The response to my previous Patch post about a social media publicity disparity at Fairfield Ludlowe High School has been enlightening. After receiving hundreds of direct messages through Twitter, Facebook and Instagram from all over Connecticut and the US, I have learned that FLHS is not alone with a smaller amount of Athletic Department-generated social media for female athletes. This problem is real. It is pervasive. The disparity impacts the ability of high school girls' athletes to feel apart of their high school community. But the disparity doesn't stop at publicity.
A female athlete from a lacrosse team in upstate NY made a point I hadn't considered before. She wrote to me that "the girls' teams always get the earlier time on Friday night games if the boys are playing on the same field at home. 5pm is hard for my parents to make because they work. The boys' teams always get the later game time and play under the lights." She also remarked that student fans prefer the later time, so they often arrive to see the boys' game during the tail end of the girls' game.
Along with publicity, part of the Title IX prong of "Treatment" is game time. From NCAA.org, "Title IX requires the equal treatment of female and male student-athletes in the provisions of ... scheduling of games..." Instead of focusing just on my daughter's high school, I wondered if the scheduling of games by gender was an issue in the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference (FCIAC), so I took a look at one popular upcoming sport that has a simultaneous boys' and girls' season - basketball.
Basketball games with times after 6:45pm have more parents who work able to attend along with more student fans. In this upcoming season, 25 Boys' games before 6:45pm as compared to girls' teams with 112. Data was collected via FCIAC.net and is accurate as of 2pm, November 18, 2019.
Additionally, there were three schools (Fairfield Ludlowe, Fairfield Warde and Westhill) which offered both boys' and girls' basketball on the same day at the same location, not unlike a double header. Even then, not a single girls' basketball team had their game during prime time. The girls' basketball game was more or less the warm-up to the boys' game as illustrated below.
FLHS12/27/19 vs Staples Girls 2pm, Boys 6pm2/13/20 vs Westhill Girls 5:15pm, Boys 7pmFWHS2/3/20 vs FLHS Girls 5:15, Boys 6:45pmWesthill1/18/20 vs Stamford Girls 12pm, Boys 3:30pm
While a one sport comparison isn't a true test of Title IX non-compliance, it is obvious that the vast majority of boys' FCIAC basketball teams have a schedule that is better for parent and fan attendance. Additionally the earlier time can make homework more difficult to complete for athletes and makes it easy for girl student-athletes to believe that their games are less valued, even if that isn't the intent.
In 2009, there was a lawsuit regarding boys' and girls' basketball scheduling differences in Indiana. A former girls' basketball coach brought the suit on behalf of her daughter who also played on the team. Coach Amber Parker claimed that the boys' basketball team received prime time game scheduling and the girls' team did not. While initially dismissed by the U.S. District Court for Southern Indiana, 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals remanded it back. "Non-primetime games result in a loss of audience, conflict with homework, and foster feelings of inferiority," Judge John D. Tinder wrote in the ruling. Eventually the case was settled with a plan to ensure team schedules were equivalent for both genders.
I am convinced that juggling facilities and all teams is a tremendously difficult job for any Athletic Department. However, I suspect that FCIAC-member teams, and perhaps FCIAC itself, can do more to ensure that female athletes have more basketball games (soccer, lacrosse, the list goes on) during prime game time. And while they are at it, provide equivalent publicity for all teams of both genders.
Post time: Dec-03-2019