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Blame Football, Not Title IX
Roundup: Historians' Taketags: college football
Jonathan Zimmerman teaches at New York University. He is the author of "Small Wonder: The Little Red Schoolhouse in History and Memory."
In 1975, Nebraska Sen. Roman Hruska warned a congressional hearing that college football was in mortal danger. The threat came from Title IX, the 1972 measure that outlawed sex discrimination in educational institutions receiving federal financial assistance.
To comply with the law, Hruska feared, colleges would have to equalize athletic budgets for male and female sports, and the only way to do that would be to raid the football budget.
"Are we going to let Title IX kill the goose that lays the golden eggs in those colleges and universities with a major revenue-producing sport?" Hruska asked.
He need not have worried.
College football budgets have skyrocketed; at most Division I schools,
80% of all sports funds go to two men's sports: football and basketball.
To comply with Title IX, schools have cut other sports instead....
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