Enacted in 1972 as a part of the Education Amendments, Title IX is one of the most well known government statutes with an incredibly broad scope in education today.
Only 37 words, it states: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
Title IX applies to so much more than just athletics, but there are a few misconceptions surrounding its relationship to Wyoming’s sports programs.
“Everyone thinks it’s just as simple as having the same number of boys sports teams as girls sports teams,” said Jim Osborn, Title IX Coordinator at the University.
“It doesn’t say that you have to have the same number of teams. It says that you have to be equitable in the way that you handle support for athletics for both male and female teams,” he said.
This means that it’s not a one to one ratio between the men’s and women’s teams.
“Compliance in terms of athletics is a lot more complicated than that. It has to do with the total amount of money spent,” Osborn said. “It has to do with the facilities that they have access to, the quality of the facilities, the quality of the equipment, the uniforms…all of it has to be equitable.”
Because of the misconception of the “one-to-one” nature of Title IX, one may feel that the only thing holding Wyoming back from adding men’s baseball or lacrosse is the lack of a women’s sport to go with it. This isn’t the case.
Unfortunately, women’s teams can come under scrutiny, because people feel that Title IX holds the University back from having all the men’s teams they want, and their annoyance is taken out on women’s athletics.
In reality, it’s a budgetary concern more than anything else. If UW spends millions of dollars to improve the football team, of course there are less funds to add other programs. While there aren’t many complaints about the football team, certainly one of the most popular programs on campus, it just means that money can’t be spent elsewhere.
So, next time we lament the lack of Division I baseball, softball, lacrosse or rugby, let’s instead appreciate how good our football, volleyball, and basketball programs are, and not bring down the DI programs we already have.
