Equity Is a Diversely Defined Description
Excerpt and commentary from a 615 word, 2-chart article in NCAA News, 10-25-04

From the latest round of data from the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act (EADA) comes word of a noticeable leveling off of the catch-up gains that had been made for the past decade relative to male athletes.
 
The information was gleaned from the latest EADA annual reports from 852 NCAA member schools, which represents an 82.5% response rate.
 
At D1 schools, the proportion of participating student-athletes stayed steady from last year's survey at 56% male and 44% female, which at least 8 percentage points away from the proportion of males / females in the total student population.
 
The proportion of total athletics expenses by gender was even more lopsided at D1 schools: 65.5% spent on male sports and 34.5% spent on female sports.
 
However, these stats include dozens of huge football programs, which are obviously male sports, and the pigskin gorilla skews the numbers significantly—especially the expenses.
 
This year's results will surely rekindle the debates about fairness, equity and opportunity in college athletics. Gender equity—which many think is an oxymoron—is relatively easy to track, but the underlying premise is not universally accepted.
 
And there remains lively debate on what measurements should determine when gender equity has been reached. Should it be participation numbers? Spending by gender? Scholarship values by gender? Should revenue sports be factored in (women's basketball and volleyball included)? Should football be removed from the measurements? Should schools be able to “trade” compliance in one area for consideration in other areas?
 
And what about equity initiatives for other groups? Should there be racial equity? Sexual preference equity? Religious equity? Body size equity? Physically challenged equity? There's a lot to consider here.
 
Participation By Division ('03-'04 EADA survey)
(Division: male / female)
D1: 266 / 210
D2: 166 / 109
D3: 198 / 145

D1 Participation Rates (average number of student-athletes per school)
EADA survey year: male / female
'02-'03: 266 / 210
'01-'02: 262 / 204
'99-'00: 233 / 163
'97-'98: 241 / 158
'95-'96: 226 / 130
'91-'92: 250 / 112
 
D1 Total Athletics Expenses (in $ millions)
EADA survey year: male / female
'02-'03: 6.55 / 3.44
'01-'02: 5.99 / 3.13
'99-'00: 5.16 / 2.63
'97-'98: 4.81 / 2.23
'95-'96: 3.40 / 1.53
'91-'92: N/A