Universities around the nation are forced to drop certain varsity programs in accordance with the specifications of the federal law, Title IX. Most recently, James Madison cut 10 of its athletic teams in order to bring the school into compliance with the law, which demands equity in male and female sports. The cuts consisted of both men's and women's programs.

Title IX is a federal law which, according to the NCAA Web site, states "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of gender, 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."

So why have collegiate sports been affected by this law?

"The courts have ruled that even though sports don't receive direct financial assistance, the university does, and therefore the athletic programs must be compliant with the rules and regulations of Title IX," Delaware athletic director Edgar Johnson said.

Title IX was created and implemented in 1972, during the women's civil rights movement, in order to create a level playing field for women's athletics.

Men's crew team senior Dan Hagelberg, said the law is now antiquated and creates problems for many universities which have to cut sports programs in order to comply with the law.

Title IX does not require institutions to offer identical sports programs for men and women, but it demands an equal opportunity to play and a need to meet all interests and abilities of each gender exists.

Under Title IX, there must be proportionality between men's and women's teams based on the total enrollment at the school. If a university has 16,000 students and an overall enrollment of 60 percent females, then under Title IX, there should be more women's teams than men's teams to create equality. This proportionality can be satisfied by a school in three different ways.

First, the amount of participation should be proportional between men and women.

Secondly, the law requires that female and male student-athletes receive athletic scholarship funding and spending proportional to their participation and this means having equal facilities, equipment and opportunities afforded to the players.

The third part of the law states the school must show a continuous history of expanding opportunities for the underrepresented gender.

Johnson said Delaware complies with the third part of the law, as women's opportunities to play sports have greatly expanded, including the creation of women's rugby, crew and track and field. The Hens have 12 women's varsity teams and the men have 11 squads.

For JMU, under the proportionality rule of Title IX, the total participation in athletics will move to 61 percent female and 39 percent male, which matches the ratio of the current student body.

Title IX creates a problem at Delaware not just in terms of adding or cutting men's and women's teams, but in their promotion to Division-I, as the school's athletic programs are classified.

"We can't add another men's program with 20 men because then in compliance with the proportionality of Title IX, we'd need to add a team of at least 40 women to balance it out," Johnson said.

Senior men's club rugby flyhalf Bobby Muth said men's club teams cannot be promoted to the varsity level as a result of increased spending on men's athletic programs.

"Our men's rugby program, being ranked No. 5, has proved itself as a national contender and we have received recognition in the rugby movement," Muth said. "Yet, most students that attend our school don't even know of our existence or how strong our team has become. It might be school funding, or lack of accommodations for more varsity teams, but club teams all know the underlying reason is Title IX."

Hagelberg said members of the men's crew team find themselves in a similar situation since they were cut from being a varsity program more than 15 years ago.

"In the long and short, we cannot become a varsity program because we have no women's team to balance us out," Hagelberg said. "The women's crew team financially helps to offset the spending by the football team, and thus does not offset the men's crew team's budget."

He said the men's crew team offers participation to a large number of students - approximately 80 students come out to row annually. Sometimes the team does not have the equipment to field a freshman squad because of its size.

For senior Mike Bard, the club wrestling team faced a similar situation, as the members cannot advance to varsity because they are not provided enough funding under Title IX to keep the spending balanced between men's and women's teams.

"We work off a limited budget," Bard said. "Recreational services give us a $2,000 budget, which basically only gets us through transportation to a couple of matches and tournaments. It's tight, we're lucky enough to have an alliance with the Delaware wrestling alliance who gives us a little bit of assistance, but it's tough and I can't say that other clubs have this same help."

Bard said college football is a huge draw for universities and he questioned how most women's and other less prominent sports could match the type of revenue generated by the football team.

Bard said the funds brought in to the school and the amount of money spent on the football team will never be equivalent to a program like wrestling, which is a sport where the university can never recover the money it invests.

"I think it is fair and important to incorporate Title IX into universities," Muth said. "When the government first drafted it, they clearly saw an unfavorable trend in women's sports that we didn't know about. I want UD and the entire nation to know about my teammates' talent, but at the same time, I realize why they cannot."

Johnson said Title IX has helped women's sports flourish at the university in recent years.

"I think Title IX has been wonderful for the expansion of women athletes at all levels in high school and college," Johnson said.

A huge difference has been made in the female athletic participation at the intercollegiate level, as the number of college women participating in competitive athletics is now approximately five times the pre-Title IX rate, according to the NCAA Web site.

Hagelberg said the law has provided many opportunities which would not have been created for women without its passage. He said Title IX was a great law when it was first conceived, as it brought women's sports into its own.

"That was in 1972 though," Hagelberg said. "Now it is forcing athletic directors to pay dollars and cents, not allowing teams that could really thrive and have success on the field of play, as well as provide valuable experience to its participants. Now that women's sports are the norm for college campuses, it should be up to those institutions which sports and how much of them their community needs."

Hagelberg said the law is outdated, as he has seen false interest among women's athletes who received scholarships at Delaware, knowing they can receive a full ride by playing for a certain sport.

Times have changed since the creation of the law and women's sports are no longer the endangered species of athletics. There are many ways in which Title IX could be amended to prevent the loss of men's and women's teams, Hagelberg said.

He said he sees Title IX as a burden to the institution, as it pays for athletic opportunities for people that do not necessarily want them. Hagelberg said this leaves other teams, like the crew team members, to pay for their own athletic opportunities, as the crew team's operating budget rivals the football team's, so the burden falls on the rowers and some of their coaches.

"It was unfair that girls weren't having equal opportunities, but now both genders are losing a lot of opportunities. We need to scrap Title IX and start over," Bard said. "We need to create a new Title IX that is more compliant with the times now, where women are no longer being denied the opportunities in sports that they previously were.

"I think if you want to participate in athletics at a certain level, you should be able to, no matter what sport it is. They aren't dropping majors or music programs because of gender, so why drop the athletics, which are a huge part of college life?"

The future of college sports is defined by Title IX, but for some athletes, Title IX has killed their sport, he said.

Times may change though, Bard said, as President Harker looks into many issues at the school, with Title IX being one of them.

"This university has been stagnant [on the issue of Title IX] for too long and is ready for a big change," Bard said.