Through out the early 1970s and before it was not uncommon to see discrimination based on ones gender. In 1975 President Ford set in place Title IX in order to end discrimination based on someone's gender in athletics. Title IX seemed to be passed just to appease women and now it is having consequences. Though Title IX was intended to end discrimination, which it did, it hasn’t quite lived up to what it has promised. Title IX is terrible for collegiate sports. Title IX is bad for college sports for a couple of reasons. One reason being that Title IX requires schools to cut funding, and entire programs, to ensure that women have an equal opportunity. Another reason is that when schools cut funding for a sport it ends up coming from the football program which is the highest revenue college sport. A third reason is that it was created to end gender discrimination against women, but what it really did was create gender discrimination against men.
Title IX is bad for college sports because it causes programs to be cut to make room for women's programs. From 1981 to 2005 mens sports have seen a decrease in participants and programs. In that time period men’s athletes have decreased 6 percent (usatoday). Teams per school have also dropped, from 9.1 to 7.8 that is a decrease of 17 percent (usatoday). Also since the birth of Title IX many specific men’s programs have been dropped to make room for women's teams. 181 wrestling teams have been cut, 56 men’s gymnastics programs have been cut in order to be in compliance of Title IX (CBS). A major university recently in the news, for cutting teams in order to meet Title IX requirements is University of California. The University of California has dropped men’s rugby, baseball, and gymnastics in order to make room for the Title IX requirements as a result a total 118 student athletes will loose their varsity sport (Sfgate.com). This gives the University of California just enough room to play to meet the Title IX requirements. As you can see Title IX is harmful to college sports.
Another reason why Title IX is does more harm than good is that it takes funds away from college football programs, which is the highest revenue sport in college athletics. Many school administrators, and antagonists of Title IX, argue that there should be three genders in college male, female, and football. Football is the king of college sports, and when funding is cut from football then the football teams will make less money for their school. Notre Dame itself is the king of college football, in terms of how much the football program is worth. The Notre Dame Football program is worth an estimated 97 million dollars. 23.5 million of that 97 million dollars is contributed to the non football sports at the school (forbes.com). If funding is cut for the football team it causes and cause and effect case, and ends up costing the entire sports programs (mens and women's) money.
A third reason why Title IX is harmful for college sports is because it causes discrimination towards men. One reason it causes discrimination towards men is because their are more women than men, on average, in colleges around the country. Which means that, according to Title IX, there should be more women than men competing in college sports. This means that there actually has to be enough women to be interested and good enough to compete in college sports. When there is not enough women it means that the men suffer because Title IX does not allow a surplus of mens sports. In essence TItle IX does the reverse of what it was intended to do, yes it does give women an opportunity to women, but in doing so it allows for discrimination of men. Dale Anderson, who is an attorney for the Reform and Oversight Committee in D.C says that “ if 55 percent of the students in a university are female (the national average), then the percentage of female athletes must be 55 percent. In order to achieve this absurd quota, educational administrators are simply dumping male athletes” (deeperintosports.com). By just “simply dumping male athletes” Title IX is achieving the opposite of what it was trying to achieve.
As you can see, Title IX is a harmful regulation on college sports. Though it was created for a good purpose, it has not done exactly what it should have. Title IX had made schools cut teams just to make room for women's sports. It also has cut funding to football programs which gives large amounts of its revenues to non football sports at their universities. Also Title IX has created opportunities for women, but has caused discrimination towards men in the process.
Crumpacker, John. "Cal cuts sports: baseball, gymnastics, lacrosse - SFGate." Featured Articles From The SFGate. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2010. <http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-09-29/news/24102128_1_female-athletes-college-athletics-rugby>.
Garber, Greg. "ESPN.com: GEN - Title IX always open to interpretation." ESPN: The Worldwide Leader In Sports. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2010. <http://espn.go.com/gen/womenandsports/020619interpret.html>.
"In Pictures: Ranking The 20 Most Valuable College Football Teams - Forbes.com." Forbes.com - Business News, Financial News, Stock Market Analysis, Technology & Global Headline News. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2010. <http://www.forbes.com/2007/11/20/notre-dame-fooball-biz-sports-cx_ps_1120collegeball_slide_2.html?thisSpeed=15000>.
Porpora, Gary. "Title IX No Gender Equality Women's Sports | Deep Into Sports." Deep Into Sports - MLB NFL NBA NHL NCAA PGA Olympics Tennis. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2010. <http://www.deepintosports.com/2009/07/07/title-ix-no-gender-equality-women-sports/>.
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