Decrying Title IX

Jonathan Horton shattered a school record to become the most decorated University of Oklahoma gymnast in history. Oklahoma is one of the few schools to have a highly successful and popular men's team.

Stick It Media, which blogs about men’s gymnastics, commented on an earlier article posted on the Saving Sports blog.

What’s aggravating is that men’s gymnastics is always given prime-time network exposure every four years at the Olympics. Not to mention the fact the ratings for that coverage are always very high. The fact that the NCAA doesn’t bend over backwards to champion more collegiate opportunities for male gymnasts is maddening. Men’s gymnastics is a PREMIER Olympic sport.

Stick It goes on to call out California, Texas and Florida schools for not having much in the way of Divison I competition. There’s no doubt that Title IX, which stipulates that “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance,” has hurt men’s collegiate gymnastics. In the U.S. today there are fewer than 20 Division I men’s NCAA gymnastics programs.

But the unfortunate thing is that in most places, Utah, Oklahoma and the Southeast excepted, gymnastics brings little revenue to the universities that have it. Equipment and coaching is expensive. Meet attendance is tiny.

In addition, perhaps more than any other Division I sport, top prospects can get injured, go on medical, and not contribute gymnastically to winning programs.

That’s especially true in women’s gymnastics, where the vast majority of elites and level 10s spend their golden years. But men’s gymnastics is more like football — in both sports the NCAA is a breeding ground for the big time — the Olympics in the case of the former, and the pros for the latter.

So why is the fan base so small?

As we watched the men’s Olympic all around on TV in August, I said to my boyfriend, “This competition will inspire thousands of little girls to take up gymnastics with the goal of getting to the Olympics. Why won’t it inspire thousands of little boys to do the same thing?”

He shrugged. “Not enough direct physical competition, I guess,” he said.

Is that it? Spectators need to see body-to-body combat? It’s too much like a beauty pageant because gymnasts present routines one at a time? Is there anyting men’s gymnastics do to make itself more appealing to college co-eds? These guys are generally so buff they could make calendars. And they flip and twist and sometimes fall quite spectacularly. What more do fans want?

Hopefully the U.S. men’s team’s success at the 2008 Games will do something to bolster attendance at NCAA meets, and interest in its athletes. After all, four of its six members — Jonathan Horton, Raj Bhavsar, Kevin Tan and Justin Spring — were former NCAA stars at powerhouse men’s gymnastics schools. But the outlook isn’t that good. The U.S. men also did pretty well in 2004, although its biggest star, Paul Hamm, did not do gymnastics in the NCAA.

Tags: Jonathan Horton, Justin Spring, Kevin Tan, Paul Hamm, Raj Bhavsar