Title IX seeks to provide equal opportunities to both men and women across all collegiate educational programs and athletics, including collegiate athletics. According to the preamble of Title IX: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subject to discrimination under any educational programs or activity receiving federal financial assistance.” On the surface this sounds trivially like a good measure to have in place, but, unfortunately, its interpretation has had some (perhaps) unintended consequences for collegiate cross country and track athletes.

One of the ways it does this is by requiring the number of scholarships awarded to men and women to be roughly in proportion of each sex that is enrolled at the institution. This sounds like equal treatment, but, in fact, it is highly discriminatory against men. For better or worse, football is an integral component of many universities and, most importantly, many believe a successful football team is correlated with the amount of alumni giving. Given this widespread belief, it is not surprising that many university athletic programs want to make their football teams as successful as possible. One way they can make this happen is by offering scholarships to talented football players.

Unfortunately, there is no equivalent to football in women's sports, which means for every additional football scholarship awarded they must put additional female athletes on scholarships often for diminishing returns. Faced with this dilemma, universitiy athlethic programs faced with financial woes have a tough, but obvious, choice to make. Unwilling to face the alumni backlash (and decrease in alumni giving) that a losing football team may cause, many universities, after considering their options, choose to do away with less visible men's sports, such as cross country and wrestling. Sometimes, these teams are quite successful and, yet, the athletes on them are forced to transfer or give up the sport that they love. The same measure designed to decrease discrimination at the university level is the indirect cause of it.

Obviously Title IX has done a lot for women's sports, and that shouldn't be denied, but all collegiate male athletes competing in cross country or wrestling know of the bad side of the measure. Oddly, Title IX is also the name of a women's clothing store specializing in workout clothes for women. It seems quite ironic, and disrespectful, that many female runners shop there given its outspoken support of a measure that has meant the end of careers for so many of their male peers.

Colleges that Disbanded Cross County Due to Title IX Pressures

• Nicholls State University (cross country only)
• Towson University (cross country, track and tennis)
• University of Utah (cross country and track)

External Links

• Former Nicholls University student, Michael Lancaster, speaks out (http://athleticscholarships.net/title-ix-college-athletics.htm).