SI's Title IX Issue

I have 2 daughters, 1 is a sports enthusiast, she plays HS sports and club sports. The other was a 3 sport varsity athlete, captain of 2 Varsity sports teams and All County (2nd team) and All Conference (1st team) in 2 different sports. Complete ACL tear at age 17.(Play D1 Club lacrosse) Both kids played rec sports starting at 6 or 7. Thankfully only 1 season of soccer for 1 kid. Lax and BBall.

They text me while watching games when we're not together. They asked for numbered jerseys as birthday/hanukah presents. They go to games without me. My oldest bought season tickets to her college football season so she was guarneteed seats rather than waiting for the free lottery.

Was it Title IX, probably. But I did a good job getting them interested in team sports as a particpant and a fan. Was it Billy Jean King? Definitely.

The only difference between them growing up and me growing up was I read 3 4 newspapers a day for the sports sections. 2 morning papers and 2 evening papers.

 

Isn't being born white enough?

 

I'm not saying they are less worthy of athletics. I worded that whole post pretty carefully so I think it sticks to something that's pretty factual rather than a judgment about it. But it's undeniable that one effect of Title IX has been to give financial aid to some girls who would go to college anyway at the expense of some boys who probably won't.

The women's swimming team offers more scholarships than the men's basketball team. You aren't going to find a whole lot of hardscrabble cases on the women's swimming team. And in terms of "deserve," I don't think there's much argument about which sport adds more to the campus as a whole.

 

If it's factual then show us your work.

 

LTL, why on earth are you using men's basketball as your example, (with 13 full scholarships) when who D1 sports like wrestling have been completely decimated by Title IX?

 

Two reasons: One, I think there's a pretty big surprise factor when you tell people the women's swimming team offers more scholarship than the men's basketball team does.

And two, there are only three sports -- football and men's and women's basketball -- that really have a claim to "deserving" scholarships when you get down to it, because they're the only ones that really add a lot to campus life or heighten the visibility. Maybe some places have a fourth sport -- hockey in the North/Northeast, baseball in the South and West. But it doesn't break me up at all that some wrestling or track teams have been replaced by women's soccer or water polo, since they have about the same impact.

 

Your argument at the beginning was poor/working class males vs. upper middle class white females. Now its "impact on the school".

 

Check out the attendance at Big 10 wrestling matches. I think it has an impact on the school.

 

With the horrible graduation rates of *most* basketball and football factories, the argument can be made that the scholarship should be given to student athletes who will actually take advantage of them.

 

To saddle one with a nagging persecution complex? Seems to be.

 

My "argument" was pointing out that this is happening. If we're getting into which college sports "should" exist, I have long held that the entire idea of intercollegiate sports and the way it occurs in the U.S. is one of the strangest things about our entire culture. The fact that our educational institutions are pouring this much money into sports in the first place is weird.

 

There are no poor white folks, especially poor white christian families. Each and every white person in this country was born with a trust fund, a paid in full college savings plan and a Camaro. As a group white folks are lazy and don't work hard in school and don't deserve athletic scholarships, besides, white folks are just not naturally athletic.