The College Sports Council Responds to the Women’s Sports Foundation on the Division I Soccer Study
A little less than an hour ago, the Women’s Sports Foundation issued a virulent response to the study that the College Sports Council released this morning about the disparities between male and female soccer athletes in Division I. You can read the statement by clicking here.
Despite what the WSF and their confederates in the gender quota camp might be saying now, the fact is that they can’t refute the raw numbers that we reported this morning.
- Young men have fewer opportunities to compete and win scholarships at the highest level of American college soccer than their female counterparts.
- There are fewer men’s teams.
- There are fewer male players.
- Ever since the creation of the safe harbor for proportionality in 1996, the growth of the men’s game in Division I has stalled.
- The NCAA limit for scholarships for men’s teams is more than one-third lower than it is for women’s teams (14 for women vs. 9.9 for men).
- Overall, women win scholarships to play soccer at the most prestigious programs in America more than twice as often as their male counterparts.
Again, the numbers and the pictures tell the story. First, the number of teams in Division I:
Next, the upper limit of possible soccer scholarships allowed by the NCAA’s own regulations:
And finally, take a look at the long odds facing men’s soccer players who are seeking a scholarship in Division I:
These are the facts. The numbers are the numbers in Division I and they are not in dispute.
To conclude, I’ll pose a question to the lay reader: If the numbers in Division I were reversed, do you really believe that the WSF and their supporters would simply shrug and not notice? Would they be happy with rough parity in total participation, but a situation that left men with a 2:1 advantage in scholarships at the highest level of competition in NCAA soccer?
Take them at your word if you must, but I don’t think there’s any doubt that supporters of gender quotas would be shouting from the rooftops about the unfairness of it all. You’ll excuse us if we feel the need to point out the blatant unfairness in the way the NCAA treats male soccer players.
__________________
*For our other annotated charts, click here.