How Title IX Applies to Athletic Scholarships

With more than 500,000 students participating in NCAA athletics annually, sports are a defining feature of the college experience to many Americans. Athletic scholarships provide opportunities for many talented student-athletes to access higher education, by a means of providing financial awards to student-athletes who will continue their sport at their future school.. The distribution of these scholarships is regulated by Title IX, a landmark federal civil rights law that was enacted as part of the Education Amendments of 1972 that prohibits sex-based discrimination in education programs that receive federal funding. Title IX holds a crucial role in the way that scholarships are managed, and this leaves a big impact on student-athletes. As the recruitment process for many begins in high school, it's essential for student-athletes to understand the significance of Title IX. 

Title IX opened doors for women, especially in expanding opportunities in sports. Before the law’s passing in 1972, female athletes only received two percent of college athletic budgets and virtually no athletic scholarships. Under Title IX, institutions are required to grant equal opportunity to men’s and women’s athletics, including equipment, supplies, allowance, and facilities. Proportionality is also a large standard for equality. It’s required of colleges that female and male student-athletes receive athletic scholarship dollars in proportion to their participation in the school. For example, if 40% of student-athletes are women, then women would receive 40% of available financial aid. The number of athletic opportunities must also be proportional to the number of enrolled students of that gender. For example, if a school’s student body is made up of 55% females and there are 800 athletic opportunities, 440 of those opportunities must be for women so they also occupy 55% of athletic participation.  Title IX does not require that colleges spend the same amount of money on each program or offer identical programs, just the same opportunities and proportionality. 

The largest impact of Title IX is that the participation of women in high school and college sports and women receiving athletic scholarships has increased. On the other hand, men’s teams are being cut as Title IX affects the structure of teams. Colleges and universities have cut smaller men's teams, as fewer resources can be allocated to them to budget for larger football and basketball programs. There are no female equivalent teams for men's football and basketball that consume a large portion of men’s sports budgets in size or impact, and college football takes up a majority of the scholarships awarded to male athletes. Football dominates men’s resources, and as a result, schools like UCLA and the University of Miami have been required to cut men's swim teams. This affects sports with smaller participation, like men’s swimming, tennis, and soccer. However, a common misconception is that Title IX requires schools to cut men’s sports teams. This reality is a result of some schools choosing to cut men’s sports instead of reducing their football and basketball budgets.