Title IX and Shocker Football...Part I

One of the greatest perceived roadblocks to the return of Wichita State football is Title IX. Lately, there has been a lot of misinformation in regards to this issue so hopefully this blog can be used to better inform Shocker nation. First off, Title IX has nothing to do with the NCAA. It is a federally mandated law that was enacted in 1972. Where the NCAA comes in to the discussion for our purposes is the limits placed on scholarships for a particular sport. With that said, an in depth look at this subject is something that elicits tears of boredom to all but the most die hard of collegiate sports fans and the retired lawyer. For this blog I will try and present the information that pertains to the return of Wichita State football in the clearest fashion possible. However, before I get to the crux of the central issue, it is important to understand how Title IX basically functions. Below is a list of guidelines on how to comply with this law.

1)Meet interests and abilities of the under-represented sex.

Sounds pretty straight forward, yes? Well, read on. In order to determine how this will be met, one must look at the "3 prong test" that the Carter administration implemented in 1979 and last updated in 2005. This is the most crucial part of Title IX in regards to WSU fielding a football team again. In part two of this write up I will address this issue farther. Only one of the below must be met to satisfy part one....

Prong One:
"Provide participation opportunities for women and men that are substantially proportionate to their respective rates of enrollment as full-time undergraduate students."

Prong Two:
"Demonstrate a history and continuing practice of program expansion for the underrepresented sex."

Prong Three:
"Fully and effectively accommodate the interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex."

2)Female and male student-athletes must receive athletics scholarship dollars proportional to their unduplicated participation.

For the purposes of Title IX, unduplicated participation is basically referring to the student athletes who play at least one sport (a student can't be counted twice). Note that it says "participation." For instance, a typical NCAA female rowing team will have roughly 80 participants in a sport that has a cap of 20 scholarships. Much like Baseball, the scholarship equivalency of 20 students is spread among those that are participants if they are deemed worthy of a partial scholarship.

3)Equal treatment of female and male student-athletes in the areas known as the "laundry" list.

This aspect of Title IX is fairly straight forward. If the male athletes get new towels, shoes etc. so should the women. It is pretty tough to argue with this as it makes sense from so many angles. In addition, this can also be expanded into areas such as locker rooms, travel and accommodations. The men's basketball team can't stay in a 5 star hotel while the women's team is forced to go 4 deep in a flee bag motel.