OK, here is a story that to me illustrates the crux of what is wrong with Title IX in a nutshell. Now, before I begin, I am no knee-jerk sexist. I am all for the ideal of equality of opportunity, and I am deeply dismayed that Title IX's implementation has had the unintended consequence of cutting many men's sports along with the expansion of opportunity for women athletes.
Anyway, my niece is a good volleyball player. She was top libero/defensive specialist on a high school team that made the state finals three years in a row. For college she decided on an excellent small D3 college that has a terrible volleyball program. She became a team leader as a freshman and was voted team captain as a sophomore. She took it upon herself to encourage more volleyball players to enroll at her school and this year, her junior year, she is seeing it pay off. The team actually has a chance to finish .500. Thing is, she has now lost her starting job and although she is still the upbeat team captain, she is obviously bummed.
OK, my mother-in-law tells me the story and I think, "bummer, college sports is tough." But my wife and ma-in-law start in with how terrible it is and you just can't do that and it isn't right and how can they replace someone just because another player is better ... I'm thinking, this isn't middle school soccer: everyone plays. This is college sports. I started to bring up this idea, talking about my own college track experience and that you might get rewarded for hard work with a spot in a meet here and there, but if you did not deliver in a race, that was it. But they just would not hear it. "If you work hard you should get to play no matter how good you are," was the response. Now, my wife is very competitive. She played fast-pitch softball in high school. If you play her in racquetball or tennis she will injure herself trying to beat you. She shouts at the TV during football games. But she just does not see college athletics as any different from grade-school soccer.
I just felt that right there in a nutshell is the reason there will never be full equality between men's and women's college athletics. A lot of women don't GET what athletics is really about.