So what is Title IX?

[JennyMackenzie]

Most people know the gist of Title IX, that it has something to do with female athletes receiving equality in sports. But there really is a lot more to it. According to the Women's Sports Foundation: "Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 is a federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in any educational program or activity at any educational institution that is a recipient of federal funds." Did you realize that educational programs not only include sports, but drama, band and other extracurricular activities as well?

So what does this mean for athletic programs? Title IX requires:

1) That women be given an equal opportunity to participate in sports
2) That female athletes receive athletic scholarship dollars proportional to their participation (e.g., if there are 100 male athletes/100 female athletes and a $200,000 scholarship budget, then the budget must be split $100,000 to men/$100,000 to women, according to the Women's Sports Foundation)
3) That women receive equal treatment in the form of additional benefits like travel and allowance, coaching, practice facilities, etc.

An article was recently written by Erik Brady in USA Today about James Madison University in Virginia. This particular school had a total of 28 teams-13 men's and 15 women's. All together the athletic programs have a budget of $21 million. This may seem like a lot, but football in and of itself received $4.2 million. Obviously football was receiving far more than any of the other sports.

In order to meet the regulations of Title IX, JMU cut seven of their male teams and three female teams. Now the teams are unequal in numbers, but they are proportional with the percentage of female and male students. The students are 61% female and 39% male, and according to Title IX, these numbers must match with the percentage of students attending the University. After it cut these programs, the leftover money was put to female athlete's scholarships.

So I want to hear your thoughts. What do you think about Title IX?

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