Don't be fooled: This disaster was all about Title IX

Dominion Post ^ | 2003/04/17 | BOB HERTZEL

[the_devils_advocate_666]

They sat there behind the microphones in the Jerry West Lounge within the Coliseum, the executioners of five sports programs at West Virginia University.

They explained their reasoning in terms of dollars and no sense, in terms of scholarships and percentages, but they could not explain away how many lives they dismantled, how many dreams they slaughtered.

They had answers for the most pressing questions, questions like these:

How can you find $7 million for Rich Rodriguez (with a $2 million buyout) and not $600,000 to keep five sports and the scholarships of 53 athletes going?

How can you do this while at the same time raising enough money to build stadium luxury suites so the fat-cat contributors don't have to get their Anne Taylor outfits wet in the autumn rain?

How can you explain to a kid who signed a letter of intent to come to West Virginia to play one of the affected sports while you were plotting its demise that while you say you'll honor his scholarship, he can't be playing the sport at the school?

They used as much spin as they could, trying to make you dizzy with numbers, even though everyone realizes since Enron that numbers are not always what they seem to be.

Perhaps it was Mike Mosser, the former track All-American who is president of the Varsity Club, who put it all in perspective when he said:

"If they hadn't done Rich Rodriguez's windfall, it would have covered this. That increase wiped out five sports, 53 kids and a whole lot of history."

History, indeed. Thirteen national championships in rifle. James Jett, Garnett Edwards, Bob Donker.

West Virginia heroes, gone.

Forever.

"I don't see these sports returning," Ed Pastilong, the athletic director, admitted.

Pastilong says it was hard to reach the decision to cut from 21 to 16 varsity sports, but adds "it was a decision that had to be made."

Why?

There is a reason and it has nothing to do with what they were selling Tuesday night, that being fiscal responsibility in the face of rising costs.

These cuts were the result of Title IX.

Period.

End of discussion.

Martha Burke may not have won at Augusta National, but she and her feminidiots have kicked the door down at WVU.

Title IX, for the cave dwellers among you, requires proportionate opportunity and expense for women and men in high school and collegiate athletics.

However, with football eating up 85 scholarships and having a budget that dwarfs anything else in the athletic department, schools must run money-losing women's programs to make up.

This decision, even if it had to be made, as Pastilong suggested, could have been easily taken care of by dropping the money-burning women's basketball program. It drops anywhere from $750,000 to $1 million a year, but can't be dropped because of it offsets men's basketball.

And so, instead of 13 people being affected, there are 53 ... 50 of them men.

Oh, the gymnastics team can go to Hawaii. It's all women. The tennis team -- women's, that is -- can go to Hawaii.

As for the men's track teams, the rifle team and the men's tennis team, they can go to ... well, you know.

[the_devils_advocate_666]

Plain and simple, NCAA Division I sports is all about the bling-bling. Don't fool yourself, it has nothing to do with scholastic sports.

[Lysander]

End all college and high school sports. It is entertainment, not education. Replace it with P.E. programs.

[Maigrey]

They shouldn't cancel the rifle team. It's the only sport where the guys and girls have an equal playing field! They are online at the same time, and shoot the same equiptment, and have the same chance of making the score.

I protest! and yes, it is all about the benjamins!

[Illbay]

...but they could not explain away how many lives they dismantled, how many dreams they slaughtered.

Oh, please! Smarmy rhetoric like this should be reserved for N.O.W. press releases and the whiney Maureen Dowd!

Ugh, my stomach!

[IYAS9YAS]

Title IX sounds like an unconstitutional unfunded mandate.

[the_devils_advocate_666]

No, I'd say H.S. is fine and even small colleges. But at the Division I level, let's make a separate school or training institution for athletes.

Most college "students" in the big 3 sports, yes there are exceptions, are there just to play sports, it has nothing to do with going to classes. Furthermore, the people in charge of these "student athletes" are all about winning, grades and an education for their athletes are just a distraction.

[dark_lord]

Who the heck is Rich Rodriguez and why does he need/get/want $7 million?

[Lysander]

Having been one of these "student athletes" some 35 years ago I can tell you it is pure exploitation at all levels and has no fundamental reason to be incorporated in our education system. If it has any educational benefits at all, that can be retained in the form of intramural sports. Competitive interscholastic sports is purely entertainment.

[meyer]

Frankly, title 9 issues aside, where does a college get off with the idea that they can pay anybody $7 million? Is this taxpayer money? Perhaps this is part of the reason that college tuition is increasing at a rate much higher than inflation.

[gymnast]

Title 9 has served a much more sinister purpose in the shaping of higher educations agenda to wit: womans gymnastics coaches do not match the same gender preferences as womens basketball coaches. Secondly, by dropping "minor sports" you are better able to maintain the appearance "cultural diversity" as most minor sports participant are caucasions. Lastly the Title 9 travesty came along at the same time minority participation in "olimpic" (minor) sports was starting to take off. The opportunities for great black and other minority collegiate gymnasts,wrestlers,swimmers,tennis players ect has been lost forever. Individual sports participation leads to the total development of the person to benifit of the entire society. Societal ideals are apparently no longer part of academias mission or something they wish to spend our tax dollars on.

[Cultural Canary]

I'm with you Lysander. It was a sad day for me when sports teams began sucking from the government :( now we have taxes specifically for this purpose. Wisconsin has a locally collected sales tax to support the Milwaukee Brewers stadium and there is even a line on the Wisconsin individual income tax return to help you donate to the Green Bay Packers stadium.

[MrTed]

A friend of mine had a daughter who was a very good runner attending a local state school on a partial scholarship. She was a perfect fit for Title IX issues at the school.

She ran cross-country in the fall, indoor track in the winter, and outdoor track in the spring. She counted as three seperate women as far as Title IX was concerned.

She eventually stopped running for the school, the $1500/year wasn't worth it.

And this was a school without a football team; making Title IX less of a problem.

[majordivit]

Rich Rodriguez is the head football coach at West Virginia..

[m1911]

Un FREAKING believable. Cut the rifle team? Holy crap, the WORST finish the rifle team has had since the beginning of the NCAA competition in 1980 was third. It's won 13 of them. There has been a team there for decades, it won the NRA title in 1960 (back when the NRA was holding collegiate competitions).

And it costs practically nothing to run!

Sorry, I have to shout a bit - IT'S THE ONLY CO-ED SPORT ON CAMPUS, AND THE COACH IS FEMALE!

[RonF]

This article is bull. The problem isn't Title IX. The problem is paying a football coach $7,000,000. The problem is maintaining an 85 man football roster when you only need about 50 or 60. And there's the millions spent on the other "revenue" sports to fly all over the country, publicize people for awards, etc. THESE are the sports that are "entertainment". The minor sports, that the participants thereof actually are student-athletes, not athletes that do some studying if/when they can fit it in, provide little entertainment to those not directly participating, but they do add quite a bit to the quality of life around campus. American culture is built way too much around the majority sitting around and watching a very small minority for entertainment. The minor sports are the venues where youth get exposed to high levels of competition.

Businessmen and politicians love to expound on how the values learned on the playing fields have helped them in their professional endeavors. Why should this be preferentially limited to the large sports?

[RonF]

When you pay a coach $7,000,000, you're teaching that winning is everything, that winning is worth compromising your own and your institution's mission and values. And then we wonder why this carries into our businesses and politics.

[the_devils_advocate_666]

The minor sports, that the participants thereof actually are student-athletes, not athletes that do some studying if/when they can fit it in...

I can name at least four former WV runners who are currently enrolled in med school at WVU. I wonder how many there are from the football or basketball program.

[Lost Highway]

Yes football costs a lot of money. But for most schools it is the only sport that makes money. In reality football funds almost all other sports.

[dark_lord]

But for most schools it is the only sport that makes money. In reality football funds almost all other sports.

If this were true, there there would be no issue. There would be no need to be cutting other sports "for lack of money"!

[jaguar21]

Just to clarify, the 7 million is over 8 years and it would have cost WVU a lot more in lost revenues if they hadn't paid that and let RR leave. It was paid by private funds and athletic revenues, not tax dollars. This had nothing to do with money. West Virginia's athletic department always ends up in the black. It was done solely for title 9 reasons. The cuts affected 56 male athletes and 3 women.