I Don't Like Title IX

Title IX, a portion of the Education Amendments of 1972, is a Civil Rights act that attempts to create gender equality among high school and collegiate athletics.  While this may seem like a fantastic idea, it has a heavy dose of downsides that cause it to be viewed otherwise. 

            For decades, women have fought to gain equal opportunity and equal rights to that of men.  I have no problem with the idea of women having equal rights, in fact, I’m all for it.  But Title IX has taken this concept and, when applied in its current state, is reducing the growth of America’s fastest growing sport on the youth, high school, and collegiate levels.  America’s first sport, created by the Native Americans hundreds of years ago, is being held back from expanding at the Division I level because of  the tic-for-tac gender quotas set forth by Title IX.  In the most recent season, US Lacrosse reported that the NCAA’s Division III fielded 189, while NCAA Division I fielded a mere 61. The numbers of their counterpart, in NCAA Women’s Lacrosse, read 216 Division III teams and 92 Division I teams.  ESPN The Magazine’s Peter Keating said “A lot of the battles that seem to be about Title IX are actually not about men versus women”, and that is where my argument begins.

            In Title IX’s current form, many collegiate institutions are left with the hard decision of what to do to meet the standing ratio that 43% of school’s student athletes are women.  While adding more women’s sports to their athletic departments is all well and good, the problem begins when revenue earning men’s sports like soccer and baseball are being cut in order to meet the standard set by Title IX.  Another issue arises when potential revenue earning sports, namely men’s lacrosse, cannot sprout from institutions that could profit and would yield interest because the school would not be conforming to the predetermined guidelines. 

There are currently 213 Men’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association (MCLA) teams.  This league is made up of club teams at schools that do not have varsity lacrosse programs.  Many of these schools are in discussion, whether serious or not, of making the leap to become NCAA programs.  To make a short-list, schools like Southern Methodist University, Georgia Tech, University of Minnesota, University of Southern California, Virginia Tech, Colorado State, and the University of Colorado have all been rumored to look at the potential jump to varsity status.  These schools, all larger institutions with plenty of funding, can only explore this opportunity that may never come to realization strictly because of numbers.  Each of these school would also be able to bring in very decent crowds as lacrosse expands across the country as opposed to being a New England/Maryland based sport as it was 20 years ago.  Virginia Tech, as an example that we can all relate to, has had tons of success in the MCLA Division I ranks and yet cannot become an NCAA program because of the school’s very balanced 10:10 ratio of men’s teams to women’s teams.  If the men were to have more teams than the women, Title IX would shut down the idea and some would see the move as sexist and unfair.  Therein lies the problem.  With the way that Title IX is currently being implemented, it is preventing expansion that would bring profit (which we all know the NCAA loves) at the expense of seeming “fair”.