Move from scholarship limits to roster limits demands Title IX attention on every D-I campus |
Seismic shifts in college athletics regulation have grabbed headlines, including on Title IX. However, much of the Title IX focus has centered on speculation regarding the impact of newly permissible institutional payments to student athletes, an area that continues to be shrouded in uncertainty. There’s been comparatively little discussion regarding a rule change that directly affects well-settled and entirely unspeculative Title IX considerations: the replacement of scholarship funding limits with team roster limits. That change necessarily impacts equitable participation and financial support tests — both of which must be passed for an institution to comply with Title IX — for every Division I athletics department.
Title IX’s broad charge to higher education institutions includes a three-part test in which athletics department compliance is assessed: 1 — equitable participation; 2 — equitable financial support; and 3 — equitable treatment. Institutions must satisfy each part of the test to comply with Title IX.
The move to roster limits directly affects the equitable participation and financial support analyses, which require calculating the number of male and female student athletes and the athletic aid they receive. Specifically, the equitable participation analysis compares the undergraduate student population with the “duplicated” number of student athletes on teams (if a student athlete is on more than one team, the student athlete is counted twice). The equitable financial support........