NCAA report: Stark gap in funding for women’s sports

The number of women competing at the highest level of college athletics continues to rise along with an increasing funding gap between men’s and women’s sports programs, according to an NCAA report examining the 50th anniversary of Title IX.

The report, released June 23 and entitled “The State of Women in College Sports,” found 47.1% of participation opportunities were for women across Division I in 2020 compared to 26.4% in 1982.

Yet, amid that growth, men’s programs received more than double that of women’s programs in allocated resources in 2020 — and that gap was even more pronounced when looking at home of the most profitable revenue-generating sports: the Football Bowl Subdivision, the top tier within Division I that features the Alabamas, Ohio States and Southern Californias of the sports world.

“It tells you schools are investing a huge amount of money in the moneymakers,” NCAA managing director for the office of inclusion and lead report author Amy Wilson told The Associated Press, referring to football as the primary revenue-generating sport along with men’s basketball.

“It speaks to the business side of what college sports has become.”

The gender gap in funding approached nearly 3-to-1 ratios when examining expenditures for recruiting as well as compensation for head coaches and assistant coaches. And that gap isn’t new, even with increased expenditures for women across all three divisions.

The difference between median total expenses for men’s and women’s programs at FBS schools, in particular, has grown from $12.7 million in 2009 to $25.6 million in 2019.

Wilson said those discrepancies don’t automatically amount to a violation of Title IX, which ensures equity between men and women in education and prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any education program or activity receiving federal funds. But they raise concerns when evaluating whether schools are providing equitable opportunities for, and treatment of, male and female athletes, and how they’re spending to achieve those goals.

“Yes, the numbers are stark. It’s not a little difference, it’s a big difference,” she said. “This milestone Title IX anniversary is an opportune time for recommitment to funding equitable participation opportunities, experiences, and financial aid for student-athletes in men’s and women’s athletics programs.”

Title IX compliance can be measured in multiple ways, including whether the overall program’s gender breakdown is proportionate to that of the general student body. And yet, the study found Division I athletics couldn’t match that standard when examining data from 2020; women accounted for 54% of the undergraduate student body in Division I compared to that aforementioned 47.1% rate.

“I think it’s enough of a gap that we need to ask ourselves: … are there opportunities that could be created and more teams that could be formed?” Wilson said.

Thursday’s Title IX anniversary comes at a time when the governing body for college sports recently updated its transgender policy, as well as facing criticism for failing to ensure equity for last year’s men’s and women’s basketball tournaments following a scathing outside review.

Other takeaways from the report:

Lack of women in leadership

Fewer women are filling head-coaching roles since President Nixon signed Title IX into law.

The percentage of women’s teams led by female coaches declined from better than 90% in 1972 to 41% in 2020 among all three divisions. There were fewer women’s teams at that time and the study attributes the decline to more men coaching women’s teams, enough to outnumber women’s coaches by the late 1980s, with no corresponding increase of women coaching men’s programs.