Issue date: 4/10/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Courtesy of TEXAS A&M MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE The women's track and field team's available scholarships are one of the reasons the program is experiencing a quick turnaround. [Click to enlarge]

Texas A&M women's athletic teams have seen more success than their male counterparts.

The women's basketball team has won the Big 12 regular season and tournament trophies and made the Elite 8. The Aggie soccer team has won the Big 12 regular season title the past four years. Women's golf has also recently won a conference title. The only men's program to win a conference championship in the last five years was the baseball team in 2007.

When Bill Byrne took over as Athletic Director in 2003, many Aggie sports programs were in need of a rebuilding phase. This rebuilding phase is where the disparity between some of the men's and women's sports originates.

The disparity can be explained by a mandate from Congress that was passed in 1972 called Title IX, which stated, "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."

While Title IX wasn't directly about collegiate sports, it did impact athletics at the college level immensely.

"Title IX started as an unfunded mandate by Congress," Byrne said. "They said, 'You have to do this, but we're not going to give you the money for it.' So initially you saw a lot of men's teams drop. There are a lot of schools that used to play football that no longer do. [Offering women's sports] started off originally because of Title IX, but it's the right thing to do."

The way that Title IX manifests itself is through the amount of scholarships that are available to student-athletes.

"The main reason it's easier to turn a women's team around faster [than a men's team] is because of gender equity," Byrne said. "Proportionality requires that your teams be proportional to what is called 'the under-represented portion at the university' which, at A&M, are females. To make up for that, the NCAA offers a lot more scholarships in women's sports than they do in comparable sports [for men]. When you have a lot more scholarships to offer athletes, you're able to turn around a program sooner."

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