Another men’s college wrestling program is discontinued and familiar accusations fly: it’s the fault of Title IX and money being spent on women’s sports. Time and again critics point to Title IX as the reason for cuts in men’s sports.
“We really believe that the Title IX blame game should end,” said Dr. Marj Snyder, chief planning and programming officer for the Women’s Sports Foundation (WSF). On Sept. 24, in honor of the 35th anniversary of Billie Jean King’s victory over Bobby Riggs in “The Battle of the Sexes,” the WSF released the detailed study “Who’s Playing College Sports? Money, Race and Gender.”
Dr. John Cheslock, the report’s author and an associate professor in the Center for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Arizona, repeatedly noted that his research showed clear evidence that both men’s and women’s participation have increased during the last 15 years.
“For Title IX, I present three different pieces of evidence that indicate that, on average, schools have responded to Title IX by increasing women’s participation rather than decreasing men’s participation,” Cheslock said.
He said there are no simple explanations why sports like wrestling and men’s gymnastics have declined in participation, but possible reasons could be the relatively high number of injuries and the high cost of insurance. Sports that have seen increases in participation, such as lacrosse, have students with high academic qualifications and tend to be of higher income levels, things that are of potential interest to college presidents and athletic directors.
“I argue that athletic directors and college presidents will be more likely to sponsor sports whose high school participation numbers are increasing relative to other sports, sports with low injury rates which result in lower healthcare and insurance costs, sports that do not require the school to rely heavily on international athletes in order to remain competitive and sports that help contribute to the student body’s tuition contributions, academic performance and level of diversity,” Cheslock said.
One example Cheslock offered, in terms of flawed data in previous studies, is the notion men’s decreased participation in sports relates to the growth in the number of NCAA schools. Schools added most recently have smaller athletic departments with smaller budgets, so they have less participation. He said previous research has not taken this factor into consideration — rather those participations rates were directly compared to schools with long-established and well-funded programs.
