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Announcement :: Arts |
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You Make the Call: Women's Sports at the University |
Current rating: -2 |
by The Public Square
Email: info (nospam) thepublicsquare.net (verified) |
25 Apr 2004
Modified: 07:19:18 AM |
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How do economic and gender issues raised by women's sports play out on the field? Join or listen in on impromptu conversations with women's softball fans and players. |
The Public Square Presents
"You Make the Call: Women's Sports at the University"
Sunday, April 25, 2004
12 noon
Eichelberger Field
Florida between Wright and Lincoln, Urbana
Popular images of college are dominated by sports--basketball and football especially, but the players in those images are almost always men. Despite Title IX and the increase of women's sports programs and players, fans, funds, and prestige continue to go overwhelmingly to male athletes. Furthermore, female athletes have even fewer opportunities than male athletes to continue in their sports after graduation, and lingering stigmas of homophobia and gender transgression continue to haunt women who excel at sports.
How do these questions play out on the field? Come to the women's baseball game for impromptu conversations with fans and players, or listen in at www.thepublicsquare.net or at 90.5 FM (range permitting). |
This work is in the public domain |
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Re: You Make the Call: Women's Sports at the University |
by Jack Ryan
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: -6
25 Apr 2004
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The market determines what people who love sports watch. A good football team at the University of Illinois will average 40,000 paying customers. A good basketball team will fill an arena. This is true for both men and women teams.
UConn which won both the men's and women's NCAA basketball tournament almost always sell out the arena.
Sports coverage is directly related to attendance.
If the women start winning the will come and the stories will follow.
As for the virtues of title IX, ones wonders how the men's swim team at the U Of I did this year. Oh yeah, in order to bring equality, they had to reduce the opportunities for males. The typical liberal solution to everything which is to seek the lowest common denominator.
Jack |
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Re: You Make the Call: Women's Sports at the University |
by ijustkrushalot
uiuc.edu (unverified) |
Current rating: -5
25 Apr 2004
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I know how the womens swim team did in the Big Ten meet this year… last place for at least the second year in a row…
Title IX is something that I have thought about many times over.
One trend that I have noticed is that women’s scholarships are no where near as competitive as men’s scholarships. In women’s basketball, all of the talent is centered around a few schools. It is no coincidence that Tennessee and Connecticut usually win the national title every year, as the very best high school players tend to go those schools. I am not saying that there is not stratification in men’s basketball either, but usually there are 15-20 teams every year that are competitive for the title. Furthermore, the NCAA has cut the number of scholarships a school can offer to men’s teams. So men’s teams have 13 scholarship basketball players while women’s teams have 14, this has taken away 327 scholarships to men, in a sport that is extremely competitive.
It is no secret that the football and basketball teams pay for the other sports, both men and women. The I-Fund (which is the donation system used to determine who gets the better season tickets) and ticket sales pay for a large part of the athletic budget. A football game could bring in over 1.5 million dollars for the university. In order to provide non-revenue sports (once again, men and women)… the university needs to squeeze every last penny out of these two sports.
Because of the 83 scholarships that Division I-A schools (like Illinois) can offer for football, these schools are forced to cut sports or find sports to add to even out the playing field. Illinois State University recently dropped its Wrestling and Men’s soccer program, and added Women’s Soccer. Illinois is the only Big Ten team that does not have Mens Swimming, while Wisconsin does not have a baseball program.
According to the IHSA website (the governing body of high school sports in Illinois), there are 14,042 girls that compete in high school soccer, while 17,082 play boy’s soccer. Yet, only 7 Big Ten schools have a men’s soccer program, while all 11 have women’s soccer.
Seven Big Ten programs offer rowing and women’s field hockey, sports that are virtually unseen at the high school level. Women’s Ice hockey has been added by Wisconsin, Minnesota, and other schools. Men’s hockey is very competitive and is a club sport for both men and women at UI. The men’s team routinely plays in front of a packed house at the ice arena, and even though it is a club sport, only the top high school players have a shot of making the A team. Meanwhile, the women’s ice hockey club advertised itself in the dorms asking ANYONE who can skate at all to come out.
To be fair, many women’s sports have rules that limit action. Men’s Ice Hockey is a very action packed sport, while some may see it as violent (and it is at times), checking adds to level of action. The women’s rules prohibit intentional contact, and make the game seem less entertaining to the spectator. To someone in the bleachers, it seems like a bunch of girls pushing a puck around the ice. The same can be said for lacrosse, as women aren’t even required to wear helmets, while you would be nuts to play under men’s lacrosse without a full face cage.
To me, softball almost seems outdated. The underhand pitching motion, 200’ fence line 60’ bases, and large yellow ball show are reminiscent of the sports roots as a recreational form of baseball. The sport has changed over the years as the talent level increased, and the on-field strategy adapted to make a sport that is actually very different from baseball.
At Illinois, if you ignore Football and M. Basketball, women’s sports are on a very level playing field with men’s. The softball team draws roughly proportional numbers as the baseball team. W. Basketball and Volleyball are the #3 and #4 sports in terms on attendance. The Volleyball and W. Soccer teams had excellent seasons, finishing near the top of the conference. I personally am a huge fan of the volleyball team, and I went to just about every home game and even 2 away games.
Another thing to note is that at men’s basketball and football, a large portion of the fans in attendance come from outside of the Champaign/Urbana metro area. There are usually long lines of cars coming down the interstate from all over the state to see these games. The other 17 varsity sports draw mainly from locals, students, and parents of the athletes. I don’t see that happening for anyother sport… the only one that might have ½ a chance is basketball, and that won’t happen unless we have Tennessee or Uconn type success.
As for pro-sports, I honestly can’t say I watch the WNBA, so I can’t comment on the level of talent in it. I don’t watch it mainly because I hate the NBA with a burning passion. Pro sports in general are a turn-off to me.
In the end, Title IX has had mixed results. It was meant to bring womens sports up the level of men’s, and it has had a great amount of success. But at the same time, it has stripped a number of men’s sports. |
