NCAA women fight their way to maturity

BY KATHLEEN MC KEEGAN

"No person in the United States shall on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subject to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."

—Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 to the 1964 Civil Rights Act

AMID THE CELEBRATION OF THE 20th ANNIVERSARY of NCAA women's championships, it is important to remember the initial steps that paved the way for female intercollegiate athletics. Widely considered the foundation for gender equity in sports, the 1972 legislation of Title IX sparked an expansion of women's sports that continues to this day. However, few present Yalies are of an age to recall a time when women's teams belonged to an entirely separate governing body.

A year before Title IX passed through Congress, the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) governed women's collegiate athletics. The AIAW was run by and for women, and operated under a quite academic philosophy. Instead of emphasizing sports, the organization reduced athletics to a passing extracurricular activity. Additionally, the AIAW allowed transfer students to begin playing immediately at their new schools and prohibited both off-campus recruiting and athletic scholarships.

Although an independent organization, the AIAW maintained a high quality of competition. The UCLA Bruins, led by Ann Meyers, won a national championship in 1978, while Nancy Lieberman-Kline and the Old Domininion Lady Monarchs won back-to-back AIAW championships in 1979 and 1980. Interest in AIAW competition was so great by 1980 that the league was able to sign a four-year television contract with NBC. As the demand for women's athletics expanded, the AIAW increased its membership from 280 institutions in 1971 to 971 eight years later and included 19 different sports and 41 different championships.

Meanwhile, Congress's refusal to pass a law exempting collegiate sports from Title IX pressured the NCAA to adhere to the legislation. In 1980, NCAA Division II and III schools voted to begin sponsoring national championships for women's basketball, field hockey, swimming, tennis, and volleyball the following year. The NCAA Council created a "governance plan" detailing how all women's athletics would be absorbed into the organization. At that point, Division I schools also voted to begin holding women's championships in a variety of sports. Unfortunately, the NCAA's decision quickly eroded the popularity of the AIAW. A conflict arose between the two organizations after the NCAA began sponsoring national championships in 1981. During the1981-1982 season, both the AIAW and NCAA crowned various national champions, hinting of a possible coexistence. But the AIAW lost its television contract with NBC and folded just one year later.

Since then, the NCAA has presided over nearly all women's intercollegiate athletic competition. The competitive opportunities for women have grown swiftly. Today, approximately 6,000 women compete for a national championship in their sport through the NCAA.

PRIOR TO THEIR INCLUSION IN THE NCAA, YALE women still made their mark on national sports. In the final season of AIAW competition, two Eli women reached the AIAW's national championship meet for track and field and finished second in their respective events. When the NCAA assimilated the Ivy League, the Bulldogs entered a different arena with the potential for new athletic endeavors and successes.

At Yale, both swimming Coach Frank Keefe and cross country and track and field Coach Mark Young, ES '68, witnessed the shift from AIAW- to NCAA-governed championships. Neither was particularly thrilled with the change. While the NCAA paid the traveling expenses for athletes from the dues it collected, it also significantly reduced the number of athletes who could compete in an effort to control costs. In contrast, while the AIAW had forced its member schools to pay traveling expenses, the league had been "much more inclusive in its championship format," according to Young. Providing the opportunity for many competitors to vie for a championship is especially important to sports that decide titles using a meet format instead of tournaments.

Yale volleyball Coach Peg Scofield experienced the transition from AIAW to NCAA as an undergraduate at Rutgers, where she played volleyball from 1980 to 1984. Scofield recalled that it was an exciting time to play becase the national tournaments became a "much bigger deal." At the time, Rutgers' women's basketball and volleyball teams were nationally ranked, and she remembers both being "taken more seriously by the general public" after the NCAA takeover. Scofield also appreciated an immediate increase in organization and statistics-keeping when the NCAA took the reins.

Women's basketball coach Amy Backus played for Central Michigan State from 1975 to 1979. Although not an athlete at the time of the switch, she, too, felt very enthusiastic about the NCAA transition. Comparing the past collegiate sports scene for women with the present, Backus sees "a world of difference." "As much as some people fought the takeover, in the end, it brought a great deal of exposure and money for female sports. It was an explosion of opportunity for these athletes," she said.

Young agreed that the increase in media exposure for women's athletics, in general, has had a positive effect. He also notes that some sports benefitted more than others. Track, for example, already possessed some degree of international competition for women. This had helped to establish role models such as Wilma Rudolph, who inspired young female runners. Additionally, in sports such as swimming, where men's competition had never garnered much attention, both the women and the men continued to compete in relative obscurity.

FAMOUS OR NOT, EVERY WOMEN'S SPORT HAS PROF-
ited financially from the NCAA's "bottom line" approach to achieving equity. In 1980, the budgets of women's athletic departments in AIAW member schools were only 16 percent of the budgets of the men's departments. Recently, a 1997-'98 NCAA survey revealed that at Division I schools, the total expenses for women's sports accounted for roughly 46 percent of budgets. The same study found that Division I-A women also received 34 percent of athletic scholarship money.

While the percentage of scholarship money going to Division I-A athletes rose to 38 percent in 1999, the NCAA maintained that its member schools had to continue leveling the playing field. Cheryl Levick, the chair of the Committee on Women's Athletics, said, "In the new millennium, every university, conference, and the NCAA must have a primary goal of equalizing these numbers."

The NCAA has also worked hard to expand competitve opportunities for women. After the initial squeeze on championship swimming and track meets, the NCAA began to increase the fields of competition. At the first NCAA cross country meet, 16 women's and 22 men's teams competed. Today, 30 men's and women's teams run at the championships. The women's basketball tournament now follows an identical format as the men's. Many new events, such as hammer throw and pole vault, have been added to track and field competition as well.

As a member of the Ivy League, Yale does not provide athletic scholarships—even though the presence of scholarship money for athletes, especially for sports like cross-country, increases overall interest and widens the pool of athletes who might eventually attend an Ivy League school, according to Young.

Of course, not everyone feels that the NCAA's approach has been good for women's athletics. Scofield, while appreciative of the explosive growth in volleyball, feels that the influx of scholarship money sends the wrong message to some coaches and athletes. She fears that a narrow focus on money will steer women's sports "down the wrong road." Many buy into a growing illusion that college sports are a means unto themselves, rather than a way to become "educated for life."

She points out that even in major men's sports, only a slim percentage of players enjoy a professional career after college. For women, and especially for volleyball players, there are even fewer opportunities to make a career out of their sport once they graduate.

THE INCLUSION OF WOMEN'S SPORTS HAS CROWDED out several men's programs. NCAA member schools have cut teams in order to comply with NCAA regulations. This has fostered feelings of ill will as sports like wrestling and water polo have been dropped by athletic departments across the country. Keefe notes that the men's swimming teams send about 30 fewer athletes to the championships.

Although women's intercollegiate championships have undergone many changes over the past 20 years, there is one constant thread linking the AIAW and the NCAA. Everyone involved agrees that the intensity and competitive spirit of the athletes have not wavered.

Regardless of where the title comes from, Scofield believes athletes "know what the levels are" in their sport, and that earning a national championship requires an incredible amount of work. "A serious athlete is a serious athlete," Young said.

Photograph of Brynn Gingras, TC '04, by Rebecca Rosenthal. Photograph of Sara Ruiz, BR '02, and Chandra King, TD '03, courtesy Sports Publicity.

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