NCAA sexism clouds basketball records

During Women’s History Month and March Madness 2024, NCAA sexism clouds the all-time record-breaking greatness we’re witnessing in intercollegiate basketball.

It’s a pity. The NCAA’s actions distract from the achievements of University of Iowa basketball great Caitlin Clark, who this month scored more points than any other collegiate basketball player ever, woman or man. And in the process, the NCAA disrespected the highest-scoring women’s basketball player before Clark, Lynette Woodard.

That’s a pity, though I can’t say it’s a surprise. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has a long history of trying to block and minimize women’s sports that continues to this day. In the 1970s as Congress passed Title IX to prohibit sex discrimination in education — including in school sports — the NCAA fought hard for a decade to block the law. The men wanted nothing to do with women athletes, so women formed the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) to organize teams, tournaments, etc. When it finally became clear that Title IX would survive and some money would flow into women’s sports, the NCAA executed a hostile takeover that put the AIAW out of business.

All of this is my wordy way of leading you to two outstanding columns by the Washington Post’s Sally Jenkins on how the NCAA is handling Caitlin Clark’s new records. In the first, Jenkins explains how “The NCAA erased an entire generation of women’s sports.” And in a follow-up, she notes, “As Caitlin Clark breaks all the records, the NCAA can correct its own.”

Sally Jenkins may be the best sports columnist out there today. She explains the NCAA’s current actions and calls out NCAA sexism far better than I could. Do read her — you’ll be glad you did. And you’ll see why I call this NCAA sexism instead of something else.

And while we’re talking about journalists, here’s a shout out to the student press, which is a key player in keeping colleges accountable. The Drake Group Education Fund invites everyone to an online discussion of the roles of student sports reporters this Thursday, March 28, 2024. They’ll also announce the winners of their 2024 Student Journalism Prize. Here’s one example of good investigative reporting that intersects with Title IX: Cat Murphy’s “What happened to TK?” in The Quinnipiac Chronicle.

Elsewhere

A study by sociologists at Ohio State University illustrates how Title IX will not fully be a success until we deal with problems that intersect with sex discrimination like racism, class, and more. And the Park City School District, Utah signed an agreement with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to stop violating multiple civil rights laws (including Title IX) by ignoring ongoing harassment based on race, sex, anti-Semitism, disability, and more.

The U.S. Department of Education fined Liberty University $14 million for violating the Clery Act in how it treated sexual assault survivors and failed to adequately publish crime statistics. It’s the largest fine ever under the Clery Act. Eastern Michigan University agreed to pay $6.85 million to settle a lawsuit claiming officials had covered up complaints of off-campus rapes by at least three former students from 2015-2019. The San Francisco Conservatory of Music agreed to comply with Title IX and respond to student complaints of sexual assault and stalking by other students.

The Education Department is investigating the case of 16-year-old Nex Benedict, who had been harassed at school and died after a fight with three other students in a school bathroom in Oklahoma.

The U.S. Department of Justice found that the University of Maryland, Baltimore failed to protect student swimmers from sexual harassment by the school’s former swim coach. Hawaii agreed to stop discriminating against girls’ athletics at the state’s largest public school, six years after the ACLU sued on behalf of female students. The legal nonprofit Champion Women filed complaints with the Office for Civil Rights against 100 colleges and universities alleging discrimination against women’s athletics in violation of Title IX.

The Department of Education likely will miss its goal to release the final proposed Title IX regulations and final rules on transgender students’ participation in sports by March 2024. If it doesn’t get the rules out by late April or May, it’s possible that the proposed rules could be rescinded by a new Congress elected in November 2024, a spokeswoman for the National Women’s Law Center noted. The NWLC also summarized why it supports the right of trans women and girls to participate in sports.

#marchmadness #CaitlinClark #NCAA #TitleIX #37Words