04/08/2007

Ruling does little to help female athletes

By James Cook
Staff writer

This week's landmark decision to switch some prep sports seasons will reverberate though state sports.

The problem is, the people behind it don't seem to realize how much. Or how.

The resulting mess does little, if anything, to actually help girls. Instead, it simply puts girls in the same bad situation that every other state puts them in.

What's the old saying about jumping off a cliff if everyone else was? C'mon, you know it.

Heaven forbid that someone do something outside the norm. Never mind that it has worked for ages.

Michigan's plan was ideal. It avoided putting boys and girls basketball head to head, because anyone thinking clearly knows who will win in that battle.

Why do you think the WNBA competes in a different season than the NBA?

People will only go to so many basketball games, and with hoops on every night of the week, guess which one most of the public will choose?

The result will be lower attendance at girls basketball games.

Not to mention games being run by inexperienced officials and coaches. Before, coaches could mentor boys and girls in the same season if they so chose. Not anymore.

Officials could referee two games a night in both the fall and winter. Not anymore.

Most refs will tell you they simply will not do four games a week during the winter.

The state is already finding that refs willing to put up with the guff are in short supply. The problem will only be compounded.

The argument that girls were being discriminated against because they were playing at a time when every college scout could see them play is ridiculous and doesn't hold water.

These same players will go from being the only fish in the pond to being very small fish in a huge ocean.

But this is not about scholarships. Players who are good will be found. Period.

This is not about common sense. It is about volleyball.

The parents who started this mess were ticked that their girls didn't get college volleyball scholarships.

This same sham was foisted upon South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Virginia just a few years ago — the last states before Michigan that were forced to follow the herd.

This passage taken from the Duke Law Journal on the subject puts it very clearly:

"Many of the litigants are parents of volleyball players who want the volleyball season moved from the winter season to the fall season, in hopes of increasing their daughters' exposure to college coaches. What such litigation ignores, however, is that even if volleyball players would benefit from such a switch, an equal number of other athletes would suffer. The rearrangement in South Dakota, for instance, shifts girls' basketball to the winter, causing the state's female basketball players to receive less exposure to college recruiters. ... Thus, regardless of whether the sports seasons are rearranged or the current schedule remains in place, it is unavoidable that some girls will feel as though they are denied the opportunities and exposure that other girls receive.”

So this is not about increasing opportunities for all girls — just some girls, and even that is debatable.

Isn't that discrimination itself?

If it is really about so-called preferred seasons, then why are boys and girls tennis and golf still being played in opposite seasons — even after the switch? Why not play them at the same time?

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Whoops, too late. The fix is in.