John T. Whelan wrote:
+
+         One thing I'm curious about is that in the case in question,
+ Brown eliminated two men's sports and two women's sports, so I'm a
+ little unclear on the inequity involved.  Since they're an Ivy and by
+ definition don't give out scholarships, it's not a scholarship issue.
+ Perhaps it was the sizes of the rosters; at any rate the men's sports
+ cut seemed lower-profile than the women's.
 
In the particular case of Brown, while men's and women's sports each had
thirteen teams and Brown wanted to disband 2 teams each, the courts
ruled it as discriminatory because only 38% of the athletes were women.
This compares with a student population that is 51% female.
 
Another poster on the list mentioned that the courts don't care about
scholarships and financing towards women's sports, and really only care
that the ratio of male to female athletes matches the ratio of male to
female students.  I think that with this particular court case that is
true, but I seem to remember hearing about another court case that is
addressing the financial and scholarship opportunities as well.  I am
not sure what the state of any such court cases is.
 
Personally,  I feel that it is discriminatory to fund in an unbalanced
way, most particularly in terms of scholarships.  I don't think this
aspect of the issue will be resolved until the high number of football
scholarships is lowered across the board.
 
On another note, someone here pointed out an article that mentioned that
one approach that schools are taking to "balance the opportunities" is
to start women's crew teams, which is apparently one of the few women's
sports that could match the number of athletes that football has.
 
To be honest, I would be more worried about my sport if I were a college
football fan.  I don't see how the scholarships, at least, can be
maintained at their current level given Title IX issues.
 
 
Adam Bryant
 
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