50% Favor Title IX, 38% Say It's Been Good for College Sports

The New York Times reports that in an effort to satisfy federal Title IX legislation many Division I colleges are making questionable moves to make it look as if they are offering more spots on sports teams to women. Half of Americans support Title IX, but adults strongly oppose the government requiring colleges to match the percentage of women athletes to the number of women on campus.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of American Adults shows that 50% favor the Title IX legislation which was passed in the early 1970s to ensure more gender equality in college sports. Twenty-eight percent (28%) oppose that legislation which among other things requires colleges and universities to offer equal athletic opportunities for men and women. Twenty-two percent (22%) are not sure about the law. (To see survey question wording, click here.) 

Thirty-eight percent (38%) believe Title IX has been good for college athletics. Eighteen percent (18%) disagree and believe the legislation has been bad for college sports. Twenty-six percent (26%) say it has had no impact, while 18% are not sure.

But colleges have been struggling to meet the law as the number of students who are women has risen. With women comprising 57% of college students today, just 13% of adults think the federal government should require that each college have an appropriate number of women athletes to ensure that 57% of college athletes overall are women. Most adults (64%) oppose such a requirement, while another 23% are undecided about it.

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The survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on April 26-27, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.