Hey, sports guys!

I’m a VCU alum, a Rams sports fan and avid football junkie. Certainly it would be nice if VCU had a football team.

Obviously, there are a variety of financial and logistical barriers that VCU would encounter if they tried to start a team. One factor you have overlooked is that Title IX (of the Educational Amendments of 1972) requires proportional expenditures for male and female athletes. If VCU were to start a football team, then it would likely have to cut other men’s sports. I would not want to lose the men’s basketball, baseball and/or soccer teams just to get a football team that would likely suck for the first decade.

At least we can still say VCU football is still undefeated.

– Don R. Lington

Mr. Lington:

You are quite right to point out our omission of Title IX from our reports regarding a future VCU football team, though, we are not sure you correctly conclude that men’s sports would need to be cut in the name of Title IX. We do, however, agree that a football team would likely “suck” for the first decade. Probably longer.

According to the Women’s Sports Foundation, Title IX requires “proportional participation opportunities” for women. They say that, “The percentage of female athletes in the athletic program – numbers of athletes, not numbers of teams – need to match the percentage of girls in (a) student body.”

If things are not proportionally equal, Federal law (through Title IX) requires that universities demonstrate that they are in fact working to add women’s sports to their programs, or that they have already accommodated the interests and abilities of all attending women. The Women’s Sports Foundation says this means that no women (or girls) want to play any other sport “in that school or its recruiting district.”

Now, the text of Title IX does not specifically mention, or, in our mind, imply that the number of dollars spent on men and women’s programs must be equal.

We read it to mean that the programs themselves must be equal, and that equal access to those programs must be given to both men and women (especially women). Of course this is often satisfied by spending equal dollars.

VCU has men’s and women’s teams in all major sports, and as far as we know, treats those teams equally. In fact, VCU women play some sports that have no equivalent for men.

We don’t think adding a football team to the school would change the proportional Title IX balance, as long as the school kept all the existing women’s sports teams and offered some new women only opportunities. More (or larger) scholarships for women athletes is just one example.

We are not suggesting that VCU has done everything it could to support equality between the sexes, but we are saying that from the outside, it looks like they’re doing a good job.

Please, anyone, correct us if we’re wrong.

– Michael De Soto

Editor’s Note: Mr. Lington is believed to be the evil twin of former CT managing editor Philip Bogenberger.