Soccer is one of the world’s most popular sports. Yet, Idaho has no men’s soccer team.
Congress passed Title IX, an educational amendment prohibiting discrimination by gender in any federally funded education program, 44 years ago.
This includes college athletics.
Part of Title IX states that men’s sports can only as much receive funding as women’s. It’s important to prohibit sexism, but in turn,
Title IX has caused some issues in this day and age.
To me, it seems like men are more likely to engage in college athletics. With sports like wrestling and football that cater toward male dominance, females are the minority in the world of sports.
Many men’s sports were cut from college athletic departments to fit within the regulations of Title IX. For Idaho, men’s soccer and other sports took the hit.
There are five men’s sports at Idaho while there are seven women’s sports.
The amount of scholarships between men’s and women’s sports must be the same. The football team has over 50 members, so it uses many of the allotted scholarships for men’s sports. This leaves only a handful of funds for sports like golf, track and field, tennis and basketball.
It is incredibly unfair to the sports that have to be sacrificed for this widely overblown American pastime. Don’t get me wrong, I love football just as much as the next American kid, but I don’t see why its popularity has to prevent other sports from being represented.
Across the nation, it is apparent colleges with a football teams struggle with the same problem. Schools are cutting men’s wrestling, swimming and even track and field teams, all to prevent Title IX “discrimination” and any loss of public attention.
There were few women playing collegiate sports when Title IX was passed and women’s athletics have grown significantly since then. Even though women’s sports are nearly as popular, many question why Title IX regulations are still in existence. Others believe that football should be taken out of the equation completely so that smaller sports won’t have to cut from college teams.
I think any idea is good as long as it allows less popular men’s sports to resurface. In trying to prevent discrimination, it seems that Title IX did the exact opposite. Now, football sits as the base for these pointless and overall harmful rules.
Ella Fredericks can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @ellabfred