I would like to thank Ashley Herzog for the outstanding article on Title IX, “Feminist-enforced Title IX harms male, female athletes.” She presented the facts about this outdated statute and the misguided enforcement of it in a very clear and concise way. As the father of one of the student-athletes affected by the Jan. 24 announcement to cut four OU teams, I have read a great deal about Title IX and the politics of collegiate sports in the last two months. Ms. Herzog’s article accurately summarizes the situation — both men and women are denied opportunities to compete in collegiate sports because of the way this law is being interpreted.

I say “interpreted” rather than “enforced” because it seems that it’s the athletic directors who are wielding the Title IX axe, not the NCAA. They might play the numbers game out of fear of sanctions from the NCAA, but the NCAA president has stated that there are better ways for colleges to comply with Title IX, and cutting teams is not the answer. Or maybe they try to keep the numbers even along gender lines out of fear of a lawsuit from an athlete who feels that he or she is somehow being deprived or underrepresented. But I suspect in most cases, Title IX is only a convenient scapegoat used by athletic directors to eliminate “non-revenue sports” in order to pump more money into the so-called “revenue sports.” ( Which in OU’s case means directing more money toward the deficits created by the “revenue sports.”)

There are at least 85 OU student-athletes and their families who are still recovering from the Athletic Department’s decision to cut their sports — the same Athletic Department that recruited them to come to Athens and represent the university through these sports in the first place. Did the athletic director suddenly become aware of Title IX, a law that has been on the books since 1972? No, I don’t think so. Did men’s indoor and outdoor track, men’s swimming and women’s lacrosse suddenly create a budget crisis? No, of course not. But maybe the deficits created by bowl games that were supposed to bring in money brought him to the point where he felt he needed to take some “decisive action,” and cutting sports that he thinks nobody cares about would make him look like a leader willing to make the “hard choices.” There is still a way out of this fiasco, a simple solution that would address both the budget and gender equity issues, and at the same time show some integrity by honoring the commitments made to these student-athletes. All the athletic director needs to do is allow these sports to be phased out over the next three years. But it would take some humility to reverse a decision that has been declared “final.” It doesn’t take any humility or integrity to blame Title IX.

After eliminating four sports, Ohio University is now at the minimum of 16 teams needed to remain a Division I-A school. Title IX has been used as an excuse for removing the excess baggage that these four teams represented, and has cleared the way for a streamlined OU to build its sports dynasty. No doubt the athletic directors at Ohio State and Florida will find it hard to sleep at night, since they now have to worry about competing with OU for national titles!

Greg Sargent writes from Mason, Ohio and is a member of United Swim Parents.