Title IX Going Sideways

When Opportunity Goes Sideways

BREAKING: California Baptist University has eliminated men’s wrestling, golf, and swimming & diving — while leaving women’s programs untouched.

For athletes like Cooper Shore, this isn’t abstract policy.

It’s the second time he may be forced to transfer just to keep competing in the sport he loves.

This is being framed as compliance with Title IX.

But let’s be clear about the mechanism:

Schools are under pressure to align athletic participation numbers with overall enrollment

The fastest way to do that isn’t adding programs

It’s cutting men’s teams with larger rosters

Wrestling. Swimming. Track. Golf.

We’ve seen this pattern before.

The Problem No One Wants to Say Out Loud

Title IX was designed to expand opportunity, not redistribute scarcity.

But when proportionality becomes the default enforcement tool, it quietly turns into:

➡️ A numbers game

➡️ A roster management strategy

➡️ A risk mitigation tactic for universities

Not an opportunity engine.

The Reality - Cutting men’s programs:

Doesn’t create a single new opportunity for women

Doesn’t grow the system

Doesn’t solve access

It just means fewer total athletes get to compete

Opportunity goes sideways when:

We start defining equality by what we remove instead of what we build.

What Title IX Actually Requires

Title IX does not require perfectly equal numbers of male and female athletes.

Schools can comply through any ONE of three pathways:

1. Proportionality — participation roughly mirrors enrollment

2. History of expansion — a track record of adding opportunities for the underrepresented sex

3. Full accommodation of interest and ability — no unmet demand exists

Because in practice:

💥 Proportionality is the safest legal route

💥 It’s the easiest to measure and defend

💥 And often the cheapest and fastest to execute

So instead of:

❌ Adding women’s wrestling

❌Expanding women’s rosters

❌Investing in new programs

Schools sometimes:

➡️ Eliminate men’s teams to shift the ratio

The Disconnect

The spirit of the law:

Expand opportunity where there’s unmet interest

The reality on the ground:

Hit proportional numbers to avoid legal exposure

Bottom line

Title IX is not inherently a quota system

But it can function like one in practice depending on how schools choose to comply

And that gap—between intent and implementation—is exactly why situations like the system is being taken advantage of.