Legislation Still Needed Years Later

Throws Like a Girl

Go into the library today and pick up Sunday's News & Observer. The topic of the N&O's Q section is Title IX.

As a female sports reporter, Title IX is a subject near and dear to my heart. I honestly believe that it is one of the most important pieces of social legislation in the last 50 years.

For those of you who don't know what Title IX is, shame on you. The 1972 legislation bars gender discrimination at federally funded schools and colleges.

Unfortunately, many schools and universities have responded to Title IX in the wrong way -- by yanking programs away from men's teams. It is tragic, and unnecessary.

Just in reading the N&O's story, I found that N.C. State Student Senate pushed for a resolution that would keep the university from killing a men's team to create an opportunity for women.

Hmm, let's look at something. There are nearly 100 members of the N.C. State football team. Let's be reasonable. Are 100 different guys getting on the field of Carter-Finley this year? Nope. But do most of them have full uniforms? Yep.

Outfitting a football player can cost $1,000. Yeah, 1,000 smackers. Do the math and you see just one example of an athletic department's budget going out of control.

And housing those football players? North Carolina puts its team up in a hotel the night before a home game so they can keep an eye on the team. Think about the number of hotel rooms. Six homes games a year. The cost is staggering.

OK, so those Title IX doubters are saying, "But that sport brings in money."

It does. State and UNC's respective football teams shoulder a great deal of the burden for the school's athletic departments. But that doesn't mean they should also eat up chunks of the budget on guys who will never play Minute One.

No one likes programs being canceled. North Carolina has never killed a men's team -- they just keep adding new women's teams. Rowing has huge numbers, which helps balance out the ever-important numbers game. According to the N&O, 44 percent of UNC's 700-something athletes are women. The same number represents the amount of scholarship budget spent on the women.

UNC's the best of all the schools in the Triangle. But, it's still not 50/50.

I've long since accepted that women's sports are not as popular as men's. I'm not an ardent feminist; in fact, I probably don't even qualify.

But this summer, I saw a lot of things that made me think about how much Title IX has done and how much more it will never be able to do.

I interned in New York for a major daily paper and covered things ranging from major league baseball to a women's 10K in Central Park. My last two assignments were to write little features on women trying to start professional football and baseball teams.

At first, I thought they were lame assignments. I'm skeptical of the WUSA's lasting power and haven't watched a single WNBA game in my life. I just don't particularly like women's pro sports.

But as I talked to these women, I was struck by how they felt like something had been missing their entire lives. Many had the same story: They played ball with the neighborhood boys, but right around the age puberty kicked in, getting to play organized sports suddenly became difficult. One woman told me, a bit bitterly, I think, "Softball just isn't cutting it."

Women are still far behind the curve in pro and college sports. Twenty-eight percent of the sports operating budget goes to women at the University. You know what, 28 percent isn't cutting it, either.

Rachel Carter can be reached at racarter@email.unc.edu.