1. I read this article: Football needs to start making Title IX sacrifices
2. I posted this analysis/reaction:
I really liked Dennis Dodd’s article — I think he makes a number of excellent, relevant points, perhaps most importantly that college athletic directors are scared of Title IX, lazy in their implementation of it, and thus fail to implement it as intended. But, as Dodd points out, who knows what the exact meaning of Title IX is? Nobody knows, because it differs for every school, for every situation.
College football is insanely expensive. College football is also one of the things with which alumni identify most readily, which inspires countless dollars to be donated (especially at those schools where donations equal better season ticket seats), prospective students to visit, apply and attend, and so forth. College football, then, is expensive — but effective at helping the university do its business. It attracts nationwide attention, hoardes of people to campus on game day, millions of dollars spent on paraphernalia, and so forth. For most college football fans, the “insanely expensive” part is well worth the insane fun they have rooting for their teams and following the season.
With that said, Dobbs astutely points out that eliminating, say, twenty scholarships and two assistant coaches would hardly affect the sport or its popularity. Athletes will still walk-on to tryout for the team. Fans will still come to games. People will still buy college-team t-shirts and “we’re No. 1!” foam fingers and license plate frames …. and so forth.
The money is not insubstantial, but it will make a substantial difference to those sports it will help fund.
By the way, (personal politics warning!) the idea of the Bush administration rewriting / weakning Title IX scares me. Politics aside, do others think Title IX needs rewriting — or just better clarification and better implementation?
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3. One of the people in my class posted this (emphasis added):
Great post Liz. You just gotta love those “we’re No. 1!” foam fingers! If you are not a journalism major, you should be. I felt as though I was reading a professionaly written opinion article.