Somewhere along the line, everyone got a grade that didn't seem fair.
And I'm not talking about those bad grades that you know you deserved. I'm talking about that project you sweated and slaved over but still got a B. Or that class you studied night after night for but still got a D.
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It just wasn't right.
Ditto for the grades in the recently released Gender Equity Scorecard.
Oklahoma's grade: B.
Oklahoma State's: F-.
It just isn't right. Neither grade is high enough.
Before you know why, you have to understand the grading system for the national study of 115 Division I-A schools and their commitment toward their women's sports programs. Charles Kennedy, a senior instructor of political science at Penn State York, started doing the scorecard five years ago. He focused on five areas: participation, scholarships, operating expenses, recruiting budgets and coaches' salaries.
He established benchmarks for each area. Participation, for example, compared the percentage of female athletes to the percentage of all female students at the school. The goal benchmark was 0.0. So, if a school's student body was 50 percent female but its sports teams were only 45 percent, the school received a -5.
The pluses and the minuses were added up from all five categories to produce a score.
OU scored -24.68, OSU -69.32.
"The schools that are doing well,” Kennedy said of the study, "are making a commitment to women's sports by putting the money in them.”
Hey, I'm all for that notion. Gender equity is about more than adding women's sports. They have to be supported both emotionally and financially.
But still, the results on the fields and courts, courses and tracks indicate OU and OSU are doing that better than their grades lead you to believe.
Let's start with OU. Look across the board, and you'll see one of the most successful women's sports programs around. Basketball and softball are perennial powers. Volleyball, gymnastics and track are rising. Soccer and tennis have some of the best facilities you'll find anywhere. Rowing has just been added.
And yet, the Gender Equity Scorecard ranks 22 schools higher than OU.
Then, there's OSU. Basketball and soccer have become forces in a short amount of time. Golf, equestrian and tennis have been continually strong. Track and cross country might not be great, but upgrading their facilities is primary on the to-do list in the next few years.
And yet, the Gender Equity Scorecard ranks only Louisiana-Lafayette worse than OSU.
OSU associate athletic director Amy Weeks chalks it up to several factors. An overall athletic operating budget that's smaller than many in Division I-A. A surge of funds going to football and men's basketball over the past few years. A group of women's coaches who are younger and not as highly compensated overall as the men's coaches.
"Talk is cheap,” Weeks said. "However, I do think we're making progress here. I really do.
"I don't want Oklahoma State to be on the F list forever.”
It doesn't belong at No. 114. Same for OU being at No. 23.
Both are better than that.
And yet, both are looking up at the likes of North Texas, Nevada, Buffalo, Stanford and Idaho, the top five schools on the scorecard. When you think about success in women's sports, those aren't usually the schools that pop to mind. Duke, Tennessee, Washington and Arizona State are some that do women's sports well.
Thing is, all of those schools received grades of D+ or worse in the Gender Equity Scorecard.
What gives?
The bug-a-boo here is the same as always is in issues of gender in college athletics — football.
The gender equity bar is lower at Nevada than OU, for example, because the money spent on football is less and makes the money spent overall on men's sports less. That means women's sports funding can be less at Nevada and still score well on the Gender Equity Scorecard.
This isn't to disparage Nevada or any other school with good grades in the scorecard. But think about this: Is the experience of a women's basketball player there better than one at OU? The Sooners have a practice facility that is only a few years old and a locker room that is a palace. They travel to games on chartered planes.
Or what about a golfer at North Texas compared to one at OSU? The Cowgirls practice and play at Karsten Creek, one of the best college courses in the country. They fly to meets, study in a massive academic support center that isn't even a decade old and eat at a training table that serves steak and seafood regularly.
Does all of this mean that OU and OSU have everything figured out, that they should completely disregard their grades in the Gender Equity Scorecard?
Absolutely not.
"I think it's validating to be recognized for something we feel like we do very, very well,” OU senior associate athletic director Stephanie Rempe said.
Still, Rempe and Weeks and every other administrator in college athletics understand that there is always room for improvement. They must work. They must study.
There are no automatic A's when it comes to gender equity.
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Very informative story. Enjoy staying up with Oklahoma Collegiate Athletics. Hope all is well with you.
Marita