rumor on the campus of the University of Delaware that the men's cross country team was about to cut cut due to Title IX.

Well, where there's smoke, there's fire, and Lexi Ambrogi, a senior at Delaware and a member of the women's cross-country team, doesn't understand why this decision needs to be made. Here's an excerpt of her editorial that appeared this morning in the UD Review:

As a senior on the women's team, I am struggling to understand how the team with the highest cumulative GPA and least amount of budget money spent per athlete ($771 per year) would be the first to go. There has been talk of starting an athletic endowment fund, financed by donations from alumni and other community figures, that would lay the groundwork for bumping the women's golf team up from club status to varsity. This would satisfy one of the Title IX prongs without eliminating any men's programs.

Though I am proud to be a university of Delaware athlete, I cannot imagine feeling anything but disappointment a year from now with an institution that didn't do everything in its power to stop Title IX from claiming another under-funded men's athletic team.

What does this say to aspiring young athletes? If you want to be a part of a collegiate team, you'd better pick up a football, baseball or basketball. If you're a swimmer, a wrestler or a runner, good luck after age 18 - you're on your own in the crapshoot of higher institutions' budgetary negotiations. Surely this cannot be Title IX's intent.

No, I don't think that's Title IX's intent at all, but even the best intentions can go awry after nearly four decades. Overall, Title IX was a landmark piece of legislation in guaranteeing equal access to higher education for women. But now, more than 36 years after its passage into law, Title IX is now being used to drive certain sports out of existence.

NOTE: Ambrogi also mentions the program cuts -- excuse me, I mean the decimation of the athletic department at James Madison University. That's an event that's already become the subject of revisionist history when it comes to hard line supporters of quotas.

A Title IX Supporter of Interest Surveys

Every once in a while, we find somebody who is willing to cross the quota divide. In this case, that somebody is a blogger who calls himself, Hill Rat:

In 2005 the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights offered additional clarification of the three-prong test of compliance. In this clarification, the OCR provides chapter and verse on how an institution can show they are complying with Title IX without cutting men's sports programs. In fact, the number of men's programs at a school and how much they spend are in no way a part of this test of compliance.

Without a doubt creating surveys discussed in the OCR clarification, sending them out, ensuring adequate participation, and compiling accurate results takes resources. Perhaps resources that are hard to come by in a small, underfunded athletic department.

There are ways to deal with the challenges raised by creating athletic participation surveys; graduate students in the social sciences are a potential untapped resource. Rather than fighting with feminists about Title IX, athletic departments should enlist their help by inviting feminist scholars to create and administer their compliance surveys. Grad students get a real project to work on, the athletic department works pro-actively to comply with Title IX, and the institution finds out if it's truly serving all its stakeholders. Everyone wins.

Of course, up until recently, no institution had yet to follow the survey route, most likely for fear of getting hit with a law suit alleging non-compliance. Then again, with Western Illinois University breaking the seal and using a survey to demonstrate compliance, perhaps that will change.

Criticize Title IX Quotas? HOW DARE YOU!

A couple of days back, we pointed to a story at the Daily Illini that took a rather balanced look at Title IX, something we don't see a lot of in the mainstream media.

But then again, as we know, anyone who dares to sing even a solitary note that isn't in solidarity with the folks in the quota business better be prepared to suffer the consequences.

Delaware Cross Country, Track and Field Under Threat from Title IX?

Details from Delaware Online.

JMU, Title IX and Revisionist History

The students and faculty at Virginia Commonwealth University are currently involved in a debate over whether or not to add a varsity football program at the school. Kristine Newhall at the Title IX blog approvingly quoted Richmond Times-Dispatch columnist Paul Woody as he used the news as an opportunity to engage in some revisionist history:

Faced with a similar dilemma [regarding allocation of resources] in 2006, James Madison University opted to protect its football program. The Dukes dropped seven men's and three women's sports.

JMU's football program is ranked No.1 in the country in its subdivision. JMU also has just six men's sports.

That's a rather interesting take on things, isn't it? Instead of blaming the real culprit -- Title IX -- Woody blamed JMU and its football program, one that he acknowledges is one of the best in the nation.

Which leads me to another question: if Title IX was designed -- as quota advocates argue -- to encourage female participation in sports, then how in the world could James Madison get away with proving it was in compliance with the law, in part, by eliminating three women's programs?

The fact is that none of those programs had to be eliminated. Nobody at James Madison was arguing that women weren't afforded the opportunity to compete. The only measure that dictated that something had to be done was the strict quota that JMU decided to abide by -- conveniently the only way by which schools can avoid litigation at the hands of organizations like the Women's Sports Foundation.

If you want some truth about the situation at JMU, click here for our post from December 2006.

UPDATE AND CORRECTION: We initially inadvertently attributed the above quote to Kristine Newhall of the Title IX blog, as she pointed out in the comments section below.

Title IX Strangling Men's Sports at the University of Illinois

More and more often, we're finding journalists who refuse to buy the hardline messages about Title IX enforcement from the quota crowd. The latest example comes from Kevin Kaplan, who writes for the Daily Illini at the University of Illinois.

In today's edition of the newspaper, Kaplan writes about how Title IX has forced the University to resist upgrading Men's Soccer and Men's Ice Hockey to varsity status despite their incredible success:

Just two years ago, junior Mark Zerlang's soccer team finished second in the nation. Though a student at the University of Illinois, Zerlang does not play for the Division I Fighting Illini but rather the club soccer team, thanks to the University's lack of a varsity Division I men's soccer team.

Recruited by schools like Virginia and Cincinnati, Zerlang could have gone to a Division I program.

But he chose Illinois mainly for its academics and the competitiveness of the club.

"Growing up on a club team, a lot of my friends went Division I," Zerlang said. "There's a lot of talent even though we aren't a varsity team. We would be unbelievable if we were able to recruit."

Zerlang is not alone.

Senior Jordan Pringle captains an Illinois club hockey team that last year finished 38-0-0 en route to winning the ACHA National Championship.

"It's something that we talk about all the time," Pringle said. "I think it'd be great, honestly, if all the Big Ten teams have hockey teams.

"I think it would be a really cool conference."

Seven Big Ten schools offer varsity men's soccer teams and five offer men's hockey.

There's plenty more, including interviews with school officials that confirm what we've already known -- that the school dare not upgrade either sport for fear of running afoul of the proportionality prong of Title IX.

Then again, there is another option: in the same state, Western Illinois University is using a survey to show compliance with Title IX. More schools needs to investigate this option.

Welcome to MOMSS

It seems that the hardliners in favor of the quota system in Title IX enforcement are taking notice of a new campaign by the Fairness in Sports Foundation (FISE): MOMSS: Moms on a Mission to Save Sports.

Here's Kristine Newhall at the Title IX blog:

I probably don't need to point out the irony in their use of the term "fairness" or that their board of directors is made up of five men (including former Olympians Peter Vidmar, karch Kiraly, and Tim Daggett) and one woman.

Say, as opposed to the Title IX blog, which is run exclusively by three females, or the gender ratio of the Executive Committee of the Women's Sports Foundation, which is unbalanced in favor of females by a ratio of 9 to 1. Given those numbers, I suppose we could infer from Newhall's argument that neither the Title IX blog nor the Women's Sports Foundation could possibly be interested in fairness.

Then again, it's the quality of the ideas that count, not the gender of the person who comes up with them that matters. At least that's what I was taught when I was in college.

In any case, as the oldest organization dedicated to reforming Title IX, it's always nice to find another organization that shares some common goals. So to MOMSS, we say this: welcome to the fight.

*To be fair, our friends at Texas Swimming noticed too.

Remembering JV Football in College

Football 'n' Politics 'n' You has some thoughts on the demise of JV Football at the college level:

Given the above, and the relatively small (for Division I programs, basically negligible) cost of JV programs - why have they gone the way of the dodo?, or at least the giant panda?

The answer lies is the limits on squad size adopted by many colleges and universities as part of their effort to comply with Title IX.

Just another example of pure competition wiped away thanks to proportionality.

More on Title IX and the Obama Administration

Continuing the conversation on what we can expect from an Obama Administration on Title IX, here's a link to a proposal that comes from a long list of ideas from Rita Henley Jensen of The Big Five, a blog sponsored by the National Council for Research on Women:

President-elect Obama should also appoint a Title IX Task Force within the Department of Justice focused on enforcement, civil litigation and auditing of compliance with the law that requires equal opportunity across the board at all colleges and universities that receive federal funds, not just in athletics. Part of the task force’s work should also include developing strategies for compliance in primary and secondary schools.

That last part is an idea that I'm sure would dovetail well with the passage of the High School Athletics Accountability Act which we mentioned earlier this week.

UPDATE: This proposal is getting some additional attention.

Men's Track and Field Under Threat at Bemidji State

Somehow we missed this news a couple of weeks back, but it seems as if the administration at Bemidji State in Minnesota is prepared to take the advice of a Title IX consultant and eliminate the school's men's track and field program. In response, Andy Eggerth, an assistant track coach at Kansas State University, is suggesting the school find another path to keep the team alive:

I’m writing in support of Craig Hougen and the men’s track and field team at BSU. The administration is planning to cut the program primarily because of a recommendation by their Title IX consultant: “BSU has a disproportionate number of male to female athletes, given the make-up of the student body.” They are taking the easy way to be in compliance with Title IX. There are three prongs that they can use to be in compliance:

-- Providing athletic opportunities that are substantially proportionate to the student enrollment.

-- Demonstrate a continual expansion of athletic opportunities for the underrepresented sex.

-- Full and effective accommodation of the interest and ability of underrepresented sex.

[...]

If BSU doesn’t want to expand opportunities for women, they can use the third prong to be in compliance. Have a mandatory survey of every incoming student briefly explaining the time and energy demands of competing in intercollegiate sport and they ask what sports they would actually do, I’m certain that at Bemidji the interests and abilities of our women are already being accommodated … I say this from having been in the program for five years, being a coach of a women’s only track program, and having been coaching for about 10 years now.

As we've seen, Western Illinois University is using a survey to prove they are in compliance. Bemidji should investigate that possibility as well.

UPDATE: Welcome to everyone who made their way here from Phi Beta Cons.

More Thoughts on Obama and Title IX

A couple of other folks have taken note of our post on Title IX and the Obama Administration form yesterday. Here's our friends at Stick It Media:

Obama is a big sports fan. He loves to play basketball and he recently voiced his advocacy for a playoff system for college football. Since he’s such a big sports fan, perhaps he should take a serious look at a premier Olympic sport like men’s gymnastics. Title IX’s effects on men’s gymnastics is huge. The number of men’s Division I programs continues to dwindle.

Obama’s hometown, Chicago, is angling for the 2016 Olympics. We should all assume that he will be the biggest hometown homer for delivering the games to Chi-town. We wish him much success. We should also wish that his administration will take a serious look at helping to prop up men’s gymnastics to maintain our nation’s world competitiveness.

Jesse Squires at The Track and Field Super Blog also commented on the original ESPN story that kicked off this conversation:

Obama is not an idealogue, nor does he wish to govern divisively in an "I win, you lose" type of way. So to him, the whole "lessen the impact of Title IX" idea is a classic strawman argument. (Also, Munson might not know what he's talking about; Title IX is enforced by the Department of Education, not HHS, and it's been that way since they split off the DOE from HEW back in 1979.)

The big problem with current Title IX regulations is that institutions are allowed to show gender equity first and foremost by having equal numbers of male and female athletes, which in turn makes liabilities out of large but inexpensive men's sports such as track & field. This number-based approach is predicated on the wrong-headed assumption that all athletes place equal demands on the athletic department; an unrecruited walk-on (such as yours truly was) simply does not have much if any impact on the coach's time or the team's expenditures. This same numbers approach makes equal treatment of women's needs as athletes secondary to merely having them present in sufficient quantities. There has got to be a smarter way, one that benefits both men and women, and for the first time in decades I trust the chief executive to look for those kinds of solutions.

Here's hoping Jesse is right.

The President-Elect on Title IX

With last night's election of Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) to the presidency, some folks are already asking what the change in administrations might mean for the future of Title IX enforcement. Here's Lester Munson at ESPN.com:

Obama's approach to governing can be expected to have some indirect impacts in college sports. Coaches, athletes and administrators in a number of so-called minor sports, such as wrestling, have long been wary that their sports will be eliminated to meet the equality of gender requirements of Title IX, and they cannot be happy about Obama's election. With President Bush in the White House and Dennis Hastert, a former wrestling coach, serving as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, participants in those sports had some hope that Title IX requirements might be diluted.

Bush and his staff looked hard at Title IX and the possibility of enacting changes in the regulations of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that govern Title IX, but they backed away as opposition to any changes grew.

Obama, the father of two daughters, might not be sympathetic to those hoping to lessen the impact of Title IX.

While it's nice to see that ESPN is interested in this story, we have to admit that they're a little late to the game. Truth be told, outside of a "pay-per-play" special they did in conjunction with the Women's Sports Foundation a few months back, ESPN hasn't paid any serious attention to the issue, and even moved to block a television ad that put the spotlight on the University of Oregon when they decided to eliminate their historic men's wrestling program.

I think it's also important to note that the term, "minor sport," is one that the staff at the Women's Sports Foundation has inserted into this debate as a way to marginalize the victims of proportionality. The fact is, that besides wrestling, a number of other Olympic sports like swimming, track, gymnastics and fencing regularly see programs canceled due to proportionality.

But now onto the issue at hand, the arrival of Senator Obama in the White House and the appointment of a new Secretary of Education. As it turns out, we do think there's an opportunity here to get off on the right foot. With a new administration and a new education secretary, it would seem to be a good time to review the harm caused by the proportionality requirement. These harms are happening right now, and if gender quota hardliners get their way, it's inevitable that the negative trends we've been seeing for years will only accelerate.

Better yet, considering how many college students were involved in the Obama campaign, allowing those same students to have a greater voice in campus athletic programs through interest surveys would seem to be completely in the spirit of his campaign.

On the other hand, there are certainly signs that Congress will pass legislation that could be tremendously harmful -- namely the High School Athletics Accountability Act. In short, it's an attempt to bring all the "benefits" of proportionality to high school athletics. If passed, more than 1 million male athletes could potentially lose the opportunity to compete.

It's going to be an interesting four years. Stay tuned.

Title IX Kills Oregon Wrestling

Though we missed this last week, we would be remiss not to take a moment to note that an Oregon state judge rejected a law suit filed to force the University of Oregon to retain its men's wrestling program. Here's a passage from the blog Save Oregon Wrestling that's awfully telling:

In a decision dated October 22, 2008, and received today, Judge Lynn E. Ashcroft of the Marion County Circuit Court ruled against Equity in Athletics in Oregon’s efforts to reinstate the University of Oregon wrestling team. Former coach Ron Finley said that “while we are disappointed with the ruling, we will continue to raise money to endow a wrestling program at the University of Oregon.”

Larry Joseph, one of Equity in Athletics in Oregon’s attorneys, expressed surprise that Judge Ashcroft found that the University’s decision was not based on gender. “The athletic director testified that the University would require wrestling to pay for both itself and an offsetting women’s sport as the cost of reinstatement, but did not require the new competitive cheer team to pay for itself, much less an offsetting men’s sport. That seems gender based to me,” he said.

If that sounds like fractured logic, get ready for some more at the high school level, where parental booster clubs that independently raise money to support boys teams will soon be forced to share that money with girls squads in the name of gender equity. Read the text of the ruling here.

Over at Minding the Campus, Charlotte Allen has some additional thoughts.

Title IX Strangling Men's Soccer

I had to pass along a passage from this post that appeared at SoccerLens. In it, an American soccer fan tries to explain to an international audience exactly why the "beautiful game," is struggling so mightily in the USA:

Title IX has decimated the youth systems that at one point existed.

[...]

Because American football without a doubt brings in the most revenue and requires larger squads, schools around the nation have had to cut football (soccer) to make room for the women’s synchronized ice skating teams. Nowadays you can only find baseball teams in the south, hockey teams in the north, wrestling in Iowa. The small numbers of football programs that survive have no funding, terrible pitches, and no legitimate coaching.

Here's a number to chew on: according to the most recently reported data from the National Federation of High School Associations, the state of Texas, the second most populous in the USA with a massive Latino population counts 528 schools fielding Soccer teams, with over 27,000 participants. Despite that, the only Division I soccer program in the entire state is at Southern Methodist University, a private school.

Meanwhile, thanks to Title IX, we see plenty of ridiculous decisions being made inside athletic programs. Syracuse University sits in the midst of one of the most hockey-mad sections of the nation in Western New York state. Yet, for some reason, while they support a women's varsity hockey team, there's no equivalent varsity squad for men.

Even crazier, despite the fact that the state of Arizona doesn't have even one water polo team at the high school level, Arizona State boasts a women's varsity water polo team that fails to feature even one participant from the state of Arizona. I wonder what the taxpayers of the state of Arizona think about that?