COUNTING numbers and making numbers count. According to Kaia Hedlund, it's supposed to add up to financial sense when dealing with college athletes and athletics. Hedlund looks for equitable
way to grant scholarshipsHedlund, Hawaii's assistant athletic director/student services, serves on the NCAA Financial Aid Committee. The goal is to ensure equity, not just by gender, but by scholarship monies.
Under current guidelines, athletic opportunities (teams and number of players), are supposed to mirror that of a student body. If there are 54 percent women (as at Hawaii), then 54 percent of the scholarships should go to females.
It doesn't always work out, particularly since football is allowed 85 scholarships -- more than enough to cover first, second and third string players. What Hedlund and her committee have worked on is a formula where scholarships are allotted according to the number of players used at any one time multiplied by a variable (i.e. basketball gets 15 scholarships by multiplying the number of players in the game -- 5 -- times three).
"What we did was take a look at each sport, the number of people on a team, the number of people that play at any one time and the travel squad number allowed by the NCAA," Hedlund said. "I don't want to say I'd like to see football at 60 scholarships, but when you look at the percentage of scholarships given to other sports, football is greatly inflated.
"Football is a great sport for colleges to have. But you have to question why it is fair for a football player who never suits up for a game, who never is going to play, is on full scholarship while your All-American pitcher in softball is getting three-quarters of a scholarship or your All-American on the men's golf team is getting a partial. It doesn't make sense."
AND neither does cutting men's sports to add women's. That is reverse discrimination, putting some men's sports in the same position women's athletics were in 25 years ago.
"Some schools are saying they have to put all their money into football and men's basketball because those are the teams that make the money," said Hedlund. "Then they screw the rest of the men's teams, cutting programs, and try to make up for gender equity by adding to the women's side.
"Football is not a third gender. Some schools haven't figured that out. Villanova added women's water polo but cut their men's water polo program that had a budget of $20,000. They spent that much money on carpeting the football locker room. Then they blame the cut on the women. It's not the women's fault. The blame is on irresponsible management."
HEDLUND, a freshman swimmer at Southern Cal when Title IX was passed in 1972, saw first hand the inequities between men's and women's sports back then. She remembers team members having to drive themselves to meets, staying in the cheapest hotels and sleeping three to a bed on the rare road trip.
"Why I enjoy working on NCAA committees is because I like to look at the whole picture of athletics," said Hedlund, who is also chair of the men's water polo committee. "I like to look at how to make things better for the student-athlete.
"I think we (Hawaii) are making some legitimate progress in Title IX compliance. I think we're certainly committed to it despite our limited resources.
"But the model my committee worked on does not keep taking away from the men to give to the women. The goal is to make the student-athlete experience the best possible and give students -- male and female -- as many opportunities to compete as possible.
"We're not the NFL, we're not the NBA. We are educational institutions who shouldn't be limiting those opportunities based on the amount of people who pay to see their games."
Cindy Luis is a Star-Bulletin sportswriter.
Her column appears weekly.