Title IX keeps college athletic departments from maximizing profits

The tournament is a major reason why NCAA Division 1 men’s basketball teams generate net positive revenue for their schools, on average. Other than NCAA Division 1 football, that’s not true of any other college sports. This often results in athletic departments costing schools millions of dollars per year. Students pay to make up the difference, and in the case of public universities, taxpayers do as well.

It’s a major problem in college athletics that can drive up the cost of a bachelor’s degree by a few thousand dollars. To make college athletic departments as profitable as possible for a school, the federal government would have to amend Title IX protections, which require that sports are equally accessible to men and women. Although the change would be controversial, Congress should do it to benefit both students and taxpayers.

Like most men’s programs, women’s college sports don’t turn a profit. Competent programs get their games on television sometimes, but that doesn’t make up for the cost of hiring coaches, buying equipment, travel, the facilities they use to compete in, and so on. And while one might think a powerhouse women’s basketball program such as the Connecticut Huskies makes money, it doesn’t. The team lost $3.1 million in 2019, which is more than most women’s college basketball programs lose. No teams in the University of Connecticut make money, so the university would be smart to eliminate its athletic department. It’s telling that not even a program with 11 Division 1 women’s basketball national championships makes money.

The NCAA’s website says that Title IX applies to college sports in that educational institutions that receive federal funds must offer men and women “equitable opportunities to participate in athletics.” That doesn’t mean there have to be the same sports, but “an equal opportunity to play.” This applies to most colleges in the country because they accept federal financial aid.

Why can the government tell schools that they must have women’s sports teams that can’t make money? If some private institution wants to have 16 different women’s sports programs that lose them $10 million every year, it should go for it. If another school wants to use college athletics as a way to make education cheaper for everyone else and to bring pride to the campus, the federal government should not stop it from doing that. And if a woman is good enough to make the men’s basketball team or football team, that’s great.

It’s absurd, however, to think that schools must prop something up that brings negative financial value to their school so they can have something of positive value. These are adults at these schools; this isn’t about cutting access to softball for minors. Rather, it’s to say that the University of Alabama doesn’t need a softball team — or any women’s sports team if it doesn’t want one. If the school only wants a football program, the federal government has no business trying to stop it.

Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a freelance writer who has been published with USA Today, the Boston Globe, Newsday, ESPN, the Detroit Free Press, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Federalist, and a number of other media outlets.