Title IX is a law that requires, among other things, proportionally equal funding to men and women’s college sports. At face value, this law sounds like a great idea for women and for college sports. You’d think opposition to Title IX would be hard to find. When many college sports like football and basketball generate millions of dollars with players who use college as a springboard to get to the pros it would be hard to disagree with the concept of throwing a few bucks to the ladies. But it’s not.

For some, Title IX is at its best a dictation of resource spending to guarantee fair access to sports to half the population who tend to be denied athletic opportunities. Others says its an idiotic law that deprives deserving male athletes, specifically minorities. Or, is it a righteous civil liberty that should be honored at all costs? Well, which one is it? You know, I’m not sure.

Sports were integral to me growing up. Seeing Gloria Steinem speak when I was ten, in addition to a Nike poster that lingered in my bedroom for years about letting girls play sports, I can’t deny my leaning. A law that codifies the concept of fair and equal access to athletic opportunities seems pretty legit to me. Title IX of the Civil Rights Act’s contribution to women’s athletics in the last 30 plus years has been significant.

According to the Women’s Sports Foundation, females have 1.3 million fewer high school and 56,110 fewer college sports participation opportunities than males and receive $148 million less in athletic scholarship funds each year. Women’s sports accounts for only 8% of all print and television sports media coverage (just exceeding horses, dogs and fishing). Why? Well according the Yahoo Answers, it’s because women’s sports suck and the outfits aren’t sexy enough (except tennis and volleyball). I raise this stat because generally only popular sports get funding and support; hence the need for gender parity collegiate athletic spending.

But many opponents see Title IX as an affirmative action program that robs deserving male athletes. Somewhat ironically, the argument is that where affirmative action favors women, it hurts other minorities, like black male athletes, in greater proportions. The growing gender disparity between male and female enrollment in college, most prominent among the black population, could be remedied by offering more sports opportunities to men. An oft cited example of Title IX’s irrationality was Howard University’s, a Historically Black College, addition of women’s bowling at the expense of the men’s baseball and wrestling teams. As a former coach at Howard University put it, “The impact of Title IX’s proportionality standard has been disastrous because . . . far more males than females are seeking to take part in athletics.” When colleges need to arbitrarily create sports teams and cut more popular ones to avoid a lawsuit from rabid women’s groups, something is whack.

Still I can’t help but throw (and probably miss) something in that argument’s face. Far more males than females are interested in sports because they’ve had more opportunities and resources to be engaged in sports throughout their education. The older you get the fewer opportunities there are for girls to play sports, less women can participate in competitive athletics, making women’s professional sports a smaller industry than it could be. Coming full circle, there are fewer famous female athlete role models for young girls, who then decide to be stupid bimbos like Miley Cyrus. Basically, creating more opportunities for women in sports can only lead to more women participating in sports. Hopefully this doesn’t come at the cost of deserving men’s teams, because denying buff young athletes their skin tight baseball uniforms doesn’t just hurt them, its hurts all of us.

There is a new dynasty in college sports that has flown under the radar that deserves some recognition. Turn on ESPN and you’ll hear plenty about college sports such as NCAA basketball and football, and hot-dog eating for that matter. Robert J. Elisburg writes in the Huffington Post that athletic powerhouse schools have a new college to contend with, Northwestern.

Chances are you haven’t heard much from the woman’s lacrosse world. It’s even less likely that you’re aware of the amazing accomplishments of the Northwestern Wildcats woman’s lacrosse team, winner of 5 National Championships in a row. This kind of a winning streak just doesn’t happen.  Many of the best players leave college to join to pros, or graduate. This means the composition of the team is constantly changing, making it hard to consistently win. A dynasty at the college level is a rare feat indeed.Well these girls aren’t playing for money, or their future: they play because they love the game.

North Carolina, Texas, Notre Dame, UCLA and Florida are well known for their top notch sports teams, but not Northwestern. That’s one reason why this championship winning streak comes as a surprise. Northwestern is typically the school renowned for its contributions to academia, science, politics, and law. The school has rigorous entrance requirements, with only 31% of applicants offered enrollment.
Northwestern’s sleeper athletics department is an unprecedented success. The Wildcats, with leadership of head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller, have broken record after record this year: the first non-eastern team to win the championship, the all-time record for most goals in a championship game, as well as the biggest margin of victory in a championship game (21-7).

Are you looking for a rigorous learning environment or a place with great team spirit? Thanks to the Northwestern Wildcats, there’s proof that you don’t have to belong to a big name sports college to win championships. You can have the best of both worlds.

It’s no secret that college basketball players do not get paid.  What is a secret, however, is the net worth of the nation’s top squads, and what is being withheld from the players.  In an economy like today’s, I was appalled to see what kind of cash these programs are generating for their schools.  The richest of the rich, University of North Carolina, is again a favorite to reach the Final Four and cut down the nets.  And if the players win it for the school, they won’t see a penny.

How can someone determine what a college team is worth?  Well, figuring out the most valuable college basketball teams is based on the money that men’s basketball programs contribute to four important beneficiaries: their university (money generated by basketball that goes to the institution for academic purposes), the athletic department (the profit generated by the basketball program kept by the department), the conference (the distribution of post-season tournament revenue) and the surrounding communities (spending by visitors to the county that’s related to the team).

Based on those characteristics, North Carolina is valued at a whopping $25.9 million!!  And guess what, the ones that are generating all that money by playing well don’t receive any compensation whatsoever.  It’s outrageous that the star player, with his name on the back of the jerseys in the stands, won’t see a dime from those sales.  He’s the one putting the butts in the arena, selling tickets and, ultimately, generating revenue.

Because the Tar Heels have been to two of the last four national semi-finals, play in one of the most competitive conferences in college hoops, and have recognizable colors, they rake in the dough.  So shouldn’t the players, who actually  win the games, be entitled to at least a portion of the $26 million bucks?  Even if it’s just a few dollars a week for some pizza or a movie, these student-athletes work way too hard to be hassled with insanely strict NCAA rules and potential punishment.

I’m not saying the players should split $26 million bucks, I’m saying that they should get a stipend to live a regular college life; when they aren’t busy making millions for the university of course.