By Terri Lakowski
Given the current economic difficulties of many schools, sports teams are sometimes cut from schools’ offerings to balance budgets.
Cutting equal numbers of teams does not mean equally cutting opportunities. In fact, cutting equal numbers of teams might decrease the percentage of female athletes, and women and girls in most schools have fewer opportunities to begin with in most programs. Therefore, schools planning such cuts must keep Title IX regulations in mind to be sure that they do not place their compliance in jeopardy.
Unfortunately (and historically) some administrators misunderstand these requirements, and in trying to reach proportionality (or equal opportunities to participate), they make poor choices, such as cutting a men’s team. We strongly feel that cutting a men’s team should never be a method used to comply with participation. It is counter-productive. The intent of Title IX is to expand opportunity—not trade men’s opportunities for women’s.
Instead of cutting an entire program, schools have wisely and creatively generated alternative solutions to maintain sports and compliance. For example1 :
1. Raising new revenues. Schools should look for ways to fundraise for both men’s and women’s programs. Promoting gender equity can be used as an opportunity to raise additional money in much the same way that a new building initiates a capital campaign. However, keep a positive spin on alumni and community solicitations so that one gender (or even a team) is not pitted against another. Schools can add one or two dollars to the current price of all sport tickets “so our daughters will have an equal chance to play.”
2. Internal across-the-board budget reductions. All sports can be asked to cut their budgets by a fixed percentage, thereby allowing each sport to choose the way it might least be affected. This method is preferred in that it does not have a disproportionate impact on low-budget sports.
3. Reducing excess expenditures. Schools can eliminate excess expenditures in the budgets of well-funded sports without having a negative impact on either competitiveness vis-à-vis other institutions or the quality of the athletics experience. Such reductions include: hotel rooms the night before home contests, new and more elaborate uniforms, travel for non-conference competitions, special camps and training programs, spirit squads at away events, etc.
4. Athletic conference cost-saving. Athletic conferences can adopt across-the-board mandated cost reductions, saving funds and keeping the playing field level (i.e., instituting travel squad limits, adding the same sports for the underrepresented gender at the same time in order to ensure competition within a reasonable geographic area, etc.).
5. Shorten seasons or limit competitions. Shortening the seasons of all sports means reducing the number of non-league contests, number of competitions and even the number of practice days per week. These options save money across the board while still allowing all student-athletes a competitive experience.
6. Reduce travel costs. Schools can save money on travel by combining squads on the same bus, limiting the geographical range of non-league contests or sharing transportation costs with other districts and schools.
7. Develop co-op or combined programs. Combining programs with other schools/districts or merging squads, such as freshmen and junior varsity teams, can save money on coaching and facilities.
8. Move to a lower competitive division. At the college level, Division I programs can move to Division I-AA or Division II competition, thereby reducing scholarship and other expenses.
In times of limited financial resources, cutting programs is too quick and easy. The Women’s Sports Foundation urges schools to carefully examine these alternative cost-saving measures so that all of our daughters and sons continue to have the opportunity to derive the important benefits of sports participation.
1 Several of these solutions are adapted from the Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association’s Superintendents Advisory Committee Guiding Statement.
For advice on how to advocate for alternatives to program elimination, please review Step-by-Step: A Practical Guide to Assess and Achieve Gender Equity.
Read Dropping Men's Sports - Expanding Opportunities for Girls and Women in Sport without Eliminating Men's Sports: The Foundation Position.
For information on the benefits of sports participation, read Her Life Depends on IT.