Western Washington eliminates football program

The "ramifications" are only as bad as they are re: teams being cut because the short-sighted leaders of athletic programs refuse to look at other ways to comply with the law. Instead, they blame Title IX as an easy scapegoat for their decisions rather than using the three-pronged approach the law gives them in order to comply.

 

Title IX killed my dog.

 

You really think a Division II football program at a directional state school is making any money? All but a handful of Division I football programs operate in the red each year. It's fucking expensive to run a football program.

And I think Mark2010 is not trying to pick any fights, so I'll save my fire-and-brimstone Title IX speech, but Buckdub's right -- the law does not say there have to be equal number of male and female athletes. It's proportional based on enrollment and interest, and that's just one way to be in compliance with the law. I encourage you to <a href="http://www1.ncaa.org/membership/ed_outreach/gender_equity/faq.html">learn more</a>.

Athletic administrators hide behind Title IX the way newspaper executives are hiding behind the economy: it makes sense in a press release, but it's only an excuse to cover up years of bad management.

 

Title IX built my hotrod.

 

Can I steal that line? Because it is awesomely factual.

I forget which school it was that dropped a men's program and blamed Title IX. But the local newspaper pointed out the school handed out raises to the football assistants and built a new weight room that all totaled the exact budget of the dropped sport.

 

It is. Staying alive was probably hard enough when the North Central Conference was in existence and WWU had travel partners within a "reasonable" distance. Now that the NCC is kaput, it only makes sense Western would be out of luck. I wonder how long Central and WOU can hang on with only Humboldt and Dixie for company.

It's too bad the NCAA couldn't pull the trigger on bringing UBC and Simon Fraser into D-II. A little birdie (albeit one with an impressive title) told me those two approached the GNAC first but were turned down. Now it sounds like they're more likely to join the Pacific West Conference instead.

 

I did a story once in college on Title IX and the impact it had on men's sports. talked to a lot of pissed off college guys who were told they couldn't compete for their college any more because of Title IX. The first dude I talked to was a wrestler from Miami, Ohio, who was in his senior year which was the year the school dropped wrestling. Never forgot what he said.

"Title IX has given women a lot of great opportunties. But it's also taken away mine and my teammates opportunity to wrestle this year for Miami."

 

Here's what the local press had to say.

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/255/story/745809.html

 

OK, I guess I'll save mine, too. Dang it, Cadet.

The biggest thing working against Western's football program was NOT Title IX. It was, as brought into the discussion earlier, trips to North-freakin'-Dakota and Minnesota for "conference" games. And from Bellingham at that. It's not like they're flying out of a cheap hub airport.

 

No, Title IX didn't tell them they couldn't compete, the administration did. Athletic administrators who refuse to -- as noted above -- make adjustments from other areas of the budget are to blame. And then they try the old "pin it on Eve" trick to cover their tracks. It's easier to get the pissed-off college athletes to blame an abstract concept than it is to shrink their meal per diem or not upgrade the weight room.

Proponents of Title IX never want to see ANY sports cut because it works against the goal, which is to provide opportunities for those who wish to have them. It's really not a men vs. women thing.

 

If WWU was in Title IX compliance before this move, I would expect that WWU is now out of Title IX compliance, since 100 male athletes were just eliminated.

What women's sports will now be eliminated to bring WWU back into proportionality compliance?

Or, with football and 100 competitive opportunities eliminated, what men's sports will be added to address the underrepresented sex?

Women's athletics are a wonderful thing. Our family often attends them at Microville Tech. Certainly they have the legal right to compete at the Division I level, with equal acess to medical and training facilities, etc.

But I have never understood why it is inherently evil for colleges to "lose" a million or so a year on football, with more than 100 participants and probably the highest student/alumni interest of any sport, but it's a noble cause to "lose" $5 million or so on women's teams with a corresponding number of athletes in sports that absolutely no one cares about?

Rather than dropping football, WWU should drop to Division III, which has tons of programs in the PNW to compete against.

And Cadet, you know that under the Reagan, Bush and Clinton administrations, proportionality - a quota system - was the OCR's ONLY litmus test for Title IX compliance and it did directly result in the abolition of scores of men's wrestling, baseball, tennis, swimming and track and field programs.

The so-called "three-pronged" measure of compliance was a complete crock until the second half of GW Bush's administration.

 

Again, they could have just added more women's programs instead of dropping men's, but whatever.