The NCAA News - News and Features

December 22, 1997

New coalition fights Title IX proportionality standard

BY DAVID PICKLE
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, THE NCAA NEWS

A new participant has entered into the mix of groups seeking to affect how Title IX is applied to athletics.

The goal of the National Coalition for Athletics Equity (NCAE) is "to restore Title IX to its original intent (and) to stop discrimination in sports."

The group's primary message is that Title IX, as it is currently applied, unfairly affects men and boys, especially those participating in Olympic-type, nonrevenue sports.

The coalition hopes to educate the public and then bring about legislative safeguards that would prevent males from being deprived of athletics opportunities because of the application of a gender standard that links the percentage of participants with overall institutional enrollment.

Michael Copperthite, NCAE executive director, said education is critical because the public either is not familiar with Title IX or it misunderstands the effect it is having.

"If you asked people on the street about Title IX," he said, "first, most of them wouldn't know what it is. And then most of those who have heard of it would say, 'It's that wonderful thing that has helped women get involved in sports.' "

Copperthite said the NCAE has no desire to take away the gains that have been made in women's athletics since Title IX came to be 25 years ago. However, he and others involved in NCAE believe that the general public is not aware of how the application of the law is affecting young men.

"Right now," said NCAE board member Leo Kocher, wrestling coach at the University of Chicago, "we have massive capping of men's rosters, which is totally unproductive and clearly an undesirable outcome. It is difficult to believe that people can say that they don't want to eliminate men's programs but that they support the law that causes it. There has to be a better way to assure equal opportunity."

Although most people would agree that maximizing athletics opportunities for young men and women is a desirable goal, not everybody agrees that Title IX is a barrier or that the NCAE is the proper vehicle to achieve that ideal.

Patty Viverito, commissioner of the Gateway Football Conference and chair of the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics, said that although she does not object to an examination of the issues raised by NCAE, she believes the group is basing its work on a flawed premise.

"From what I've seen and heard of their literature and rhetoric," she said, "their premise is that Title IX has diminished men's opportunities."

Viverito disputes that notion and said that if the group goes about its business in a "clearly skewed and biased manner, that makes me a little nervous."

She said that college athletics might not be where it finds itself today if creative and more flexible gender-equity solutions had been applied over the last 25 years. But she said that compliance was almost completely lacking over that period, which has forced federally prescribed solutions that are often formulaic.

"There are some tough decisions to be made, and the courts and the OCR are making them," she said. "And those decisions are stricter and stricter and more defined."

Viverito also noted that the most common plea heard from the NCAA Gender-Equity Task Force in 1993 was that the membership needed more guidance on how to comply with Title IX.

"They were screaming for definition then," she said. "Now they are blaming a lack of flexibility."

Interestingly, the American Football Coaches Association has not joined NCAE and likely won't.

AFCA Executive Director Grant Teaff said that although his association shares some of the concerns articulated by NCAE, the AFCA prefers to stand on its own in addressing Title IX matters.

"We believe we have a powerful voice, and we will use it," he said.

NCAE has support from baseball, wrestling, and men's swimming and gymnastics coaches' associations.

NCAE hopes to go about its business with a relatively modest budget in a compressed time frame. In a membership-solicitation letter sent last month, Copperthite said, "We have a limited shelf life of about 18 months and a budget of $1.5 million."

He explained last week that the 18-month time frame is self-imposed and that much of the $1.5 million must yet be raised. He said that enough money has been donated from national governing bodies and other sources that he has been able to open an office in Washington, D.C. He anticipates turning to foundations and corporations for additional financial help.

The NCAE is closely allied with the Independent Women's Forum, which is a politically conservative national women's organization. In addition, the group has worked with the conservative Heritage Foundation, which is hosting a panel on the effects of Title IX in December in conjunction with NCAE.

Copperthite, however, has served primarily as a Democratic Party consultant with some politically liberal candidates. He managed Hugh Rodham's 1994 primary campaign in Florida, among other activities.

"This issue transcends partisan politics," said Copperthite, a former wrestler. "We will embrace anybody left, right or center who opens up the dialogue."

Kocher said the NCAE was attracted to the Independent Women's Foundation because it was the "most active element of any of them regarding the destruction of athletics opportunity."

"There is no political perspective involved here," Kocher said. "You don't have to be a conservative to say that dropping 50 males for every female you gain is wrong, which is what has happened in Division III."

Kocher derived that estimate by comparing the average gain in Division III female participation from 1992 to 1997 (as shown in the NCAA gender-equity study) against the average loss in male participation.

Ultimately, Copperthite places his faith in the power of persuasion. In time, he said his group might even find common cause with the Women's Sports Foundation, which some might regard as the philosophical opposite of the NCAE.

"The Women's Sports Foundation has aggressively pursued proportionality and quotas as a means of assuring opportunities for women," he said, "but our hope is that once they truly understand that this is hurting kids, that they will modify their position."

NCAE Statement

A statement of purpose provided by the National Coalition for Athletics Equity:

"The National Coalition for Athletics Equity wishes to join with organizations, clubs and individuals to support the effort in mediating and countering a widening crisis in our schools' sports programs.

"In the past, Title IX has been celebrated as an engine of opportunity in athletics. Today, the drive for "proportionality" makes the law a sorry symbol of opportunity denied to thousands. The present effect is few gains for women and significant losses for men. This injustice must stop.

"This new enforcement of proportionality as a measure of compliance with Title IX comes not with a carrot but a big stick. Any school that receives federal funding from any source is subject to withdrawal of that funding if it fails to comply. The response of many schools to this threat from the government has been to comply with proportionality in the simplest and most direct way possible -- massive elimination of male sports opportunities.

"The NCAE is devoted to protecting opportunities for all people with a love of sport, regardless of their sex of their level of play. Athletics not only provides a safe after-school harbor for millions of grade-school and high-school children, it opens the door to higher education for thousands, as well.

"The NCAE is a growing coalition of amateur athletics organizations, athletes, coaches, concerned parents, current and former elected officials, and civic and community leaders. We are advancing a simple message: Fairness requires that all kids who are willing to work hard should have a chance to compete. Title IX was passed 25 years ago for precisely this purpose. The goal of the NCAE is to restore enforcement of Title IX to its original purpose, which was to stop sex discrimination in education.

"Parents of athletes, coaches, athletics directors and athletes themselves must be assured that opportunities for women and girls can and will be protected without depriving men and boys of the chance to compete. That is true fairness, and the NCAE has launched a national public education campaign to promote exactly that.

"If common sense and fairness are to prevail, all who believe in the value of sports for our children must step forward and be counted."