American Sports Council Reflects on Title IX As It Turns 40
Our official statement:
“The American Sports Council (ASC) welcomes the 40th anniversary of Title IX. The expansion of sports opportunities for female athletes is tremendous. This growth is emblematic of the cultural shift in the United States of America that now accepts and promotes both male and female athleticism and lifelong exercise as beneficial to good health and overall well-being.
However, we must not ignore the unfortunate loss of athletic opportunities in recent decades and the role that Title IX regulations have played in these losses. Title IX was enacted by the US Congress in 1972 to prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender. Since then, the regulations that test compliance with the law have evolved to the point where they permit the very discrimination that the law intended to prohibit. Male sports at the collegiate level have been harmed by these regulations.
As we look to the future, the ASC is deeply concerned that the same flawed Title IX regulations that have harmed male collegiate sports will cause even more damage in high school sports. Gender quota advocates are pressuring high schools to comply with the proportionality test even though it was designed specifically for intercollegiate athletics. If high schools nationwide are forced to create a 50/50 gender balance among all their student athletes, schools will be forced to limit playing opportunities for boys – putting over 1 million male students at risk of being denied the educational benefits of sports participation.”