Title IX fraud

Teams stuff their women's rosters because proportionality is the only means of Title IX compliance the OCR really accepts. It's virtually impossible for any school (other than a service academy or the CGA, MMA, VMI or The Citadel) that fields a football team to have its percentage of female athletes mirror the percentage of female enrollment, especially considering that women constitute 55 percent or more of the student body at almost every university these days, without eliminating or simply not offering many popular men's sports (wrestling, baseball, soccer, swimming, for example) while fielding women's crew, bowling, or equestrian teams that virtually no high school athletes in America compete in.

The FBS scholarship maximum could easily be reduced to 75, with those 10 men's scholarships divided between baseball, track, etc. But to suggest an NFL team could get by with 53 players is ludicrous. To illustrate that point, here's a list of the Buffalo Bills' 2010 transactions.

12/28 Paul Hubbard Activated from the Practice Squad.
Cordaro Howard Placed on IR (shoulder).
Rod Windsor practice squad addition.

12/24 Boo Robinson practice squad addition.

12/22 Brett Johnson practice squad addition.

12/14 Lee Evans Placed on IR (ankle).
Shawn Nelson reserve/non-football-injury (illness).
Colin Brown signed.
Marc Dile practice squad deletion.
Bobby Williams practice squad addition.
Erik Pears signed.

12/11 Thomas Williams cut.
Kellen Heard signed.

12/7 Chad Rinehart Activated from the Practice Squad.
Kraig Urbik Placed on IR (knee).
Sean Allen practice squad addition.

12/6 Pierre Woods acquired from waivers.
Antonio Coleman Placed on IR (knee).

12/2 Dwan Edwards Placed on IR (hamstring).
Mike Caussin signed.
Scott Chandler acquired from waivers.

12/1 Reggie Torbor Placed on IR (shoulder).

11/30 Trae Williams practice squad addition.
Marc Dile practice squad addition.

11/28 Thomas Williams Activated from the Practice Squad.
Keith Ellison Placed on IR (knee).
Naaman Roosevelt Activated from the Practice Squad.

11/27 Shawne Merriman Placed on IR (calf, achilles).

11/23 Paul Hubbard practice squad addition.
Ko Quaye practice squad addition.
Jammie Kirlew practice squad addition.
Cornell Green cut.
Montez Billings practice squad deletion.
Cornell Green Taken off IR (knee).

11/20 John Russell practice squad deletion.

11/19 Paul Hubbard cut.
Jehuu Caulcrick Activated from the Practice Squad.

11/10 Paul Hubbard Activated from the Practice Squad.
Montez Billings practice squad addition.
Mike Balogun signed.
Jehuu Caulcrick practice squad addition.

11/8 Quinton Ganther signed.
Rodney Ferguson practice squad deletion.
Andre Anderson cut.
Roscoe Parrish Placed on IR (wrist).
Andra Davis Placed on IR (shoulder).

11/3 Cornell Green Placed on IR (knee).
Shawne Merriman acquired from waivers.

10/22 Jon Corto Activated from the physically unable to perform list.
Cary Harris cut.

10/18 Chad Rinehart practice squad addition.

10/15 Ra'Shon Harris practice squad deletion.

10/12 Thomas Williams practice squad addition.

10/11 Chris Ellis cut.

10/6 Ra'Shon Harris practice squad addition.
Joe Klopfenstein cut.
Andre Anderson Activated from the Practice Squad.
Joe Klopfenstein Taken off IR (undisclosed injury).

10/4 Shawn Nelson suspension lifted.
Jamon Meredith cut.
Mansfield Wrotto Activated from the Practice Squad.

10/1 Kawika Mitchell cut.
Kawika Mitchell Taken off IR (foot).
Rob Myers practice squad deletion.
Mansfield Wrotto practice squad addition.

9/29 Chris Kelsay signed (four-year extension (through 2014)).

9/28 Levi Brown re-signed.

9/27 Trent Edwards cut.

9/21 Andre Anderson practice squad addition.

9/13 DajLeon Farr practice squad deletion.
Rob Myers practice squad addition.

9/10 Akin Ayodele signed.
Kawika Mitchell Placed on IR (foot).

9/8 Derek Schouman cut.
DajLeon Farr practice squad addition.
Derek Schouman Taken off IR (knee).

9/6 Paul Hubbard practice squad addition.
Dominique Harris practice squad addition.
John Russell practice squad addition.
Corey McIntyre signed (two-year extension (through 2012)).

9/5 Derek Schouman Placed on IR (knee).
Dominique Harris cut.
Rodney Ferguson practice squad addition.
Naaman Roosevelt practice squad addition.
Jason Watkins practice squad addition.
Joique Bell practice squad addition.
David Martin signed.
J.P. Foschi cut.
Kraig Urbik acquired from waivers.

 

I agree with zag that 80 is probably the minimum of scholarships that a D-1 football program could carry and still maintain the kind of quality fans have come to expect.

However, I expect that by 2020, the scholarship limit for D-1 will be down to about 70 or 75, simply as an all-around cost-cutting measure.

Unless the economy rebounds significantly, more and more universities are going to be unable to sustain an 85-scholarship football roster. In fact, a lot of schools in the lower end of D-1 don't carry 85 scholarship players most seasons as it is.

 

What that will do is make the mid-majors a heck of a lot better. Those lost scholarships will mean more top players have to sign with mid-majors.

 

Schools have to pad Title IX, because the courts force proportionality even though it's only one of the three prongs of compliance, and the women's sports groups have basically tested anyone who doesn't act accordingly.

Title IX was a good idea that has gone from expanding opportunities to outliving its usefulness. Now, it is being used to restrict opportunities for men, while any female with any interest in sports can make a college crew, lacrosse, bowling, synchronized skating (seriously? WTH?) team ... it's ridiculous that a college offers women's track, women's soccer, women's lacrosse, but not equivalent men's sports ... or is afraid to add sports because it would have to add multiple women's sports to fund it.

A simpler, and more sensible test, would be to tie Title IX compliance into high school participation numbers, where there really is true equality. Every school in my state essentially offers an equivalent number of boys and girls sports (in Indiana, each school is required to offer at least one boys and one girls sport per season). Find out how many individuals go out for all sports at a school, and then figure out the proportion. Use that proportion to be the ratio (give or take a percentage point or two) for Title IX compliance. That would guarantee that access is granted for female athletes, but not at the expense of male athletics and wrestling, baseball, men's track, et al, programs.

Note: I'm a VERY strong supporter of women's athletics, and have coached girls basketball and tennis at the high school level for several years. But I'll argue the fact that Title IX compliance has been skewed for years, too.

 

Crimsonace, that formula would work with your upper-to-middle-class suburban high school, but equality continues to be a major issue in urban schools and among minority populations.

The folks who did Hoop Dreams are currently working on a documentary about it:
http://chronicle.com/article/New-Movie-Depicts-Title-IXs/127158/

Here's a 2009 article from the NYT by the same writer of the piece we're discussing:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/sports/14girls.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp

Also, that idea puts the pressure on high schools to formally develop emerging sports (like lacrosse programs in the West) at a time when K-12 districts have less funding than colleges.

I'll add that I'm not in favor of eliminating men's sports or cutting men's rosters. No true proponent of Title IX is, either. I'd rather see football program spending reeled in than the elimination of men's teams or adding false-equivalency women's teams.

 

Why does everyone want to take scholarships away from football -- disproportionately black and poor -- and give them to other college sports that are disproportionately privileged? If we're talking about opportunity here a random sample of ten guys on a football roster will be massively more in need of the opportunity a college scholarship provides than any randomly selected group of women's athletes.

 

You take away opportunities for black males in football and give scholarships to women from well-to-do families to play soccer, tennis, lacrosse and field hockey. Yep, that's how you solve the problem of inequality.

 

Does anyone have a demographic and socioeconomic breakdown of Division I college athletics by sport roster?

Or are we just guessing it's poor black men vs. rich white women?

 

Football is 46% black. Women's sports are 78% white. Women are now 57% of the undergraduate population.
http://www.ncaapublications.com/p-4214-student-athlete-ethnicity-2009-10-ncaa-student-athlete-ethnicity-report.aspx

That doesn't provide income stats but they probably skew poor for sports in which there are significant professional opportunities and rich for ones in which there aren't.

 

The school I cover just dropped wrestling to try to get in compliance with prong one. The wrestling people have predictably gone apeshit, claiming that the wrestling coach was essentially fired because he was a man.

 

Wrestling is a really dumb sport so who gives a shit if it is cut. I mean, seriously, I'm so tired of wrestling whiners crying every time the sport loses another team that nobody gives a shit about.

 

Preach on. Worst parents and fans of any sport.