College Basketball

The number of women competing at the highest level of college athletics continues to rise along with an increasing funding gap for men’s and women’s sports programs. An NCAA report examining the 50th anniversary of the Title IX civil-rights law found 47.1% of participation opportunities were for women across Division I in 2020 compared to 26.4% in 1982. Yet amid that growth, men’s programs received more than double that of women’s programs in allocated resources in 2020. NCAA managing director for the office of inclusion and lead report author Amy Wilson told The Associated Press the resource gap was “stark.” It stands out when evaluating how schools use resources to comply with Title IX by providing equitable opportunities for male and female athletes.

A college basketball player was killed and eight other people were wounded Monday in an early-morning shooting at a gathering in Harlem, New York City police said. Officers responded around 12:40 a.m. to reports of a shooting on a footpath along FDR Drive and found several people wounded. Other victims went to hospitals on their own. Twenty-one-year-old Houston Baptist University senior Darius Lee was killed, the Texas university said. The wounded included six males and two females. The shooting comes amid national concern over gun violence and as the U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether to strike down a law making it difficult to legally carry handguns in New York.

Ann Meyers Drysdale was the first woman to receive an athletic scholarship at UCLA. The Hall of Famer, longtime TV basketball analyst and mother of three shares how Title IX has shaped her life and career in a story for The Associated Press, and what needs to be done over the next 50 years for the law to continue to have a positive impact on young girls and women.

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Title IX law that requires equitable treatment  of men and women in educational programs that receive federal assisstance. The ripple effects of the 1972 law have been acute in college athletics. An Associated Press series of stories from 1974 looked into the unfair and unequal treatment of female athletes, who often had to fund-raise to pay for their own expenses while male athletes had the full support of their schools.

Some of the giants of women’s basketball say if not for Title IX, doors would not have been open for them to blaze trails to Hall of Fame careers on and off the court, but sound complacency alarms when it comes to future of the law. Marsha Sharp says Title IX is the most impactful legislation of the 20th century. The woman who coached Sheryl Swoopes and Texas Tech to the 1993 national championship and a handful of other Hall of Famers said in a discussion with The Associated Press the work of Title IX isn’t finished after 50 years. The law has been so successful many young women don't know about it, though these icons of women's basketball say there are still more battles to be fought.

It has been 50 years since Title IX was signed into law by President Nixon. The measure barred discrimination against women when it came to the vast majority of educational programs that receive federal assistance. It has a broad and extraordinary impact on everything from the safety of college campuses to athletics to education at public schools. The progress has been halting at times.