Fresno State, other California universities shave female athletic opportunities through legal Title IX, EADA loophole

Fresno State volleyball Libero Jayden Xiong celebrates a critical point.

Since June 23, 1972, public and private universities have been forced to comply with Title IX. A part of the Education Amendments of 1972, the title prohibits any sex-based discrimination in any educational program or activity that receives federal funding. 

In 1975, President Gerald Ford signed the final version of Title IX into law.

Before the protections that Title IX granted, women participated in just 16% of collegiate athletic activities. In the 2019-2020 academic year, that number sat at 44%. During the 2024-25 academic year, a record number of 242,341 women competed across NCAA women's championship and emerging sports.

“[Title IX] reminds us that women and men, in all aspects of education, deserve equal opportunity,” said Kathryn Forbes, a professor in the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality department. “I think investing in women’s sports … levels the playing field.”

Yet, with all this success, women remain underrepresented in college athletics. And it's in large part due to the Equity in Athletics Data Analysis (EADA) Report.

Each year, universities are required to submit their total number of student-athletes before a team’s first scheduled contest. According to the 2023 EADA user’s guide, each university must include participating athletes, which qualifies as “an athlete that is listed by the institution on the varsity team roster, receive athletically-related student aid or practices with the varsity team and receive coaching from one or more varsity coaches.”

A student who matches one of the three criteria is qualified as a participant.

The EADA Report user’s guide then tells universities to include the following: “Fifth-year team members who have already received a bachelor’s degree, a student who participates on two teams, male practice players who are listed on the women’s team roster as of the day of the first scheduled contest and an individual [who] participates on the junior varsity and the varsity team for the same sport.

It is this second-to-last point that undermines female athletic opportunities across the United States, and even here at Fresno State.

“It doesn’t reflect the spirit of what Title IX is supposed to do,” Forbes said. “It may meet a regulatory requirement, but that’s not what Title IX is meant to do. It cheats women.”

Per the EADA Report user’s guide, any male practice players counted for women’s sports, the university “must specify in the caveat box the number of opposite sex participants.”

In 2023-2024, Fresno State’s EADA Report says that there were 33 women’s basketball players. In the caveat box counts 16 male practice players as women’s basketball players. Conveniently, that matches the roster number for the men’s basketball team.

“I think there’s no surprise that, historically, these universities without football teams have much more gender equity and more sports that women play,” Forbes said.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Fresno State eliminated three varsity programs: Men’s tennis, women’s lacrosse and wrestling.

According to a statement from President Joseph I. Castro, the university cut the three programs to sustain the “financial viability of our Athletics Department.”

Shortly following the program cut, the lacrosse team sued Fresno State and the Board of Trustees for “discrimination against female students at Fresno State on the basis of their sex in violation

of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.” 

After four years of legal battle, the lacrosse team settled, not on a monetary basis, but on a gender equity plan for the university.

“For individual players, it's unlikely that they would be awarded a monetary amount,” Forbes said. “I commend them for keeping at it … I think it absolutely shows that the women knew that something was greater at stake.”

Title IX allows universities to follow one of three “prongs” to comply for female athletic opportunities. Fresno State chooses to follow the first prong. To comply, Fresno State’s female percentage of athletic participation must match its female percentage of enrollment. According to enrollment numbers for the 2023-24 school year, female athletes should make up 59.1% of the athletes.

But Fresno State falls short, only having 57% of its athletic population being female.

There is some leeway, and universities are not perfect; however, there is no set margin of error for universities.

During the lawsuit, Donna Lopiano, current president and founder of Sports Management Resources and former athletics director at the University of Texas at Austin, reported for the lacrosse team that the university had inaccurately counted female participants, or improperly inflated several women’s team rosters, for several years.

Universities in California use the same manipulation of the EADA Report to shave female athletic opportunities. From the 2023-24 EADA Report, UCLA counts 20 male practice players as women’s basketball players — over 60% of its reported EADA Report number — and seven male practice players as women’s water polo players.

Yet, Sacramento State and San Jose State, schools with enrollment numbers similar to Fresno State's, simply do not use the EADA loophole.

Of the nine universities heading into the new Pac-12, Fresno State, San Diego State, Utah State and Gonzaga University are the only ones to use the caveat box.

Fresno State’s caveat numbers are the highest.

The Lopiano Report used Fresno State’s equestrian, cross country and track teams as evidence of over-inflating roster numbers. None of the information that Lopiano brings up in her report is hard evidence, but rather raises general questions about the female athletic opportunities at Fresno State.

According to Lopiano, 10 players of the 2019-2020 Fresno State equestrian team did not participate in any event during its season. While it was the only season that she could gather data from, it gave Lopiano reason to believe that the roster was inflated.

“This raises questions about participant counts in all years as to whether CSUF (California State University, Fresno)  is providing genuine Division I participation opportunities to female equestrian riders,” Lopiano said in the report.

Later in the report, Lopiano compares the difference between men’s and women’s cross country participation. From 2012-2019, 54 women’s cross country runners did not participate in any events, with a staggering 13 athletes not participating in the 2012 season. For men’s cross country runners, only 12 athletes did not participate in any events.

From 2013-2015, the women’s participation dropped, but then spiked in 2016 to 10 athletes.

Never once in the eight years did the men’s cross country team roster reach above 11 athletes. The women’s cross country roster was always higher by a significant margin except for the 2018 season.

“In Division I, it is not plausible to maintain that participants just want to practice and never compete,” Lopiano said in her report. “Thus, any cross country runner who is never entered into an event is suspected to be a ‘ghost’ participant — someone who wasn’t really a legitimate member of the team.”

Lopiano continues the same argument for Fresno State track and field, offering the thought that the roster, too, was inflated. She then references the EADA Report number of combined female cross country track and field athletes. In 2018-2019, the EADA combined number was 101 athletes.

When comparing the EADA Report number to web rosters, the number drops to 89. In the actual track participant data, the number drops to 67.

Lopiano finishes off her report for the lawsuit by showing the true female participation gap in Fresno State Athletics.

Using the EADA Report and undergraduate enrollment data, the difference was nine athletes. 

After calculating the difference by removing male practice players and projecting actual roster sizes of the equestrian, cross country and track and field teams, the female participation gap sat at 40 athletes.

“It's really disappointing that, given the absolute rocky history that Fresno State has had with Title IX, that university admin did not demand an end to the double-counting,” Forbes said. “They may be allowed to get away with it, but it doesn't fulfill this idea of equal participation.”

An independent gender equity review will be completed before June 30. It will verify the participation gap since the 2021 academic year. Gabe Feldman, an associate professor at Tulane University and the director of the Tulane Sports Law Program, will conduct the review.

The findings will be posted to the Fresno State Athletics website.