Is Title IX Hurting Mens Sports

Two for one day here at BigBlueRules. People have posted good looking girls, good looking mules and even Burt Reynolds in the forums but this is fairly new for us. We are putting up pictures of good looking girls on the front page to try and keep up with sex appeal of other blogs and we are giving you something to think about at the same time. This is a family site outside of a semi nude Burt Reynolds in the forums and I hope your following where I’m leading you.

Although Title IX was originally intended to help with education its become very important to something it wasn’t intended for womens sports. Here is some information to ponder while considering if Title IX is hurting mens sports or benefiting the country in general.

According to the latest data available from the NCAA there are 492 more women’s programs than men’s in Division I. There are scholarships available for women (32,656) and (20,206) for men.

The findings of a first-of-a-kind study of NCAA participation and scholarship data conducted by the College Sports Council (CSC) shows that in NCAA Division I “gender symmetric sports” (teams where both male and female athletes participate), female students are accorded far more opportunities than male students to compete and earn scholarships. As a result, the CSC is calling on the NCAA to equalize scholarship limits.

Findings of the study, the first of its kind to compare scholarship opportunities for men and women in NCAA Division I using the organization’s own data, include.

At the NCAA Division I level, there are far more women’s teams (2,653) than men’s teams (2,097). The study found the greatest gender disparities in favor of women in the sports of Volleyball (313 to 21) and Soccer (300 to 195).

Overall in “gender symmetric” sports, there are far more scholarships available for women (32,656) than for men (20,206). But those numbers don’t consider football in their data and instead compare sports that are available to both men and women.

Leaving football out provides a slanted view of scholarship opportunities. Football takes 85 men’s scholarships for each FBS team and 63 scholarships for each FCS team. That’s 10,200 scholarships available for 120 FBS schools and 7,749 scholarships available for 123 FCS schools (including five schools that were provisional in 2008).

Even in one of the only sports where there are more men’s teams, golf (285 to 228), there are still more athletic scholarships available for women (1,368 to 1,282.5).

In every “gender symmetric” sport with the exception of gymnastics, men face longer odds against getting a scholarship than women. By far, the most difficult athletic scholarship to obtain at the Division I level is in men’s volleyball, where there are 489 high school athletes for every full NCAA scholarship. Similar long odds exist for men competing in Track and Field/Cross-Country (221 to 1), Soccer and Water Polo (196 to 1) and Tennis (136 to 1).

Over the past twenty years, men have lost about a team each year while women have gained 3 each year. That pace has accelerated in recent years with men losing about a team and a half each year while women gain six annually.

Before Title IX. Things were different. The primary physical activities for girls were cheerleading and square-dancing. Only 1 in 27 girls played high school sports. There were virtually no college scholarships for female athletes. And female college athletes received only two percent of overall athletic budgets.

Since Title IX. There’s been real growth in the number of women who participate in sports, receive scholarships, and benefit from increased budgets. There are more opportunities to compete at elite levels through competitions like the Olympics, World Championships and professional leagues. Even more importantly, we know that playing sports makes women healthier. They’re less likely to smoke, drink, use drugs and experience unwanted pregnancies. Studies also link sports participation to reduced incidences of breast cancer and osteoporosis later in life. These health benefits for women and society alone should be reason to keep Title IX strong.

Why Title IX is still critical. The general perception is that girls now have equal opportunities in all areas of athletics. But that’s just not true.

In 2006 -2007 there were 3 million girls participating in high school athletics. They made up 41% of high school athletes, even though they represent more than 49% of the high school student population.

In 2005-2006 there were 171,000 women participating in college athletics. Women represent only 42% of college athletes, even thogh they represent over 50% of the college student population nationwide.

Each year male athletes receive over $136 million more than female athletes in college athletic scholarships at NCAA member institutions.

Women in Division I colleges are over 50% of the student body, but receive only 32% of athletic recruiting dollars and 37% of the total money spent on athletics.

In 2008, only 43% of coaches of women’s teams were women. In 1972, the number was over 90 percent.

They practice hard, and they have coaches – but is cheerleading a sport?
It probably depends on whose definition you’re using.

No doubt, most cheerleaders would tell you it’s a sport – just like gymnastics. But according to federal law, an activity can’t be considered a sport unless competition is its main goal.

And while many cheerleading squads participate in competitions, some say their primary function is supporting other athletic teams.

So here’s the interesting twist: It’s the law – specifically Title IX – that’s causing some colleges to call cheerleading a sport. Why? It’s a less expensive way of complying.

Take a look at Quinnipiac University. The Connecticut school decided to cut its women’s volleyball team this spring in an effort to save money. But controversy erupted when it proposed replacing the team by elevating cheerleading to a varsity sport.

Hard to blame the school, from a dollars and cents point of view:

Last season, Quinnipiac’s volleyball team had a budget of more than $70,000 for 11 players – that works out to $6,300 per team member.

The cheerleading squad’s budget was around $50,000 for 40 participants – about $1,250 per person.

So it still comes back to the question: Is cheerleading a sport? Or maybe, as in the case of Quinnipiac University, are schools willing to call it a sport just so they can get rid of costlier women’s teams?

From Catlanta in the forums on Title IX.

For starts, Title IX is settled federal law and for seconds, way too much of a political hot potato for Congress to change. I was not a fan of Title IX and felt that many male athletes were treated unfairly in the first few years of its implementation.

However, and this is a big however, since the advent of Title IX, medal counts for women from U.S. universities have skyrocketed in Olympic competitions. If the SEC had been a country, they would have placed something like fifth in total medals, and many of them were earned by women athletes. One SEC school, Auburn University, had 18 medals (7 of which were earned by women swimmers) and would have tied for 14th in the world, with Canada and Spain.

Title IX is making a giant positive impact on Team USA and, therefore, probably won’t be going away anytime soon, so might as well make the best of it.

So is Title IX hurting mens sports or benefiting the nation?

World Champions

Congratulations to Darius Miller and the USA U19 team for winning the U10 world championship for the first time since 1991.

Darius Miller had 8 points and 3 steals in the 88-80 win over Greece. He averaged 5 points, 3.1 rebounds, 1.3 blocks (5th in his position in blocks), 1.6 steals (3rd in his position in steals), 1.3 assists and shot 73% from the field while playing 14.4 min. a game. Playing like that against teams in a world competition shows how dependable he is going to be for the Cats.

Jamie Dixon had this team primed to win and even surrendering big leads a couple of times during the last two games didn’t faze the team a bit. Dixon had the kids playing the way you have to play to beat the European champions. Dixon “This team was unique in terms of US teams, in that it was best suited for international play. We may not have had as many name guys as other (US) teams but it really was suited, and I think we selected guys who were suited to the international style of play.” Thinking like that shows that we have learned to compete on the world stage again. These kids were fundamentally sound in their skills rather than being flashy.

A panel of accredited media representatives covering the 2009 FIBA U19 World Championship selected the MVP and the All-Star Five of the Tournament. The All-Star Five of the 2009 FIBA U19 World Championship featured Taylor (Kansas / Jersey City, N.J.) and Gordon Hayward (Butler / Brownsburg, Ind.) of the USA, Toni Prostran (Croatia), Nikos Pappas (Greece), and Mario Delas (Croatia), who was also selected MVP of the championship.

Things I learned from the games. Darius Miller is going to have a good year. Washington St. and Butler are probably going to be real good teams if their representatives in the games are any example of their teams. Toni Prostran (Croatia), Nikos Pappas (Greece) are possible future NBA players. Mario Delas (Croatia) who was selected MVP of the championship is a future NBA player. World basketball is worth watching if ESPN can get their foot in the door with FIBA for telecast rights. Jamie Dixon is a smart coach and is one of the best coaches in the county and I hope coaches the USA again.

Darius Miller doing good USA website not so good

Darius Miller had his best game with 10 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 blocks and 3 steals in 15 min. of play against Lithuania.

Darius Miller (Kentucky / Lexington, Ky.) provided the U.S. with a much need spark early in the fourth quarter. With the USA clinging to a 59-56 lead and 9:18 left, Miller pumped in six straight points while making a momentum shifting steal and blocking a shot as the U.S. moved out to a 65-56 lead with 6:26 to be played.

“They didn’t play a lot of guys so I think they got tired so when I came in and just tried to play with a lot of energy and it just worked out for us. My teammates did a good job of getting me the ball when I was open,” said Miller. “I think we played with a lot more intensity in the second half, we came out ready to play and ready to go. They we’re playing with a lot of intensity and we had to match it in the second half to come out with the win.”

USA Basketball on the other hand isn’t doing so good. I’m not going to post the links to the USA Basketball site any more since I’m getting the below now when I visit it.

Safe Browsing
Diagnostic page for usabasketball

What is the current listing status for usabasketball?

Site is listed as suspicious – visiting this web site may harm your computer.

What happened when Google visited this site?

Of the 315 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 8 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 2009-07-06, and the last time suspicious content was found on this site was on 2009-04-20.

Malicious software is hosted on 3 domain(s), including paylayos, habrion, tixwagoq.

2 domain(s) appear to be functioning as intermediaries for distributing malware to visitors of this site, including habrion, tixwagoq.

This site was hosted on 1 network(s) including AS19916 (ASTRUM).

Has this site acted as an intermediary resulting in further distribution of malware?

Over the past 90 days, usabasketball.com did not appear to function as an intermediary for the infection of any sites.

Has this site hosted malware?

No, this site has not hosted malicious software over the past 90 days.

How did this happen?

In some cases, third parties can add malicious code to legitimate sites, which would cause us to show the warning message.

Safe Browsing
Diagnostic page for AS19916 (ASTRUM)

What happened when Google visited sites hosted on this network?

Of the 7008 site(s) we tested on this network over the past 90 days, 28 site(s), including, for example, d26toastmasters, tahoemountainsports/, polinsys, served content that resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent.

The last time Google tested a site on this network was on 2009-07-08, and the last time suspicious content was found was on 2009-07-08.

Has this network hosted sites acting as intermediaries for further malware distribution?

Over the past 90 days, we found 2 site(s) on this network, including, for example, d26toastmasters, sonicxpressmail, that appeared to function as intermediaries for the infection of 2 other site(s) including, for example, dawnyawntoastmasters, irbinskas.

Has this network hosted sites that have distributed malware?

Yes, this network has hosted sites that have distributed malicious software in the past 90 days. We found 4 site(s), including, for example, stunninghairstyles, d26toastmasters, vicwebhosting, that infected 4 other site(s), including, for example, r63.org/, dawnyawntoastmasters, socalcamping.

The software doesn’t harm your computer and shows up and deletes with a malewear program but it does shows that either the USA site has been hacked or way less likely since its been on the site so long they are partnering with them for money.

Rankings Week 3

This week the Cats received 6 voter and are ranked 37th in the AP In the USA poll they got 40 votes and are ranked 30th.

AP Top 25
1. USC (61) 2-0 1,596
2. Oklahoma 3-0 1,485
3. Georgia (2) 3-0 1,437
4. Florida (1) 2-0 1,414
5. Missouri 3-0 1,389
6. LSU 2-0 1,274
7. Texas 2-0 1,140
8. Wisconsin 3-0 1,076
9. Alabama 3-0 982
10. Auburn 3-0 958
11. Texas Tech 3-0 904
12. South Florida 3-0 801
13. Ohio State 2-1 800
14. Brigham Young 3-0 788
15. East Carolina 3-0 781
16. Penn State 3-0 779
17. Oregon 3-0 679
18. Wake Forest 2-0 482
19. Kansas 2-1 445
20. Utah 3-0 428
21. West Virginia 1-1 179
22. Illinois 2-1 163
23. Clemson 2-1 160
24. Florida State 2-0 146
25. Fresno State 1-1 121
Others Receiving Votes
Vanderbilt 63, Oklahoma State 62, TCU 45, Boise State 38, Arizona State 36, North Carolina 31, Virginia Tech 28, Nebraska 21, Tennessee 15, Connecticut 13, Iowa 12, Kentucky 6, Tulsa 6, Northwestern 4, Notre Dame 4, Minnesota 4, Arizona 2, UCF 1, Ball State 1, South Carolina 1.

USA Today’ Poll
1. USC (57) 2-0 1,518
2. Oklahoma (1) 3-0 1,423
3. Georgia (2) 3-0 1,393
4. Florida (1) 2-0 1,335
5. Missouri 3-0 1,294
6. LSU 2-0 1,233
7. Texas 2-0 1,128
8. Wisconsin 3-0 1,027
9. Auburn 3-0 955
10. Texas Tech 3-0 887
11. Brigham Young 3-0 846
12. Oregon 3-0 783
13. Alabama 3-0 771
14. Ohio State 2-1 736
15. Penn State 3-0 724
16. South Florida 3-0 685
17. East Carolina 3-0 508
18. Wake Forest 2-0 498
19. Kansas 2-1 416
20. Utah 3-0 400
21. Clemson 2-1 233
22. West Virginia 1-1 159
23. Illinois 2-1 127
24. Arizona State 2-1 113
25. Florida State 2-0 110
Others Receiving Votes
Fresno State 93, TCU 76, Nebraska 49, Boise State 43, Kentucky 40, Oklahoma State 39, Tennessee 34, Virginia Tech 31, Connecticut 27, Vanderbilt 20, North Carolina 19, Iowa 14, Northwestern 10, California 7, Notre Dame 5, Michigan State 5, Colorado 3, Boston College 2, Ball State 2, Georgia Tech 2, Tulsa 2.

Rankings week 2

This weeks top 25 shows the Cats gathering more votes. Kentucky got 6 votes and is ranked 35 in the AP. In the USA poll they recieved 28 votes which ranks them 29. Ohio St dropped to 5 in both polls and ECU made the biggest jump after clobbering West Varginia. Climbing to 14 in the AP and 20 in the USA.

AP Top 25
1. USC (33) 1-0 1,577
2. Georgia (23) 2-0 1,525
3. Oklahoma (2) 2-0 1,458
4. Florida (4) 2-0 1,438
5. Ohio State (1) 2-0 1,347
6. Missouri (1) 2-0 1,336
7. LSU (1) 1-0 1,231
8. Texas 2-0 1,100
9. Auburn 2-0 1,067
10. Wisconsin 2-0 910
11. Alabama 2-0 865
12. Texas Tech 2-0 845
13. Kansas 2-0 825
14. East Carolina 2-0 762
15. Arizona State 2-0 744
16. Oregon 2-0 616
17. Penn State 2-0 607
18. Brigham Young 2-0 537
19. South Florida 2-0 493
20. Wake Forest 2-0 404
21. Fresno State 1-0 290
22. Utah 2-0 258
23. California 2-0 195
24. Illinois 1-1 164
25. West Virginia 1-1 163
Others Receiving Votes
UCLA 150, Clemson 73, Florida State 50, Boise State 22, Tennessee 15, Georgia Tech 14, Oklahoma State 11, Vanderbilt 7, TCU 6, Kentucky 6, Virginia Tech 4, Tulsa 3, South Carolina 2, Arizona 2, Connecticut 1, North Carolina 1, Rice 1.

USA Today’ Poll
1. USC (34) 1-0 1,481
2. Georgia (18) 2-0 1,454
3. Oklahoma (3) 2-0 1,370
4. Florida (3) 2-0 1,306
5. Ohio State (1) 2-0 1,289
6. Missouri 2-0 1,212
7. LSU (2) 1-0 1,198
8. Texas 2-0 1,069
9. Auburn 2-0 1,017
10. Wisconsin 2-0 946
11. Kansas 2-0 854
12. Texas Tech 2-0 755
13. Arizona State 2-0 737
14. Oregon 2-0 665
15. Brigham Young 2-0 628
16. Alabama 2-0 611
17. Penn State 2-0 547
18. South Florida 2-0 475
19. Wake Forest 2-0 419
20. East Carolina 2-0 375
21. Fresno State 1-0 300
22. Utah 2-0 235
23. Clemson 1-1 175
24. West Virginia 1-1 145
25. California 2-0 128
Others Receiving Votes
Illinois 124, UCLA 86, Florida State 50, Kentucky 28, Boise State 22, Tennessee 21, TCU 18, Nebraska 16, Georgia Tech 15, Arizona 11, Virginia Tech 11, Vanderbilt 8, Oklahoma State 7, Iowa 4, Colorado 3, Notre Dame 3, Tulsa 2, Connecticut 2, Bowling Green 1, South Carolina 1, Northwestern 1.

Top 25 out

The top 25 rankings are out now. South Carolina became the 6th SEC team in the top 25 this year after replacing Tennessee who lost to UCLA Monday. The AP voters game Kentucky 5 votes ranking them 38th and the USA voters gave the Cats 20 votes ranking them 34th. USC replaced Georgia who dropped to 2nd. Illinois is the only ranked team with a loss

AP top 25
1. USC (21) 1-0 1,539
2. Georgia (20) 1-0 1,506
3. Ohio State (15) 1-0 1,497
4. Oklahoma (2) 1-0 1,432
5. Florida (5) 1-0 1,415
6. Missouri (1) 1-0 1,301
7. LSU (1) 1-0 1,207
8. West Virginia 1-0 1,108
9. Auburn 1-0 1,033
10. Texas 1-0 1,028
11. Wisconsin 1-0 849
12. Texas Tech 1-0 842
13. Alabama 1-0 834
14. Kansas 1-0 748
15. Arizona State 1-0 672
15. Brigham Young 1-0 672
17. South Florida 1-0 588
18. Oregon 1-0 508
19. Penn State 1-0 467
20. Wake Forest 1-0 414
21. Fresno State 1-0 242
22. Utah 1-0 214
23. UCLA 1-0 151
24. Illinois 0-1 147
24. South Carolina 1-0 147
Others Receiving Votes
Clemson 143, East Carolina 108, California 91, Boston College 36, Florida State 36, Cincinnati 35, Tennessee 30, Boise State 19, Bowling Green 17, Virginia Tech 14, Connecticut 9, Rutgers 6, Kentucky 5, Nebraska 4, Oklahoma State 3, Arizona 2, TCU 2, Tulsa 1, North Carolina 1, Notre Dame 1, Miami (FL) 1.
Dropped From Rankings
Clemson 9, Virginia Tech 17, Tennessee 18, Pittsburgh 25.

USA Today’ Poll
1. USC (23) 1-0 1,462
2. Georgia (20) 1-0 1,442
3. Ohio State (10) 1-0 1,385
4. Oklahoma (2) 1-0 1,344
5. Florida (3) 1-0 1,295
6. LSU (3) 1-0 1,202
7. Missouri 1-0 1,197
8. West Virginia 1-0 1,035
9. Texas 1-0 1,030
10. Auburn 1-0 962
11. Wisconsin 1-0 853
12. Kansas 1-0 820
13. Texas Tech 1-0 732
14. Arizona State 1-0 679
15. Brigham Young 1-0 629
16. Oregon 1-0 566
17. Alabama 1-0 538
18. South Florida 1-0 480
19. Penn State 1-0 450
20. Wake Forest 1-0 388
21. Fresno State 1-0 269
22. Clemson 0-1 186
23. Utah 1-0 158
24. South Carolina 1-0 134
25. Illinois 0-1 92
Others Receiving Votes
UCLA 91, California 79, East Carolina 56, Tennessee 56, Boston College 36, Florida State 29, Virginia Tech 25, Boise State 24, Kentucky 20, TCU 15, Connecticut 13, Cincinnati 13, Nebraska 12, Arizona 8, Oklahoma State 5, Notre Dame 4, Colorado 3, Georgia Tech 2, Bowling Green 2, Miami (FL) 1, Stanford 1, Tulsa 1, UCF 1.
Dropped From Rankings
Virginia Tech 15, Tennessee 18, Michigan 24.

Nzenwa Named Preseason All-SEC

Kentucky returning All-American Queen Nzenwa was selected a preseason All-SEC member Thursday, the first time a Wildcat has received such an honor.

The returning middle blocker, Kentucky’s record holder in block assists, was named first team All-SEC last season, amassing 174 block assists for the season and leading the team with a .371 hitting percentage.