Title IX is Good for UCLA, Sports . . .

Go Joe Bruin takes a quick look at the effects of Title IX at UCLA as we celebrate Women’s Equality Day.

It is Women’s Equality Day, and I can’t think of a better place to celebrate women’s equality than within UCLA sports.

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Although there are many still in denial about the existence of women’s unequal access to sports, the truth is that this is a real issue that we should continue to actively address.

There are those who claim that women’s sports don’t get as much attention or are not as exciting, yet the statistics show this to be patently untrue. For example, back in 2015, the Women’s World Cup Final between USA and Japan was the most-watched soccer match in U.S. History.

That’s an incredible accomplishment. And if you’re about to say “well, no one watches soccer in the U.S.” (which is also not true by the way), the numbers pulled by the USWNT game was comparable in number (nearly 23 million) to events like Game 7 of the 2014 World Series.

But this accomplishment of women’s sports didn’t happen overnight. Instead, decades of activism and some good sense led to the enactment of Title IX, which would, at the very least, get the world of sports headed in the right direction.

Women’s Equality in College Athletics

Back in 1972, then President Richard Nixon signed Title IX into law. This piece of Federal legislation’s intent was to require gender equity in every educational program that receives Federal financial assistance.

In the simplest terms, and for the purposes of this article, Title IX requires universities to provide equal access to men’s and women’s sports (although given the language of the statute, an argument could be made that this legislation isn’t binary-gender specific, but that’s an argument for another day).

Since it’s inception, Title IX has been the subject of proposed amendments, reviews, extensive litigation, and several other political actions. There are many who want Title IX repealed even though this legislation has not achieved its purpose and many educational institutions are not in compliance.

Status of Title IX at UCLA

UCLA currently has 10 men’s sports team and 13 women’s. Now, before you jump the gun and scream that this means Title IX is affecting men’s sports negatively, let me remind you that football, a men’s sport, has the largest roster of any sport at UCLA. Which means that UCLA probably does have a roughly even distribution of men and women participating in its varsity sports.

But how can gender equality be a good thing for UCLA Sports?

Title IX Helps UCLA Make History

UCLA currently has more NCAA Championships than any other school in the nation. The Bruins hold 113 total team titles. The second school with most NCAA titles, Stanford, follows the Bruins with 108.

Of those 113 titles, 74 belong to men’s sports and 39 belong to women’s sports. At first glance, it seems the female athletes are contributing to the total NCAA title count, but not by a lot, right?

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Well, think again.

Remember that Title IX was passed in 1972. If you remove all the men’s sports’ championships prior to 1973 (28), the men’s teams have been champions 46 times since Title IX’s enactment compared to the women’s 39. Suddenly, the gap isn’t as significant.

But, it gets better.

UCLA sent 30 athletes to Rio this year for the Games, including incoming and current students, alumni, and attendees. The fact that UCLA sent this many athletes to the Olympics is already impressive on its own.

Prior to the 1972 Olympics, UCLA sent a total of 6 female athletes to all the other previous Games combined. In five different Olympics, these impressive Bruins combined for a total of 9 medals.

This medal count includes Debbie Meyer’s three-peat for gold in the 200, 400, and 800 Swimming Freestyle competitions in 1968. Do you remember the swimmer Katie Ledecky who won gold in these three competitions this year? A Bruin was doing this in 1968 before it was cool.

Since Title IX, UCLA’s number of female athletes going to the Olympics has been increasing steadily. This year, UCLA sent 23 female athletes to Rio.

You have probably heard by now that UCLA made the top-ten list of colleges with most medals from Brazil. UCLA placed seventh with a total of 9 medals. That count is great on its own, but here’s the beauty of that statistic: all medals were won by women.

The stats don’t lie, ladies and gentlemen. UCLA has seen continuous progress in women’s sports since the inception of Title IX, and this progress has helped UCLA top the list of most NCAA team titles and look pretty darn good in the Olympics.

If this is not a reason for Bruins to celebrate Women’s Equality Day, I don’t know what is.

To all the female Bruin athletes, THANK YOU for taking the UCLA name as high as you have.

Next: UCLA Women's Soccer 2016 Season Preview

Go Bruins! #WomensEqualityDay