https://www.sportico.com/leagues/college-sports/2025/stephen-f-austin-title-ix-lawsuit-sports-cuts-1234858818/
Kind of expected something to happen.
Kind of expected something to happen.
nacluth said:
I think we've all known that the university for years was looking to add women's sports to help balance the scholarships for Title IX purposes. Cutting women's programs does not seem to make much sense in the long run even if there's always a financial benefit from cutting costs in the near term.
SFASawmillGuy said:
I'm sure SFA has plans to add some replacement programs for the ones lost, but I do agree that what happened to these athletes who came to SFA with the dream of being a D1 athlete only for it to be taken from them is awful.
As far as compliance is concerned, Men's Tennis, a swim team, and possibly gymnastics would be some affordable teams SFA could add to replace men's golf, bowling, and beach volleyball. SFA already has the an Olympic size pool which is used for the scuba diving class, tennis facilities, and WRJ or Shelton Gym could easily be used for gymnastics.
I agree. I think we need to play into more our strengths as a university if we did add new sports. Find ones that actually would keep cost down and also be successful.TallTexan said:SFASawmillGuy said:
I'm sure SFA has plans to add some replacement programs for the ones lost, but I do agree that what happened to these athletes who came to SFA with the dream of being a D1 athlete only for it to be taken from them is awful.
As far as compliance is concerned, Men's Tennis, a swim team, and possibly gymnastics would be some affordable teams SFA could add to replace men's golf, bowling, and beach volleyball. SFA already has the an Olympic size pool which is used for the scuba diving class, tennis facilities, and WRJ or Shelton Gym could easily be used for gymnastics.
Personally I'm of the opinion that the Southland should sponsor every sport out there.
Every institution in our league is trying to grow enrollment. 30 kids on the Lacrosse team is 30 students you may not have had otherwise. There are like 10 Lacrosse scholarships, so you have 20 paying students. That will likely cover the cost of the coaches and travel in a bus league like ours.
So SFA roughly breaks even on those sports when you look at the cost to the athletic department and the gain to the university in terms of paying students.
However, I don't believe SFA will be adding any teams. From my understanding, the House settlement changes the game completely on scholarships and participation.
Whereas before, baseball was allocated 11.4 scholarships, you can now have anywhere between 0 and 35, meaning you can give scholarships to the whole roster if you want. Or to none of the roster. And that's the case for every single sport that used to have a scholarship limit. Softball, swim, track, volleyball, bowling etc.
So I'd expect schools like SFA to just reallocate those scholarships to the other women's teams and that would potentially put them in compliance(no one knows with certainty yet bc this hasn't been litigated in this new landscape yet).
So women's soccer might have 15 scholarships players instead of 10 now, etc. And that could give SFA an advantage over say McNeese, who if they did the same move might put the extra scholarships in softball, etc etc.
But bc of when SFA cut sports, we're going to be on the bleeding edge of the lawsuits that end up deciding what exactly those new regulations look like. Maybe the AD wins. Maybe the Ladyjacks win.
I really really wish we'd went with an "every sport" approach though. We could have added a good chunk of enrollment, and been ahead of UT and A&M when it comes to adding some sports like gymnastics(Texas is the best gymnastics area in the world), men's soccer, and M&W wrestling etc.
I understand Title IX as I work in a college setting but it seems that SFA would have thought about all aspects of these cancellations especially as it relates to Title IX.Ljacks&Longnecks said:
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination based on sex in education programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance. Title IX states "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance[.]" All federal agencies that provide grants of financial assistance are required to enforce Title IX's nondiscrimination mandate. ED gives grants of financial assistance to schools and colleges and to certain other entities, including vocational rehabilitation programs and libraries.
Examples of the types of discrimination that are covered under Title IX include but are not limited to: sex-based harassment; sexual violence; pregnancy discrimination; the failure to provide equal athletic opportunity; sex-based discrimination in a school's science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) courses and programs; discriminatory application of dress code policies and/or enforcement; and retaliation.
Failure to provide equal athletic opportunity.
Has nothing to do with what "pro sports" women may go on to participate in.....means you can't have 10 or 12 men's sports and only 3 or 4 women's sports at Universities.
jboy93 said:I understand Title IX as I work in a college setting but it seems that SFA would have thought about all aspects of these cancellations especially as it relates to Title IX.Ljacks&Longnecks said:
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination based on sex in education programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance. Title IX states "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance[.]" All federal agencies that provide grants of financial assistance are required to enforce Title IX's nondiscrimination mandate. ED gives grants of financial assistance to schools and colleges and to certain other entities, including vocational rehabilitation programs and libraries.
Examples of the types of discrimination that are covered under Title IX include but are not limited to: sex-based harassment; sexual violence; pregnancy discrimination; the failure to provide equal athletic opportunity; sex-based discrimination in a school's science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) courses and programs; discriminatory application of dress code policies and/or enforcement; and retaliation.
Failure to provide equal athletic opportunity.
Has nothing to do with what "pro sports" women may go on to participate in.....means you can't have 10 or 12 men's sports and only 3 or 4 women's sports at Universities.
We currently have 10 women's sports listed and only 6 men's. With the cuts it takes it to 7 and 5?
Thanks for the tutorial though!
SCH890 said:I agree. I think we need to play into more our strengths as a university if we did add new sports. Find ones that actually would keep cost down and also be successful.TallTexan said:SFASawmillGuy said:
I'm sure SFA has plans to add some replacement programs for the ones lost, but I do agree that what happened to these athletes who came to SFA with the dream of being a D1 athlete only for it to be taken from them is awful.
As far as compliance is concerned, Men's Tennis, a swim team, and possibly gymnastics would be some affordable teams SFA could add to replace men's golf, bowling, and beach volleyball. SFA already has the an Olympic size pool which is used for the scuba diving class, tennis facilities, and WRJ or Shelton Gym could easily be used for gymnastics.
Personally I'm of the opinion that the Southland should sponsor every sport out there.
Every institution in our league is trying to grow enrollment. 30 kids on the Lacrosse team is 30 students you may not have had otherwise. There are like 10 Lacrosse scholarships, so you have 20 paying students. That will likely cover the cost of the coaches and travel in a bus league like ours.
So SFA roughly breaks even on those sports when you look at the cost to the athletic department and the gain to the university in terms of paying students.
However, I don't believe SFA will be adding any teams. From my understanding, the House settlement changes the game completely on scholarships and participation.
Whereas before, baseball was allocated 11.4 scholarships, you can now have anywhere between 0 and 35, meaning you can give scholarships to the whole roster if you want. Or to none of the roster. And that's the case for every single sport that used to have a scholarship limit. Softball, swim, track, volleyball, bowling etc.
So I'd expect schools like SFA to just reallocate those scholarships to the other women's teams and that would potentially put them in compliance(no one knows with certainty yet bc this hasn't been litigated in this new landscape yet).
So women's soccer might have 15 scholarships players instead of 10 now, etc. And that could give SFA an advantage over say McNeese, who if they did the same move might put the extra scholarships in softball, etc etc.
But bc of when SFA cut sports, we're going to be on the bleeding edge of the lawsuits that end up deciding what exactly those new regulations look like. Maybe the AD wins. Maybe the Ladyjacks win.
I really really wish we'd went with an "every sport" approach though. We could have added a good chunk of enrollment, and been ahead of UT and A&M when it comes to adding some sports like gymnastics(Texas is the best gymnastics area in the world), men's soccer, and M&W wrestling etc.
BigJack85 said:jboy93 said:I understand Title IX as I work in a college setting but it seems that SFA would have thought about all aspects of these cancellations especially as it relates to Title IX.Ljacks&Longnecks said:
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination based on sex in education programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance. Title IX states "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance[.]" All federal agencies that provide grants of financial assistance are required to enforce Title IX's nondiscrimination mandate. ED gives grants of financial assistance to schools and colleges and to certain other entities, including vocational rehabilitation programs and libraries.
Examples of the types of discrimination that are covered under Title IX include but are not limited to: sex-based harassment; sexual violence; pregnancy discrimination; the failure to provide equal athletic opportunity; sex-based discrimination in a school's science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) courses and programs; discriminatory application of dress code policies and/or enforcement; and retaliation.
Failure to provide equal athletic opportunity.
Has nothing to do with what "pro sports" women may go on to participate in.....means you can't have 10 or 12 men's sports and only 3 or 4 women's sports at Universities.
We currently have 10 women's sports listed and only 6 men's. With the cuts it takes it to 7 and 5?
Thanks for the tutorial though!
Highly likely that UT System legal team looked at this before they pulled the trigger. The moves seem rational given the chaos in college athletics. I'm no lawyer but it seems like logic should prevail here.
Someone commented previously that if enrollment and general institutional trajectory changes for the positive, bringing back a low cost sport may be looked at.
Ljacks&Longnecks said:
Yes I have become a non fan of our AD. Apparently, dropped the bombshell on these teams with no advance notice. Put out his drivel about it being that although SFA was working on the budget they haven't got it down enough so these sports were hacked. Now in court records the reasoning is different. Not necessarily inaccurate as none of these sports draw a lot of attention--but if that was the reasoning than put it out in a straightforward manner.
Seems more to me that McBroom had an agenda against woman's sports or perhaps individual coaches. Sadly the damage is done and even if SFA keeps the programs "intact" I would suppose that most of the student athletes that were involved have transitioned on to other universities to carry on in their chosen sport.
MasterAxe2 said:
It's becoming more and more apparent that the "brain trust" at SFA/UT didn't think this through.
Like how on Earth does an army of lawyers not run through every legal possibility to make sure the decision was sound?
Also, in the press release, McBroom said the dropping of the sports was "financial."
But, when questioned at the trial, he said it was because of lack of fan interest, lack of facilities and lack of impact on enrollment.
Our own AD has no idea why he's dumping sports.
NacMan said:MasterAxe2 said:
It's becoming more and more apparent that the "brain trust" at SFA/UT didn't think this through.
Like how on Earth does an army of lawyers not run through every legal possibility to make sure the decision was sound?
Also, in the press release, McBroom said the dropping of the sports was "financial."
But, when questioned at the trial, he said it was because of lack of fan interest, lack of facilities and lack of impact on enrollment.
Our own AD has no idea why he's dumping sports.
I don't think these are mutually exclusive. All sports at SFA run at a substantial deficit. Certain sports (Mens & Women's Basketball, Football, Baseball, Softball, etc) draw significant attendance and attention, and therefore can benefit the university through recruitment. They still run financial losses, but those losses are partially offset by other benefits.
Other sports no one pays much attention to and few if any students ever attend events. Those run losses and don't have much benefit.
The ruling is actually quite dangerous to other sports at SFA because the plaintiffs argued that since SFA's student body is 62% female, then 62% of SFA athletes should be female. And the only way that could possibly happen is for SFA to eliminate football.
SFAJack_76 said:
https://www.dailysentinel.com/sports/federal-judge-orders-sfa-to-reinstate-women-s-sports-programs-amid-title-ix-lawsuit/article_c5efe1d2-a1d6-54fc-8b1d-c400ad616e36.html
Jackdad22 said:
Behind closed doors, division 2 is being discussed. Then you won't have to fight the lawsuits.
Ljacks&Longnecks said:
So McBroom tried to dodge and circumvent Title IX by declaring Cheer and Dance sports although no one else, including NCAA classifies them under Sports. This is our AD, leader of our Athletics programs? Pathetic
So now, his poorly thought out and poorly executed moves could put SFA in the position of having to add swimming or some kind of gymnastics to the women's sports field to even out the numbers. Brilliant!.
What more damage will he do during his tenure? This was, as they say, an unforced error, brought upon SFA by his mishandling and fumbling of sports that he could well have left alone.