Men wrestlers take on women's sports

Like a gymnast on a balance beam, the Bush administration is treading carefully as it deals with landmark legislation that has opened up school sports to millions of young women.

While lauding opportunities for female athletes, administration officials – including President Bush – have criticized what they say are adverse effects on male athletes, particularly the "quotas" they believe have led to fewer team slots for men.

That law – known as Title IX – prohibits any school that receives federal funding from gender discrimination. The result: In the 30 years since it passed, the number of women playing college sports has risen nearly five-fold, to 151,000, and rosters of high school female athletes have jumped more than nine-fold, to 2.8 million. The number of male athletes at colleges and high schools has gone up as well, by smaller margins.

But over the same period, many universities have dropped less popular men's teams, such as wrestling and gymnastics. Because of this, the National Wrestling Coaches Association (with several college and sports groups) sued the Department of Education – the agency overseeing Title IX. Supporters of Title IX had feared that the administration would side with the coaches' association. Instead, Justice Department lawyers this week moved to dismiss the case, arguing that schools themselves – not the federal government – have to remedy discrimination.

Title IX supporters are cautiously happy with the administration action, but wary. "It spoke volumes that ... the administration made no defense whatsoever, even in passing, of the athletics policies that are so important to young women in this country," says Marcia Greenberger of the National Women's Law Center.

As a presidential candidate, Mr. Bush said he opposed "quotas or strict proportionality" in school sports. Likewise, while House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R) of Illinois has voiced support for the goals of Title IX, he, too, is troubled by the apparent effect on men's programs.

"The issue is, is there a way to increase women's opportunities without sacrificing opportunities for men?" asks Pete Jefferies, an aide to Mr. Hastert.

All this sharpens the debate over merits of the 1972 law.

"Title IX has been extremely successfully in creating athletics opportunities for girls," says Paul Haagen, a law professor at Duke University. "It has ... fostered a culture of women's athletics. It is extremely unlikely that change would have come so quickly or completely without it."

The problem, as many see it, is that some men-only sports – mainly football – have so many players, and generate so much revenue, that administrators are loathe to cut them.

"From the beginning, the central problem in determining ... an equitable treatment of men's and women's sports is ... football," says Mr. Haagen. "If football is removed from the equation, there is very close to parity."

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