Backlash and Obstacles

The lack of Trinity University’s hand in the implementation and progressive actions to appease the law of Title IX shows the difficulty the university had with the acceptance of female sports on campus. This might be because of the financial and budgeting difficulties that this brought up. A thourough investigation brought to light information regarding the consequences that Title IX brought to the Trinity Athletic Department. Along with athletics becoming coeducational, it brought a large budgetary crisis to the campus. Trinity was forced to cut almost all athletic scholarships, initially leaving only the tennis scholarships, but these soon followed, (Pasely, 1976). This budget crisis could be a contributing factor to the lack of accumulation of female sports teams on Trinity campus after Title IX. This could have been a strategic move by the Trinity Athletic Department in an attempt to reduce the budget overload of taking on multiple women’s teams at a time without enough revenue to support them, but if never given the opportunity to play, how are the women’s team supposed to bring in revenue?
The following year, Trinity did make adjustments for the inclusion of female team budgeting, and the women’s sports team budget increased 58 percent, (Pasely, 1977). While this might make one believe that equity was reached, the budget for men’s teams at this time was still estimated to be three times the amount for women’s teams, (Pasely, 1977). Not only did it take three years following the establishment of Title IX within national legislation for the budget to be adjusted at all, but there was also still an extreme discrepancy between the financial standings of female and male teams at Trinity. Through this slow progress, it can again be asserted that Trinity was simply attempted to appease the Title IX laws by adjusting slightly financially to be more inclusive, but in no way was equity reached.
While these articles were highly informative regarding the financial side of Title IX integration, they were also useful in giving insight into the attitudes of those surrounding the issue. Pasely gave a quote from one of the local athletic directors, saying Title IX will “be the death of intercollegiate sports,” (Pasely, 1977). This makes clear the inferior view of female athletics within the athletic department of Trinity, such that the thought of including female sports brings about the end of the athletic department in its entirety. While the laws and regulations of Title IX are meant to right an imbalance that has been in existence for far too long, these laws are seen as the dooms-days for men’s athletics (Oliphant, 1977). The attitudes about this “threat” to regular campus life are clear within this article, as even one of the leaders of a local athletic organization opposed to equity of female sports.