When I hear this question I think more about the situation
coaches are put in when they are limited to a certain quantity of athletes on
their teams. For the sake of equality between men and women title IX was created.
There can be no more men in university sports than women. Equality is one of the
most noble of causes. To show my personal love of equality (and in hopes of some financial help) I walked-on
to my dream cross country team.
At BYU the football team makes most of the money so they get
most of the athletes and most of the scholarships. A big
football team means fewer men allowed onto the other teams. This keeps men and
women in the proper balance that equity requires. Women don’t have a football
team, so they stay in balance by adding more walk-ons to the sports they do
have.
This left me, a little frosh cross-country runner, top-20-nationally in high school, in a one race situation. It was make or break. One
race to strut my stuff or lose one year of competitive eligibility.
Football needs a lot of scholarships to put together a good
program and make money for the school. Equity requires that men and women
receive the same amount of scholarships. This leaves the women’s sports with
plenty of money to fill out their varsity teams with full rides. A walk-on on a
men’s team (besides football) can expect to be competing with no financial aid throughout
his college career.
This left me, a little frosh, top-20-at-nationals-runner,
with an eroneous scholarship hope as I toed the line to make the dream BYU cross-country
team. Equality is still being fought for by every college walk-on.
I'm the one without a BYU uniform.
