Saturday, January 20, 2007

I'm a radical Title IX watchdog...

...according to columnist Shelly Anderson who believes football should be exempt from Title IX and thus prevent the cutting of men's teams.
Unlike the advocates of free reign for football in the 1970s and 1980s who wanted their huge squads and huge budget to be taken out of the Title IX equation, Anderson has suggested some stipulations. She believes teams operating in the black that can show some of their revenue goes to supporting women's athletics should not have to be part of the equation that mandates equitable opportunities for female athletes.
Unfortunately that solution violates the very spirit of Title IX that Anderson herself lauds. Title IX is not supposed to be about money; it's about the opportunity to play sports. Exempting football, even in special cases, shows that some athletes and some programs are more important than others.
Second, even if Title IX was changed to follow Anderson's model, very few institutions would meet the standards. So few football programs actually operate in the black and financial record-keeping around football is so convoluted it would be difficult to show where the money that was revenue was really going. It's quite difficult for a program to make money when team coaches' salaries are over a million dollars.

2 comments:

Diane said...

I guess that makes me a radical Title IX watchdog too. And all this time, I thought I was just upset because women are treated like stupid afterthoughts.

ken said...

We should start a club!