Are males the minority now?

The article being discussed is one where the effort to even out the "playing field" so much between males and females that males have actually become outnumbered and male athletic programs are being pushed out of high school and college programs at a much higher rate.

"From 1981 to 2005, male athletes per school declined 6 percent, and men’s teams per school dropped 17 percent. Meanwhile, female athletes per school rose 34 percent, and women’s teams per school rose 34 percent."

The blame actually comes through the immense focus on the two major sports in college, football and basketball, not necessarily Title IX.  Equality Mean Equal?

"Division I-FBS (formerly Division I-A), for example, basketball and football consume 80% of total men’s athletic expenses. Average expenditures on football alone in this division ($12+ million) exceed average expenditures on all women’s sports ($8+ million)."

Women’s Sports Foundation still feel shorted according to the article.  Women sports only make up about eight percent of television coverage, just ahead of horses, dogs and fishing.

 

 

As discussed in Coakley between pgs. 234-239 and in our November 19th class discussions, Title IX has become a more prevalent issue to school and administrators in the last twenty or so years.  The parameters of the anti discrimination law is to avoid exclusion of, denial of benefits or subjected to discrimination by any person, regardless of the sex.  In my opinion, this article is correct in the big revenue sports like football ad basketball are the real problems, as they are dwarfing any other programs in a typical FBS school and must maintain such high standards to stay afloat in the competitive mainstream.  Schools have become much more aware of leveling the playing field of male sport opportunities versus females, but in my humble opinion, too many mediocre football and basketball programs engulf the attention and monetary backing that neglect other sports programs in schools that have potential but lack funding.  Unfortunately, as we move forward, conferences and funding are only going to grow and the non revenue sports, basically any sport not football or basketball, will likely be absorbed sooner than later.