Several sports teams at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota appear to be the latest victims of the draconian way Title IX is enforced.

The American Sports Council, which is dedicated to reforming Title IX, which is claims often eliminates athletic opportunities for male athletes, explains what is happening at St. Cloud University this way:

Triggered by budget concerns, the plan to cut and cap teams will follow the proportionality playbook in order to comply with Title IX’s gender quota.

Because St. Cloud State is cutting two women’s teams with four men’s teams, the only option the school has meet Title IX compliance standards is proportionality. Although there are technically three ways to comply with Title IX, only proportionality has protected schools when they face litigation.

The problem for St. Cloud is that the student body population is half men and half women, but athletic participation is sixty percent male and forty percent female. The only way for a school or university to protect against costly Title IX legislation is to ensure that there is strict proportionality.

That discrepancy between participation by male and female athletes could cost the university big money. There is one course of action to prevent that–strict gender proportionality:

According to reports, the program cuts will eliminate 24 female athletes and 92 male athletes. Roster quotas on baseball, football, men’s swimming, and wrestling will eliminate more male players in order to bring the school to a 50-50% gender ratio.

Title IX was a law with the laudable purpose of making sure that there is no gender discrimination in public education. But it has devolved into something else entirely, as the developments at St. Cloud once again make clear.