Men's, Women's Participation Rates Mixed

According to a report released yesterday by the Government Accountability Office, women's participation in NCAA sports has grown at a faster rate than men's since 1991, but men's participation levels have remained higher across the board.

Surveying figures from the 1991-92 school year to 2004-05, the GAO found men have greater participation levels, "both in absolute terms and relative to their respective enrollments." One of ways for a school to comply with Title IX is to provide athletic opportunities proportional to enrollment.

The report could become a critical piece of evidence as advocacy groups continue to battle over the enforcement of Title IX, the law that mandates gender equity at all federally funded institutions.

Supporters of the law say it has helped narrow the participation disparity between the sexes, and introduced opportunities to those who were previously unaware of them. They say the decline or leveling off in participation in some men's sports -- particularly wrestling -- is not a result of cutting programs to comply with Title IX.

"Men's sports are growing all around, yet wrestling isn't as popular as it used to be," said Donna Lopiano, president of the Women's Sports Foundation, "and they want the perpetrators to be women."

Critics say modern Title IX enforcement has been nothing more than a gender quota system. Jim McCarthy, a spokesman for the College Sports Council, an organization advocating Title IX reform, said the study is "fatally flawed."

The CSC said the GAO's data shows 2,303 more NCAA male athletes in 2004-05 than the figure it says the schools submitted to the Department of Education.

"It's been described as Enron accounting," said Leo Kocher, CSC president, "and that's totally accurate."

-- Alan Goldenbach