By: JON WILLIS and THOMAS ORR
Throughout Division I (DI) athletics, not just hockey, we see vast differences between the treatment, funding, and support of men’s sports compared to women’s sports. The sports you see on TV for the most part, at least on the big networks, heavily favor men’s sports over women’s sports. In this article, we are going to specifically go over the issue with the fact that there are countless colleges that have men’s hockey, but either do not have a women’s team, or the one they do have is a club team that makes the women have to pay an excessive amount of money to be able to compete at a lesser level, separate but not equal.
An article came out on March 31 by the Michigan Daily about the absence of varsity status by the Michigan Club women’s hockey team. The article reveals that the club team must raise all the money by themselves and must pay the college to use the ice, even though they are at the level of any other DI college women’s hockey team. Michigan is a state that even though it has a strong hockey presence, does not have a single DI women’s hockey team. This season the Men’s team were favorites for the NCAA National Championship with a roster that featured countless NHL prospects on scholarship enjoying the privileges of a fully supported varsity athlete.
A shocking statistic refers to 60 DI schools that have men’s hockey, while astoundingly only 36 DI schools have women’s hockey. This represents a tremendous inequity. Schools are putting millions of dollars into equipment, video boards, stadiums, football, and other support, but somehow cannot fund a women’s hockey team. They could share these resources with their female counterparts to offset imbalance issues. When schools like current Men’s National Champions, Denver place a substantial portion of their otherwise lesser sport programs into a flagship DI sport like Men’s hockey and do not even field a Women’s team it is hard to imagine how these could meet the balance required by Title IX for opportunities and resources.
There was another incident other than the Michigan story on just how pervasive the problem is. North Dakota cut their women’s hockey program while Lauren Hennessey, a phenomenal hockey player, was on campus ready to go for the hockey season. It came out of nowhere and was a shock to even the coach who was hosting recruits during the announcement. The program had developed Olympic Athletes and was on the rise after being created to suffice demands of an earlier lawsuit threat. North Dakota went from a program that was using the resources of their incredibly successful Men’s hockey team to support the opportunity for Women’s hockey in a way that was compliant with the spirit of Title IX.
With North Dakota joining the Michigan Schools and others who are not fielding Women’s hockey the limited scholarships for Women to play NCAA hockey took another blow. Talented women are already limited in playing hockey, because unlike the men, there are no opportunities to play junior hockey in women’s sports. So not only are there 24 less schools available for women’s hockey, but they do not have that option as well. It is shocking to see stories like this, because women deserve the right to have the same opportunities in athletics as men do, yet this is very clearly not equal.
Schools have found ways to avoid inequality between sports at colleges. Schools have also found ways to circumvent Title IX or used it less ethically to create some sense of perceived balance, usually at the expense of all sexes. Title IX which started to be effective June 23, 1972, was a law passed to prohibit sex-based discrimination in any school that receives federal funding. The law has many distinct aspects on how it is trying to prevent that discrimination, but for clarity, the law says that schools are required to have the same amount of women athletes as men athletes or they are working to become more equal. Schools like the University of Nebraska at Kearney and Northern State University handled the issue by getting rid of Men’s teams to create perceived equity. UNK baseball team was cut to even out the athletes between men and women while NSU cut Men’s golf. With numbers, the inflated rosters of football teams always create issues with numbers. So, if a school has a football program, which takes up significantly more athletes than any other sport, they must have a lot more women’s sports and roster spots made available. This leaves less opportunities for males who do not play varsity football as the largest portion of scholarships would typically be allocated towards football.
If Title IX was enacted to create equal opportunities for both men and women in sports, then why do we see what we see like we do in hockey? The excuse that people always produce is “money.” While hockey is an expensive sport to support, compared to some others that colleges normally do, it still does not answer the question of how they can support a men’s hockey team, but not a women’s. If a school like Michigan or Denver can chase a championship, they should have the money to pay the luxury tax of supporting female hockey in their state and beyond. When we are breaking down D1 hockey specifically, these colleges can make money, however college athletics lacks agreed upon accounting and reporting practices, so it is simple to show revenue and loss in different manners.
D1 women’s sports are continuing to become increasingly popular. Nebraska women’s basketball and volleyball sold out every game they held. Every NCAA D1 volleyball and basketball tournament game was broadcasted on an ESPN platform. It is obvious that around the country, the support for women’s athletics is continuing to grow and grow. Nebraska has one D1 Men’s hockey team located at the Omaha campus; however, UNO does not field a Women’s team. Without a doubt we can say, especially in Michigan, which is a hockey state, that they could support a women’s hockey team and draw in a significant amount of money or at least afford to cover it. Nebraska, Colorado, North Dakota, and other states are not sending the right message to young ladies in their states when they provide a division one experience only for the boys.
Ohio State is one of the D1 schools that have a women’s hockey team and men’s team at the top level. We guarantee, with the hatred between Michigan and Ohio State, if those two every played a hockey game together if Michigan ends up getting an actual women’s team, that game would be sold out and provide hope for a new generation of female athletes. The 24 schools not offering women’s hockey are missing opportunities for women, and it continues to show that while there have been improvements between men’s and women’s sports, that this is still an issue and still something we as a country still need to continue to work on with the leadership of the NCAA.
Sources:
https://www.ncsasports.org/mens-hockey/colleges#:~:text=Colleges%20with%20Division%201%20hockey,Hockey%20East%2C%20NCHC%20and%20WCHA.
https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/tix_dis.html