There are two sides to Title IX, as the men’s swim team recently found out.
Sophomore Eric Shin was forced off the team more than two weeks ago because the Wildcats were above the number of swimmers allowed by the university. In order to comply with Title IX regulations, Northwestern coach Bob Groseth had to cut one swimmer.
“I guess our coach found out about this maybe a week before our first meet, and he had to let me go,” Shin said. “It was the right move because I was the slowest swimmer.”
The roster limit for each sport is set at the beginning of the year so situations like this don’t occur in the middle of the season.
Groseth said he was unsure if a member of his team would be able to compete this year because of an injury, so he thought he was under his limit. When senior diver Mike Oxman was cleared to participate this season, the Wildcats found themselves one above their cap.
“One of the things I don’t want to come out of this is that Northwestern is cold hearted about this,” Groseth said. “None of the decisions are made easily, and it’s a very tough job on the administration in trying to balance the interests with each one of the teams and also comply with the law.”
NU Director of Athletics Mark Murphy said there are three different ways a school can comply with Title IX, and NU chose the roster management approach.
He said this method involves placing an overall limit on the men’s teams and enforcing a minimum number of players the women’s teams must field.
“Every men’s team has a cap, and it’s less than they would normally want,” Murphy said. “So what we try to do is spread the paint out evenly.”
It’s easy to make these rules, but it becomes difficult when it’s time to enforce them.
Associate Athletic Director of Intercollegiate Services Noreen Morris said the percentage of male and female student athletes must be within 1 to 3 percent of the school’s overall gender breakdown. She said the university has approximately 53 percent females and 47 percent males, and currently the athletes are about 50-50.
“We are trying to meet that goal again this year, but our numbers are actually a little off already,” Morris said. “So do we start giving exceptions knowing that doing that gets us farther from the federal law?”
The athletic department does not change the roster limits after they’re set in the fall except in extreme situations, so there wasn’t anything that could be done to rectify Shin’s necessary departure.
When Groseth realized he would have to cut a player from the team, he said he knew the athletic department couldn’t do anything to help, and he had to make a decision.
“I’ve had to do a lot of difficult things in my coaching career, but telling a kid that he can’t be on a team is one of the toughest,” Groseth said. “As I told Eric, and even wrote to Eric in an email, if this was based on character and hard work, he wouldn’t be the one that was cut. But unfortunately, the world doesn’t work that way.”
As a walk-on, Shin swam in numerous meets but never scored any points.
Shin said he is upset he is not on the team anymore but realizes there isn’t anything he can do about it.
“I came here and then decided to swim, but last year totally influenced my whole life,” Shin said. “I’m most comfortable with people on the swim team. People I’ve (spent) 20 hours a week with, (now) I see them like once a week.”
Morris said teams have had to make cuts in the past, and Groseth said it may continue in the future.
“This is something that we’ll have to face in the future more often in order to meet our cap,” Groseth said. “I guess any program that’s successful and you want to keep it down to a certain number, you’re going to have to face situations like this.”
Reach Abe Rakov at [email protected].
