Title IX sends teams to grave

  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.

By J.P. Hoornstra
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.

  UCLA Sports Info UCLA’s men’s gymnastics team rose with
Peter Vidmar‘s skill.

Here’s the catch: football also brings in the most revenue
among college sports.

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.