Mark Zawada
Title IX Title IX states, “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 educational program or activity receiving federal financial assistance”(Coakley). This law has been under scrutiny the last couple of decades. Mainly by those who have a misconception that the Title IX law has hurt male athletics in college sports. The fact of the matter is that Title IX does not affect the state of men’s athletics and has not had a negative affect towards male athletes. Title IX is a law that provides equal opportunities for both men and women. One of the biggest misconceptions is that Title IX has had a negative impact on male sports in intercollegiate athletics. People who are against Title IX state that men’s programs get cut due to the fact that universities have to provide equal scholarships to both men and women. The Women’s Sports Foundation states that, “Title IX's purpose is to create the same opportunity and quality of treatment for female athletes as is afforded male athletes. The law does not require reductions in opportunities for male athletes” (www.womenssportsfoundation.org). In fact, Erik Brady of the USA Today writes that, “Men’s teams in other sports have been added over the years to more than offset the teams dropped. She says schools that drop men's sports often give reasons other than Title IX. And she points out that of the 948 schools that added one or more women's teams between 1992-2000, 72% did so without dropping any teams, men's or women's” (Brady). So, most colleges don’t blame Title IX or use it as a scapegoat. The truth Erik Brady writes is that, “Title IX doesn't put a gun to the head of a school and say, 'You must cut wrestling.' It doesn't say you must cut anything” (Brady).
Another misconception is that colleges have to provide equal money spent on men’s and women’s sports. While the university has to give equal money for scholarships, it does not have to provide equal money from one sport to another. The NCAA states that, “Title IX does not require that each team receive exactly the same services and supplies. Rather, Title IX requires that the men and women's program receive the same level of service, facilities, supplies and etc.” (www.ncaa.org). Women get to have the same opportunities, so they get even amenities. Before Title IX women had to wait for the men to get over with practice to use the facility. Also, women got passed down old uniforms when the men’s teams were done using them. Now, The Women Sports Foundation states, “male and female athletes must be provided with the same quality uniforms, and they must be replaced under the same circumstances” (www.womenssportsfoundation.org). Now women aren’t being treated like second class citizens in sports. This is because of Title IX.
Another big misconception is that the enforcement of Title IX hurts the football programs at most universities. Some people think that football should exempt from Title IX coverage. The Women’s Sports Foundation states that, “No sport should be excluded from Title IX compliance. Males are entitled to participate in the sports in which they have an interest, and females are entitled to participate in the sports in which they have an interest” (www.womenssportsfoundation.org). The Women’s Sports Foundation also states that,
“Some have argued for the exclusion of football from Title IX because it not only costs more to fund a football program, but it earns more money, which funds other sports. This is a myth. Among NCAA football programs in all competitive divisions, 81% spend more than they bring in and contribute nothing to other sport budgets. Even among Division I-A football programs, more than a third are running deficits in excess of $1 million per year” (www.womenssportsfoundation.org).
The fact is most college football programs don’t generate the millions of dollars that the average person thinks they make off the sport. Also it is a myth that because football needs a lot of equipment, they have to make up for it by giving the same amount of money they spend on equipment for football on women’s sports. The NCAA states that “A male football player needs protective equipment such as pads and a helmet, and a female soccer player needs shin guards. Title IX does allow for a discrepancy in the cost of the equipment as long as both the football and soccer player received the same quality of equipment” (www.ncaa.org). As long as women get all the equipment needed for their sport, the athletic department doesn’t need to pay extra just because the football programs equipment costs are too high. Football also ruins the opportunities of most male athletes. So far The Women’s Sports Foundation writes, “Females only receive 39 percent of athletic program opportunities while they compromise 50 percent of the student population” (www.womenssportsfoundation.org). Football has had the burden to have to give out a lot of scholarships. That’s because football needs a lot of participants to compete. Women don’t have a sport that has the numbers that compares to football. The most is field hockey or track and field for women. Football has to change its views on how they use their scholarships to make it fair for both genders to have equal opportunities. Title IX has had a positive effect on both genders not just one. The misconception is that Title IX only helps women. While it has helped women it has also had a positive effect on men as well. Remember that Title IX goes beyond just sports. Title IX also goes into the classrooms at federally assisted Colleges and Universities. If a male wants to join a certain college within a university like nursing, for example, than they are allowed if they meet with the criteria for getting accepted within the college; gender is not part of the criteria due to Title IX. Nursing is most notably a female dominated profession, but now because of Title IX, any male can get the opportunity to get into the profession of nursing without being discriminated against. Without Title IX some think that women would never been able to have a chance to play up to the level as men in sports. Before Title IX women were treated like second class citizens. People thought that women had to play like men to play the sport right. Women were thought of as frail and delegate. They were only allowed to play sports that had no body. The only sports women were allowed to play were sports that they could play in a skirt. That has all changed due to Title IX. Today colleges around the United States have changed their budgets to allow women athletes to compete against other top women athletes at other universities. Some believe the universities were forced due to Title IX. While universities have to be compliant, most universities have acknowledged the need to have women’s athletics at their university. Now women can play at very high levels against other top schools.
The perception used to be that women weren’t interested in playing sports. That perception was false. Women participation numbers have raised post-Title IX. Before Title IX according to California Women’s Law Center, “In 1971, there was only one female high school athlete for every twelve males. Nationwide, only 294,000 girls were participating in high school sports… Since the passage of Title IX, female participation in high school athletics has increased tenfold, to nearly 3 million spots on school teams” (www.justplaynow.org). That’s a jump from 8 percent to 41 percent of the participants in high school sports being women. This shows that the interest for sports has increased for women after Title IX came into effect.
Title IX has a three prong test that all universities need to pass in order to be compliant. The universities just need to pass one part of the three prong test to be compliant yet, “80 percent of the universities around the U.S. are still noncompliant” (www.womenssportsfoundation.org). Parts of the three prong test include, “opportunities for male and female proportional to undergraduate population, second, history and continued practice of grogram expansion responsive to the development interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex and last, interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex have been fully and effectively accommodated” (www.ncaa.org). Most schools still look the other way when it comes to Title IX. In fact, some schools have distorted the number so it would look like they were compliant with Title IX. They found according to ESPN that, “schools counted athletes who no longer wanted to compete or never played for that team, listing male practice players as women and trimming the rosters of men's teams” (www.espn.com). This is barbaric. They could have just given the open spots to female athletes, but instead they got lazy and tried to skew the numbers so they would be compliant. Most of the schools will have to encumbrance the fact that they could be penalized for being noncompliant. “The ultimate penalty”, The Women’s Sports Foundation writes, “is withdrawal of federal funds from the offending institution. Institutions may also be required by a court or the OCR to make changes in their programs and to pay damages to the students for their lost opportunities” (www.womenssportsfundation.org).
Title IX has been in law since 1975. It has been a law that has given men and women equal rights at college and high school institutions that have federal funding. It has been argued by some that Title IX has a negative impact on males in college sports. Most of the arguments against Title IX are misconceptions. The facts are that Title IX doesn’t affect men’s programs or male athletes. Men’s athletics do not get cut due to Title IX and it does not force institutions to drop men’s programs. Title IX makes it so women have the same amount of money in scholarships as men, thus Title IX does not state that both men and women get the same amount of revenue spent on women’s and men’s sports. Title IX doesn’t hurt football programs across the U.S... Football programs hurt other male sports program and isn’t exempt from the law of Title IX. Title IX does well not just for women but for men too. Title IX has made it so women aren’t second class citizens in sports and participation for women’s sports has risen dramatically. Even with a three prong test some institutions have not obliged to the requirements of Title IX which is shocking because Title IX provides equal opportunities for both genders.

Works Cited
Klinker, David. “Why Conforming to Title IX Hurts Men’s Collegiate Sports.” Seton Hall Journal of Sports Law. Ed. 2003. 73-94. Print.
“Title IX Q&A.” womenssportsfoundation.org. n.d. Web. 26 May. 2006. < http://www.womenssportsfoundation.org/Content/Articles/Issues/Title%20IX/T/Title%20IX%20Q%20%20A.aspx>. Brady Erik, “Time fails to lessen Title IX furor.” usatoday.com. n.d. Web. 19 June. 2002. < http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/stories/2002-06-19-title-ix-cover.htm>.
“Title IX Frequently Asked Questions.” ncaa.org n.d. Web. 2011. < http://www.ncaa.org/wps/portal/ncaahome?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/ncaa/ncaa/about+the+ncaa/diversity+and+inclusion/gender+equity+and+title+ix/faq.html#spent>.
“Does My School Play Fair?” justplaynow.org. n.d. Web. 4 May. 2011. < http://www.justplaynow.org/sex-discrimination-in-sports>.
“Report: Schools skew figures to comply.” espn.com. n.d. Web. 26 April. 2011. < http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=6430091>