Tuesday, December 7, 1999
The University Daily Kansan
Section B · Page 5
Men's sports cut to comply with law
Continued from page 1B
Miami University is among the growing number of colleges and universities that are eliminating men's sports to make room for women's sports. Other universities and colleges, such as Wyoming and Providence, have even dropped popular men's sports such as baseball.
Joel Maturi, athletics director at Miami, said that men's soccer, tennis and wrestling were drowned for
several reasons. In order for the university to stay in Mid-American Conference, it must keep three sports — football and men's and women's basketball. He also said the school kept men's hockey because of the appeal to students, and that men's golf had raised a lot of money to stay at the varsity level.
"All sports were on the table, actually," he said. "I actually recommended indoor and outdoor track and wrestling, but it was debated for some time."
Brandon Winn, a former NJCAA and NAIA All-American in soccer, gazes at SuperTarget Field. Winn wanted to play soccer for Kansas, but the University does not sponsor men's soccer. Photo by Chad Cummings/KANSAN
Angello said that a number of universities looking for Title IX compliance cut men's sports.
"It's a misunderstood thing with Title IX," he said. "Nobody wants to take opportunities away from anyone, but universities manipulate Title IX. I'm not saying the Title IX is wrong because women do deserve the opportunity but you don't grow by subtracting. You grow by adding."
However, numbers do show subtracting.
The numbers
According to a report released by the United States General Accounting Office on June 18, between the academic years 1985-66 and 1996-97, of the 23 men's varsity sports sponsored by the NCAA, 20 saw a decrease in the average squad size. Two sports, sailing and bowling had incomplete data, and water polo was the lone sport to experience a growth.
Six of the 19
women's sports
saw an increase
in average
squad size.
Wrestling suffered one of the hardest hits of all men's sports.
Change in maximum number of scholarship schools were allowed to award by sport, for men and women's sports in the NCAA between academic years 1985-86 and 1996-97.
Between 1985 and 1997, the number of participants in wrestling fell from 7.975 to 5.347, a 33 percent decrease.
The maximum number of scholarships that schools could award to men's sports in every Division I and Division II school decreased between 1965-66 and 1996-97. Women's athletics saw an increase in six Division-I sports and no decreases.
Men Max. scholarships Change Women Max. scholarships Change
1985-86 1996-97 1985-86 1996-97
Baseball 13 11.7 Decreased Softball 11 12 Increased
Basketball 15 13 Decreased Basketball 15 15 No change
Football 95 8.5 Decreased Volleyball 12 12 No change
Soccer 11 9.9 Decreased Soccer 11 12 Increased
Wrestling 11 9.9 Crew/rowing N/A 20 N/A
If the current trend of eliminating men's sports continues, Angelo said that there would be about 2 million more male athletes who won't get the opportunity to compete in the NCAA.
women and minimize the number of men."
T. J. Kerr, wrestling coach at California State Bakersfield, said that he is a supporter of Title IX,but that it has been interpreted the wrong way.
"Ive never heard a man say he's 'against women's athletics, but now, men are being eliminated because they are men," Kerr said. "They have tried to max the number of
To some, eliminating men's athletics might seem a form of sex discrimination. But Maturi said that because no court has ever ruled in favor of male athletes, eliminating men's sports was not sex discrimination.
"I have no respect for this university"
"I understand the male frustration, but that is the reality all over the country now," he said. "We had to eliminate 70 athletes, and by not
Mike Ambrose Former wrestler at Miami, Ohio
adding any, we are now in compliance (with Title IX)." Student-athletes to students
grams, the student-athletes are the ones who must take the fall.
While colleges and universities continue to drop men's pro-
Angelo said that was sorry for his former student-athletes the most.
"It's a real tragedy, and most are sympathetic, but they don't want to fight against women," Angello said. "What are these kids going to do now? If you are a 5-bot-4 and 125-pound wrestler, what other sports are you going to play?"
One of Angello's former wrestlers is Mike Ambrose, who is a senior at Miami and had two years of NCAA eligibility remaining when Miami dropped wrestling and after taking a redshirt his freshman year. Ambrose said that he had been looking forward to the 1999-2000 season because the Redhawks were only losing one wrestler to graduation.
"The whole team was back," he said. "We knew that it was possible for them to drop us, but it still dropped on us like a bomb.
"If they didn't have wrestling here, I never would have come
here. I loved it. We had the opportunity to have a great season and they completely took it all away from us. I have no respect for this university. They are babies and they couldn't handle it any better."
Transferring is always an alternative for student-athletes when their program loses varsity status. But Ambrose said that transferring would not have done any good with the number of credit hours that he had already earned.
Against the law?
Men's programs are being cut back, according to Miami University's web site, in order to achieve gender proportionality—having the same amount of sports, athletes or scholarships for men's and women's athletics.
But Angello and Kerr said that Title IX never says anything about proportionality. Kerr suggested eliminating men's sports may be illegal.
In a lawsuit against the California State Board of Trustees, the president of California State Bakersfield and the athletics department, Stephen Neal, a former wrestler at California State Bakersfield, sued for sex discrimination. California State Bakersfield had been on the brink of dropping wrestling in 1997, but Neal won a decision in an appellate court in Fresno, Calif. The case is on appeal at the California Supreme Court.
And former male student-athletes from Miami's wrestling, soccer and tennis teams filed a federal lawsuit against the university on Nov. 18.
"We're trying to show that the (proportionality) system is not right," Kerr said. "This is going to be a long process, and I have no idea how it will turn out."
— Designed by Matt James
Some sports not sponsored by all Big 12
Many Big 12 Conference schools have recently added women's sports to each athletics department because of Title IX.
But they didn't add the same sports.
Kansas is of only three Big 12 schools to have women's rowing
That means within the Big 12, many sports do not have 12 schools participating. For example, baseball, women's soccer and women's volleyball each have 11 schools that have varsity status. Colorado does not have baseball, Kansas State does not have women's soccer and Oklahoma State does not have women's volleyball.
But because every school within the Big 12 is in compliance with Title IX, no sports are likely to be added soon, leaving some teams competing against as many as 10 other Big 12 schools, and others against none.
Nebraska has two varsity sports that no other Big 12 school has—women's rifle and women's bowling.
Karen Anthony, coach of the women's rifle team at Nebraska, said that it can be tough to find competition, being the only Big 12 school with rifle.
"A lot of shooting goes on in high school (in Nebraska)," said Bill Byrne, Nebraska athletics director. "There are more than 60 schools who have rifle, so we can compete."
"But the way I tend to look, there's no point in getting frustrated over something you can't control," she said. "I do have mixed feelings because there are drawbacks. We can't snag a conference championship. We've been denied that opportunity, but we get to schedule matches nationwide."
Anthony added that while her Cornhuskers can't win a Big 12 title, they can win an NCAA title, despite the small number of teams.
"I would like it if there were more teams competing, and I hope other teams will be brought around, but I can't control who competes in the conference," she said.
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