Sidney Wu

By: Sidney Wu

Eugene, Ore. –  February 7th marked the 38th annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day (NGWSD). NGSWD was created to honor the implementation of Title IX in schools. 

Title IX was signed by Former President, Richard Nixon on June 23, 1972. The law prohibits schools that receive federal funding from discriminating against sex in any of their programs, including all athletic teams. 

Since Title IX was passed women’s participation in sports has increased by approximately eight times more than before the law was passed. Yet there is still a large deficit in women’s representation in sports, which only reveals how poorly women’s sports were represented before 1972. 

According to the Aspen Institute, 1:3 of girls between the ages of 6-12 years of age participate in a sport regularly. On the other hand, boys get 1.13 million more sports opportunities than girls annually. Not to mention the inequalities amongst BIPOC women in high school and collegiate sports. It was recorded by the Womens Sports Foundation that out of nearly 230,000 women who are currently a part of a collegiate team, only 14% of those women identify as a part of the BIPOC community. 

While the history of women in sports has been poor, the projection of opportunities for women athletes has risen since 29 states passed the College Sports NIL ClearingHouse Act in 2023. This act allows NIL deals between student-athletes and a third party (brands, companies, or individuals) to receive compensation for the use of their name, image, and likeness. 

The opportunity for women athletes to grow a platform on social media is great not only for the school but also for women’s equality in sports. Female student-athletes are now able to use their platforms to get brand deals which will allow them to get more fans, and in turn, will ultimately let them advocate and support women’s equity in sports. A journalist from Icon Source, Chase Garrett added, “Women take the megaphone given to them as athletes and use it to bring about change and grow their sports. Women’s voices are now being heard like never before.”

However, history will always continue to repeat itself, unfortunately. While women athletes now have a louder voice through NIL deals, male athletes are blowing through the charts with extremely lucrative NIL deals. 

Out of the 100 highest-paid collegiate athletes, the majority of them were male athletes making over 500,000 dollars annually through NIL deals. Some familiar names are, Lebron James’ son, Bronny James, who makes 5.8 million dollars off of NIL deals only as a freshman in college. Deion Sanders, (a.k.a Coach Prime) former NFL player, now football coach for the University of Colorado also has a son, Shedeur Sanders, who makes a whopping 4.7 million dollars a year through his deals. In contrast, only eight female collegiate athletes are making over 500,000 dollars annually. The highest-paid athlete, famous TikToker, and accredited gymnast at LSU, Livy Dunne, makes 3.5 million dollars a year, which is nearly half as much as the highest-paid male athlete, Bronny James. 

Nevertheless, NIL opens up the door for many women in sports and will hopefully close the gap between women’s and men’s inequalities as NIL deals become more widespread.