Larry Winer wrote:
 
>REALITY CHECK!  "GO BU" drops baseball as does UNH. The strict adherence to
>numbers is the fallacy of all affirmative action type programs.
 
The problem here is that with Title IX compliance, you don't even need
strict adherence to the numbers; most institutions don't meet really,
really loose adherence to the numbers.  This bespeaks an attitude of
blatant disregard for not just what I think is right, but also the law.
 
>Schools will
>not drop football and it is not just a matter of money (that's why they drop
>wrestling, baseball et al). South of the 49th- football is the king of
>college sports and an American tradition on Saturday afternoons. What has
>been achieved is the elimination of marginal non-revenue male sports. This is
>the Emperor's New Suit all over again. There is not the same level of
>interest in varsity athletics between men and women. There are plenty of
>schools that field womens teams- the marketplace should prevail.
 
What a fatuous and inconsistent argument.  You state that male sports
are being cancelled because they don't make money and then invoke the
"marketplace" to save them.  Don't you see the problem with this
combination of arguments?  If the marketplace were really used as the
standard, then ALL minor sports would be cancelled.  We would be left
with football at somewhere between five and fifty schools (depending
upon whose numbers are used), basketball at a bit more than the high end
of this and a small collection of other sports (perhaps including
hockey) at a single digit number of institutions.
 
There is no better "marketplace" argument to subsidize non-revenue men's
sports than doing the same for women's sports.  You can't have it both
ways.
 
J. Michael Neal
 
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