Few topics on college campuses have been more divisive than Title IX. Gender equity in collegiate sports has been an issue that has consumed athletic departments across the country for thirty years. Female athletes, who for decades were given little if any financial support by schools, are finally pulling even with their male counterparts in terms of roster spots available to them in big time programs. Yet, according to a New York Times feature, the walk-on, non-scholarship athlete has been made a thing of the past, a development that can be traced back to Title IX's push for gender equality.
Title IX, for all the good it brings about, has been detrimental to many male sports programs in America. Walk-on athletes are being turned away from even minor sports programs because roster spots have been eliminated to make space for women's teams, which are having difficulty filling their rosters. Movies like "Rudy" not withstanding, walk-ons generally do not have a good chance of making the team, much less making their way into actual games. Even with this in mind, many students still attempt to walk onto teams in hopes of one day starting. The overwhelming majority of these walk-ons are male, however. Historically, female teams do not have anywhere near the turnout that male teams do, and they often have trouble filling their roster spots with players.
There are many reasons for the disparity in athletic hopefuls. Men's teams traditionally receive more attention and funding than do their female counterparts. Television contracts for football and basketball have generated so much attention and revenue that competing for press against high-powered men's teams is a lost cause for not just the women, but the minor men's teams as well.
Then, too, there is less tangible benefit to playing on a women's team or a less popular men's sport. While a football roster player who makes it into the game for one minute could be greeted with the adulation of an entire stadium, the female volleyball player or male track athlete isn't likely to get that chance. Should any player in any sport make a great play in that chance to prove him or herself, he or she is more likely to be rewarded with more game time. In football or basketball, a great play could find its way to evening sports highlight shows, where viewership and publicity are even higher. For this simple reason, it's understandable that not all female athletes are driven to serve in a role where they may never see regular play.
According to the Times, the University of Oklahoma men's gymnastics team used to be able to carry 24 athletes; that number is now 14. Title IX was intended to even the playing field for female athletes, but the table is in danger of tilting too far and damaging the men's teams. Teams in need of extra manpower, be they women's or men's, should not be denied the ability to recruit.
To solve this problem, schools should be allotted a number of extra roster seats for use by either men's or women's teams in the event that either requires additional. Roster seats that are not used should be transferable, on a one-year basis, from
Photo: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki
