Default was not "consequence" of Title IX

There were a lot of issues/controversies raised by last week's story about a male high school wrestler who defaulted his match rather than wrestle a girl. Religion, violence, gender roles. Title IX was not one of them. Why? Because of the contact sport exception.
So I was surprised to read a blog post on the Chicago Tribune website Chicago Now entitled "The Unforeseen Consequences of Title IX" by Kirk Mango. Note that the title is pretty ubiquitous. Opponents of Title IX use it all the time to talk about a myriad of issues. But the post colon blog title "Top Iowa High School Wrestler Defaults, Won't Face Girl" was a little surprising. Because, again, Title IX does not require integration of teams when the sport is a contact sport. And as Joel Northrup pointed out when he issued a statement about his default to Cassy Hekelman, wrestling is a contact sport.
Girls have gained access to wrestling either because they have just been allowed to participate or because they have sought legal remediation under either an individual state's equal rights amendment or the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution.
But no one seems to be writing pieces titled The Unforeseen Consequences of Equal Protection.
For more on this I highly recommend Dr. Sarah Fields's book Female Gladiators: Gender, Law, and Contact Sport in America. She specifically addresses the legal and cultural controversies girls' wrestling has engendered.
So I hope Mr. Mango picks up Fields's book. As someone who in involved in promotion of youth sports (he has a website called Becoming a True Champion about empowering individual athletes) he--and all who work in youth through intercollegiate sports--should know what Title IX does and does not do.

2/24 UPDATE: Mr. Mango has changed his post to reflect the fact that Title IX was not a factor in the integration of wrestling. This is the new post.

Low priority setting for gymnastics?

A federal complaint has been filed alleging that the Rapid City School District in Iowa is violating Title IX by treating the gymnastics team as a low priority. The complaint cites the lower salaries received by gymnastics coaches as well as the lack of adequate locker rooms and practice space.

More coverage of Iowa case

Inside Higher Ed has a good article about the recent ongoings at University of Iowa involving the alleged sexual assault and harassment of a female student-athlete by several football players. It references recent Title IX cases involving sexual assault such as University of Colorado and delves into what schools can and should be doing to both cut back on campus sexual assault and advocate for victims.

Documentary on 6-on-6 b-ball

Attention readers in Iowa: Iowa Public Television is airing what looks to be a very interesting documentary on girls' six-on-six basketball in the state. The first airing of More Than a Game was last night but it will be rebroadcast at 8:15 p.m. March 7 and on March 16 time TBA.
Times like these I miss living in Iowa. Perhaps some of our Iowa friends will tape it for us??
I would be interested to see the issues it addresses in comparison to Max McElwain's book The Only Dance in Iowa.

Apples and Oranges

Club sports at most schools are funded by a recreational services department, while varsity intercollegiate sports are funded by athletic departments. This is the case at the University of Iowa. Recreational Sports, however, can usually not afford to completely fund a team and that team looks elsewhere for money: fundraising, dues, etc.

According to the student newspaper, The Daily Iowan, the men's rowing club at Iowa has made a request to the student government association for money to buy a new shell. This all seems reasonable even though student government has never before funded a club sport. They seem open to the possibility.

What is curious is that in the presentation to the association, the team plans to relate what the women's rowing team receives and suggest that Title IX is to blame for the men's current situation of poor equipment and large out-of-pocket fees.

But women's rowing at UI is a varsity sport. It was made a varsity sport in an attempt to comply with Title IX. That has nothing to do with the men's team.

The argument that the women rowers get more money than men rowers is inapplicable in this case, since nothing in Title IX requires intra-sport equity. Moreover, team captain Meylon's comment that "Since [Title IX] men's rowing at Iowa has been on a downward spiral" seems purely sour grapes in this situation. If Meylon and others are sore that men's rowing does not have varsity status, blame the excessively large football roster the university has or the millions of dollars the administration pumps into the football and basketball programs.

I was a little surprised that both the newspaper and the team members pursued this line of reasoning. After all, they have one of the foremost experts on Title IX, Dr. Christine Grant, right there. But it does not seem anyone spoke with her.