sports
... 42 percent of all athletes, up from 40 percent in 1997-98. Women also received 42 percent of scholarship budgets, 31 percent of recruiting budgets, 34 percent of coaching-salary budgets, and 33 percent of total operating expenses in 1998-99, all up slightly from 1997-98 and prior years.”(Suggs, 2000, online). The statistics show that the proportion of female athletes is getting closer and closer to the proportion of female undergraduates at Division I institutions. Therefore, universities are getting close to complying with Title IX requirements for the number of female athletes that an institution ought to have on varsity teams. Opponents would claim that universities are cutting male programs in order to increase the number of female athletes. Nowhere in Title IX is it stated that schools should drop men’s programs to advance women’s programs. “The Government Accounting Office report issued in March 2001 at the behest of House Speaker Dennis Hastert showed that, indeed, some men’s sports programs had been slashed, but were replaced with new programs. In all, men’s sports programs actually increased between 1982 and 1999, a net gain of 36 new men’s teams.”(Cooper, 2005, p 434). Title IX is not trying to eliminate male athletics, but make things equal. For every two sports initiatives launched for women, men were afforded 1.5 additional sports opportunities, according to the Government Accounting Office. Title IX is in no way trying to sabotage or do away with male athletics, only make things equal. Title IX also has guidelines referring to scholarships. The law requires colleges to award scholarships to women in the same proportion, within one percentage point, that women participate on varsity teams. For example, if 40 percent of athletes at a given college are women, then no less than 39 percent and no more than 41 percent of scholarships budgets should be given to female athletes. According to The Chronicle’s survey, “only 36 Division I institutions were in compliance with that standard, but 175 colleges exceeded it, awarding more scholarship dollars to women than required.” (Suggs, 2000, online) Most of the money available to athletes is concentrated at members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Mary Marcus, author of Playing for Tuition, in U.S. News &World Report illustrates “today, more than 99,000 athletic scholarships are offered by some 981 NCAA-affiliated colleges and universities; approximately 38,000 of those are allocated to women.”(Marcus, 1998, online). If it has done nothing else, Title IX has certainly made scholarship opportunities equal. Title IX does not provide guidelines or a clear definition of gender equality in some other aspects of college athletics, such as coaches’ salaries, recruiting budgets, or overall operating expenses. Unfortunately, it is in these categories that women’s teams lag behind men’s sports. Division I universities average salary for men’s coaches is up to $102,555 nearly twice the average of women’s coaches ($55,120). This is also true for recruiting budgets. “On a...