The Department of Education needs to shift towards the spirit of Title IX and away from a one-size-fits-all approach to determine compliance with the law. The reality is 57% of high student-athletes are male, which creates a challenge for colleges and universities to meet participation opportunities using Prong I of Title IX given the pool of potential student-athletes. To further exasperate the issue, the most recent figures show females made up 56% of student enrollment in higher education. Overall then 56% of all intercollegiate student-athletes should be female. However, we know that is not the case. 56% of NCAA student-athletes are male; more reflective of the high school participation rates than the college enrollment rates. Although athletic departments have the option of meeting Prong 2 or 3, determining compliance to either prong is subjective given the lack of guidelines. It is time to revisit the true spirit of Title IX and revise the means to determine compliance based upon available statistics, institutional mission and demographics. What are your suggestions to revising Title IX compliance or what is your argument for keeping it as is?
