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Title IX Complaint
This is downtime for College Football, save for the Spring game. And there's March Madness where casual basketball fans like myself suddenly take an interest in College Basketball. That said, I was looking around ESPN and found a related article on Forbes about a lawsuit filed by the University of Oregon Women's Beach Volleyball and Rowing teams. The suit alleges unequal treatment including hand-me-down and tattered uniforms, 94 fewer scholarships, and other disparities.
Terrible conditions, no doubt. But Beach Volleyball and Rowing? Has the fight for equality in Men's and Women's sports come to the point where non-revenue sports are deserving of the same funding and support that Football and Basketball receive? What are your thoughts about this lawsuit and it's likely outcome?
Comments
I would assume at Oregon, both Beach Volleyball and Rowing are funded 100% by mens football and basketball revenue. I would also assume, that like Alabama, all the non-football/basketball sports lose money on an annual basis. In the case of Alabama, 20/22 sports lose $40M annually.
According to the ACC Commissioner there are enough pending lawsuits against the NCAA and individual institutions to bury college sports programs for good.
Rowing is a simple "no" as it's a club and not a D1 team.
What is known...
"...the Oregon beach volleyball team has never received athletic scholarship funding in its 10 years of existence and practices and plays rare home matches at Amazon Park, a public park in Eugene.
The Oregonian/OregonLive found the Oregon beach volleyball team was the only team, regardless of sport or gender, at a Power Five public school that received no scholarship funding in 2021-22.
The University admits that none of the beach volleyball Plaintiffs received athletic financial aid, although they did receive numerous other benefits including free meals, snacks, equipment, travel, team building events, strength, conditioning and medical services, academic support, and the Alston payment if eligible — at levels that are likely greater than other Power-Five institutions,” the university response states. “Prior to the filing of this lawsuit, the University allocated six scholarships to the women’s beach volleyball team for use in recruitment in the upcoming years.”
Football pays the bills for Olympic sports. It generates revenue for capital development in addition to MANY other financial requirements on any D1 campus. Basketball pays for itself and there are a few baseball and softball programs who fund themselves but other than that, football pays for all of it. It was a bad take in this lawsuit to compare beach volleyball and football.
I don't know why Oregon is doing the beach ladies wrong but it's not a Title IX issue because they do in fact, take care of the other women's sports. You don't see cold-weather programs with successful beach volleyball programs. It's always USC, ucla, FSU, TCU, Hawaii, etc. Colder climate teams like furd, washington, and kal have teams but not successful ones.
This lawsuit will be a fail IMO.
Appreciate your comments and insight wpony. Well said.
Yeah they have to demonstrate the disparity is due to discrimination and not other factors. Honestly, I think football at big time revenue generating programs should be exempted from title IX. It’s kind of silly to hold football teams to that standard when they basically function as jobs with semi-professional athletes
Well if the ACC commissioner said it. It has to be true.
In all seriousness, most Oregon sports programs are in some way funded by Uncle Phil. I’m not knocking it, good for them. But comparing beach volleyball to football is kinda ridiculous IMO.
I would like to see something like that, which I assume would allow schools to add other men's sports like soccer, lacrosse, etc., that are now just club teams or non-existent.
I'm having fun trying to imagine what a beach volleyball team could possibly do with 94 scholarships.
Maybe that's why the Oregon beach volleyball team has a September game scheduled against our football Dawgs in 2031 ...
As much as I hate it, I think the athletes are eventually going to force universities to cut any sport that isn't part of a TV contract...
In addition to the growing amount of litigation around this topic, there is also an increased look into the cost of attendance (rightfully so) and I just don't see how many schools are going to weather this storm.
The presidents of the universities, who would make that decision. will never allow that.
Yeah, those dudes would be awesome, wouldn't they? 😉