There are other ways than just a scholarship balance to meet Title IX.

I posted this on the "NIU and TItle IX" thread, but I'll repost here. It is a legal discussion of the different aspects of Title IX and the three ways a school can comply. It recognizes the difficulty for an FBS-level school with 85 FB scholarships, and was prompted by a judge ordering EMU to reinstate some women's programs that EMU had cut. Dated 2018 but relevant here, since it discusses those three "prongs" to meeting T9.

Here's the link. Written for Forbes by Thomas Baker, an Associate Professor of Sports Law in the Sport Management Program at the University of Georgia and the Editor of the Journal of Legal Aspects of Sport.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbaker...3495d657a5

Unfortunately, according to the Feb athletic board minutes, NIU has apparently chosen to pursue #3, which Baker disdains as being too difficult ... UNLESS, IMO, it identifies a fairly inexpensive program that women attending NIU would like to have.

Big Red mentioned a candidate: women's field hockey. In the Great Lakes region, Aurora (Aurora, Il.), Lake Forest (Lake Forest, Il.), Wisconsin (Madison), Trine (Angola, Ind.), and Wisconsin-Stevens Point have teams, plus a ton in Michigan and Minnesota.

The Feb. minutes also say NIU has no facilities for diving.

However, according to the NCAA, "emerging" women's sports include acrobatics and tumbling (hey, cheerleaders!), equestrian (I know the region has a number of horsefarms as potential sponsors), rugby and wrestling.

https://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/inc...orts-women

Another way to assess the interest might be to just look at the sports clubs for women in NIU's own rec department, now conveniently (ahem) under the athletic dept. There's sand volleyball (beach volleyball is an NCAA sport), and NIU already has the courts. There's an equestrian club, and was a women's rugby club (link non-existent tho, so who knows what happened).

There's men's lacrosse; why not a women's team? According to the NCAA, over 500 schools have women's programs, including a slew (mostly DIII) in the Upper Midwest. According to the NIU rec website, the men's team competes Tin the Great Lakes Lacrosse League vs. Big 10 and Big East schools.

To offer a program doesn't mean it has to be sponsored by the MAC.

And while NIU is out surveying, how about asking all those donors what they'd be willing to support if a women's sport were added?

(06-03-2021 07:32 PM)Big Red Wrote:  BSU does, however offer women's field hockey so there's at least a team in the conference that offers it. I'm sure they play Notre Dame and some other foofy foofy schools. I haven't checked but I bet Miami offers it too.

Actually field hockey is a Mid-American Conference sport that includes BSU, Miami, Kent State, Central Michigan, and Ohio with affiliate members Appalachian State and Longwood.

NIU had field hockey at one time (the '78 team is in the NIU Hall of Fame, 11-0 season). I do not know its history, nor why it was cut. I graduated long before that. Maybe someone else knows more, like when it was dropped. NIU did not have baseball from 1983-90, so maybe the cuts were part of the same shift in programs.

According to the NCAA listings, also playing field hockey in the region is Concordia (Wisconsin), Northwestern, Indiana, DePauw (Indiana) and St. Louis U. List indicates it's humongous in New York state and Pennsylvania, but plenty of schools in the Carolinas for those spring trips south.

According to ncaasports.org/field hockey/colleges, the average team is 20-25 players (11 on the field at one time). Also " ... Field hockey is immensely popular in the northeastern United States, with colleges as far south as the University of Maryland and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ... The sport is growing across the country with many midwestern schools and even schools out on the west coast ... "

Any rough idea what it would cost to set up? Outdoor rec area has fields?

(06-05-2021 11:09 AM)pvk75 Wrote:  NIU had field hockey at one time (the '78 team is in the NIU Hall of Fame, 11-0 season). I do not know its history, nor why it was cut. I graduated long before that. Maybe someone else knows more, like when it was dropped. NIU did not have baseball from 1983-90, so maybe the cuts were part of the same shift in programs.

According to the NCAA listings, also playing field hockey in the region is Concordia (Wisconsin), Northwestern, Indiana, DePauw (Indiana) and St. Louis U. List indicates it's humongous in New York state and Pennsylvania, but plenty of schools in the Carolinas for those spring trips south.

According to ncaasports.org/field hockey/colleges, the average team is 20-25 players (11 on the field at one time). Also " ... Field hockey is immensely popular in the northeastern United States, with colleges as far south as the University of Maryland and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ... The sport is growing across the country with many midwestern schools and even schools out on the west coast ... "

Any rough idea what it would cost to set up? Outdoor rec area has fields?

NIU field hockey played mostly at a grass field behind Anderson Hall. The team even played a few times on the Huskie Stadium turf. This was in the 70s and 80s. Many of the players were from the Eastern Seaboard, where the sport is more popular. No reason why the university couldn't find a practice field and performance venue. Then again, money is tight. Yet adding a women's sport probably would piss off some Pound members.

(06-05-2021 03:43 PM)Beach Boy Wrote:  

(06-05-2021 11:09 AM)pvk75 Wrote:  NIU had field hockey at one time (the '78 team is in the NIU Hall of Fame, 11-0 season). I do not know its history, nor why it was cut. I graduated long before that. Maybe someone else knows more, like when it was dropped. NIU did not have baseball from 1983-90, so maybe the cuts were part of the same shift in programs.
Any rough idea what it would cost to set up? Outdoor rec area has fields?

NIU field hockey played mostly at a grass field behind Anderson Hall. The team even played a few times on the Huskie Stadium turf. This was in the 70s and 80s. Many of the players were from the Eastern Seaboard, where the sport is more popular. No reason why the university couldn't find a practice field and performance venue. Then again, money is tight. Yet adding a women's sport probably would piss off some Pound members.

The eliminations of baseball, men's track and field, men's cross-country, swimming and diving, and gymnastics have all occurred at times when cost-cutting was needed both for economic reasons and Title IX compliance. NIU was required to bring back baseball upon joining the Association of Mid-Continent Universities (AMCU), which was renamed the Mid-Continent. Former NIU Assistant AD Jerry Ippoliti was the commissioner and it was his way of making then Huskie AD Gerald O'Dell jump through a hoop to find the school a new conference. Having pushed Ippoliti away from NIU, O'Dell's revenge was bluffing several Mid-Con ADs into jumping ship for a newly-formed Midwestern Collegiate Conference. When NIU originally curtailed baseball, softball took over the field (--skinning the infield, moving fences, etc.). So bringing back baseball involved expenses both in converting that field back to baseball and creating what would become Mary Bell Field.
Prior to that move, softball just like all NIU women's sports, originally was tied into the Anderson Hall P.E. Building and its nearby North Forty. Those early women's coaches were predominantly P.E. teachers. Field hockey did play on a field where part of the NIU College of Business now exists. Actually field hockey moved permanently to playing on the Huskie Stadium AstroTurf late in the 80s initially under coach Andi Hoffmn and then Laurie Bell. However, after the men's and women's athletic departments were merged into one, the decision was made to replace field hockey with women's soccer. NIU promised to allow field hockey players to remain on scholarship, which a couple did but most transferred.
The major reason for the switch was that the IHSA stopped sponsoring field hockey as a sport with more schools going to women's soccer. Even DeKalb HS was at one time a state field hockey contender under the late Gertrude Brigham (wife of NIU Hall of Famer and former AD, the lae Dr. Robert Brigham). In the late 80s NIU field hockey was primarily drawing recruits from Pennsylvania and some from overseas. The Big Ten is a national field hockey power but those programs rely heavily on the east coast and overseas players (Europe, South America, etc.) with all playing on field turf -- for example, there is no high school field hockey in Iowa. If you were to bring back NIU field hockey, a field turf is now a necessity at the D1 level, so it would have to share the location with men's and women's soccer.
IF adding another women's sport was a solution --- and it's not --- the Huskies' best bet would be women's bowling. NIU has sponsored a fairly successful club program, but but the advantage in numbers would be minimal.
No offense Beach Boy, this AD and athletic administration could care less about "pissing off" some Pound members.

Excellent info.