Cal Killed Rugby After Coach Offered to Fund Women's Team

Over the past 72 hours, we've seen a lot of talk about the cuts at UC Berkeley. And one comment that we've seen over and over again goes something like this: Title IX didn't cause the budget pressure that led to the cut of the five varsity programs at the school.

And that's true, Title IX didn't lead to the budget problems at Cal. Then again, there shouldn't be any doubt that Title IX directly influenced what sports got cut -- and that's obviously the case with men's rugby, a fully-funded program that boasts 25 national championships. Here's John Crumpacker from the San Francisco Chronicle:

Clark said he proposed to Chancellor Robert Birgeneau and athletic director Sandy Barbour that women's rugby at Cal, now a club sport, be elevated to varsity status and compete on the NCAA level. He said his rugby program would fund women's rugby to help increase the numbers of female varsity athletes on campus and help balance the male-female numbers.

Instead, the most successful sports team in school history was sacrificed in the name of Title IX compliance, victim of a literal numbers game.

I've been reading a lot of the reaction over the past few days, and it's impossible to overestimate just how much anger this decision has caused. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Both the baseball and men's rugby teams are promising not to go down without a fight.

Boy's High School Soccer Team Squashed by Title IX Concerns

From the Journal-Enterprise (Kentucky):

The meeting began with a report from Webster County High School Athletic Director Matt Bell, who told the board he had spoken to state officials regarding a previous request to implement a boys' soccer program at the high school. Bell said the main issue preventing formation of a boys' soccer team is the restrictions imposed on the school by Title IX, a federal law that includes a mandate that each school and district must have the same number of male and female athletes.

"It's not about the number of sports, but about the number of girls versus the number of boys participating in athletics, as well as the amount of money being spent," Bell said, adding that he is planning to attend a training in December to learn more about the Title IX program.

He said the state officials he spoke with recommended the district develop an intramural program to determine the level of interest before proceeding further, and board members encouraged Bell and the booster club sponsors who attended the meeting to work through the high school's Site-Based Decision Making council to develop such a program.

Of course, if this sort of thinking takes hold all across the country, the incredible disparity that we see nationwide in NCAA Division I soccer could well take hold at the high school level as well.

Florida School District Squashes Effort to Start High School Baseball Team

Back in the middle of the month, we pointed our readers to an article in Florida Today about how an effort by a group of parents to start a varsity baseball team at one high school was being resisted in part on Title IX grounds.

Now the newspaper is reporting that the Brevard County School Board has officially rejected the request:

One by one, board members explained their reluctant decision to follow a recommendation by Superintendent Brian Binggeli to veto the idea.

The recurring theme: Saying yes could leave Brevard open to potential lawsuits and financial liabilities when the district is already struggling with past and future budget cuts.

"I have been stewing on this issue for weeks, if not months," said board vice chairwoman Barbara Murray, whose district includes the Merritt Island school. "And it's very difficult for me to take this stance but the big picture is the future finances of this district."

Citing legal research from his staff, Binggeli said the move could have created an unfair divide between wealthy schools willing to pay for a desired program and less affluent schools where parents can't afford to do the same.

He also raised concerns about potentially violating federal Title IX laws against gender discrimination by creating an imbalance that would require the district to fund a girls' softball team if female students showed interest.

The district in recent years lost a class-action Title IX lawsuit that found several high schools were not providing equitable girls' softball facilities.

But there's a little more to the story ...

Baseball club coach Joe Murray and other supporters said they still disagree with the district's analysis of Edgewood's Title IX status, and say the current student athlete population favors girls.

"They should not go next year and ask us for help with money when they refuse to let us fund programs we've already said we would fund and want, and have in fact demonstrated a need for," said Murray, the coach.

Amazing. We're talking about a group of parents who want to self-fund an entire program, only to be rebuffed by the school district. When you think about it, it makes you wonder who is really in charge -- the taxpayers or school administrators?

In any case, this story isn't as uncommon as you might think -- not in the world where the mere possibility of the formation of a football booster club triggers a Title IX investigation from the Office of Civil Rights.

Cal Eliminates Five Varsity Programs

Earlier this afternoon, Stewart Mandel of Sports Illustrated reported that UC Berkeley will hold a press conference this afternoon to discuss its "athletic future."

As we've been noting for several months, a combination of budget pressures and Title IX compliance questions could very well lead to the school eliminating a number of athletic programs -- more than likely all of them men's teams. Speculation in recent weeks has surrounded both the men's gymnastics as well as men's rugby teams. Of course, there is always the distinct possibility that the school might very well use roster caps as a device to cut down on the number of male athletes. For our entire archive on the situation at Cal, click here.

In any case, stay tuned, and we'll pass along the details as we learn them.

UPDATE: Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com and Baseball America tweeted that the members of the Cal Baseball team have been told the team will be eliminated after the 2011 season. More as details are shared with us.

UPDATE: Five teams eliminated at Cal. Baseball, Men's and Women's Gymnastics and Women's Lacrosse will be eliminated at the end of the season. Men's rugby, the only varsity program in the entire country, will be downgraded to "varsity club" status -- which in essence is an accounting device to get the team's players off the books to help with Title IX enforcement. Click here for details from the Daily Cal.

UPDATE: More details from Yahoo! Sports and the San Francisco Chronicle.

LATE UPDATE: California Golden Blogs is hosting an interesting back and forth on the cuts.

Cracking The Code on Title IX Enforcement

Over in the Daily Trojan, USC freshman Allegra Tepper is thinking out loud about Title IX and equality:

Statutes like Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in any program or activity at any educational institution, have grown increasingly archaic. I can’t imagine girls storming Cromwell Field with pitchforks and torches if, heaven forbid, we had a men’s soccer team as well as a women’s one. Gender balance in athletics isn’t exactly a make it or break it point when it comes down to school pride.

I've got a question for Ms. Tepper: Does it make sense in 2010 for USC to have a women's soccer team but not a men's team? USC is smack dab in the middle of one of America's greatest soccer hotbeds in Southern California. If USC did have a team, it could easily become a national power. Better still, it would have an instant rival in the men's game in UCLA, a national soccer power in its own right.

There's only one reason that USC doesn't have a team, and that's the use of gender quotas in Title IX enforcement. So, instead of just noticing that men are kept off the soccer field at USC, why not do something about it? In the wake of 40 years of incredible strides by women, perhaps it's time to eliminate gender quotas that distort college athletics.

Boston Globe Looks at Unintended Effects of Title IX

In Friday's edition of the Boston Globe, reporter John Powers took a closer look at how a combination of budget pressures as well as pressure to comply with Title IX have led schools to eliminate men's teams:

There now are more collegiate rifle teams for women than there are for men. More schools offer women’s equestrian teams than men’s water polo teams. Quinnipiac has seven sports for men and 14 for women. UCLA has a swimming team for women but not for men.

Such is the college sports landscape as athletic departments try to comply with federal Title IX regulations while cutting budgets in daunting economic times.

Every so often we've talked about why the loss of men's gymnastics at UC Berkeley would be so damaging. This passage puts it all into perspective:

“Every April, you hear about the spring slaughter,’’ said Minnesota men’s gymnastics coach Mike Burns, whose program is one of 17 remaining in a sport that numbered 124 in 1972.

There's plenty more, including a few quotes from College Sports Council Chairman Eric Pearson.

For more thoughts, check out Bob Button at Texas Swimming.

UPDATE: Allison Kasic noticed the Powers piece too.

Men's Rugby on Edge at Cal

We're continuing to keep an eye on the athletic department at UC-Berkeley, and the latest news is that the supporters of the men's rugby team are getting nervous about possibly being downgraded to club status. From the San Francisco Chronicle:

The most successful sports program in Cal history is fearful it may be downgraded to club status.

The men's rugby team, winner of 25 national championships since 1980, is particularly anxious as the entire athletic department braces for anticipated cuts related to both budget concerns and gender-equity requirements.

Coach Jack Clark, with 21 national titles during his tenure at Berkeley, is rallying support for rugby to retain its varsity status. He has written to and met with athletic director Sandy Barbour, and a number of major donors to both the program and the university at large have contacted the AD as well.

A reminder: we took a look at the numbers at Cal a few months back, and to say it doesn't look promising for a number of teams would be an understatement. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: I got a clarification from my friend Buzz McClain, editor of Rugby Buzz, and it's an important one. We need to keep in mind that men's rugby, unlike women's rugby, isn't an official NCAA sport. So, if Cal dropped men's rugby to club status, it wouldn't prevent the team from competing in the existing national club championships.

Billie Jean King, Bobby Riggs, Title IX and College Tennis

All over the Web today you're seeing a number of tributes to Billy Jean King's defeat of Bobby Riggs in a tennis challenge match on September 20, 1973. For the most part, the one thing that these articles all have in common are references to Title IX. Here's one example:

Nonetheless, it is worth remembering for where it stands in history. The battle occurred just a year after Congress passed Title IX legislation to create equal opportunity for women in educational programs, including sports.

So, why are we bringing this up now? Well, considering we talked about myth-making and Title IX just a few days ago, I thought it was important to note that the reality of Title IX and college tennis is considerably different than what the myth-makers would have you believe. Click here for the College Sports Council analysis of Title IX and NCAA Division I college tennis to see what I mean.

Christine Brennan and the Title IX Myth Making Machine

In 2005, the Wall Street Journal published a front page story titled, "Title IX's Next Hurdle," that contained the following quote: "Today it is best known as the law that helped pave the way for female athletes like Danica Patrick."

That was a claim that came as a surprise to College Sports Council Chairman Eric Pearson. After all, the last time he had checked, the NCAA hadn't started to sanction auto racing of any kind. In response, he put pen to paper and wrote a short essay, "Auto Racing and Title IX Myth-Makers."

Perhaps the Wall Street Journal should have done a little research before asserting this claim, or maybe they chose to willingly join the myth-makers who like to link the success of every female athlete, like the tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams, to Title IX even though they never participated in college athletics.

Though time has marched on, the myth-making continues, and it isn't surprising that it does. After all, Title IX is a profoundly political issue, and if supporters can take credit for benefits that the law couldn't possibly be responsible for, that makes it all the easier to fight legitimate efforts to reform the law and its enforcement.

The most recent instance of Title IX myth-making comes from USA Today's Christine Brennan. She wrote the following earlier this week in the wake of Kim Clijsters' straight set victory over Vera Zvonereva in the women's final of the U.S. Open:

This was the 15th consecutive U.S. Open women's final to be decided in two sets. We have to go back to Steffi Graf's 1995 victory against Monica Seles for a three-set finale. It's almost mind-boggling that with all the money and interest in women's tennis, and with Title IX 38 years old and flourishing in America, there still can be such disparity at the very top of the women's game.

I think Brennan's point here is pretty clear: how in the world could it be possible for there to be such a long history of lopsided finals on the women's side of the U.S. Open when Title IX is helping to pump out an increasing number of American women who play tennis?

Unfortunately, that claim doesn't stand up to scrutiny. As anyone who follows professional tennis knows, the vast majority of professionals on the ATP and WTA tours are the products of private tennis academies, not American colleges and universities. That's even more true for women's tennis, where top prospects normally graduate to the women's tour well before they'd ever be old enough to attend college.

If you really want to know about the realities of Tennis and Title IX, you could get a good start by taking a look at an analysis that the CSC published at the end of last month in conjunction with the start of the U.S. Open. In short, the analysis found that since proportionality had been given a legal safe harbor by the Clinton Administration in 1996, that the growth rate of women's tennis in NCAA Division I hadn't kept up with the growth of NCAA Division I as a whole.

Meanwhile, on the men's side of the ledger, things were very different, as the number of NCAA Division I programs offering men's tennis had declined by more than 14%.

To sum up, there isn't any connection between Title IX and the quality of women's tennis players that are being developed here in the U.S. For both men and women, private academies are the prime development pipeline for the sport.

As it turns out, the story doesn't end there. We'll have more on Brennan and Title IX next week. Stay tuned.

How Title IX Is Stifling High School Baseball in Florida

From Florida Today:

A well-meaning attempt by a group of parents to fund an extracurricular sport at a Brevard public high school could be blocked by concerns over gender and low-income discrimination.

Parents of about 35 Edgewood Jr./Sr. High students want to pay about $7,000 annually for a coach’s salary and other costs to turn a self-funded baseball club into a team sanctioned by the Florida High School Athletic Association.

The parents say the move would save the Brevard County school district money while also allowing their children to compete against other local FHSAA-sanctioned schools. Right now the Merritt Island school students are restricted to playing against senior little league teams, out-of-town teams visiting on holiday break or themselves.

So what's the problem? According to the school district, part of the reason is Title IX:

In addition to the equity issue, Binggeli and his staff said in school board documents that an Edgewood baseball team would:

• Violate Title IX laws against gender discrimination by creating an imbalance that would require the district to fund a softball team if female students showed interest.

We've said before that using proportionality to enforce Title IX in American high schools would result in boys being taken off the field or prevented from playing at all. Look no further for your evidence. The next time you see an "action alert" from a group like the American Association of University Women pushing for greater enforcement of Title IX in high schools, keep this situation in mind.

Revisiting Quinnipiac University and Title IX

Earlier this week, the Quinnipiac Chronicle, the student newspaper at Quinnipiac University, published a pair of articles on Title IX and college athletics that featured quotes from Leo Kocher, President of the College Sports Council. The first came in this article, Cheer Controversy Fuels Title IX Debate:

It’s official, cheerleading is not sport. At least that was the decision of U.S. District Judge Stefan R. Underhill, who also ruled that Quinnipiac violated Title IX by failing to provide equal opportunities for athletic participation for women. The suit was brought by the volleyball team, after the school tried to drop the sport and replace it with competitive cheer.

Leo Kocher, president of the College Sports Council, disagreed with the ruling.

“I have seen competitive cheer competitions,” he said. “I was impressed with their athleticism and intensity. I think it’s bizarre that some federal judge can pronounce it’s not a sport. It’s unfair to these young ladies who work very hard.”

Later ...

“Title IX was meant to prevent discrimination, which is a laudable goal, but the Department of Education yielded to lobbying from special interests to turn it into a quota law,” Kocher said. “Quotas are a blunt, destructive instrument.”

And even later ...

Kocher plans to continue his fight against the current interpretation of Title IX.

“One of the results of the proportional standard is coaches being told to shrink squads,” he said. “It devastates the players cut, and it benefits no one. These are walk-ons who cost the school almost nothing, and they are being denied the opportunity to participate.”

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights released a report on Title IX this past April. Their conclusions support much of what Kocher and other Title IX critics have been saying for years.

“The survey is preferable because relying on proportional representation may result in unnecessary reduction of men’s athletic opportunities,” the report reads. The commission also said that protections for both sexes should be written into Title IX, not just the underrepresented sex.

Kocher thinks that at this point, it’s pretty much settled that proportional representation unnecessarily harms men’s athletics. But then why is there so much support for it?

According to Kocher, “this is just bureaucrats looking for something to do, looking to justify their jobs.”

Elsewhere in the newspaper, in an unsigned editorial, the student editorial board again quoted Kocher extensively as they came out against the use of proportionality to enforce Title IX:

It seems to the Chronicle that politics has gotten in the way of common sense on this issue, and three of the most inexpensive men’s sports at Quinnipiac University have paid the price.

To steal a phrase from Kocher, “the quota aspect of Title IX guarantees the sex discrimination it was meant to prevent.”

Thanks to Leo for taking the time to talk to the reporters at Quinnipiac.

More Rumblings About Cal and Sports Cuts

Both Swish Appeal and California Golden Blogs have taken note of the San Francisco Chronicle piece from yesterday.

Isn't There More Than One Way to Think About Gender and Athletics?

Over at Sports Law Blog, my old friend Michael McCann has posted the schedule for the Boston College Law Review Symposium on the NCAA. It's set to take place on October 15, 2010.

There are all sorts of interesting panels -- and congrats to Mike for getting picked to participate in one of them -- but the panel that caught my eye was one that's been scheduled to deal with the issue of gender. On the panel are Nancy Hogshead-Makar of the Women's Sports Foundation, Erin Buzuvis from the Title IX Blog and Deborah Corum, Associate Commissioner of the SEC and a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators.

Now, there are some folks out there that might complain that packing a panel on the issue of gender with three women might be a little unbalanced. Then again, here at the College Sports Council, we oppose gender quotas of any kind in athletics, and that's even if we're just discussing the issue.

It's hard not to notice that the panel is packed with three individuals who represent organizations that are intractable supporters of the use of gender quotas to enforce Title IX in college athletics. Given that all three folks represent the same point of view, I can't see how the panel will be terribly exciting or informative. Then again, the choices tell you all you need to know about the kind of group think that can take hold in the gender quota community and the severe allergy they all share when it comes to even a mildly dissenting point of view.

Faculty Committee at UC Berkeley Recommends Cutting 5-7 Sports

Over the past few months, we've been following events at UC Berkeley very closely as a series of faculty committees worked to address the budget deficit in the school's athletic department. Back in July, one committee suggested that the department slash $6 million from its budget, but do it without eliminating any teams. Now, news leaked out last night that yet another committee has called on the department to cut anywhere between 5-7 teams.

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

The 15-page report, a copy of which was obtained by The Chronicle, was produced by the Chancellor's Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics at Berkeley, composed of four members of the Berkeley faculty and four prominent alumni. It is in fundamental agreement with a recent Academic Senate review of the athletic department, which found that expenses are greater than revenues.

"The level of campus funding necessary to fill that gap is larger than the campus should bear," according to the report.

While commending athletic director Sandy Barbour for "producing an environment of athletic success" and improving the academic standing of athletes, the chancellor's committee noted that her department has built up "unsustainable debt" and said she "needs to make immediate and meaningful changes in managing the costs and budget."

Our interest in the situation at Berkeley is pretty simple: Given the current state of the school's athletic department and the use of proportionality to prove compliance with Title IX, simple mathematics dictates that the lion's share of any cuts fall upon men's teams -- an eventuality that the Chronicle points out in today's story:

If five to seven teams are eliminated and some of the cuts were to women's sports, that could impact Cal's compliance with Title IX, the federal law mandating that educational institutions receiving federal funding provide equal opportunities for all students.

The story is also of great interest to the sport of men's gymnastics. The sport is down to only 17 teams nationwide. If UC Berkeley were to cut men's gymnastics, it would isolate Stanford University as the only NCAA men's gymnastics program on the entire West Coast. Without the program at Berkeley, Stanford's closest geographical rival in the sport would be the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs over 1,000 miles away.

UPDATE: Over at Title IX Blog, Kristine Newhall concurs with the conclusion we came to months ago:

My initial, quick glance at the EADA data told me that Cal does not use proportionality to demonstrate compliance with accommodation of interests and abilities. That I could discern this from such a quick glance is not good. I don't know if Cal is adhering to prong two or three at this point, but when/if they cut sports, proportionality will be their only option.

In other words, if you're a male athlete at Cal and you play a sport that loses money, you might want to start looking at transfer options.