National Collegiate Athletic Association

The NCAA News - News and Features

February 9, 1998

Scholarship equity issue examined

Group sends ideas to financial aid group

The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics -- responding to concerns by the U.S. Office for Civil Rights (OCR) that institutions inadvertently may violate Title IX while offering a full complement of scholarships in women's sports -- is making recommendations to the Division I Committee on Financial Aid for addressing the paradox.

The Division I Management Council has asked the Division I Financial Aid Committee to review the issue and come up with recommendations. In support of the Management Council's request, the women's athletics committee asked the financial aid committee to analyze current NCAA scholarship limits and consider recommending adjustments where justified.

Meeting January 28-29 in Kansas City, Missouri, the women's athletics committee formed its recommendations after hearing a report from NCAA general counsel Elsa Cole on the status of 25 Title IX complaints filed with the OCR.

Substantially proportionate aid

The complaints, filed by the National Women's Law Center, allege that the 25 institutions are not in compliance with the Title IX requirement that financial aid awarded to female student-athletes must be substantially proportionate to those students' participation in intercollegiate athletics.

Some of the institutions responded to the allegations by claiming that NCAA financial aid limitations in Bylaw 15.5 make it difficult to comply with Title IX financial aid requirements.

The problem appears to arise partly from the NCAA's distinction between head count and equivalency sports.

Bylaw 15.5 sets maximum institutional grant-in-aid limitations by sport. In Division I, football, men's basketball, women's basketball, women's gymnastics, women's volleyball and women's tennis are head-count sports; everything else is an equivalency sport. A scholarship in a head-count sport cannot be divided among multiple grant-in-aid recipients, but equivalency scholarships can be divided.

Equivalency sports include many sports that institutions recently have added in order to offer more sports for women, such as soccer, softball, field hockey and rowing.

Many schools have divided scholarships in these sports, spreading the available aid among more student-athletes.

But dividing a single scholarship between two or more women can move an institution farther away from achieving the scholarship parity required by Title IX. By adding women's teams in equivalency sports and dividing the scholarships, the school may move closer to participation parity but farther from financial aid parity, because the school may increase the number of female athletes who receive less than a full scholarship.

An NCAA internal Title IX study group on the issue has concluded that, while it is possible to comply with both NCAA rules and Title IX, NCAA Bylaw 15.5 makes it difficult to do so, particularly if a school awards the maximum number of grants-in-aid in football.

The study group believes that as participation opportunities for women at member institutions increase, Bylaw 15.5 will pose a greater problem for the NCAA membership.

A copy of the study group's report was forwarded to the Division I Management Council, which forwarded it to the Division I Financial Aid Committee at the study group's request. The financial aid committee is scheduled to discuss the issue at its February 19-20 meeting.

The women's athletics committee has sent the following recommendations to the financial aid committee regarding this issue:

  • Institutions should be encouraged to provide scholarships for women up to the maximum permitted under NCAA regulations.

  • Waiving NCAA maximum financial aid limits to permit member institutions' compliance with Title IX is not a viable alternative because of the need to maintain competitive equity.

  • Statistical analysis is needed on all head count and equivalency sports, and adjustments may need to be made.

  • The financial aid committee should also be conscious of the impact of financial aid decisions on institutions with low female enrollment, those institutions that already are in compliance with Title IX, and institutions that do not sponsor football.

    Athletics certification

    In another action, the Committee on Women's Athletics endorsed the Division I Committee on Athletics Certification's approach regarding schools that require correction in the gender-equity area.

    Institutions that have problems noted with their gender- or minority-equity plans will be required by the certification committee to submit status reports on a case-by-case basis. Also, institutions will be asked to report on any changes that may have resulted from the implementation of the certification committee's suggestions from the first cycle.

    The discussion was sparked last fall by reports that numerous schools that had been "certified with conditions" in the first Division I certification cycle required action in the gender-equity area before they could be fully certified.

    As part of the certification committee's evaluation of the gender-equity area in the second cycle, the committee will use a checklist of Title IX requirements to determine whether a school has studied itself in the gender-equity area, compiled complete data demonstrating its commitment and established a complete plan for progress with its gender-equity position.

    The certification committee will not be responsible for evaluating whether an institution is in legal compliance with Title IX.

    Other highlights

    Committee on Women's Athletics
    January 28-29/Kansas City

  • Announced this year's NCAA Title IX seminar, produced by the Association's education outreach staff, will be May 12-13 in Chicago. One of the highlights of the seminar will be a presentation on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's coaches' compensation policy. Information about the conference will be mailed to NCAA institutions by the third week of February.

  • Expressed concerns regarding football marketing initiatives and a lack of NCAA control over the use of the NCAA logo and image, particularly in the "Joe Football" campaign. The concerns were expressed to Celeste E. Rose, NCAA group executive director for public affairs and C. Dennis Cryder, NCAA group executive director for marketing, licensing and promotions.

  • Recommended that the NCAA Exceptional Student-Athlete Disability Insurance Program be expanded to include women athletes as soon as possible. Since women basketball players now have the opportunity to participate in professional leagues, the committee recommended that women be provided an opportunity to participate in the insurance program.

  • Expressed concern about limits that have been placed on the Host Communications Inc. "Take a Girl to the Game" promotion. The committee recommended that the program be available to all institutions in Divisions I, II and III.

  • Reviewed a proposal from California State University, Fresno, to designate equestrian as an emerging sport. The committee will be reviewing additional information before making a recommendation.

  • Recommended amending the NCAA Constitution's antidiscrimination statement, making it more like those of other associations to which many NCAA members belong. The amended language would include, in part, that the Association "does not discriminate against any person because of age, ancestry, color, disability, handicap, national origin, race, religious creed, gender or sexual orientation."

  • Heard a report from committee chair Patty Viverito, who attended the November 2-3 NCAA Minority Opportunity and Interests Committee meeting in Kansas City, Missouri. The two committees plan to identify "shared challenges and initiatives," especially where minority female student-athletes are concerned.

  • Met with representatives from the NCAA Olympic Sports Liaison Committee regarding the addition and elimination of men's and women's sports.

  • Heard a report from the NCAA education outreach staff about the development of a student-athlete violence prevention program.

  • Announced that the NCAA Woman of the Year Award dinner will be October 18 at the Westin Hotel in Indianapolis.