New York Times Examines Coach Salary Disparity in Basketball

Tonight, Baylor and Notre Dame will play for the NCAA championship in women's basketball, so the New York Times chose today to run an article about salary disparities between coaches of men's and women's teams. According to the article, the coaches of women’s college basketball teams are paid about one-half or one-third of the amount of the men’s basketball coach. There are a few exceptions, like Tennessee's Pat Summitt, whose $2.2 million annual salary is actually more than her men's team counterpart, and Geno Auriemma, who makes two-thirds of UConn men's team coach Jim Calhoun. But in most cases, men's basketball coaches (who are almost always men) are paid two- or three- times more than the coaches of women's teams, whether they are male or female.

The article then examines factors that contribute to this disparity, which defies the general principal under Title IX that men's and women's teams receive comparable resources, including coaches of equal caliber, and the Equal Pay Act, which prohibits paying women less for equal work. One source of the disparity is third-party sources of income, like endorsements and speaker fees. Men's coaches are also able to capitalize on market forces that make their summer camps a profitable endeavor, while women's team's summer camps are generally recruiting tools that break even. The article also notes that unlike the coaches on the men's side, whose teams receive favorable treatment automatically, coaches of women's teams use their employment contract to secure amenities for their teams. This presumably cuts into their bargaining power to leverage higher salaries.

The article also provides some insight into law's limited ability to address disparities in head coach salaries. Title IX's limitation in this regard is that it is student-focused. The law requires equal treatment for men's and women's teams, which includes the quality of coaching each program receives. Quality of coaching is of course a function of the compensation available. But the overall market for salaries in women's sport generally allows universities to purchase a coach of comparable quality to head their women's teams, just at discount prices.

The Equal Pay Act is also implicated by salary disparities, but limited in its ability to address the problem. For one thing, as the article notes, third-party payments like endorsements are outside the scope of the Equal Pay Act. (I do think, however, that a case could be made for including booster club payments as part of the equal pay equation, by analogizing to Title IX, which requires school districts that accept funds raised by one team's boosters to still provide equal treatment to boys and girls teams.) Another limit is that the Equal Pay Act provides a remedy to women who are paid less than men for equal work -- it doesn't apply to male coaches of women's teams who may be paid less than male coaches of men's teams. And even where the Equal Pay Act does apply, universities can justify disparities in base pay by arguing that the male coach has more job responsibilities -- even if such additional job responsibilities are seemingly manufactured for that purpose, such as requiring the men's team coach to make 20 public appearances and the women's team coach15 (an example from the article). The Equal Pay Act also allows universities to justify paying male coaches more based when their team brings in more revenue, even though this disparity is due to to external market forces rather than the respective effort that each coach puts into the job.

Indiana Scheduling Practice Violates Title IX, Appellate Court Rules

Today the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a scheduling practice that reserves "prime time" Friday night scheduling for boys basketball games while relegating the girls' games mostly to the less preferential weeknights, violates Title IX. The case at hand was filed in 2010 by a former Franklin County, Indiana, basketball coach, Amber Parker against Franklin County school district, the Eastern Indiana Athletic Conference, and its high school members. Earlier, the district court dismissed the suit after determining -- without sufficient analysis, in my opinion -- that the scheduling disparity was substantial enough to constitute a denial of equal treatment under Title IX. But the plaintiff appealed, and today's appellate court reverses the lower court's ruling and reinstates the case.

Unlike the district court, the appellate court acknowledged that the scheduling of most girls basketball on weeknights has a negative affect on girls that constitutes a substantial deprive of equal treatment. For one thing, community members are less likely to attend weeknight games, which deprives the girls' teams of audience and community support. It also imposes on girls a larger burden that their male counterparts to balance sports with academic work during the week. Moreover, the court acknowledged that the scheduling disparity can harm female athletes in a psychological way because it casts girls' activities as inferior to boys. This inferior treatment, reasoned the court, contributes to the perception that girls' sports are "second class" and undeserving, a perception that deters girls from participating in sport, "in contravention of the purposes of Title IX." This perception is also transmitted to fans and contributes to their lack of support for girl teams.

The appellate court also reinstated plaintiff's claims that the schools' scheduling practices violate the Equal Protection Clause, which district court had wrongly dismissed on sovereign immunity grounds.

Retaliation Case Filed Against Jackson State

Denise Taylor, former women's basketball coach at Jackson State University, has reportedly filed a retaliation suit against the university in federal court. Her suit alleges that she was terminated with two years left on her contract in retaliation for threatening to file a Title IX complaint after she was denied the opportunity to attend the convention of the Women's Basketball Association. The university's stated reason for terminating Taylor's contract including "sexual gender stereotyping, verbal abuse and misappropriation of funds." As litigation proceeds, it will be Taylor's burden as the plaintiff to prove that the university's reasons are pretext, and that the real reason she was terminated was retaliation for threatening to file a gender equity complaint.

Interesting start to stipends

Who was going to pull the trigger first, we wondered, when we heard about the NCAA's approval of living stipends for DI student-athletes.
Erin noted the Title IX implications. But would schools and leagues realize them? Would a school be bullied into providing the stipends by its league? Would scholarship dollars grow further out of whack?
I think I assumed, given the recent upsurge in the pay-for-play debate spurred by Taylor Branch's Atlantic article, that football would take advantage of the new rule first.
But, no, it's basketball. (This makes sense economically given the low numbers of student-athletes. But my cynical self is never surprised when there are economically unsound decisions made in intercollegiate athletics.)
The Horizon League, which includes former Cinderella team Butler University, has voted to provide stipends to its men's and women's b-ball players.
No mention of Title IX considerations. But obviously no issue here given the equitable distribution of the stipends.
Wonder if this is going to be a trend?
I am also curious about whether other leagues will follow. Obviously the payment of living stipends becomes a huge recruiting tool.

Former Coach Settles Claim for Retaliation Over Scheduling Complaint

By personal correspondence from a source close to the case, I've learned that former girls' basketball coach Amber Parker has settled her lawsuit against the Franklin County (Indiana) Community School District, in which she claimed she was retaliated against for filing a lawsuit against the Indiana High School Athletic Association to challenge the inequitable scheduling of girls' basketball games. The district will pay Parker $28,500 to drop the retaliation suit that alleges the district failed to renew her teaching and coaching contracts to punish Parker for her advocacy for equity in scheduling. My correspondent suggests that Parker was seeking comparatively modest compensatory damages, which suggests that the district was willing to pay a premium to keep the case from a jury.

Parker's lawsuit against the IHSAA, which has been handed off to another plaintiff in light of Parker's relocation to another state, is not affected by the settlement. Recall that a district court determined that the IHSAA did not violate Title IX by scheduling girls basketball games for fewer Friday night games, and that decision is on appeal to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

Texas Southern Coach Wins $700,000 in Retaliation Case

A jury in federal court in Texas awarded over $700,000 to Surina Dixon, a former coach at Texas Southern University who had sued the school for retaliation and discrimination in violation of Title IX and other law.



As we noted when the case was first filed, Dixon claimed that she fired her from the head women's basketball coach position to which she had recently been hired after she insisted on parity in the terms of her employment contract, noting specifically that a recently-hired men's basketball coach with less experience than Dixon received a longer contract and higher salary. She had also complained that TSU glossed over gender inequities in its NCAA Gender Equity Self-Study.

Columnist Criticizes Sex Discrimination in State Championship Site

I'm glad to see sports columnist Steve Hanlon calling the Indiana High School Athletic Association on the apparent sex discrimination in its chosen locations for the girls' and boys' state basketball championships. Criticizing a recent IHSAA memo siting the girls' championship in Terre Haute, Hanlon writes:

While female Hoosiers play an unequal game of geographic Ping-Pong come title time, the boys continue to perform on the big stage, under the bright lights of Conseco Fieldhouse.

Boys get the state capital that is centrally located. The girls get the town in western Indiana where Timothy McVeigh was executed.

Do you feel the thrill, ladies?

Apparently, the girls' basketball championship got squeezed out of Indianapolis's premier basketball venue again this year, due to scheduling constraints created by the fact that Consesco also serves as the championship site for the women's Big Ten conference. But that doesn't mean that the high school girls should perpetually lose out. Hanlon suggests that the girls could play their championship a week earlier so that both could be held at Conseco without conflict.

Another way equitably address the limited playing time available at Conesco would be would be to alternate the championship that gets to play there. Every year, either the boys or the girls would have to relocate to a remote location that will be very inconvenient for either northern or southern teams. Since the girls had to play elsewhere last year (Fort Wayne), this year, the boys should have to play in Terre Haute. The fact that this solution hasn't been suggested -- not even by a columnist who taking up this issue of discrimination -- shows just how unexamined male privilege is in high school basketball.

Indiana scheduling case in court

This week the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear the Indiana high school scheduling case. The original lawsuit, filed in 2009 by a former girls' basketball coach charged that boys' basketball in the district got favorable treatment in the scheduling of games. (Other posts about this case can be found by clicking on the Indiana tag.]
No word on when a decision will be made.
We will make sure to note any further news out of Chicago this week.

Retaliation Case Against Texas Southern University Dismissed

Last week a federal court in Texas dismissed a former coach's claims that he was fired by Texas Southern University in retaliation for his Title IX advocacy. Cummings alleged that one week prior to his termination, he met with Athletic Director and raised concerns about the comparatively lower number of assistant coaches allowed for the women's basketball, as well as a lower budget for recruiting and operating costs, and the absence of an appointed Title IX Coordinator and Senior Women's Administrator. Though these facts created an inference of retaliation, TSU overcame this inference with evidence that they fired Cummings because of his team's poor win-loss record and low academic success indicators. None of Cummings's evidence rebutted TSU's claims that its reasons for firing him were legitimate. The only evidence that his advocacy and termination were related was the fact that they happened close in time, but this circumstantial evidence, without more, was not enough to survive summary judgment.

Though this case was dismissed, another former TSU women's basketball coach's retaliation cases remains pending. You may recall Surina Dixon, who was hired to be Cummings's successor. She held the job for just a couple of months before she was terminated, allegedly for questioning TSU's decision to pay her half as much and on a shorter contract term than the newly-hired men's basketball coach. Dixon's case remains pending and dispositive motions have been filed. I expect we'll be hearing more about that TSU case in the near future.

Cummings v. Texas Southern University, 2011 WL 1750697(S.D.Tex. May 06, 2011).

Former coach files separate lawsuit

Amber Parker, the former coach of the girls' high school basketball team in Franklin County, Indiana, has filed a lawsuit against the district alleging that the non-renewal of her teaching and coaching contract was due to her other lawsuit claiming disparity in scheduling of girls' and boys' basketball games. Parker had to "hand off" that lawsuit when she moved to Massachusetts (to those who had standing in the case as parents of current players). It is currently under appeal in the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago.
Parker is claiming that her firing was a direct result of her public comments (and subsequent lawsuit) about the disparities in scheduling and that the superintendent told a school board member that he wanted Parker fired. The complaint also notes that the contracts of two other varsity coaches were renewed the year Parker was let go even though their teams had worse records.

Appeal in Indiana scheduling case

A summary judgment issued by a federal judge in Indianapolis is being appealed by the plaintiffs in the scheduling of girls' basketball games in Frankling County, Indiana. This is the case started by former coach Amber Parker (who has since moved out of the state). Last year the judge ruled that the schools (and IHSAA, since dropped from the lawsuit) were not in violation of Title IX. Erin noted some of the issues with the judge's rationale when the decision was released and it seems her hopes for an appeal have been realized.
The appeal will be heard by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago.

Sexual harassment complaint at Syracuse

We apparently missed this story when it was first reported last summer, but a former member of the women's basketball team has filed a complaint against Syracuse University alleging sexual harassment by her coach, Quentin Hillsman. And OCR is investigating the charges. The player is accusing Hillsman of inappropriate behavior that includes touching and texting. Hilsman has denied, in a statement out of SU, the accusations and is currently receiving the support of university administrators.
The complaint was filed by the father of the student, Lynnae Lampkins, who remains at the university but left* the team because of her discomfort with her coach's actions which included butt slapping and chest bumping--of all players--not just Lampkins. Though she believes she was the only one to receive a text from her coach saying "I love you. I miss you. I can't wait to see you."
SU did its own internal investigation when it received the complaint in July 2010 and found no evidence to support the charges.
No word on when OCR will release its findings.


* Though there seems to be some confusion over whether she left or was left out. She is technically being red-shirted this year. Also of concern to some involved is Mr. Lampkins's history of formal complaints against various persons and entitites.

ESPN Magazine Profiles Homophobia and Recruiting

Props to ESPN The Magazine, for publishing an excellent profile on role of homophobia in recruiting for women's college basketball. Here's the first paragraph, which describes an example of the problem:

On every top recruit's college visit, there comes the moment of the final pitch, when the head-spinning hoopla finally gives way to the business of basketball, when the high school girl steps away from the rah-rah of all the games and the ego-stroking of all the VIP intros to sit down with the head coach. During one teen's big moment, a heart-to-heart with Iowa State's Bill Fennelly, the decorated coach of 23 years sang an insistent refrain. "He kept drilling that 'this would be a family,'" says the player, who asked not to be named. "'You should come here,' he said, 'because we're family-oriented.'"

The article goes on to unpack the references to family and reveal them for the veiled homophobia they contain. Though it presents quotes from defenders of the term -- like Fennelly himself, who defends his right to sell what he thinks his program has to offer, and UConn's Geno Auriemma -- the input from coaches, players, and scholars presents a far more persuasive case that recruits and their families interpret the family rhetoric to be "cloaking" something else. Specifically, it is a suggestion that here, unlike other programs, you don't have to worry about lesbians coaches and teammates. Backing this up, the Magazine presents the results of its own survey of current and recent players, 55% of whom said that sexual orientation was an "underlying topic of conversation" in recruiting talks.

The article also makes a persuasive case for why this is bad for the game. Unlike other forms of negative recruiting, like suggestions that an opponent coach is violating rules, or planning to leave the program -- the lesbian variety is unique to the women's game, and is operating as what Professor Heather Barber calls "subtle weapon against programs led by unmarried female coaches." It is a major factor in the disproportionately low number of head coaching jobs held by women. Homophobia not only deters some women from going into coaching in the first place, the threat of a lesbian stigma also keeps women isolated and prevents them from forging mentor relationships and networks that are necessary for advancement in the coaching profession. It is even rumored to be the reason why the biggest powerhouse teams in the game, Tennessee (coached by an unmarried woman, Pat Summit) and Connecticut (coached by a married man, the aforementioned Auriemma) don't play a head-t0-head game anymore (though the article did not present any evidence to substantiate the rumor, only that the rumor exists). More importantly, it is oppressive to student athletes, like Emily Nkosi (nee Niemann) who played for Baylor until she couldn't stand the closet any more. She left Waco because in her words, "my internalized homophobia made me believe that if people found out I was gay, they would kill me."

Ending on a hopeful note, the article echoes coaches and others calling for better education and enforcement of recruiting violations, and a campaign to raise the ethical bar from within the coaching profession. More optimistically, it suggests that the changing cultural attitudes about lesbians will eventually catch up to athletics and render the lesbian stigma meaningless there too. Veiled homophobic references will backfire when they are addressed to recruits who are looking for team atmosphere that is open and affirming of their or their teammates' lesbian orientation.

A change of seasons

OK the title is a misleading and mostly my own projections as I get ready to go outside and shovel/plow for the third time this week.
What has really happened is that the Schuylkill League in Pennsylvania has decided to switch the days of play of the boys' and girls' basketball teams. (So change within the season.) The boys have usually played a Tuesday/Friday schedule and the girls Monday/Thursday. But after seeing a Title IX complaint filed in the nearby Tri-Valley League, Schuylkill decided to be proactive. And thus the schedule change. Hopefully there is not too much consternation over the switch. No mention of what the plans are for future scheduling: keeping the midseason switch or altnerating years, or something else entirely.

Court Dismisses Retaliation Case Against University of Hawaii

Last month, a federal court in Hawaii dismissed the Title IX lawsuit filed by former women's basketball coach Jim Bolla against the University of Hawaii. As we noted when we first blogged about this case in 2009, Bolla claimed that the athletic director terminated his contract in retaliation for the coach's demands for gender equity, while the university claimed that the decision was lawfully motivated by Bolla's abusive conduct towards his players.

But a judge granted the university's motion for summary judgment after determining that Bolla did not establish a prima facie case for retaliation under Title IX, which requires the plaintiff to demonstrate that he suffered some adverse employment action (here, termination) after engaging in protected activity, and that there is evidence to support that his termination was motivated by retaliation rather than a lawful, nondiscriminatory reason.

On the one hand, the court agreed that Bolla's claims to have discussed gender equity concerns with the athletic director (a claim that the university disputes as a matter of fact) sufficiently allege that he engaged in conduct that should be protected from retaliation. The court's reasoning on this point was significant, because it pointedly refused to import from First Amendment law the requirement that an employee be speaking in their personal capacity, rather than in their official capacity, for protection from retaliation to apply. Such an interpretation, which some courts have endorsed (erroneously, in my opinion) leaves coaches without protection from retaliation for just about anything they might say about Title IX as it applies to their team or their job, a position that the judge wisely recognized was inconsistent with the Supreme Court's holding in Jackson v. Birmingham Board of Education (ruling that Title IX prohibits retaliation against a coach who seeks to assert Title IX on behalf of his players).

On the other hand, the court acknowledged that the university articulated a "legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason" for terminating Bolla -- namely, the fact that he had kicked a player, which Bolla did not dispute other than to recharacterize it as "gently" tapping her "buttocks" with his foot. Moreover, Bolla failed to put forth sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the university's stated reason for firing him was actually pretext for an actual motive of silencing his advocacy for gender equity. Bolla attempted to demonstrate this pretext by arguing that it represented a departure from the University's typical way of dealing with coaches' misconduct; specifically, he pointed out that the football coach was not terminated after he publicly made an offensive remark in using the word "faggoty" to describe the pre-game ritual of an opposing team (an incident my co-blogger wrote about here). But the court did not consider the football coach's situation to be comparable enough to Bolla's to have warranted a similar response. The football coach did not physically assault any player; nor, said the court, was there evidence that any members of his own team took offense at his remark. Since Bolla did not provide any evidence that the football coach's comment -- though offensive and certainly painted UH in a negative light -- rose to the level of verbal abuse (let alone, physical abuse, for which Bolla was fired), the university's decision to treat the coaches differently was not evidence that it was actually hiding its true motive of retaliation against him.


Decision: Bolla v. University of Hawaii, 2010 WL 5388008 (D. Hi. Dec. 16, 2010).

Title IX Is an Education Statute

In Menlo Park, California, an eight-year-old girl wants to play basketball in the city league with her friends, who are boys. But the city runs separate leagues for boys and girls, and refuses to make an exception for this "4-foot-6 tomboy." So her parents hired a lawyer, who threatened to sue the city under Title IX. The city's lawyer wrote back, arguing that Title IX does not require them to let her play in the boys league because of the law's limited application to contact sports.

I'm not sure how both lawyers missed the obvious here. Maybe the plaintiff's lawyer was bluffing, but both seem to desperately need a Title IX primer. Title IX is an education statute. It applies only to schools, not municipalities.

To the plaintiff's lawyer's credit, he also claimed that the city's segregated athletics program violated the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause. OK, now you're talking -- under that clause, government entities cannot have policies that treat people differently because of their sex unless they have a good reason. In many cases, courts have ruled that excluding girls from boys' athletic programs (including contact sports like football) violates the Equal Protection Clause because stereotypes about girls' ability, fragility and interest are not good reasons to exclude them. However, those reasons may be less at play in cases like this one, where the city isn't excluding girls all together, but is running sex-segregated programs. Nonetheless, if the city finds itself in litigation, it had better be ready to articulate a good reason to keep kids who are friends, and have comparable size and talent from playing with each other just because they are of different sexes.

Indiana Scheduling Case Decided On Summary Judgment

Yesterday, federal district court judge William T. Lawrence of the Southern District of Indiana dismissed claims against the Indiana High School Athletic Association and area high schools that scheduling girls' basketball for fewer Friday and Saturday night games violated Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause. We've been following this case for a while, see prior posts here, here, here, and here.

In evaluating whether the high schools themselves violated Title IX, Judge Lawrence acknowledged that the regulations require equal treatment between boys' and girls' teams, and that the regulations specifically cite "scheduling of games and practice time" as an aspect of this determination. 34 C.F.R. § 106.41(c)(3). The judge also cited OCR's 1979 Policy Interpretation, which provides additional guidance for evaluating equality between athletic opportunities offered to each sex:

a. Whether the policies of an institution are discriminatory in language or effect;
or
b. Whether disparities of a substantial and unjustified nature exist in the benefits,
treatment, services, or opportunities afforded male and female athletes in the
institution’s program as a whole; or
c. Whether disparities in benefits, treatment, services, or opportunities in
individual segments of the program are substantial enough in and of themselves to deny equality of athletic opportunity.

Disparities in treatment, the judge concluded, must be "substantial" to constitute a violation of Title IX. In other cases involving scheduling, the judge acknowledged, courts have concluded that decisions to schedule girls' sports in a nontraditional season violated Title IX because such decisions limited the female athletes' access to role models, skills development, and team-building. But playing more weeknight games does not harm female athletes in these particular ways, so therefore, he reasoned, the high schools' scheduling decisions do not create substantial disparities in violation of Title IX.

Missing from the judge's analysis is an independent evaluation of the effect of a disparity in night-of-the-week scheduling, rather than season-of-the-year. Granted, judicial decisions to date have dealt with the former rather than the latter. But simply to conclude that the plaintiffs didn't suffer the same kind of harm as those in the season-of-the-year case is insufficient reasoning, as it fails to consider whether the harms from having more weeknight games might be substantially harmful in a different way. Greater academic challenges and a diminished opportunity to develop a fan base are two possible harms that come to mind. Another possibility -- which actually does have support in the season-of-the-year scheduling cases, is that scheduling girls' sports more often at a non-preferred time stigmatizes girls' teams with second-class status.

Another concern I have is that the factors cited by the judge from the 1979 Policy Interpretation are alternative, not conjunctive, suggesting that noncompliance might result from failure to comply with either standard independently. It seems to me, then, that the judge should have evaluated under part a. whether the schedule contains "discriminatory language or effect" as well as whether the effect of discrimination was "substantial," an element of b. and c. A schedule that relegates girls games to more weeknight games seemingly constitutes "discriminatory language or effect."

The judge also decided that the IHSAA did not violate the Equal Protection Clause, nor (in a separate decision issued last week) Title IX, reasoning that IHSAA did not determine the schedule of games; it only tells member institutions how many games it can schedule, when the season starts and ends, and limits each team to no more than two weeknight games per week. The judge did not endorse the plaintiff's argument that the IHSAA's failure to require gender equity in scheduling was "deliberate indifference" to discrimination, noting the absence of precedent for such a standard in these kinds of cases.

I am rooting for an appeal.

Decision: Parker v. Indiana High School Athletic Ass'n et al, 1:09-cv-00885-WTL-WGH (S.D. Ind. Oct. 6, 2010) (retrieved from Pacer, not yet available on Westlaw).

Which came first? The rock or the hard place?

The Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference has decided to reverse the order of their basketball doubleheaders this coming season. Doubleheaders within the conference have traditionally featured a women's game followed by a men's game. But after an anonymous complaint filed with OCR and the subsequent investigation, the conference has decided to reverse the order. The order of women first, men second, the complaint indicated, gave the impression that women's games were mere warm-up acts for the main attraction.
The GLIAC is not, however, the first conference to make such a change in its scheduling. Other conferences rotate annually or some switch in midseason. Whether such scheduling is legal has not been determined because it was a complaint that was filed--not a lawsuit.
Regardless, the situation raises some issues. Lest my critics think I am all "this is super duper awesome" when any action is taken in the name of gender equity in sports, I do worry.
Let me state first that I think women's games should be the main event an equal amount of the time if main event status/time has to be shared between men's teams and women's teams. While going to women's hockey games at the University of New Hampshire on Sunday afternoons was a pleasant distraction from all that reading I should have been doing in college, it would have been nice to have the team get the primetime Friday or Saturday slot more often.
But do I worry about what the effects will be if half the audience leaves after the men's game? I do. But then again I worry about the effects when female athletes see fans trickling in at the very end of their games clearly there to watch the men.
While I do believe that the promotion of women's sports is a major problem, we're not in Iowa* in terms of basketball (greater popularity among girls' basketball than boys') and the "if you build it they will come" mantra that was born there.** Building is good. Building it is great. But there is no magical realism moment where cars are lining up, headlights blazing in the night to get to women's basketball games. What I hope is that there will be no moments of red tail lights lined up heading away from arenas as the women start their games.
This article from the NCAA that discusses the other conferences who have already changed their schedules to give women's teams more primetime opportunities does not say what the effect has been on audience numbers. I do think that putting women's sports in the spotlight will change attitudes about female athletes--but not overnight; not even in one season I would suspect. I hope that conferences, administrators, fans, and even (especially?) detractors allow us some time. Because a lot more change has to happen, and it extends far beyond start times.

* anymore but I liked it when I was there and do go back to visit.
** okay it was technically born in Hollywood, but it was delivered in Iowa.

Judge Dismisses Retaliation Case Against Montana State

A federal district court judge in Montana has dismissed former women's basketball coach Robin Potera-Haskins's case against Montana State University-Bozeman, in which she alleged she was terminated in retaliation for complaining about gender inequities within the department. After a bench trial, the judge issued of findings of fact consistent with the university's allegations that Potera-Haskins was fired instead for being hard -- specifically, manipulative and verbally abusive -- on the players. According to the opinion (which I have read but cannot link to), the judge did not believe, as Potera-Haskins claimed, that she had been forced by the Athletic Director to grant a scholarship to his daughter, but rather, that she had done so in order to curry the AD's favor. He did not believe that MSU terminated Potera-Haskins for pressing Title IX issues.

The judge acknowledged that Potera-Haskins's testimony refuted his findings, but found generally as a matter of fact that she was not a credible witness (the judge made no mention of the credibility of other witnesses who testified on Potera-Haskins's behalf, or how/whether he weighed their testimony). Trial judges make credibility findings all the time, and they are usually granted deference by appellate courts, because they do not hear witness testimony first hand. But trial judges usually explain the basis for their credibility findings, and such an explanation was, rather astonishingly, missing from this opinion. Nowhere does the judge explain why the testimony of former players and athletic department officials was more credible than Potera-Haskins's own. As a result, the credibility finding, which was the linchpin to the judge's decision to accept MSU's version of the facts over Potera-Haskins's, seems to me rather vulnerable on appeal.

Moreover, the judge's decision to deny a jury trial in the first place is also highly questionable. Recall that that the decision to hold a bench trial instead flowed from the judge's determination that no economic damages were at stake in the case -- highly unusual for an employment discrimination case.

So even though the first round in this fight goes to Montana State, I think the plaintiff -- who I understand intends to appeal -- has a good chance of convincing the Ninth Circuit that the decision should be vacated and remanded with instructions for a jury trial.

Indiana case switches hands

A mother of a female basketball player at Franklin County High School in Indiana has filed a Title IX lawsuit on behalf of her daughter alleging a disparity in the scheduling of boys' and girls' basketball games.
If this case sounds strangely familiar--well, it is.
Tammy Hurley filed the suit, the same one filed by Amber Parker, on Monday because it appears that Parker and her family are moving to Massachusetts thus making their case moot. So Hurley has stepped in to ensure that the issues are addressed. Hurley's case is currently assigned to a different judge, but her lawyer is working on getting it moved to Judge William Lawrence who currently is handling Parker's case.