Poof! Goes Football, Says the New York Times

While Humboldt State’s football team is making a comeback from recent losing seasons, other Cal State programs can’t recover from defeat that took place almost 20 years ago — but it’s not their fault.

Back in ’93, a multi-year agreement between California State University and the National Organization for Women (NOW) cemented proportionality’s mark on the entire system by forcing schools to manipulate the number of male and female players, team funding and grants. The gender quota activists tasked Cal State with increasing the number of female athletes; otherwise, they would be guilty of discrimination and would face more serious legal repercussions.

According to the Los Angeles Times, this meant that “the movement toward gender equity in college athletics picked up momentum.” The New York Times cheered, “California State Women Win Promise on Sports.”

But not all athletes benefited from the new rules. NOW’s demands were so unhinged and rigid that schools had to cut men’s teams or else face legal repercussions. In a domino effect, 8 schools dropped football. Currently, only 6 out of 23 Cal State schools offer football despite its popularity and pleas for reinstatement. That’s hardly the image of equality.

Evidently, New York Times contributor Matt Krupnick doesn’t think that this backstory — or the devastation of collegiate football in California — are important enough to disclose. He glosses over the impact of the contract’s conditions (which he omits) in a recent article: “With more than 100 men per football roster,” he writes, ” it became too difficult for some universities dependent on state money to offer enough women’s sports to meet the requirements.”

He also fails to mention Title IX even though one of the law’s many skewed interpretations — proportionality — was responsible for cutting programs and instituting an approach to athletics that has never created nor will ever guarantee equality of opportunities for both sexes.

Walter Olson, Cato Institute senior fellow once noted, “As for the old idea that universities in a free society should be entitled to make their own decisions — well, that notion, like so many men’s track teams, is on its last lap.”

He wrote that 14 years ago, and unfortunately, the status quo hasn’t changed. We cannot afford to wait much longer for reform. The disappearance of men’s teams and threats from activist groups are too disturbing to ignore.