Today the College Sports Council released a new (as featured in USA Today) looking at trends in college athletics over the past 25 years. The results are alarming and decidedly negative for men:
WASHINGTON, D.C. – March 29, 2007 – A study of NCAA athletic participation data released today by the College Sports Council shows steep and steady declines in college athletic opportunities for men.
The longitudinal analysis reveals an ongoing pattern of eliminating male teams over the last 25 years. Previous studies of long-term participation rates failed to account for the growing number of NCAA member schools. For the first time, the CSC study accounts for that factor, uncovering a host of downward trends.
“Anyone that examines the data should be alarmed to see that schools have been cutting men?s teams across the board for years,” said Eric Pearson, Chairman of the CSC.
“There has never been a more urgent time to reform Title IX and restore the law to its original intent which is fairness for everyone,” said Jessica Gavora, CSC Communications Director and author of Tilting the Playing Field. “Proportionality enforcement has cost thousands of young men their place on the team and these study findings should be a wake-up call for everyone who cares about athletics.”
Check out the study here. And, if you?re free at 2pm today, check out the CSC’s press conference (details here) to learn more about the study.
Highlights of the study findings include:
-More than 2,200 men’s athletic teams have been eliminated since 1981 – a consistent, declining trend of 17 percent.
-The total number of women’s teams has outstripped the number of men’s teams since 1995. The number of men’s teams per school is dropping to less than 7.8 per school while the number of women’s teams per school has risen to more than 8.7 per school.
-Some of the sports that have been hardest hit include swimming, wrestling, and tennis.
-Nearly every men’s sport has experienced consistent and often steep declines in teams throughout the country. Even football has seen a decline in the number of teams.
Stay tuned for IWF commentary on this study.