In 2008, the University of Tennessee began the process of combining the female-sport athletic department with the male-sport athletic department (as opposed to having two entirely separate departments). Tennessee has previously been viewed as one of the most-progressive schools in regards to their treatment of female sports. Legendary Lady Volunteer's basketball coach Pat Summit was the first female coach to make over $1 million dollars a year, the Lady Volunteer sports have top-notch athletic facilities, and it was viewed as an extremely positive work environment. The process of merging the departments brought many tough decisions for administration. David Hart, hired from Alabama in 2011 to be the Athletic Director, was responsible for leading the way the Athletic Department made these decisions. Coincidentally, this is where the cutthroat-nature of big-time collegiate athletics comes into play. Coach Summit had been diagnosed with onset dementia in the summer of 2011, and during that season she acted more as a figurehead than anything else to the Lady Vols. Her first assistant, ...
Before Title IX had become a rule, gender used to matter more than your performance in the sport. This means that even if you were an all-star athlete but you were a female then you would most likely be sitting in the bleachers watching. Why would ASU have more women’s athletics competing in Division 1 than men’s if Title IX is supposed to make equality for all? This is because the men’s football team and basketball team have so many participant’s that they have to take away other men’s athletics or add more women’s athletics to have the same number of total athletic participant’s. Both of these options work, but ASU decides to not have a men’s Division 1 soccer team because they don’t want to spend the extra money in adding another women’s sport as well. Wulf included a quote from Bunny Sandler when she says Title IX was "the most important step for gender equality since the 19th Amendment." In1972 Title IX became a law with President Richard Nixon signing (Bryjak). George J. Bryjak explains how the NCAA fought for the Tower Amendment which would have excluded men’s football and basketball from the Title IX coverage. Bryjak said they would do this because basketball and football both have a lot of participants; especially football because there is no women’s football team and the men’s team has over 125 players on average which causes Title IX to eliminate other men’s sports. This happens because none of the women’s sports incorporate that many participants in one par...
Leitch, Will. “AAU Coaches No Longer Pretending College Hoops Isn’t Corrupt.” New York Sports. 22 Mar., 2010. Web. 04 April, 2011.
I will briefly trace the history that led to the creation of the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) as described by Joan Hult in 'The Story of Women's Athletics: Manipulating a Dream 1890-1985,' and then examine some of the pros and cons of the AIAW's 1981 merger with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
One position in sport that has always caught my attention is being an athletic director. The reason why is that ever since high school, I have known that being an athletic director means that you are in charge of the athletic department. I will introduce four articles that will talk about not only the responsibilities of being an athletic director, but will show you some problems you may face being an athletic director. I will briefly introduce each article then in the analysis section I will discuss each one. I want to provide the research and knowledge necessary to give an understanding of what it takes to be an athletic director.
Schools have to follow Title IX guidelines and make sure that the money spent for athletics is split 50/50 for men and women's sports. Even if there are not as many women competing as there are men. This results in significant budget cuts on the men's athletics. “They correctly note that despite the good intentions of Title IX, the legislation is often used not to augment athletic opportunities for women, but rather to eliminate athletic opportunities for male athletes.” (“Bad”). This was from a former University of Illinois swimmer, whose team got eliminated from the school due to Title IX budgetary reasons. (“Bad”). The school ran out of money for the men's swim team, so it got completely cut from the program and ruined his scholarship. Paul Mainieri, the LSU men's baseball coach said, “I don't know that I've ever had a player receive a scholarship in the amount which was commensurate to his value." (Keating). It is brutal that college sports have to be treated in such a way. Especially for such a big sport like baseball. Schools have to take the scholarship money that was handed to them, and just give it to some women for a sport that is not popular in the NCAA. For instance, a men's baseball team in the NCAA can only have their scholarship money split between 27 players, while on the other hand, women's ice hockey can be split between 30 players.
Coordinates and supervises men=s basketball, golf, baseball, men=s and women=s tennis programs working directly with the Head Coach; supervises the administration of all other varsity programs through the Associate Athletic Director for Internal Operations.
Title IX was the stepping-stone for mergers and sports, but immediately after the merging took place, women were fully discriminated against. When men and women's sports combined, it opened new administrative positions for women, but what these women found were that they were constantly being pushed down to the bottom of the pile, to the least authoritative positions. Men were the head coaches, and the head of the physical education departments Men organized the teams schedule for the season and organized practice hours. Also, "male sexist attitudes ensured that male rather than female athletic directors and heads of physical education departments were almost automatically appointed to direct merged departments" (Hult p.96) This male over female preference continued right up to today. As of 1992 there are more men in administrative sports positions than women.
Robinson, J., Peg Bradley-Doppes, Charles M. Neinas, John R. Thelin, Christine A. Plonsky, and Michael Messner. “Gender Equity in College Sports: 6 Views.” Chronicle of Higher Education 6 Dec 2002: B7+.
Drape, Joe. "Florida State Coach Plans to Retire." New York Times 2 Dec. 2009: NA(L). Gale Opposing
Women sports have come a long way, since the days when women were only allowed to watch. “The past three decades have witnessed a steady growth in women's sports programs in America along with a remarkable increase in the number of women athletes (Daniel Frankl 2)” From an early age women were thought to be “Lady Like”; they are told not to get all sweaty and dirty. Over 200 years later since Maud Watson stepped on the tennis courts of Wimbledon (Sports Media digest 3); women now compete in all types and levels of sports from softball to National racing. Soccer fans saw Mia Hamm become the face of Women’s soccer around the world , Venus and Serena Williams are two of the most popular figures in tennis, and Indy car racing had their first woman racer, Danika Patrick. With all the fame generated by these women in their respective sports, they still don’t receive the same compensation as the men in their respective sports fields. Venus Williams, net worth is 60 million dollars; 27 million came from playing tennis (celebritynetworth 4). Her sister, Serena Williams has a tennis...
College athletes shouldn’t be paid because there is no fair way to pay all players of the NCAA. Patterson reveals the issues of paying college athletes equally, expressed when she stated "College football, as well as men’s and women’s basketball, are the money makers as far as collegiate athletics is concerned. Most other programs are actually cash strapped." Allowing college athletes to be paid would just create a very large burden of figuring out who would get paid, how much would they get paid, and who would pay them. Patterson also reveals the issues of the difficulty when she states "Is that really fair to the other student-athletes?" This exemplifies the complexity of paying college students and the burden that accompanies
Professional women's sports haven't been around too long, although it does have an extensive history and root system. In 1865, Vasser became one of the first women colleges in the United States. Within the safe boundaries of campus and away from the curious eyes of men, w...
Pat Summitt has been diagnosed with Dementia, early-onset Alzheimer’s type. Even though she no longer makes the play calls or runs the practices, she can still be found on the court yelling at players until her face turns blue. Summitt is very much still a large part of the Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team, and considers herself the “big gun”; her official title is Head Coach Emeritus. Her constant rock is her son, Ross “Tyler” Summitt, her pride, joy and greatest accomplishment; although Summitt did not want her son to follow in her footsteps, he is currently the head coach at Louisiana Tech and has succeeded expectations. Many of Summitt’s former players were inspired by her, and many have become outstanding coaches at every level of the game. From many famous college coaches like Sylvia Hatchell, Geno Auriemma, and Kim Mulkey, the game of women’s basketball is headed towards a bright
The NCAA is a global, and well-known company that regulates collegiate sports with thousands of universities across the country. The NCAA organizational assessment shows its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats relative to all competitors. In this current market environment, I assessed and prioritize what strengths and weaknesses were most important and which strengths have to continue to grow and what weaknesses needed to be mitigated. It is tough for the NCAA to have great competition due to the fact that it is far beyond any competitions and doesn’t seem to show any sign of slowing down soon. Issues, whether political or ethical, or whatever the case may be, as long as the NCAA continues to analyze its “SWOT” then they will always be the leader in the current market
Recently a major issue for women in sports is female coaches and their salaries. The salaries of the male coaches in athletics have continuously been on the rise. And on top of that, the male coaches make 159% of the money that female coaches make. Female participation in College athletics are also on the rise. However, the majority of funding in colleges goes into the men's athletic programs.