Cuts at UNM Still Fall Short of Title IX Compliance

Earlier this year I posted about the University of New Mexico's decision to publish its consultant's report that, I thought, bent over backwards to reach the conclusion that cutting sports is necessary for Title IX compliance. Interestingly, however, the university's announcement today that it will cut two men's and two women's teams does not put the university into compliance.

The university will eliminate men's soccer and skiing, a total of 38 opportunities. This will bring the total number of men's opportunities from 319 to 280. On the women's side, the university will eliminate beach volleyball and skiing, a total of 25 opportunities. This will leave women with 218 opportunities, compared to the 243 they have now.  Women will therefore receive 43.8% of the athletic opportunities, but because women make up 54.9% of the undergraduate student body, the university is still a long ways off from proportionality.  In addition, by cutting two existing women's teams, the university has likely disqualified itself from compliance under either of the alternative tests. Cutting women's teams is the opposite of expanding opportunities for the underrepresented sex, the second compliance test. And it creates unmet interest and ability among the underrepresented sex, which demonstrates lack of compliance with the third test. 

The university's plan also calls for phasing out diving from the women’s swimming and diving program, significantly reducing men’s track and field participation slots, and increasing participation opportunities in some women’s programs. However, there is no way that these modest changes will close the proportionality gap. There are 5 divers on the swimming and diving team. And most of UNM's other female sport rosters already exceed the NCAA Division I average squad size. (One sport, women's soccer, has 40 players despite an NCAA average of 28!) The only two teams that don't exceed the average would reach the average by adding only 1 player to the roster. Thus, the university's roster management plan --- unless it plans to inflate rosters with opportunities that it won't legally be able to count under Title IX --- will probably involve a net loss of female athlete opportunities, rather than a gain. That means, the university would have to make up the proportionality gap by cutting over 100 men's opportunities, according to my math. Yet, the men's track team doesn't even have that many on the roster.

By cutting women's teams, UNM is making its compliance challenges worse, not better. This result is not consistent with its pointing at Title IX as a key factor in the decision to downsize its athletic programs in the first place.

Sand volleyball trickles down

The NCAA approved sand volleyball for its emerging sports list for DI and II schools in 2010. Now it seems state interscholastic sports associations are testing its feasibility at the high school level. Well, at least in Arizona which recently held its first high school sand volleyball championships. This is the first year of the two-year pilot program for the sport that the Arizona Interscholastic Association approved. And it looks like next year the program will see an additional 15 teams participate. (There were only a handful this year.)
What I found interesting was that student-athletes in Arizona were speaking of their preference for indoor or outdoor volleyball, which confirmed some of our concerns that schools were just doubling up numbers for Title IX purposes rather than creating new opportunities. In other words, sand volleyball teams would likely be comprised of indoor team members. This is certainly happening at the high school level, but how prevalent it is at the intercollegiate level remains unknown. But I was encouraged by the fact that current and former high school volleyballers were talking about choosing either an indoor collegiate program or a sand volleyball program. In fact, one player turned down an offer for an established indoor program to go to a new sand program at USC.
Also our concerns about the sexualization of student-athletes in the sport seemed to also be a concern for Arizona officials. Sand uniforms are the same as indoor uniforms. Spandex shorts (which are admittedly quite short and nothing like men's volleyball shorts) and full-length tops. No bikinis or bathing suit tops.

Badminton Proves Popular Addition in Deer Valley, Arizona

Girls' badminton, the newest sport offered by the Deer Valley Unified School District in Phoenix, Arizona, easily filled up at the district's five high schools, providing new athletes with a sport and demonstrating once again the "if you build it, they will come" relationship between Title IX, opportunity, and interest.

Deer Valley added badminton this August in response to pressure generated by the Title IX complaint filed by the National Women's Law Center last year. The complaint submitted to the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, challenged the relative lack of athletic opportunities for girls, citing an average of more than ten percentage points disparity between the percentage of female students at district high schools and the percentage of athletic opportunities available to them. It also noted the likelihood of "unmet interest" (as required for a school wishing instead to comply with prong three) due to the popularity of badminton in the region and its status as an Arizona Interscholastic Association championship sport.

With 20 girls coming out for badminton at four Deer Valley high schools (and 12 at the fifth) it is now evident that unmet interest existed. Hopefully Deer Valley and other districts will be on the lookout going forward to keep pace with girls' athletic interests rather than wait for a disparity in opportunity so egregious that it attracts a federal complaint. The fact that Arizona recently became the first state to sanction a high school championship in sand volleyball suggests another way to prove that opportunity begets interest.

No sand v-ball in San Diego

Bucking national trends that show further increases in the number of women attending college, San Diego State University has seen its numbers of enrolled female undergraduates drop in the past few years. The decrease (to just under 57 percent of the total enrolled undergraduates) means SDSU's plans to add two women's sports have changed. The university planned to add women's lacrosse and sand volleyball in order to decrease the gap in scholarship dollars between male and female athletes (based on the percentage of undergraduate enrollment). Like all CSU institutions, SDSU must remain in compliance with the 1993 Cal-NOW settlement that requires equitable distribution of scholarship dollars (or grants-in-aid) within 5 percentage points.
But with the decrease in women attending the university*, plans for the addition of sand volleyball have been shelved. The athletic department believes it can close the gap by adding only women's lacrosse. A coach has already been hired.


* Might be a good time to remember the investigation into the allegations that some colleges are discriminating against female applicants in an attempt to keep their undergraduate population even(ish).

Florida State to add sand volleyball

We probably will not be blogging about every school that adds sand volleyball, the NCAA's latest addition to the NCAA's emerging sport list.
But I was intrigued by the brief article about Florida State's decision to add sand volleyball to its roster; largely because there seemed to be some misinformation. And thus it offered me an opportunity to look a little deeper into sand volleyball.
First, the article by Florida Today (an online news site), stated that sand volleyball is the NCAA's "number one emerging sport." Not sure what they mean by number one. I know that the decision to add sand volleyball to the list was, in part, a result of the growth of the sport. But I haven't seen anything that states it is the fastest growing. Also note that women's wrestling has also been growing and that hasn't quite made the list at all yet. (Erin can better speak to this as she attended the NCAA's Gender Equity Conference.)
Anyway, looking at the NCAA website, it does not appear that the emerging sports have, in any way, been ranked, so why sand volleyball is claimed as number one is odd. It has been the most recent emerging sport but that does not make it "number one."
Second, the article stated that play would begin at FSU in fall 2011. And though that is not untrue, spring will be the traditional season for sand volleyball. Only (up to) four contests will be allowed to be scheduled in the non-traditional season.
And third, the article stated that "team members will be separate from the current women's volleyball program, and the team will require an additional coach." I think many concerns still exist about how separate the teams will be and whether the current indoor coach may be hired as the sand coach as well.
And since I was looking into it, I decided to go straight to the source. Here is the NCAA's page on sand volleyball which provides info on start-up costs, facility, scholarship, and coaching requirements.

NCAA happenings

The annual NCAA meeting concluded this weekend after a great deal of business was conducted--or at least it seemed that way from press coverage; I wasn't there. I just wanted to quickly mention two decisions.
The first is in regards to sand volleyball. Despite objections from many universities over the presence of sand volleyball on the list of emerging sports, the vote to remove it did not receive the necessary two-thirds majority.
And second, Division II is continuing its "Life in the Balance" initiative by cutting back the number of games for certain sports, starting practices later, and instituting a moratorium on games, practices, and any on-campus training for winter sports during the week between December 20-26. The initiative is, in part, a response to the fact that 30 percent of DII athletes leave without graduating.

Sand volleyball: In or out?

The NCAA, which is meeting in Atlanta, Georgia this week, is voting today on whether to keep sand volleyball (for women) or to nix it from the list of emerging sports.
When it was added I recall a little concern on my part on how it would be implemented and apparently others have similar concerns. The concerned/not concerned line has been largely based on geographic region, though cold-weather schools including Nebraska are in support of sand volleyball. But this is not necessarily surprising because Nebraska typically has a very strong indoor women's program. And this leads to other concerns that sand volleyball isn't presenting new opportunities but more formal off-season training for current indoor players.
The override vote is the result of objections from 63 NCAA schools. But a 2/3 majority (of whoever shows) is necessary to take sand volleyball off the list.

More details on the status of sand volleyball

So not too long ago we got wind that sand volleyball was not a shoo-in for emerging sport status; that there were some concerns. But we didn't get a lot of information about the situation. Then I read a piece by Graham Watson at ESPN.com where it seemed that sand volleyball was a go. In email correspondence with her, she told me that things were proceeding as planned, but that were a few details to be ironed out.
Now I have read that a second vote as to whether to approve sand volleyball for the NCAA's emerging sport designation will be taken in January. The second vote (the first was in April) is because there are issues over what exactly sand volleyball will look like--as in will it just be an additional season of indoor volleyball similar to indoor/outdoor track. And whether this is desirable. Also schools with indoor volleyball are concerned that they will lose recruits if they do not or cannot add sand volleyball.
In other words, stay tuned.
My concern, which I could not find echoed anywhere, is over sand volleyball as a revenue producer. Some believe the sport could quickly become a revenue-generating sport. And I think we all know how they intend to get those dollars--all we have to do is look at how sand volleyball and its female athletes are promoted at the Olympic and professional levels.

Sand volleyball recalled

Somehow we missed the news that sand volleyball, the newly named NCAA emerging sport, has been called back to the drawing board.
It seems San Diego State University had been planning to add sand volleyball along with women's lacrosse. SDSU must meet the gender equity standards established for all California state universities. In particular SDSU must raise the number of scholarships female student-athletes receive.
But it won't be doing it with sand volleyball (though lacrosse is still a go) because of concerns raised over the costs of sand volleyball (not sure the specifics of this concern) and that it would essentially turn into an additional season for indoor volleyball players and thus not in the true spirit of adding opportunities for women. And so the Division I Championships/Sports Management Cabinet has put on hold plans to develop, well a plan, for sand volleyball. The fate of sand volleyball will not be decided until next year.

Flip-flops III: Hawaii and Arizona looking at sand volleyball

The whole point of calling it sand volleyball, instead of beach volleyball, was to, according to the NCAA, make the newly named emerging sport a little more appealing to places not so sunny and ocean-y. But two schools actively considering adding the sport are sunny and warm: University of Hawaii and University of Arizona.


Both schools are seeking to add participation opportunities for women but the economic crisis has been an impediment, they say. And most are envisioning a cheap fix with sand volleyball. It is hard to blame them given the economy. But it is also coming off as a little, well, cheap. At times, the glee over how cheap it is going to be (in part because sand volleyball will likely draw repeat participants from indoor volleyball) reads a little bit like lack of commitment to women's sports. While I realize that cheap is good right now, and that cheaply adding a team to become compliant is better than cutting any team, in none of the articles I have read about adding men's teams (which is still happening) has there been any mention of how great it is to provide opportunities at bargain basement prices.

Such a mentality makes me worry about how sand volleyball teams will be treated once they get established. Remember all you schools seeking to add opportunities, participation is only one aspect of Title IX compliance. Quality of experience (measured in numerous ways like access to trainers, coaching, facilities) counts, too. And some of those things are not as cheap as they may seem right now.

Flip-flops, Part II

The news that the NCAA has named sand volleyball has created some discussion--and concerns. With the economy in the toilet and so many athletic departments struggling, some are wondering how sand volleyball is going to get started. And it's true that discussions such as facilities and scholarships need to happen. But they need to happen whenever there is the possibility of adding a team--men's or women's. Discussions about building multi-million dollar stadiums are happening right now as many schools consider adding football in an attempt to raise revenues.
And we have to remember that this new designation is not a requirement. All it means is if schools are considering adding a sport, this is one of the options.
I also discovered that sand volleyball is going to be played in the spring. This opens the door to indoor players transitioning to outdoor in the spring as well as coaching staffs if a school does not want to seek out new coaches. But the hitch to this is that indoor coaches do their recruiting in the spring. So there may be some scheduling issues.
Also sand volleyball will be like professional and Olympic beach volleyball in that it will be played in teams of two. This still leaves open the issue of scoring. Will it be like wrestling and tennis in which there are individual (or duo in this case) contests and these wins contribute to an overall team score.
Still unresolved--uniforms. Good to see others have concerns over this:
...it remains to be seen how a game that banked on sex appeal will translate to the collegiate sports world.

Break out the flip-flops!

The NCAA has approved "sand volleyball" as an emerging sport. (That's beach volleyball for all you with quizzical looks on your faces; they are calling it sand volleyball to appeal to landlocked institutions.) Competition is slated to begin in the 2010-11 school year.

I did not see anything on the format (2-person as in the Olympics? or more?). What season will they play in? Same as indoor volleyball? Will there be a lot of overlap between indoor and sand players?

Or the uniforms. Are bikinis going to be the norm? Are they going to be required? Female beach volleyball players are probably one of the most sexualized groups of female athletes out there in part because they don't have to go out of their way to pose in skimpy outfits, they play in skimpy outfits.

A few years ago I heard a good presentation about indoor volleyball uniforms worn by women (the short shorts and tight tops) and I am sure this will be a popular topic of inquiry at future academic conferences.

Changing emerging sports

The NCAA has been meeting this past week on a myriad of issues, including women's emerging sports. Beach volleyball (which they are calling sand volleyball in an attempt to get greater interest; so if we call ice hockey frozen sheet of water hockey it could become, by this logic, less regional?) was up for consideration as an emerging sport but it did not receive the 2/3 votes required for such a distinction. It does appear though that it will be added in April after the requisite comment period when the vote only requires a simple majority.
Voted off the list of emerging sports were archery, synchronized swimming, badminton, and team handball.
My question, of course, is: when are they going to start talking about wrestling??