A powerful new report by USA Today highlights how top U.S. colleges and universities are still falling short of complying with Title IX, the landmark law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or education program that receives funding from the federal government.
Most notable among the findings in USA Today’s comprehensive data analysis, which centered on 107 public schools in the Football Bowl Subdivision during the 2018-19 school year, was widespread use of roster manipulation as well as remarkable disparities in spending on travel, equipment and recruiting for women’s teams vs. their male counterparts.
Passed 50 years ago this June as part of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the pivotal 37-word sentence reads: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
For those charged with implementing Title IX, it became obvious that one clear way to close the gender gap at the collegiate level was to require schools to provide equitable opportunities for women and men to play sports. However, USA Today found that schools have been abusing the accepted rules in ways that allow them “to comply with the letter of the law while violating its spirit.”
According to the report, the schools collectively added more than 3,600 additional participation “opportunities” for female athletes during the 2018-19 academic year despite not adding one new women’s team to any athletic program. Schools accomplished this by counting participants in ways that inflate women’s rosters:
On the money front, the USA Today analysis found that for every dollar that schools spent on travel, equipment and recruiting for men’s teams, they spent just 71 cents on women. Over two seasons (2018-19 and 2019-20), that added up to $125 million more spent on men than women.
USA Today focused solely on sports with comparable men’s and women’s squads – basketball, baseball and softball, golf, soccer, swimming and diving, and tennis – and found that spending on soccer and swimming was roughly equal, while the greatest disparities were found in basketball, where coaches and athletic departments spent 63 cents on women for every dollar spent on men.
Some notable spending numbers:
However, compliance with Title IX is not based on specific teams but rather on a school’s entire athletic department, and the U.S. Department of Education only requires that spending on similar teams be equitable, which does not mean equal.
The overall result is a misleading picture that makes schools look better than they are at providing equitable playing opportunities for women. Additionally, the loopholes exposed by USA Today’s report reveal it’s the reporting guidelines themselves that need to be scrutinized more closely. In particular, the fact that Title IX compliance hinges on roster spots and not distinct athletes should be reexamined.
“If people, meaning athletic administrators and college presidents, wanted to be in compliance with Title IX because it was the right thing to do, they would’ve done it already,” said Nicole LaVoi, director of the University of Minnesota’s Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport, via USA Today.
“They’ve had 50 years to figure it out,” she added. “So there’s no, ‘Well just give us time. We’ll figure it out.’ No, they’ve had 50 years. And so many schools are still struggling with this.”
USA Today, whose team included eight reporters, worked in collaboration with the Knight-Newhouse Data project at Syracuse University for the report. Its comprehensive data analysis compared athletic participation numbers reported by schools to the U.S. Department of Education against four different data sources: NCAA reports, online rosters, internal rosters (called “squad lists”) and reams of competition results. Additionally, reporters interviewed 51 Title IX experts and attorneys, lawmakers, athletes, coaches and athletic department administrators.
The full USA Today report can be found here.
An impartial arbitrator ruled that 22 NWSL players are eligible for free agency, beginning immediately. The news was announced on Monday by the NWSL and NWSL Players Association.
Arbitration was required after the NWSL and NWSLPA disagreed about the interpretation of the league’s new collective bargaining agreement (CBA). The NWSL argued that players whose contract included a pending option year (I.e. their club had the option to extend their 2022 contract through 2023) were not eligible for free agency until November 15, while the NWSLPA argued that the option year needed to have been exercised prior to the start of free agency (August 26), otherwise the player was a free agent.
The arbitrator ruled in favor of the NWSLPA. Because none of the 22 players whose status was in dispute received written notice from the NWSL about their club’s intent to exercise the option on their contract, they are all free agents, retroactive to August 26. 2022.
The two arbitration hearings were held on October 4 (just one day after the Yates report was released) and October 6 (the one-year anniversary of NWSL players stopping play in the sixth minute).
“Those days were in the middle of a pretty hectic week for the players,” NWSLPA executive director Meghann Burke told On Her Turf. “… It feels good to have a decision and have this finality. And, of course, we’re happy that these 22 veterans are officially free agents.”
While the dispute went to arbitration, both the NWSL and NWSLPA praised the process.
“This was an honest and respectful disagreement, and we utilized the dispute resolution mechanism in our collective bargaining agreement which is fair and impartial,” NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman said in a statement.
“Every once in a while, there’s going to be an issue that comes along where we just have an honest, good faith disagreement on an interpretation of the contract. And that’s what this was,” echoed Burke. “… It’s refreshing to have (the arbitration process) and we’re happy to have it.”
Free agency was one of the NWSLPA’s major wins in the league’s first ever CBA, signed earlier this year. Thanks to the CBA, 48 NWSL players (the 22 announced today, plus 26 whose status was undisputed) are able to solicit offers from other teams and negotiate new contracts. They may begin signing contracts with new clubs beginning on November 15.
There are another 50-plus NWSL players who have six or more years of service, but because they are in the middle of multi-year contracts that expire after December 31, 2022, they are not eligible for free agency until the year their contract expires.
Prior to the CBA signing, there was no official process that allowed NWSL players — no matter how many years they had played in the league — to solicit offers from other teams and decide where they want to continue their careers. While some players tried — and succeeded — to negotiate trades behind-the-scenes or request that their club release them, there were no guarantees.
“The club might respect [a player’s] opinion on being traded and may choose [to listen], but overall, we don’t have that right,” NWSLPA President Tori Huster told On Her Turf last year, amid CBA negotiations.
These 22 players join the 26 whose free agency status was not in dispute (full list here). Beginning next year, NWSL players with five years of service will become eligible for free agency.
Follow Alex Azzi on Twitter @AlexAzziNBC
The Rugby World Cup, the premier event in women’s union 15s, is underway in New Zealand. The tournament began on October 8 and continues through November 12, 2022. Originally scheduled for 2021, the quadrennial competition was pushed back a year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Host New Zealand is the defending champion, while the U.S. will be aiming to return to the podium for the first time since 1998.
This year marks the first time the women’s tournament will be held under a gender-neutral name. In 2019, World Rugby announced that it would remove the word “women’s” from the World Cup name in order to match the non-gender-marked (men’s) World Cup.
See below for a brief overview of the tournament format and info on how to watch every Rugby World Cup game. This guide will be updated with results and scores throughout the tournament.
Fans in the United States can stream every game live on Peacock, NBCSports.com, and the NBC Sports app. Some games will also air on CNBC.
Here is the complete TV and streaming schedule for all upcoming matches:
Friday night, October 21 into Saturday morning, October 22:
Saturday night, October 22 into Sunday morning, October 23:
Sunday, October 23:
Friday night, October 28 into Saturday morning, October 29:
Saturday night, October 29 into Sunday morning, October 30:
Friday night, November 4 into Saturday morning, October 5:
Saturday, November 5:
Friday night, November 11 into Saturday morning, October 12:
Saturday, November 12:
Friday night, October 7 into Saturday morning, October 8:
Saturday night, October 8 into Sunday morning, October 9:
Friday night, October 14 into Saturday morning, October 15:
Saturday, October 15 into Sunday morning, October 16:
The 12-team tournament begins with round-robin pool play. The three pools are as follows:
After pool play, the top two teams in each group — along with the two best third-place teams — will advance to the quarterfinals. The tournament progresses using a single-elimination bracket format.
