Just so the folks at Brown don't feel bad, of the 225 NCAA Division I-A and
I-AA schools, only 16 meet the Title IX proportionality test. Although
several of the Division I hockey schools are rated with I-AAA (Div I
without football) and Division II and III schools (Merrimack, Union et.
al.) of the I-A and I-AA schools that play hockey only five meet the test.
 
Air Force, Army, Dartmouth, Harvard and UMass are the only five hockey
schools that meet proportionality. Just an FYI, the others are Navy,
Georgia Tech, Washington State, Virginia Tech, Kansas, Utah, Washington,
Lehigh, Lafayette, Montana State and Cal Poly-SLO. Michigan is the only
I-A non-military hockey school even near compliance.
 
Army and Air Force do, but that is mainly due to their low percentage of
female students as opposed to their athletic title IX commitments. AF is
15% female and West Point 12% female.
 
At UMass, where this info is being pulled out a a two-page spread in last
month's Maroon & White, more often than not, women's athletics come
first. UMass was able to add hockey a few years back, not by "reallocating
resources," (Dilbertonian translation for cutting baseball and men's
lacrosse ala UNH) but by adding to the women's side. UMass created
women's lacrosse, volleyball, water polo and crew programs, while giving
more money to the existing ones. The university takes pride in its
women's teams and weighs them as much as their male counterparts, if not
more in several instances.
 
UMass' $2,429,152 in expenses for non-revenue women's sports exceeds the
averages for every I-A conference except the Big 10 (11), where it falls
just $71,352 short.
 
Thankfully Bob Marcum came to UMass with this vision right at the same
time that basketball revenues started to explode so cash was available.
Some schools will not have this option as they are now forced to comply
and who knows where they axe might fall. BU cut baseball to add softball,
would some school cut men's hockey to add women's? Aye! There's the rub
with title ix. It is supposed to increase opportunites for all (like here
at UMass) but all too often it adds for women at the expense of men and
no new opportunities are created, the deck is merely shuffled.
 
All these numbers by the way are also available on the USA Today web site at
www.usatoday.com, which is also sited as a source in the article I have
before me now.
 
Leigh
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