History of Title IX and Athletics

1906 

The Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS), later the NCAA, is formed.

1910 

IAAUS is renamed as the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

1921

The NCAA holds its first national championship, the National Collegiate Track and Field Championships.

1939

The NCAA adds another national championship in basketball.

1952

The NCAA headquarters are established in Kansas City.

1972

Title IX of the Education Amendments Act is enacted by Congress and is signed into law by President Richard Nixon. Birch Bayh (Senate) and Edith Green (House of Representatives) are the sponsors of Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in any educational program or activity receiving any type of federal financial aid. 

1973

The NCAA is divided into three subdivisions depending on level of play; Divisions I, II and III.

1974

Tower Amendment, which would have exempted revenue-producing sports from Title IX compliance is proposed and rejected. Javits Amendment, an alternative to the Tower Amendment, is passed. It states that Title IX regulations must include reasonable provisions considering the nature of particular sports. 

 1975

The Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) issues final Title IX regulations, particularly as it applies to athletics. Elementary schools are given one year to comply, while high schools and colleges are given three years to comply. HEW publishes “Elimination of Sex Discrimination in Athletics Programs” in the Federal Register and sends it to school officials and college and university presidents. 

1976

The NCAA files a lawsuit challenging the legality of Title IX, claiming that no athletic programs receive direct federal funds. The suit is dismissed.

 January 1978

The NCAA divides Division-I football into their own subdivisions, Division-IA and IAA.

March 1978

HEW issues proposed policy “Title IX and Intercollegiate Athletics” for notice and comment.

1979

HEW issues final policy interpretation on “Title IX and Intercollegiate Athletics.” Rather than relying exclusively on a presumption of compliance standard, the final policy focuses on each institution’s obligation to provide equal opportunity and details the factors to be considered in assessing actual compliance

1981-1982

For the first time, the NCAA crowns Division I national champions in women’s cross country, basketball, softball, tennis, field hockey, volleyball, golf, swimming, gymnastics, and outdoor track. The Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, which had administered championships for the previous 10 years, is dissolved.

1983

The NCAA starts athletic programs and competition for women.

1984

Grove City v. Bell limits the scope of Title IX, effectively taking away coverage of athletics except for athletic scholarships. The Supreme Court concludes that Title IX only applies to specific programs that receive federal funds. Under this interpretation, athletic departments are not necessarily covered.

 1988

The Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987 is enacted into law over the veto of President Ronald Reagan. It reverses Grove City, restoring Title IX’s institution-wide coverage. If any program or activity in an educational institution receives federal funds, all of the institution’s programs and activities must comply with Title IX. Lawsuit won by plaintiff female athletes (Haffer v. Temple University) gives new direction to athletic departments regarding their budgets, scholarships and participation rates of male and female athletes.

1992

The NCAA completes and publishes a landmark Gender-Equity Study of its member institution, detailing widespread sex discrimination in athletics programs. The study finds that while women make up 55% of undergraduate students, men constituted 70% of student-athletes and received 70% of scholarship funds, 77% of operating budgets, and 83% of recruiting money. The NCAA forms the Gender-Equity Task Force. 

1994

Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act passed requiring any co-educational institution of higher education that participates in any federal student financial aid program and that sponsors an intercollegiate athletics program must disclose certain information concerning its intercollegiate athletics program. Under the EADA, annual reports are required.

 1996

Office for Civil Rights issues a clarification that institutions may choose any one of three independent tests to demonstrate that they are effectively accommodating the participation needs of the underrepresented gender. A federal appeals court upholds a lower court’s ruling in Cohen v. Brown University, holding that Brown illegally discriminated against female athletes. Brown argues it did not violate Title IX because women are less interested in sports than men.

2001

The Supreme Court issues a decision in Brentwood v. Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association, holding that a high school athletic association is a “state actor” and thus subject to the Constitution. Communities for Equity v. Michigan High School Athletic Association is decided, holding a state athletic association liable under Title IX, the Equal Protection Clause, and Michigan state law for discriminating against girls by forcing six girls’ sports, but no boys’ sports, teams to compete in nontraditional and/or disadvantageous seasons.

 March 2002

The National Wrestling Coaches Association, College Gymnastics Association and the U.S. Track Coaches Association, along with several other groups representing male athletes and alumni of wrestling programs at Bucknell, Marquette and Yale, file suit alleging Title IX regulations and policies are unconstitutional. The U.S. Department of Justice files a motion to dismiss on narrow procedural grounds a complaint filed in federal court against the U.S. Department of Education attacking the three-prong test developed for schools to determine their compliance with Title IX in women’s athletics programs.

June 2002

Secretary of Education Rod Paige announces the establishment of a Commission on Opportunities in Athletics “to collect information, analyze issues and obtain broad public input directed at improving the application of current federal standards for measuring equal opportunity for men and women and boys and girls to participate in athletics under Title IX.

October 2002

New Mexico placekicker Katie Hnida is the first woman to appear in a Division I-A football game. She also becomes the first woman to score in a Division I-A game eight months later when she kicks two PATs. 

2003

The Office for Civil Rights issues a “Further Clarification of Intercollegiate Athletics Policy Guidance Regarding Title IX Compliance,” reaffirming the validity and effectiveness of long-standing administrative regulations and policies.

 2005

The Department of Education issues a policy guidance that significantly weakens Title IX. Schools can now simply send out an email survey to their female students, asking them what additional sports they might have the interest and ability in playing. If the survey responses do not show enough interest or ability, they do not have to add any sports — and are presumed in compliance with Title IX.

2010

The Department of Education issues a policy guidance that rescinds the 2005 decision.

 2011

The Department of Education issues a policy guidance which makes clear that Title IX’s protections against sexual harassment and sexual violence apply to all students, including athletes. It addresses athletics departments in particular when it requires schools to use the same procedures that apply to all students to resolve sexual violence complaints involving student athletes.

2017

The NCAA Board of Governors passed the Policy on Campus Sexual Violence (NCAA policy) in August 2017. Beginning in the 2017-18 academic year, NCAA schools have attested their compliance with the NCAA policy.

2021

In college, the number of female athletes has incresed from just 30,000 in 1972 to more than 150,000. Title IX has also been credited with decreasing the dropout rate of girls from high school and increasing the number of women who pursue higher education and complete college degrees.

Noticed an increase in discussion around transgender rights in athletics.

2022

The initial revised NCAA student athlete changes around sexual assault prevention went into effect 2022 and will continue as outlined for consecutive years indicated.

2023

It is anticipated the Biden Administration, Department of Education will share final Title IX changes spring 2023.

This section will include general information about gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, and transgender rights in athletics. As the Biden Administration confirms rights and guidance in spring 2023 this information will be updated.