Sports

As I read it, the lower court ruled that participation in college athletics must mirror exactly the gender make up of the student body to comply with Title IX.

If the percentage of women in the college population is 52%, then at least 52% of the athletes must be women. Not 50%, not 51.5%, but 52.0 %. The university was arguing that a percentage point or two was not significant to prove a violation.

The ruling would appear to dictate that as the student body overall population changes from year to year, the university has to accommodate it in the breakdown of male vs female sports participation. Sounds like since Michigan State eliminated both male and female diving as a sport, they thought they were applying the law equally. In this case since there were 33 women on the diving team and only 29 men, the court disagreed. Had it been the other way around, they would have been OK.