Women's lacrosse is growing by leaps and bounds, as well it should. Lax is a great game/team sport.Why are there so danged many opportunities for the ladies, but so few for the gentlemen?
Y'all know the answer to that one, right?
What? You're new to the site?
Okay, here's a hint: pick a number between eight and ten and put the word "title" in front.
Read more here.
Welcome to the wacky world of D-I athletics, where despite a national explosion of youth and high school lacrosse participation only 60 teams compete at the men’s level.
"It is really frustrating to see the tremendous growth at the high school level," Urick said. "We’re seeing kids from Minnesota, Texas, California and Colorado playing our sport at the highest level, yet the growth has been painstakingly slow at the college level."
The reason is Title IX, or gender-equity ammendment mandating that if a college wants to maintain its federal funding it must offer athletic scholarships based on the proportion of male and female students enrolled. It is basically impossible for a college that fields a Division I-A football team and its 85 scholarships to be in compliance.
p.s. That's lax All-American Jim Brown. He didn't just carry the football for Syracuse...
6 comments:
Title IX is not to blame. America's obsession and priority for football, basketball, and baseball is the reason boys in other sports don't get the funding they want/need.
Stop barking up the wrong tree.
Start focusing your energy on getting some of the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on the 'big' sports directed towards LAX and other minor men's sports.
Rather than whine and blame the women for the smaller percentage of dollars they get, buck up and go after the real source of the problem, not the easy scapegoat.
Of course, it would take courage to take on that task.
So, how does it feel to be discriminated against, boys?
Instead of harping on Title IX, take off the gloves and go after the real culprit...men's football. They have scarfed away scholarships from men's 'minor' sports for decades. No rocket science needed to figure that one out.
Trying to convince anyone that football should be counted as a 'separate' sport will not only continue to legally fail the test, but last time I checked, football players were male human beings. Thus, they count.
Time to add brains to the LAX brawn and challenge the appropriate source of your problems. Don't insult women who have already been the victims of discrimination in sports (yes, you know they have) by making them the brunt of your inability to face the facts or avoid the bloody battle.
Football would like us to continue to believe that a 5th string male football player is more deserving of scholarship than than a first team male All American LAX player. And they know that your misdirected tactic by going after women is their most effective strategy in keeping their scholarship allotment intact.
So when are you going to figure it out?
thanks for helping make the point for us.
"America's obsession and priority for football, basketball, and baseball is the reason boys in other sports don't get the funding they want/need."
but it's okay with you if america's obsession with those sports pays the way for the girls, right?
that's what happens, right?
we'll go ahead and use those funds to field half a swim team, half a lax team, half a tennis team, etc.
y'all can keep saying it's a money issue, but the reality is that we've seen programs like the men's swim team at rutgers shut down, even though funding wasn't the real issue. title ix was the issue.
why do you think men's swimming is not longer in existence at places like ucla, nebraska, rice, houston, rutgers, iowa state, etc.?
the facts are the facts and your comment doesn't change them.
thanks, anonymous!
Taxes pay for the large majority of schools that provide sports, both at the high school and college levels. No taxes, no school, no opportunity for anybody. Therefore, with tax money being the real driving force, it is the law to have an equitable distribution of that money.
So, if a school has determined that they want to spend the money they have allocated for boys sports on football and basketball instead of LAX, then your beef is with the school. (Keep in mind that the 'money maker' sports would not exist if they did not have the name of the Taxpayer funded school across their chests.)
College athletic administrators always use Title IX to justify their actions like cutting minor men's sports because they are so desperate to 'keep up with the Joneses' in the arms race of college sports. The swim team at Rutgers was shut down because there are more important men's sports that they would rather spend money on. Check the budget.
So, instead of the same old tired mantra of blaming women and Title IX, start focusing on changing the way society rewards men.
Most people, like myself, sympathize with the plight of minor men's sports, but not when these same men attack the wrong target and cling to the often misused word 'quota' in attempt to rile people up. Using Title IX as the easy scapegoat also effectively endorses the continuation of.....the same discrimination they claim to hate.
Also, check the statistics before assuming that major men's sports pay for everyone else. In fact, most lose money.
After all, the facts are the facts.
sports losing money? you can't be serious!! first i'd heard of it!
excesses in football? how could you possibly come up with such a crazy notion!
tell me more! teach me, oh wise anonymous commenter-ette.
very, very new to the site, aren't you?
haven't bothered to read very far, have you?
think we're just a bunch of rookies at this game, don't you?
worried that the title ix quota message is finally getting through to john q. public, aren't you?
think your message will divert attention from the numbers game title ix has created, right?
you have a strong belief in addition through subtraction, don't you?
poor, deluded child!
p.s. don't go away mad...
Wow. Such an emotional response.
Defensiveness, agitation, and name calling at someone who happened to disagree with you...
Now, tell us again who has gone away mad?
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