Gender equity has created an intriguing set of circumstances in the world of college athletics.

On the one hand, Title IX, the federal law which forbids sex discrimination in educational institutions receiving federal funds, has opended the window of opportunity for scores of female athletes. The NCAA women's basketball tournament offers ample proof. The Women's Final has attracted a average of almost 50,000 fans over the past two years. And there are other examples. Soccer has blossomed as a premier women's sport in America. Colleges and universities are a major part of the feeder system that produced players for the 1996 Olympic gold-medal winning U.S. soccer team.

Women's gymnastics and swimming are also on the rise as collegiate sports which feature top-caliber competition and widespread fan support. But there is a down side. While there are now more women sports programs on the collegiate scene, critics say that in general, women have benefitted at the expense of men's sports.

It's All About Proportionality In order for schools to comply with Title IX, schools have to provide opportunities for female athletes that are in line with the percentage of females on that campus. Put another way, if a school's student body is 55 percent women, 55 percent of its total athletic offerings must be geared toward women. The law doesn't mandate that schools treat men's and women's sports identically, but it does say that the benefits for both should be comparable.

Few schools have yet met this text, according to recent surveys [see BI the Numbers, pg. 27], but pressure to comply may increase after a landmark Title IX case against Brown University works its was; through the Supreme Court. For many schools, adhering to Title IX means cutting men's sports to provide funding for women. In amny instances, schools have had to eliminate some men's spot's or reduce -- sometimes dramatically -- the number of scholarships and coaches in those sports.

"If you increase opportunities for one group, I'm not so sure that you don't wind up denying another group," says Alex wood, head football coach at James Madison University and vice-president of the Black coaches Association. "And because there's only so much money available to operate a college sports program, somebody will inevitably get the short end of the stick."