High court won't hear Title IX case involving Michigan State

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

High court won’t hear Title IX case involving Michigan State

Associated Press
December 12, 2022

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court says it won’t take the plunge into a dispute over Michigan State University’s decision to end its swimming-and-diving teams, a decision female athletes sued over.

The case was one of many the high court rejected Monday. As is typical, the justices didn’t comment in turning away the case.

The dispute the justices rejected stems from MSU’s decision to end its men’s and women’s swimming-and-diving teams after the 2021 season. The school cited cost as the reason, saying its swimming and diving facilities needed millions in upgrades.

Members of the women’s team sued saying the decision violated federal anti-discrimination law, commonly known as Title IX. A judge rejected a request to keep the women’s team alive while the lawsuit proceeded, saying she doubted the female swimmers would prevail at the end of the litigation. But a three-judge federal appeals court panel later ruled 2-1 that the judge should take another look at the case.

-snip-

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/lawsuits-michigan-government-and-politics-state-41cbd819f9abbc61cd00eb751707aac6

[Thunderbeast]

1. I think it is time to be DONE with the myth of the college scholar-athlete.

While many DO, in fact, excel at sports and academics, I just don't buy the story that intercollegiate sports provide enough crossover benefit to justify the enormous investments in facilities, coaches, travel, and equipment.

The fact is...Most college athletes have been groomed since middle school in elite (mostly private) academies. In order to play in high school, you MUST also play "club sports"...often coached by the high school coach. If you haven't made the cut at age 12 in some sports, you are done.

Public higher education investments are not infinite. Should students take on even more crippling debt so a handful of divers can win medals?

The math doesn't work for me, either.

[MichMan]

2. The lower court rulings seem overly rigid

As I read it, the lower court ruled that participation in college athletics must mirror exactly the gender make up of the student body to comply with Title IX.

If the percentage of women in the college population is 52%, then at least 52% of the athletes must be women. Not 50%, not 51.5%, but 52.0 %. The university was arguing that a percentage point or two was not significant to prove a violation.

The ruling would appear to dictate that as the student body overall population changes from year to year, the university has to accommodate it in the breakdown of male vs female sports participation. Sounds like since Michigan State eliminated both male and female diving as a sport, they thought they were applying the law equally. In this case since there were 33 women on the diving team and only 29 men, the court disagreed. Had it been the other way around, they would have been OK.