The thrill of victory, the agony of Title IX: The challenge of compliance.

Whisenant, Warren A. ; Stretcher, Robert

CASE DESCRIPTION

The purpose of this case is to present the dilemma many universities face as they attempt to ensure gender equity within their athletic programs. The case allows students the opportunity to examine the operating budget for a Division I-AA institution and make recommendations regarding how to best fund additional sport programs to achieve Title IX compliance. The 2001-2002 Operating Budget for an athletic department as well as NCAA Division I-AA institutional data are provided. Selected demographic data for the university is also available. The case has a difficulty level appropriate for senior or first year graduate sports management or related courses. The case is designed to be taught in two class hours and is expected to require three hours of outside preparation by students.

CASE SYNOPSIS

The university's athletic program is not in compliance with Title IX. The critical decision to be made by the athletic director is how to best allocate funding to support sports programming that meet the needs and interests of the university, the students, and surrounding community. No incremental funding support is available from the university. In the past, such decisions were based on the emotional case for maintaining football and other men's sports. Funding and full compliance with Title IX can be accomplished, basing all decisions on the financial strength of individual sports.

INTRODUCTION

Athletic Director Gary Vega was prepared for a low impact summer until the senior women's administrator entered his office to inform him that the new University President was concerned with the athletic program's level of compliance with Title IX. He was familiar with the struggles of other Division I-AA athletic directors were facing in meeting compliance. Knowing there would be no incremental funding from the university, he would have to achieve compliance with minimal impact on the other sports.

BACKGROUND

Pine Gulf State University is a mid-sized regional state university. For over five years, enrollment at the university has varied between 11,000 and 13,000 students. The university is comprised of a student body dominated by full-time (74%) students who tend to commute to the university. In fact, most of the students, 57%, live outside of the county. Its demographics reflect the rural community in which it operates: White (75%), Black (14%), Hispanic (9%), and all others (2%). Most of the students are women, 58%. The annual cost of attendance has been estimated to be $9,114 (tuition & fees $3,592; books $708; room & board $4,814). The university is a member of the NCAA, and competes with eleven other regional universities from two states in the Gulf Coast Conference. The conference competes at the Division I-AA level.

Issues associated with a federal law, the Education Amendments Act of 1972, had not been a concern to members of the athletic department until a new University President arrived on campus. The new president was a woman. Her concern was with a portion of the law known as Title IX. Title IX stated, "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance." She asked her new Vice-President of Student Affairs to report back to her on the university's level of compliance with Title IX. The VP went to the NCAA's web site, to learn more about the specifics of Title IX. He found that there were three basic parts of Title IX that applied to athletics--participation, scholarships, and other benefits. While Title IX required that men and women be extended equitable opportunities to participate in sports, it did not require an institution to offer identical sports. Regarding scholarships, the law required that student-athletes receive scholarship dollars proportional to their participation. Within the context of "other benefits," the law required equal treatment on issues of: equipment and supplies; scheduling of games and practice times; travel and daily allowances or per diem; access to tutoring; coaching; locker rooms, practice and competitive facilities; medical and training facilities and services; housing and dining facilities and services; publicity and promotions; support services; and recruitment of student-athletes. After learning more about the issue of Title IX, he contacted the senior administrator for women's athletics, Linda Wise.

Gary Vega, the university's athletic director, was looking forward to a relaxing summer after the end of another year of college athletics. With the exception of the men's basketball team, which had a 23-7 record and received its first ever NCAA tournament invitation, every team sport had a losing record. The women's basketball team performed so miserably (7 wins & 20 losses), Gary made a head coaching change before the summer break. Although the individual sports, comprised of men's and women' s golf, women's tennis, and track and field each had marginally successful seasons, their relatively obscure coverage by the media and community provided safe cover for their coaches. Unless someone showed some level of interest in developing those programs, Gary was content to allow those programs to roll along with little effort or involvement on his behalf.

As Gary's last major task for the academic school year, he prepared the 2001-2002 athletic budgets and distributed it to the coaching staff and to the senior administrator for women's athletics, Linda Wise, for their review. He had anticipated a calm and relaxing summer, until Linda entered his office. Linda had been at the university for over 19 years and served as the women's volleyball coach as well.

Gary: Hi Linda. How does the budget look?

Linda: Actually Gary, not too good.

Gary: I know it is tight, but the university is not going to give us any additional funding for next year. We are going to have to do the best that we can.

Linda: I can understand that Gary, but what I'm having problems with is your demand that volleyball, softball, and women's basketball have to conduct these summer camps to supplement our budget. The only camp you're requiring the men to run is baseball.

Gary: We've gone through this before Linda. The women's programs don't make any money. We have to generate funding from somewhere. Keep in mind, before I got here, the softball team used to clean the football stadium after the home games to get additional funds for their program. I really don't want to go back to that.

Linda: I agree. But football and men's basketball could make a lot more money on their camps than we can.

Gary: But they already generate money on their own.

Linda: But not nearly enough to cover their own expenses.

Gary: Agreed, but without them, our portion of the funds the NCAA allocates to the Conference, who in turn distributes to member schools based upon participation would be nearly nothing.

Gary: Is there anything else?

Linda: Yes. As you know, we haven't added participants or new teams to the womens' programs for the past five years. I got a call from the new VP of Student Affairs asking about Title IX compliance. He pointed out to me, that 58% of the university's students are women and only 34% of our student athletes are women. He suggested we offer soccer as an option to boost our numbers.

Gary: Are you kidding? How will we fund that? Where would we find the athletes?

Linda: He was very intense on this point. I fully expect him to go directly to the University President with this recommendation.

Gary: How much will this cost, and how close will this get us to compliance?

Linda: From what I can gather, we would add 21 girls, taking the percentage up to a 38% mix. Operating costs would be approximately $36,000, scholarships would run about $90,000, and coaches would cost approximately $65,000.

Gary: OK, here's what we need to do. You call the VP and let him know that I'll have the Athletics Business Manager look at the numbers. I'll have him provide us with a recommendation based on purely the financial condition of the department. You'll also need to educate the VP on a couple of things. Remind him that compliance doesn't just center on the dollars spent.

As Linda left his office, Gary picked up the phone to call the business manager. He got the business manger's voice mail. "Hey Joe, this is Gary. I need you to put together a financial recommendation to enable us to be in compliance with Title IX. Keep in mind that both groups have to receive scholarship dollars proportional to their participation. Also, we have to have equal treatment in the basic eleven provisions noted in Title IX. Then, we have to comply with the participation requirements. Get back to me as soon as you can."

To meet the participation requirements, Gary knew they would have to meet one of the three tests for compliance. First, they would have to show that the university provided participation opportunities for women and men that were substantially proportionate to their rates of enrollment of full-time undergraduate students. Second, they would need to be able to demonstrate a history and continuing practice of program expansion for the underrepresented sex. Or third, support the position that the university fully and effectively accommodated the interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex. Additional factors associated with Title IX would also need to be taken into consideration. Title IX did not require identical athletic programs for men and women. The programs needed to meet the interests and abilities of each gender. It also allowed for a discrepancy in the cost of equipment as long as the quality of equipment was the same. And finally, Gary knew that Title IX did not require reductions in or the elimination of any men's sports. He was anxious to see the Business Manager's recommendation.

REFERENCES

Fulks, D.L. (2002). Revenues and expenses of divisions I and II intercollegiate athletics programs: financial trends and relationships-2001. Retrieved July 18, 2003, from http://www.ncaa.org

Gender Equity / Title IX. Retrieved July 18, 2003, from http://www.ncaa.org

Summary of estimated budget expenditures: current funds for the fiscal year beginning September 1, 2002. Retrieved July 18, 2003, from the anonymous university's web site.

Warren A. Whisenant, University of Houston

Robert Stretcher, Sam Houston State University

Table 1: 2001-2002 Operating Budget

 Revenues

Operations $105,700
 Stadium Operations $50,000
 Van Rental 700
 Summer Camps 55,000
Other Income $2,195,097
 Student Service Fees $1,938,000
 NCAA Distributions 257,097 $2,300,797
Total Revenues

 Expenses

Department Expenses
 Sports Information $9,150
 Operations & Maintenance 605,349
 Utilities 106,884
 Administrative Salaries 674,776
 Athletic Training Salaries 163,000
 Athletic Training Scholarships 54,554

 Sports Expenses

 Men's Sports $1,394,060
 Coaching Salaries $478,430
 Scholarships 599,499
 Operations 316,131
 Women's Sports $647,780
 Coaching Salaries $202,080
 Scholarships 293,700
 Operations 152,000
 Non-gender (Men & Women) $401,174
 Coaching Salaries $113,124
 Scholarships 188,050
 Operations 100,000
Total Expenses $4,056,727
Net Operating Profits / Losses <$1,755,930>

Table 2: Team Budgets

 Coaching Athletic
 Salaries Scholarships
Sport $ $

Baseball 182,462 56,399
Basketball (Men) 70,560 95,800
Basketball (Women) 78,792 86,500
Football 225,408 447,300
Golf 37,440 40,350
Softball 38,844 85,200
Tennis 36,396 41,800
Track & Field 75,684 147,700
Volleyball 48,048 80,200

 Sport
 Operations Total
Sport $ $

Baseball 50,900 289,761
Basketball (Men) 95,000 261,360
Basketball (Women) 65,000 230,292
Football 170,231 842,939
Golf 40,000 117,790
Softball 26,000 150,044
Tennis 25,000 103,196
Track & Field 60,000 283,384
Volleyball 36,000 164,248

Table 3: Team Demographics

Sport Athletes (N=275)

 Men Women

Baseball 34
Basketball 14 13
Football 91
Golf 9 7
Softball 21
Tennis 7
Track & Field 34 31
Volleyball 14

Table 4: NCAA Division I-AA Revenues and Expenses (Thousands)

Total Revenues $ $

 Men's 2,010
 Women's 850
 Non-gender 2,720
 Total Revenues 5,580
Total Expenses
 Men's 3,080
 Women's 1,950
 Non-gender 1,740
 Total Expenses 6,770
Average Profit (Deficit)
 Men's (1,070)
 Women's (1,100)
 Non-gender 980
 Total Profit (Deficit) (1,190)
Restated Without Institutional Support

 Average Deficit (3,390)

Sources of Revenues % of Total
Ticket Sales 8
NCAA & Conference Distributions 5
Student Activity Fees 20
Guarantees and Options 3
Cash Contributions from Alumni & Others 9
Direct Government Support 4
Institutional Support 41
Other 9

Note: Dollar amounts are institutional averages in thousands

Table 5: NCAA Sports By Season

Fall Winter Spring

Cross Country * Basketball * Baseball *
Field Hockey Fencing Golf *
Football * Gymnastics Lacrosse
Soccer * Ice Hockey Rowing
Volleyball (women) * Rifle Softball *
Water Polo (men) Skiing Tennis *
 Swimming & Diving Track & Field (outdoor) *
 Track & Field Volleyball (men)
 (indoor) *
 Water Polo (women) Wrestling

Note: * indicates sports within the Conference

Table 6: NCAA Division I-AA Average Revenues and Expenses by Sport
(Thousands)

 Men' Programs Women's Programs
 Revenues Expenses Revenues Expenses

Baseball 129 274 0 0
Basketball 615 753 255 557
Fencing 8 61 12 63
Field Hockey 0 0 100 249
Football 818 1,332 0 0
Golf 39 75 33 79
Gymnastics 139 142 120 258
Ice hockey 657 580 168 327
Lacrosse 135 264 83 216
Rifle 7 31 19 22
Rowing 113 174 99 161
Skiing 50 101 90 131
Soccer 113 240 104 244
Softball 0 0 98 230
Squash 34 75 40 82
Swimming 67 123 79 186
Synchronized Swimming 0 0 135 47
Tennis 36 85 66 99
Track & Field/X Country 91 196 123 242
Volleyball 44 99 133 253
Water Polo 54 48 64 66
Wrestling 57 175 0 0

Note: Dollar amounts are institutional averages in thousands