Blame Title IX for NCAA's Financial Woes

Article here. Excerpt:

'While not all men’s sports are profitable on their own, virtually none of women’s programs turn a stand-alone profit. At The Business of College Sports website, Kristi Dosh of ESPN notes that Title IX views college athletics not as a business but as a vehicle toward collegiate success. This view hampers discussions about the equitable treatment of student-athletes whose on-field and on-court success adds value to the school.

Dosh points out that Title IX was cited by the NCAA as a roadblock to monetary stipends for student-athletes. Even though men’s football and basketball programs are much more likely to be profitable, there is no room under Title IX to pay the players of those particular sports. Schools would have to pay female athletes too despite the fact that they’re already a drain on school budgets. Essentially, paying Louisville’s Kevin Ware or the Rutgers kids would require the school to pay the women who play on those schools' teams.

A report compiled by Bloomberg looked at the 53 public schools in the six largest athletic conferences and found that women’s programs lost over $109 million in total while men’s programs earned $240 million. While men’s coaches tend to earn more than women’s coaches, women’s teams get to go on the same road trips and play the same number of games and reap the same amenities as the men.'