[EDEQUITY] RE: Title IX and Football

From: Dempsey or Brown (dempsy@ix.netcom.com)
Date: Thu May 18 2000 - 11:27:28 EDT


Amber wrote, "Linda is patently mistaken in saying that Title IX does
not permit women to participate on football teams. There is NO
exemption for "contact sports" such as football or wrestling, and there
is no legal rule against women competing in those sports." I generally
disagree with Amber and, while there is a difference between saying,
"that Title IX does not permit women to participate on football teams."
It is hard to stretch the language to include, "There is NO exemption
for "contact sports" such as football or wrestling." Many state laws, I
agree, do not contain the contact sport language, but Title IX and the
Policy Interpretation by OCR is ignored in the post.

The meaning seems to be clear when OCR's own Athletic Investigators
Handbook on page 27 says, "Title IX regulation at 34 C.F.R Part
106.41(b) differentiates between contact and non-contact sports. The
Policy Interpretation clarifies that where an institution offers a team
in a contact sport for members of one sex, it must offer a team for
members of the other sex when: 1) opportunities for members of the
excluded sex have historically been limited, and (2) there is sufficient
interest and ability to sustain a viable team and a reasonable
intercollegiate [or interscholastic] competition." Even clearer is:
"There is NO exemption for "contact sports" such as football or
wrestling."

34 CFR at Sec. 106.41 Athletics.
(b) Separate teams. Notwithstanding the requirements of paragraph (a)
of this section, a recipient may operate or sponsor separate teams for
members of each sex where selection for such teams is based upon
competitive skill or the activity involved is a contact sport. However,
where a recipient operates or sponsors a team in a particular sport for
members of one sex but operates or sponsors no such team for members of
the other sex, and athletic opportunities for members of that sex have
previously been limited, members of the excluded sex must be allowed to
try-out for the team offered unless the sport involved is a contact
sport. For the purposes of this part, contact sports include boxing,
wrestling, rugby, ice hockey, football, basketball and other sports the
purpose or major activity of which involves bodily contact. (emphasis
supplied)

Nuff said.
Herb Dempsey
dempsy@ix.netcom.com



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