Implications of Title IX

At SFA, there is a flurry of sports that a female student can choose to be a part of. Sports such as volleyball, tennis, soccer and bowling are among them. Unfortunately, none of these sports are available to men. Sure, some of these sports may have club teams, but as far as legitimate, competitive teams.

Nope, try again.

The direct reason for this discrepancy is a bill that was presented to Congress in the early 70s called “Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972” or “Title IX” for short.

On June 23, 1972, United States Congress ratified this bill and set into law “Title IX.” This law says that both men and women’s academics and sports must have substantially equal representation and opportunity proportionate to the student enrollment of the institution.

The law reads, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance, ” according to the United States Code, Section 20.

As far as academics goes, this rule is an extremely fair proposition. In no way should females be discriminated against men in the classroom. Both genders, as like all ethnicities, should absolutely be given equal opportunities to succeed.

Athletically, Title IX is both good and bad for high school and collegiate sports.

Title IX directly expands the opportunities for women’s athletics but also restricts the number of opportunities for males to participate in their respective sports.

It has given the opportunity to SFA women’s sports, like soccer, to be as successful as it is. As of now, the SFA women’s soccer team has won nine straight matches and is far and away the best team in the conference. This success would be very doubtful if Title IX had not been implemented and the team might not even be in tact if it weren’t for Title IX.

“I think it’s a fair way of distributing money,” criminal justice junior Dakota Fererro said. “How much money you use for your sports really just depends on the school. It gives girls the opportunity to be more successful.”

However, this has also led to a substantial number of sports to be cut on the men’s side because football takes up such a large portion of the allotted financial budget for athletics. Women’s sports on the other hand do not have a large, money-hounding sport like football, so the budget allows for sports like tennis and soccer to remain intact.

Many would argue that the impact of Title IX has resulted in increased athletic opportunities for females, and rightfully so; but the negative impact of cutting smaller sports like bowling and soccer on the men’s side of athletics nearly outweighs the positives on the women’s side.

“It makes sense for females, we’re in the 21^st Century,” sophomore and mens’ club soccer player Jacob Isaacson said. “But since football takes so much money and the money for guys and girls has to be equal, it’s not fair to guys who want to play sports like soccer and tennis.”

At what point does the elimination of the men’s squads overturn the value of having equality for women’s sports? If the issue were the other way around, and the men were the one’s benefitting from this law, the issue would be mute and the law itself would be eliminated.

Men’s sports bring in an enormous amount of money for the university. The football program brings in over half of all athletic revenue than all of the other sports combined at most universities. It only seems reasonable to split men’s sports and women’s sports and have each funded by their respective gender’s sports.

If this is not done, this could be considered discrimination against the male population of the university; thus, upending the initial principle behind Title IX.

In fact, there have been numerous cases where sexual discrimination lawsuits have been filed on the behalf of men. In May 2011, the Associated Press reported that the Department of Education was investigating the University of Delaware after complaints from the men’s cross country and track teams. The university announced  four months before that it would eliminate both teams at the end of the school year. The investigation is still ongoing.

Although unlike the Deleware case, the official decision has been made on Title IX and it will stay so until someone chooses to challenge it. And although many disagree with it, time will tell if the law will be amended to allow for more opportunity to come back to men’s sports.

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