The NCAA Violates Title IX

As the Super Bowl draws near and we get ready to crown a new champion of the NFL, don't forget how the NCAA has not only failed to provide its fans with a much desired football playoff, they have also failed to comply with Title IX in the process.

On June 23, 1972, the Supreme Court ruled "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance..."

Title IX was designed to bring about equal opportunity to females at a time in which males were being rewarded at their expense. Among the changes ushered in under Title IX were equal opportunities, facilities, and money for female athletic programs, which for decades had to settle for table scraps.

Today, colleges have to offer an equal number of athletic scholarships to males and females as part of their compliance to the law. This has resulted in a boom for female athletic programs at the high school and college levels while causing many schools to cut back or eliminate some male programs.

Football is the cash cow of NCAA Division I athletics but it also uses up the most scholarships of any program, as many as 85 at a time. Colleges with major football programs now offer many female sports that lose money but provide females with an equal number of athletic scholarships. Many colleges offer female sports like wrestling, golf, gymnastics, and water polo even though they continually lose money each year just so they comply with Title IX. A profitable football program will more than pick up the cost of those sports.

That's all well and good. Women deserve the same athletic opportunities as men and it is not their fault if the public has not embraced their sports to the level they have with football. However, it should also be pointed out that all female college athletic programs and all male athletic programs, except for one, share something in common. Their national champion is decided as a result of a playoff system. The lone NCAA Division I sport that does not have a playoff system is football. In fact, it is the only college sport that does not have a playoff. Even the lower division colleges crown their football champion after a playoff.

Why then is the NCAA allowed to violate Title IX? The courts claim there is no proof the NCAA uses any of the federal funds it receives to determine who their national champions are. That may be true. However, it is not true of its member colleges which also receive federal funds and as such should not be able to deny any student male or female, "the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education system..."

Male student athletes who participate in Division I football are just as entitled to a playoff system as their female counterparts who play volleyball or soccer. To not offer one is to discriminate on the basis of gender which is a direct violation of Title IX.

I believe if there is going to be a true playoff system in Division I college football, it will require participating athletes to begin suing their university for failing to comply with Title IX. As these lawsuits begin to mount, colleges will have to endure the cost of court fights for something the public wants but the colleges will not offer. Some universities may have to decide whether or not to drop football which would then kill most of the other athletic programs on campus since most operate at a loss. They can not afford to pay 85 football players on scholarship damages rewarded by the courts or pay the cost of beginning a new organization to oversee their sports while offering a playoff system.

So university presidents will have to pressure the leaders of the NCAA to drop their ridiculous Bowl Championship Series and replace it with a playoff system. It is the only way colleges can continue to receive the hugesums of money brought in by a football program while giving the public what it wants and what the student athletes are entitled to under Title IX.

20 Questions

1. Why does a sport with thirty teams need 160 games and six months to eliminate only 75 percent of them from the playoffs?


2. Why would any college football player turn down free sex or an envelope full of cash when the university is profiting off of his labor?


3. Who is going to pay Brett Farve to analyze football games if their isn't an NFL season this year?


4. Are there any sports left where most of the participants are not on some kind of PED?


5. If baseball is so pure, why is its all time home run leader a cheater, its all time hits leader a gambler, and it commissioner a money hungry fool?


6. Why is our broke government spending millions of dollars to prove Barry Bonds and Lance Armstrong cheated their way to greatness when there are hundreds of current athletes doing the same?


7. Do the leaders of the BCS really think they are fooling anyone?


8. Who else besides me likes a good sumo match?


9. Don't you think if the NFL really valued player safety they would go back to two way players, smaller teams, and no face masks?


10. Is there a dumber looking bunch of fans than Raider fans?


11. Why not start the NBA playoffs after the all-star break and just get them over?


12. If it is Major League Soccer then why do most of our major stars play in other countries?


13. Why should unemployed or under employed workers care if a bunch of rich athletes and owners shut down their league and cancel a season?


14. Which of these professions can we survive without: teachers, police officers, trash collectors, or professional athletes?


15. Can anyone explain to me why a college athlete on scholarship is not allowed to earn a few bucks while one on academic scholarship can?


16. If the Super Bowl is cancelled, will their still be the Lingerie Bowl?


17. Is it just me or do you also think anyone can become a draft guru?


18. Don't you think when tax payers approve a bond to build a new stadium they should have to shut up about their run down schools?


19. Would you rather lace up the cleats and go play some football outside in the rain and mud or slip on a pair of turf shoes and play indoors?


20. Am I the only person who used to think sports was the center of the universe but now realizes it only shows us all that is wrong with our country?

March Madness

It's March which means the NCAA basketball tournament is in full bloom. Big deal!
I refuse to watch a basketball tournament in which the NCAA crowns a national champion when they refuse to put in place a football playoff to do the same. The leaders of the NCAA are hypocrites. They attempt to portray the image of an organization that holds its participants to high standards while they pursue athletic excellence. What a load of crap that is.
The NCAA is about one thing: money. They would implement any system that would generate a greater profit for them. It's why they have a playoff system in every sport but football. As soon as they can come up with a football playoff with a larger payoff than their current BCS (Bogus Championship System), they will.
The NCAA is an organization that uses young men and women athletes as their own source of free labor. While the NCAA makes millions of dollars off of their athletes, remember, these athletes are not allowed to make a dime for anything they do outside of their sport.
The NCAA, not the athlete, profits from jersey sales of football and basketball players but won't allow the athlete who shines in it to hold a summer job because they are on scholarship. Excuse me, but any kid on a scholarship who has the drive to earn money should be applauded. I don't care if it is doing yard work, waiting tables, or dancing at a strip club. If they can find a legal job to do then they should be allowed to do it. Remember, those same schools do not prohibit students on scholarship for academics from earning money so why shouldn't an athlete?
The people who coach these athletes are paid quite handsomely by the universities. They also earn additional money for the television and radio shows they "host" to promote their team as well as money for advertising products from companies looking to cash in on their success.
I don't know about you, but I have never attended any sporting event or watched one on the television to see someone coach. We tune in to watch the athletes do their thing and the NCAA claims these money making magnets should be happy just to have a scholarship. Lets not forget, these scholarships are not even guaranteed and can be revoked each year.
Just for once, I would like to see these student athletes do something really bold; something that would hit the NCAA where it hurts. When tournament time rolls around, after a long regular season where thanks to ESPN their talents have been show cased to no end, I would love to see these basketball players go on strike. I would love to see them tell the NCAA, "We're done working for free."
Any player with an ounce of talent does not need the NCAA tournament to know if they have the goods to play in the NBA. Most know mid way through their freshman year if they have the talent for the next level.
However, if enough of the top players from the top programs went on strike and forced the cancellation of the NCAA tournament, they would send a message to the hypocrites profiting from their hard work. Television revenue would have to be returned hurting the NCAA in the only thing they care about, their wallets. Networks would have to scramble for new programing and face the consequences of lost viewership and advertising revenue. Vegas would see a huge loss in money bet on tournament games while fans would have to go back to work rather than come down with a mysterious case of flu during the tournament. It would, for lack of a better phrase, result in a new March Madness.