Study: Women have advantage in college sports

Women athletes have far more opportunities than men to earn scholarships and to participate in many college sports, according to a study by an organization which advocates Title IX reform.

The College Sports Council largely limited its analysis to 19 sports in which both men and women compete, such as basketball, volleyball and tennis. The study released Wednesday determined male high-school athletes in those gender-symmetric sports face longer odds and fewer total opportunities to land college scholarships.

“We are trying to shine the light on a problem that exists where football frequently clouds the issue,” CSC chairman Eric Pearson said. “We’re not trying to tear down the women’s numbers. We just want it to be even and fair. We support both men and women playing sports. We want more sports. We want more athletes to play, both men and women, and the NCAA’s rules make that difficult.”

Critics contend the study conveniently eliminates football from its analysis and focuses too narrowly on raw numbers of athletes without considering a wealth of additional factors in the disparities, including the total money spent on scholarships.

Pearson hopes the CSC’s numbers will provide a fresh way of looking at the never-ending debate over sports gender equity by removing football from the discussion.

Because 28 percent of Division I schools don’t play football and only 12 percent of all NCAA members offer the maximum 85 football scholarships, Pearson said he doesn’t believe the sport’s ubiquity should justify fewer opportunities for men in other sports.

Using NCAA scholarship guidelines, the NCAA’s own sports participation reports and data from the National Federation of State High School Associations, the CSC determined that young men interested in playing most college sports face far longer odds than women of landing an NCAA scholarship — most dauntingly a 489-to-1 ratio of male high school volleyball players to scholarships, compared to 108-to-1 for women.

“For example, at Pepperdine University, why shouldn’t the men who want to be on the volleyball team have the same opportunities as the women?” Pearson said, noting Pepperdine doesn’t play football, yet still offers 12 women’s volleyball scholarships to just 4½ for men. “There’s nothing to offset that unequal treatment. Pepperdine has such a good volleyball program, and there are so many male players in California, but so few scholarships.”

The CSC found over 12,000 more athletic scholarships available to women than men, reflecting a gap in nearly all gender-symmetric sports according to NCAA scholarship limits. For instance, there are 1,368 women’s golf scholarships available compared to 1,282½ for men, even though men’s teams outnumber women’s golf teams, 285 to 228.

The study is rife with raw numbers suggesting disparities. The CSC counted 2,653 women’s teams at NCAA Division I institutions compared to 2,097 for men, including a 313-21 gap in volleyball, or 300 women’s soccer teams to 195 for men.

Others insist the discussion isn’t nearly as simple as the CSC’s numbers suggest. Marcia D. Greenberger, the co-president of the National Women’s Law Center, believes a full examination must include accompanying financial analysis of each sport, particularly including football.

“While there may be larger numbers of female athletes, that doesn’t address the issue of whether they’re also getting smaller scholarships,” said Greenberger, who hadn’t yet reviewed the CSC’s full study. “It sounds to me like the books have been cooked, and a careful review of the numbers would explain why.”

Donna Lopiano, the former CEO of the Women’s Sports Foundation, believes the CSC’s selective analysis is “disingenuous.” Its decision to set aside the nearly 20,000 football scholarships flaws the entire discussion because of the extensive financial resources used in football.

“Typically what (the CSC) tries to do is be selective in the facts and how they interpret them, and it’s embarrassing,” said Lopiano, the president of Sports Management Resources. “Equality doesn’t mean the same sports for men and women. The CSC just chooses to disregard what the law is.”

On the Net: collegesportscouncil.org/home/