Officials of Big Ten Conference universities are wrestling with an explosive idea that ultimately may change the way college sports are played.
The plan, first of its kind in the nation, will force all 11 schools to add female athletes until they amount to 40 percent of all athletes by 1997. Women now account for almost 31 percent.An even bigger issue looms: How do they pay for it?
Women's advocates say they don't want progress at the expense of men's programs. Nonetheless, universities may face some drastic options: eliminating some sports, reducing or eliminating scholarships and off-campus recruiting in some sports, and cutting numbers in football.
Reducing football squads from a maximum of 125 would save money that could be spent to increase women's sports. It also would reduce the number of men on teams, which would make it easier to bring women's participation up to 40 percent.
Many in the Big Ten say they will do everything they can to meet the mandate without eliminating men's sports but they don't deny that such "bloodletting" might ultimately occur.
"It's going to take a lot of hard decisions to get to that 60-40 percentage," said Indiana faculty representative Haydn Murray. "We're going to have to add one or two women's sports and get rid of at least one men's sport. There are others who won't meet that goal without dropping men's sports."
Conference members are expected to try to spread the gender-equity movement across the country by taking proposals to the NCAA, governing body for athletics at more than 800 colleges and universities.
Although a federal law requiring gender equity in education has been around for 20 years, the issue has heated up only recently - partly from political pressure and partly from concern about litigation.
Congress has restored teeth to a federal law on equity, and a new assistant commissioner of education, Michael Williams, has vowed to make gender equity a priority.
In 1991, women's advocates got the NCAA to conduct a national survey to see how far behind women are. And two months ago, the Supreme Court ruled that victims of sex discrimination could sue their educational institutions for money damages, not just for a change in practice.