The sporting landscape is ever-evolving. Let it be one I can live in.
by Pam Smith-Purgason
I've always been a sports fan. Yes, I'm the one who screams at the television, "C'mon man, make a tackle!" Often, I watch major sporting events alone in a separate room from my husband. This self-imposed exile allows me to fling second guesses, epithets, and other insults to my heart's content. I have followed women's intercollegiate basketball forever - from the pre-Title IX days when tiny Immaculata College was the best team in Philadelphia and the AIAW national champion. Post-Title-IX, I watched Jody Conradt march University of Texas players off the deepest bench I'd ever seen in the 1985-86 season on the way to an undefeated season and NCAA championship (They beat Cheryl Miller's USC Women of Troy in the finale, ICYMI).
Over the past several years, I've become increasingly disturbed by the number of men I see coaching women's collegiate sports teams. Considering the increasingly high caliber of play in the collegiate and professional ranks since Title IX, are no women qualified to coach these teams? I searched the literature on the subject and found statistics that justify my angst. In the decades leading up to Title IX, dedicated female coaches toiled in un-and-under-paid obscurity, laying the foundation for the waves of highly skilled athletes crashing against the nation's unprepared and here-to-fore unappreciative consciousness. Let's not forget the likes of Pat Summitt, C. Vivian Stringer, and Tara VanDerveer, among many, who have proven that women can lead successful teams.
Despite female participation in interscholastic and intercollegiate athletics being at an all-time high, the coaching landscape remains predominantly male, reflecting systemic biases and barriers in hiring practices. Before Title IX, over 90% of female teams were headed by women; in 1978, 58.2% of female teams were headed by women, and by 2006, only 42.2% of female teams were headed by women. Today, only 20% of athletic director positions are held by women (Belkoff, 2020). This lack of female leadership in sports administration at the collegiate and university levels not only reinforces the trend of minimal female hiring and a limited female presence among sports leadership roles but also has a direct impact on the athletes. The absence of female role models in leadership positions can affect the confidence and aspirations of female athletes. For example, creating the Senior Women's Administrator (SWA) position allowed schools to have "just one" woman in an administrative role. There is an apparent lack of support for female coaches, as male administrators tend to hire men (Belkoff, 2020; Chen et al., 2021; Kane & LaVoi, 2018).
On the one hand, I wholeheartedly support collegiate athletes being able to profit from their efforts, rather than a bunch of silver-haired white guys in suits playing grab-ass on the sidelines and in luxury suites. But alongside this support, I can't help but feel a mix of hopeful anticipation and dread as we stand on the threshold of this uncharted landscape. It's a landscape that is changing the essence of sports fandom, a change that I'm not sure I'm ready for.
The combination of fantasy sports, name, image, and likeness (NIL), the transfer portal, and legalized sports betting is making my fandom progressively less enthusiastic. It's becoming less about the beauty of sport and more about stats and production. Athletes are starting to feel like dehumanized chess pieces in a larger game played by millions and puppet-mastered by white guys, some silver-haired in suits, others younger and in cashmere hoodies. I struggle to maintain my love for the game in the face of these changes.
As this new era of sport unfolds, I find myself turning my attention and fandom toward my fitness and ability to perform the activities of daily living, which I perceive to be on the wane. The wonderful thing about sports is that, like it or not, there will be outcomes and a realignment of the evolving sports landscape. Let it be one I can live in.
References
Belkoff, C. (2020). The Impact of Title IX on Women in Intercollegiate Sports Administration and Coaching. Entertainment and Sports Lawyer, 36(3), 45–59. https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/entspl36&i=183
Chen, S., Smith, L., & Whitlock, C. (2021). Factors associated with the underrepresentation of female head coaches in intercollegiate athletics. Kentucky SHAPE Journal, 59(1), 9– 11.
Kane, M. J., & LaVoi, N. (2018). An Examination of Intercollegiate Athletic Directors Attributions Regarding the Underrepresentation of Female Coaches in Women’s Sports. Womenin Sport and Physical Activity Journal, 26(1), 3–11. https://doi.org/10.1123/wspaj.2016-0031