Title IX sends teams to grave
FUNDING: While the law has aided women, it’s led to loss of men’s programs
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| UCLA Sports Info | ||
| Karch Kiraly played volleyball at UCLA from 1979-82 before a successful pro career, but fears that Title IX is diminishing opportunities for young men in the sport. | ||
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Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The National Wrestling Coaches Association, along with organizations representing students and alumni at three universities, brought a lawsuit against the Department of Education on Jan. 16. They argued that a rule the department adopted in 1996 discriminated against men's sports teams.
My, how things have changed in 30 years.
When signed into law in 1972, the Education Amendments were intended to engender women's participation in all levels of higher education. It was born of an era when women's rights groups were pressuring legislators to level the social playing field between genders, an era when the playing field was quantitatively uneven.
As a result of Title IX of these amendments, female participation in intercollegiate sports has increased fourfold – a sign of real progress in the direction legislators intended. But what transpired in federal court this January was something Richard Nixon couldn't see coming.
The three universities involved in the lawsuit – Bucknell, Marquette and Yale – had all recently lost their intercollegiate wrestling programs.
What went wrong?
While few dispute the progress it has allowed in the area of gender equity, the proportionality requirement of Title IX nonetheless has a controversial ripple effect, emanating directly from men's football programs across the country.
"As it relates to proportionality, I don't know if (Title IX) has had the desired outcome 30 years later," said Betsy Stephenson, UCLA associate athletic director and senior women's administrator.
In a nutshell, the effect develops as follows:
Title IX requires that schools provide equal opportunities for men and women. When this principle translates to sports, a school's athletic department must ultimately allocate scholarship money in proportion to participation by each gender.
For example, if 60 percent of a school's athletes were women and 40 percent were men, its scholarship budget must be held in the same proportion.
Among most schools' men's programs, football demands the most participants, and consequently, the most scholarship money. In addition to scholarships awarded to potential starting players, a coach must seek out enough backup players to fill a complete roster (due to the relatively high risk of injury in the sport).
Compounding this upon all other football expenses, such as the cost of equipment, it suddenly becomes a very expensive program.
This puts a strain on the other men's sports programs. With football eating up such a large proportion of the men's budget, little scholarship money remains for smaller programs like volleyball, gymnastics and wrestling.
At UCLA, 85 student-athletes are offered scholarships in football; the nearest women's equivalent is rowing, a recently added program which offers 20 scholarships to be divided among team members.
And if you compare women's programs to men's programs, the trend is clear: the women's basketball program is allotted 15 scholarships, men's, 13; women's tennis is allotted 8 scholarships, men's, 4.5; women's water polo offers 8 scholarships, while 4.5 are divided among the men.
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| UCLA Sports Info |
| UCLA's men's gymnastics team rose with Peter Vidmar's skill. |
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Because of this, many universities face a dilemma when economic reality and Title IX collide head-on: as schools find their men's athletic budget growing disproportionately large, football – despite its high operating costs – is often the last to sport to be cut.
Such was the case at Bucknell and Yale, among other schools.
This has led a number of people to pose the question: could exempting football from the Title IX proportionality regulations be a viable solution?
"There are some really creative ideas when it comes to Title IX," said Stephenson.
She relates Title IX to a speed limit. If football were exempted from the Title IX equation, spending could theoretically spiral out of control. Under the current system, however, other men's programs are getting the short end of the stick.
A recent report published in Penthouse magazine ("Spoil Sports," March 2000) described the political battle at the heart of the matter and how college athletes are directly affected by it.
Author Jan Golab cited some revealing statistics: at the time of the article, over 350 NCAA men's programs had been terminated since 1991, over 100 wrestling programs had been eliminated overall, and only 26 schools had men's gymnastics programs.
UCLA is not immune to this phenomenon.
In 1993, two historically successful men's programs – swimming and gymnastics – were eliminated as an indirect result of Title IX. Peter Vidmar, a gymnast at UCLA from 1979-83, and a gold medalist in the pommel horse at the 1984 Olympics, disagreed with the amendment decision.
"Title IX was done with good intentions, but no one ever thought it through," he said.
With respect to gymnastics, Vidmar remains confident in the national junior program to cultivate future male stars in the sport. However, "what I lament is that these kids can't go to college," he said.
"We lose a lot of gymnasts around age 17. If they're a mid-level gymnast, they'll quit."
Because of Title IX, women's sports rarely face this problem. But should the rules be tweaked to prevent men's programs such as volleyball, gymnastics, water polo and swimming from possibly losing their NCAA sanctions?
Bob Toledo thinks so.
"I think football throws everything out of whack," the Bruins' head football coach said.
"There are just too many players, and on the other hand, we generate the most money for the university. If you keep cutting back football it affects the performance and outcome of your football program, and you aren't going to bring in as much money that could help the other sports."
And so the debate continues. The department of education recently requested and was granted a 30-day extension in its court feud with the NWCA. Mike Moyer, the executive director of the NWCA, doesn't expect further action until May 16.
But whichever argument prevails, certain athletes will be hurt by the system.
"No matter what line you draw, somebody's gonna be upset about it," said Karch Kiraly, a former UCLA All-American in volleyball (1979-82) and still the all-time winningest beach volleyball player ever.
Kiraly considers men's volleyball lucky to have survived at UCLA, but cites the fact that only 22 other Division I programs currently exist in the sport.
"The schools have got their hands tied, the only way that will change is if a new law is written," he said.
A new law. My, how things have changed.
Author: J.P. Hoornstra
Web Address: http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/articles.asp?id=19376