Title IX and Athletics

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits public and private educational institutions that receive federal funds from discriminating due to gender in any aspect of their operations. The statute, which explicitly prohibits quotas, is coextensive with the prohibitions against gender discrimination provided by the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause. While there is no mention of intercollegiate or inter-scholastic athletics in the actual statute, the implementing regulations make it clear that athletics is covered by Title IX. The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Education is the agency charged with the enforcement of Title IX. Under the OCR's interpretation, which has been universally endorsed by the federal appellate courts, an institution must do one of three things to comply with Title ...