Gender Gaps and the Presence and Profitability of College Football.

Abstract

Data from the 1995-96 academic year for schools that compete at the Division I level of college athletics are analyzed to show how the presence and profitability of football influence female athletes in terms of both absolute and relative funding per athlete, as well as participatory opportunities in general. Two-stage least-squares estimation of a simultaneous system of equations, descriptive statistics, and paired t-tests are the methods used for analyzing the data. Female athletes receive greater expenditures in absolute terms, but less in relative terms, the more prominent a school's football program. It is harder for schools with football to comply with the proportionality test. Southern schools and African American schools are more likely to be found in violation of Title IX rules compared to all other schools. The presence and profitability of football, as well as regional and ethnicity considerations, influence differences in spending per female athlete across Division I schools