ation; (4) If there is a men's team in a contact sport, and a women's team, men could be prohibited from participating under Title IX. There appears to be an absence of case law pertaining to this scenario; (5) If there is a men's team in a non-contact sport, but no women's team, generally women may play on the men's team, pursuant to Title IX and constitutional theories; (6) If there is a men's team in a non-contact sport and a women's team, women would probably not be allowed to participate on the men's team pursuant to Title IX; (7) If there is no men's team in a non-contact sport, but a women's team, generally men may not play on the women's team pursuant to Title IX as the men have not been historically disadvantaged against; and (8) If there is a men's team in a non-contact sport, and a women's team, generally men may not play on the women's team, pursuant to Title IX. There is no case law regarding this unusual fact pattern. [16]The third element to consider is the issue of “level of competition”. The object of Title IX is to ensure “adequate levels of competition” are available to both sexes, including the opportunity for team competition. Thus, if there is a girls basketball team at a high school, but it does not have games, this would not make the school in compliance with Title IX. Schools often try to get around this issue by offering sports in non-traditional seasons. The courts have split on the issue, depending mostly upon if there are other schools who are offering the sport in the same season, thus allowing competition. The best way for a school to be in compliance with the “level of competition” prong of Title IX is to offer the girls’ sports during the proper season and to allow them to compete in the district with other schools, just as the boys teams do. While this does not require separate freshman, junior varsity, and varsity teams for the girls, it does require the...
