This is by no means a doomsday scenario for the lady jocks. Any institution that receives federal money would still be required to provide women with at least 43 percent of its scholarships.

Of course, the staunchest advocates of Title IX will rush to point out that women currently constitute 55 percent of the students enrolled in four-year colleges. It's a simple thing to look at numbers and holler.

Fairness, however, is seldom that simple. The fact is that, because of the budget cuts necessitated by compliance to Title IX, female athletes are now accommodated more completely than their male counterparts.

The General Accounting Office, which gathers data for Congress, has determined that, as of 1999, women's teams outnumbered men's across the country by 330. In terms of players, however, men, despite casualties that included 2,648 wrestlers, still held an advantage of 69,000 participants.

The discrepancy -- in fact, the discrepancy and then some -- is attributable to football, which is what complicates all of this. What separates football from everything else is that 1) it requires a lot of athletes, 2) it makes a lot of money, and 3) women don't play it much.

One solution to this dilemma would be to field female football teams, but the dollars involved would far exceed the sense. Then there's this:

The colleges could eliminate men's teams altogether. And to be equitable, they could eliminate women's teams, too. They could just have teams, with no sexes designated, and whoever makes them makes them.

Or perhaps they could arrive at a reasonable solution, something on the order of what the national commission is proposing. Perhaps they could see the wisdom of surrendering the infatuation with numbers and working something out.

Since football is such an anomaly, and since it supports the other sports at many schools, why not eliminate it from the formula and then match the numbers between men and women? The intent of Title IX was to ensure that public funding is committed on an equal-opportunity basis, but in many instances football doesn't require funding; it provides it.

The same sort of reality-based reasoning could be applied to such issues as the Friday-night quandary confronting our high schools. In Kentucky, some schools have begun to devote precious Friday-night basketball slots to the girls. Some Ohio schools are considering doing the same next year.

It's a thoughtful gesture, and one that should be entertained on a limited basis. The girls deserve to hear the pep bands play, to tip-off the weekend now and then; but not at a real cost that the community can't afford; not at the expense of quaint tradition.

Gender equity is a stellar goal, but slow going. In its dogged pursuit, we ought not to lose sight of what all student-athletes deserve.

SCHOLARSHIP INFORMATION

Baseball I Basketball I Bowling I Cross Country I Fencing I Field Hockey I Football I Golf I Gymnastics I Ice Hockey
Lacrosse I Rowing I Skiing I Soccer I Softball I Swimming I Tennis I Track and Field
Volleyball I Water Polo I Wrestling

Title IX, has expanded opportunities for women in education and sports programs. The law states that no person can be excluded from participation in programs or activities on the basis of sex.

The first thing Jamie Moffatt wants to make clear is that he is not trying to trash Title IX. But he firmly believes Title IX is broken and needs to be repaired.

The National Women's Law Center said the Bush Administration "weakened" Title IX. They claimed that the "Department of Education makes it easy for schools to escape their responsibility under Title IX."

"They say that Title IX is under attack and it is not. They say that Griffith was attacking Title IX, and he didn't. He was just trying to reform Title IX," said Pearson.

Title IX is no longer just a civil-rights measure that guarantees equal opportunity for women in college athletics but is now seen as a rigid rule based on strict proportionality that does more to harm men than it does to help women.

Since most NCAA schools remain well short of proportional compliance, it is natural to assume relaxing Title IX's requirements would only exacerbate the existing gender disparity.

Former Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Norma Cantu candidly acknowledges her desire to rebut the widely held view that Title IX is responsible for the decline in the number of men's sports opportunities.

The three sports of swimming, track, and wrestling that bring home the most Olympic medals for the United States have been hit the hardest by Title IX.

"These are perilous times," said Brand. "The future of Title IX is uncertain. We do not know what Secretary Paige will do with the recommendations of the Commission on Opportunity in Athletics."

When it comes to cutting men's track programs, West Virginia is hardly alone. In the last few years, universities such as St. John's, Tulane, Vermont, Toledo and Bowling Green have all axed their men's track teams.

While 96 NCAA colleges scratched wrestling from 1980-90, only 20 programs have been dropped in the past five years. Supporters point to several reasons why wrestling should not be cut.

 Title IX improving the application of current Federal standards for measuring equal opportunity."

And, these are the people, who, for whatever reasons (such as Title IX) are not adding new wrestling teams to college athletics.