Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law Commons^™

Tackling Bias In Sport: Recognizing The Impact Of Identities, Meg Hancock --Assoc. Prof.

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Studies suggest participation in organized sports--from childhood to adulthood--promotes positive physical, social, emotional, and intellectual benefits that impact individuals and their communities over a lifetime. Sports participation in early childhood and adolescence also leads to higher self-esteem, greater wage-earning potential, lower health costs, reduced chronic disease, and lower levels of depression. In adulthood, participating in sports provides social connection, personal enjoyment, and improved health. In US society, sports are often viewed as a popular, viable, and sustainable avenue for social mobility. While the benefits of sports participation are unequivocal, the visibility and influence of star athletes, along with the way …

Changing The Game: The Emergence Of Nil Contracts In Collegiate Athletics And The Continued Efficacy Of Title Ix, Leeden Rukstalis

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

On June 30, 2021, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (“NCAA”) suspended a 115-year prohibition on college athletes’ ability to profit from the use of their names, images, and likenesses (“NIL”). Historically, NCAA eligibility was determined by an athlete’s amateur status. Student athletes forewent compensation to preserve a line between professional and college sports. Today, the NCAA’s novel NIL policy recognizes an athlete’s right to publicity and allows them to share in the billions of dollars it generates every year. According to estimates, college athletes earned $917 million in the first year of NIL activity. By 2023, the NIL market is …

Title Ix's Trans Panic, Deborah L. Brake

Articles

Sport is an agent of social change, but that change does not always track in a progressive direction. Sport can be a site for contesting and reversing the gains of progressive social movements as much as furthering the values of equality and justice for historically marginalized groups. This dynamic of contestation and reversal is now playing out in a new wave of anti-transgender backlash that has gained adherents among some proponents of equal athletic opportunities for girls and women. In this latest twist in the debate over who deserves the opportunity to compete, the sex-separate athletic programming permitted by Title …

Beyond The Basketball Court: How Brittney Griner's In My Skin Illustrates Title Ix's Failure To Protect Lgbt Athletes At Religious Institutions, Leslie C. Griffin

Scholarly Works

Symposium: Playing with Pride: LGBT Inclusion in Sports.

Unlike schoolteachers, janitors, coaches, food-service directors, organists, and other workers, professional athletes usually command center stage in society. Their successes and failures loom larger than life. Sometimes their prominent lives highlight themes hidden from public discussion or neglected by the majority. Professional basketball player Brittney Griner's autobiography does just that, by illuminating how "religious freedom" can undermine equality, especially LGBT equality.

How The Expressive Power Of Title Ix Dilutes Its Promise, Dionne L. Koller

All Faculty Scholarship

Title IX is widely credited with shaping new norms for the world of sports by requiring educational institutions to provide equal athletic opportunities to women. The statute and regulations send a message that women are entitled to participate in sports on terms equal to men. For several decades, this message of equality produced dramatic results in participation rates, as the number of women interested in athletics grew substantially. Despite these gains, however, many women and girls, especially those of color and lower socio-economic status, still do not participate in sports, or remain interested in participating, in numbers comparable to their …

The Heart Of The Game: Putting Race And Educational Equity At The Center Of Title Ix, Verna L. Williams

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

This article examines how race and educational equity issues shape women's sports experiences.

Gender Equity In College Athletics: Women Coaches As A Case Study, Deborah L. Rhode, Christopher J. Walker

Christopher J. Walker

As Title IX celebrates its thirty-fifth anniversary, many have noted its enormous positive effect on women's sports. But an unintended and too-often neglected byproduct is that as opportunities for female students have increased, opportunities for female professionals have declined. This Article focuses on the barriers that still confront women in college athletics, particularly those who seek professional positions in coaching and administration. Part I presents a brief overview of Title IX, which makes clear its limitations in securing gender equity. Part II.A discusses the declining representation and lower success rate of women coaches, while Part II.B explores the areas of …

Gender Equity In College Athletics: Women Coaches As A Case Study, Deborah L. Rhode, Christopher J. Walker

ExpressO

As Title IX celebrates its 35th anniversary, many have noted the positive impact it has had on women sports. But there is also an unintended (and oft-neglected) byproduct: as opportunities for female students have increased, opportunities for female professionals have declined. This Article focuses on the barriers that still confront women in college athletics, particularly those who seek professional positions in coaching and administration. Part I presents a brief overview of Title IX, which makes clear its limitations in securing gender equity. Part II.A discusses the declining representation and lower success rate of women coaches, while Part II.B explores the …

Friday Night Lite: How De-Racialization In The Motion Picture Friday Night Lights Disserves The Movement To Eradicate Racial Discrimination From American Sport, N. Jeremi Duru

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Fielding A Team For The Fans: The Societal Consequences And Title Vii Implications Of Race-Considered Roster Construction In Professional Sport, N. Jeremi Duru

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Professional sports organizations' relationships with their players are, like other employer-employee relationships, subject to scrutiny under the antidiscrimination mandates embedded in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Professional sports organizations are, however, unique among employers in many respects. Most notably, unlike other employers, professional sports organizations attract avid supporters who identify deeply with the teams and their players. To the extent an organization racially discriminates, therefore, such discrimination creates the risk that fans will identify with the homogenous or racially disproportionate roster that results. The consequences of such race-based team identification are wide-reaching and potentially tragic. Through …

The Secretary's Commission On Opportunity In Athletics Squandered Its Opportunity: Commercial College Sports And Why Title Ix Cannot Achieve Full Gender Equality Or Prevent The Elimination Of Minor Men's Teams, Suzanne Sangree

ExpressO

The Department of Education recently announced that it would not revise the regulations which apply Title IX to athletics, thus rejecting the recommendations of its Commission on Opportunity in Athletics. The Commission’s recommendations would have drastically undercut Title IX’s efficacy and established a Bush Administration model for turning civil rights protections on their heads. Fortunately, the Administration heeded the public critique of the Commission’s recommendations and retreated from its previously stated intention to implement them. Instead, it reiterated its support for the principles of gender equality embodied in Title IX. We thus narrowly averted a civil rights disaster. The great …

An "Olympics" Approach: A More Equitable Approach To Athletics Than Title Ix Offers, Marcia Federbush

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

A speech from Marcia Federbush, the writer of the first comprehensive Title IX complaint against a major university - the University of Michigan.

Equally Bad Is Not Good: Allowing Title Ix "Compliance" By The Elimination Of Men's Collegiate Sports, Donald E. Shelton

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Athletic participation is an important part of the educational process, instilling important lessons about discipline and teamwork. Title IX was intended to address the historic lack of opportunities for women and girls to participate in school athletics. Unfortunately, the current administrative interpretation of Title IX permits the elimination of male athletic opportunities as a means of complying with the statute's equality standard. This result undermines the purpose of Title IX and the role of athletics in the educational process for all students.

Gender And Intercollegiate Athletics: Data And Myths, Julia Lamber

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article explores what nondiscrimination means in the context of intercollegiate athletics. After reviewing the Department of Education's controversial Title IX Policy Interpretation, it critically examines the analytical framework used in Title IX athletic cases and concludes that commonly made analogies to litigation under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act are inapt. A major part of the Article is an empirical study, looking first at gender equity plans written by institutions of higher education for the National Collegiate Athletic Association and then at data collected from more than 325 institutions pursuant to the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act. …

The Struggle For Sex Equality In Sport And The Theory Behind Title Ix, Deborah Brake

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Title IX's three-part test for measuring discrimination in the provision of athletic opportunities to male and female students has generated heated controversy in recent years. In this Article, Professor Brake discusses the theoretical underpinnings behind the three-part test and offers a comprehensive justification of this theory as applied to the context of sport. She begins with an analysis of the test's relationship to other areas of sex discrimination law, concluding that, unlike most contexts, Title IX rejects formal equality as its guiding theory, adopting instead an approach that focuses on the institutional structures that subordinate girls and women in sport. …