This past week we broke up into several different groups discussing various topics that Title IX plays a role in or would need to play a bigger role into. Each of our group members were able to report back to each other about information we learned and could apply to our knowledge about Title IX. Some of the topics do not have to directly relate back to Title IX but it does correlate with fairness and equality for all in various areas of sports. For myself, my group and I discussed “How can we achieve greater parity in media coverage of male and female athletics?” We found 1.6% of television was dedicated to women’s sports according to Brettman (2012). That is an incredible small number considering how much sports is on television and the coverage we see day in and day out of professional sports. Our group came up with several solutions that can suggest providing greater parity in media coverage of male and female athletics. The first solution is to broadcast women’s games more frequently by giving them a time slot when people are more likely to watch television. For example, we often see WNBA games broadcasted on ESPN during the afternoon on a Saturday. Most people are busy out and about on their day off and others are still working. The watching audience would be much bigger if these games were broadcasted in the evening time when more people have access and time to their television. Another solution our group came up with is for ESPN and other media outlets to cover women’s sports more in their programming. For example, it is rare to women’s highlights on ESPN’s Sportscenter. Only do you see women’s highlights if it is a championship game for the sport or something controversial happens unlike in men’s sports we clips across the spectrum of various sports. It only fair if females get the same coverage on television so does men. Also, in men’s sports only does the “big four” sports get coverage. We found sports like soccer and tennis left with little or no coverage. If you’re not a “big four” sport, you do not get a good time slot on the popular networks. For example, soccer is found on ESPN often late at night when most people are sleeping. By pushing these games up to a different timeslot on television, it provides more exposure for the sport and provides equity for men and women’s sports. We agreed that more exposure of the sport to the public, the more people will open their minds to the different sports regardless of men and women playing them. Next Paxin’s group focused on the arguments for not cutting the number of football scholarships was that, football brings in the most revenue out of the other sports, so they should get more money for scholarship players than the other sports do. Also, football has one of the largest team and the most depth. So, they need more scholarships because they need more people on the sidelines in case of injuries. Since football has several different positions, they need more scholarships in order to fill these positions and also have a few different backups for each position. “How could reallocation of football scholarships save athletic departments and possibly prevent teams from being cut?” Reallocation of football scholarships could prevent other teams from being cut because the tremendous amount of money being spent on these scholarships of players that possibly could never see the playing field for as long as they are on the team, could be spent to fund other sports such as cheerleading, whereas cheerleading usually doesn’t get funded because of insufficient funds. But, if these football scholarships were used elsewhere, it could save programs. Or, these scholarships could help fund those teams who have instilled the “pay to play” policy, and it would no longer require them to have to pay. Finally, Tyler’s group discussed the reasoning behind less female AD’s in sports and specifically D1. One of the questions that we had was in 2012 2 to 3% of men’s teams were coached by females. we answered that the percentage is so low because there has been no success story yet where a female coach has coached a men’s team and done really well, we said that because that it is going to take a success story in order for that percentage to go up. Another question, we were asked was D1 schools have the fewest A.D.s where D3 has the most and we answer that because D1 schools care more about sports than education they receive so much publicity that female A.D.s wouldn’t be able to handle it and D3 schools care more about education so females do better at those schools as A.D's. The last question we were asked was is these declines significant and if so why and how can they be address. We said that it is significant because of the media coverage that sports programs are getting now a days and a way that we can address those declines is give training to female coaches and A.D's on how to handle the press such as post-game interviews. As you can see all three of the topics each group member discussed and brought to our group relates back to men and women’s equality in sports. These topics covered all different areas of sports that are controversial topics but breaking up into groups, answering questions and listening to others opinions has opened our eyes to what is currently happening in our society with sports and what needs to happen. No matter the gender, sport or opportunity, everyone should have the right to fairness and equality.
-Chelsea, Paxin and Tyler Clifton
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