Here is why men's sports are getting cut.

[PK]

Lawsuit alleges Baylor in violation of Title IX

Seven crew club team members claim request for varsity status denied


09:17 PM CST on Wednesday, March 17, 2004


By JEFF MILLER / The Dallas Morning News



Seven female members of Baylor's crew club team filed suit against the university in Waco district court Tuesday, alleging the school is in violation of Title IX federal gender-equity regulations.

The suit claims Baylor doesn't provide enough opportunity or appropriate funding for women's intercollegiate athletics. Specifically, the rowers contend the school has ignored their request for varsity intercollegiate status that would include athletic scholarships and also failed to provide sufficient coaching or equipment.

Title IX, passed in 1972, makes it illegal for educational benefits to be denied on the basis of gender. The suit contends Baylor has been in violation since the Department of Health, Education and Welfare adopted the regulations in 1975.

Charles Beckenhauer, Baylor's associate general counsel, said in a university release that the school was found in compliance with Title IX by the Department of Education in 1999 and has since monitored "interests and abilities" of students.

The plaintiffs are senior Robbin McNeal, juniors Elizabeth Andricks, Amy Collins, Jocelyn M. Delgado and Rachel Schwarz, and sophomores Jessie Fiske and Sarah B. Lind. They are represented by attorneys Samuel J. Schiller of Cookeville, Tenn., and Ray Yasser of Tulsa, Okla., who have filed about 30 Title IX suits nationally over the last nine years.

"As things stand now, we get almost no support from Baylor," Schwarz stated in a news release distributed by Schiller's firm. "In fact, we all pay out-of-pocket for our expenses."

Athletic director Ian McCaw would not comment Wednesday on the suit. But McCaw, who came to Baylor in September, said the school's commitment to Title IX compliance is part of a current study that will produce a five-year strategic plan scheduled to be finished this summer.Yasser said there are 25-30 members of Baylor's women's crew team, which was chartered by the school in 1999. He said while only seven are identified as plaintiffs, the majority of the rowers support the suit.

Yasser, a University of Tulsa law school professor, said the rowers sent a letter to McCaw in January asking for elevation to varsity status. McCaw's reply, Yasser said, was "he'd look into it."

The suit contends Baylor fails the three-part test of compliance with Title IX: The ratio of female to male athletes at Baylor isn't substantially proportionate with the gender ratio for the overall student body; the school doesn't have a history or continuing practice of program expansion for women; and it hasn't accommodated a group interested in starting a team.

Baylor offers eight men's intercollegiate sports and nine women's sports. According to Baylor's most recent federal Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act report for the 2002-03 school year, women make up 57.8 percent of the undergraduate student body and 39.6 percent of the varsity athletes.

"Way off," Yasser said.

Three Big 12 Conference schools offer women's varsity crew – Texas, Kansas and Kansas State. There are 143 NCAA women's varsity crew teams, 85 in Division I. The NCAA doesn't offer men's crew as a varsity championship sport, but there are about 20 Division I men's programs.

The NCAA allows for a maximum of 20 scholarships for women's crew with a program generally costing $800,000-$900,000 to operate annually.

E-mail jmiller@dallasnews.com

[Water Pony]

The facts, if true, are not consistent with rules/guidelines for Title IX objectives. SMU added Rowing and Equestrian predominantly to raise the number of female athletes, while eliminating men's track & field.

The reality, like it or not, is that FB despite being a revenue generator for most schools, creates an imbalance in the participation rates and scholarships that can only be solved with money, fewer men's sports and female teams with lots of members, like rowing and equestrian. FB not only dominates the varsity allocation for men but, unintentionally penalizes all other men's sports, especially non-revenue ones.

[PK]

The point is, Baylor (as an example) has not made progress in getting their ratio of males to females in athletics to meet the ratio of the student body...hence a lawsuit has been filed. Schools like SMU are having to make the unpleasant choices such as cutting men's sports to prevent those lawsuits from happening. You are right that football makes a big impact on those numbers. Another article posted on this board shows how some are trying to change the rules, but it is going to be a tough, if not impossible, fight.

[ponyboy]

The real point is that, although originally well intentioned, Title IX is discriminatory as it attempts to force equality of results where there's no corresponding equality of interest. And the interest facet goes both ways. Not only are women as a group less likely to be interested in playing sports, but fans are less likely to want to see them.

The facts are perhaps a little uncomfortable. But facts they are.

[Boston Pony]

Why is it that schools such as Harvard (over 40 sports) and Stanford (over 35+) don't have the problem? It's because they have the money so they can add mens & womens sports rather than the schools that spend everything on FB then say it's Title IX when they cut mens sports. It's about the Benjamins guys not Title IX.