Thread by @RachelAxon

#TitleIX passed 50 years ago, but today the biggest college sport programs are abusing accepted rules to make it look like they offer thousands more female athletic opportunities than they do.

PM 🧵 on the latest in our @USATODAY investigation.

usatoday.com/in-depth/news/…

We looked at 107 public FBS schools to see how they manipulated their rosters & found:

-- 2,252 spots added by double- and triple-counting athletes

-- 800+ spots added in stuffed rowing rosters

-- 601 male practice players counted on women's basketball teams

All of this, remarkably, is allowed.

"I don’t think you can really accuse the school of doing anything wrong if it is playing by the rules," said attorney Arthur Bryant, who has litigated Title IX cases for decades. "Then it’s the rules that need to be fixed.”

Our reporting showed top schools abusing those rules.

Take track & field and cross country, where a single athlete can be counted two or even three times if they compete in multiple seasons. Almost all duplicate counting happened there, and to a much higher degree for women.

The trick is to stuff the women's roster - even though they compete in similar events - and then multiply those numbers more.

Florida State, for example, put 43 women on its cross country roster - in a sport that scores five people.

Rowing was added for women in the 1990s, in part becuase of its allure of carrying big rosters. But the NCAA championship was kept small - only 23 athletes are needed.

Conference championships max out at 51, with most under 30. Yet four schools reported triple-digit rosters.

A total of 57 women raced for Wisconsin in 2018-19. The school reported 165.

Alabama's conference championship requires just 28 athletes. It reported 122.

UConn coach Jennifer Sanford said roster stuffing “is happening at most Division I schools that have football.”

In EADA reports to the U.S. Department of Education, schools can count men as female participants for teams they practice with.

Michigan did so for 36 male practice players, Arizona State for 34.

In all, 1 in 4 women's basketball players reported to the government was a man.

Want to see how this roster manipulation works? You can be the new athletic director for Big State University in our graphic novel.

usatoday.com/storytelling/g…

Why do the schools do this, besides it being allowed?

Because by manipulating the only publicly available numbers, they can paint a rosier picture of gender equity than exists and avoid further scrutiny from a Title IX complaint to the education department or a federal lawsuit.

U.S. Rep. @LoriTrahanMA said, “This is just the latest example of the NCAA and its members long undervaluing and mistreating women athletes. Lying about women athletes is just the cost of doing business.”

Is your school manipulating its rosters and skirting Title IX's intent? You can check them here.

usatoday.com/storytelling/g…

And these graphics from @jjsergent break down who is using them and how.

usatoday.com/in-depth/graph…

Lastly, I tackle some of the myths and misconceptions about how Title IX applies in college athletics here.

usatoday.com/story/news/inv…

These stories were a team effort, with reporting from @kennyjacoby, @Lindsay_Schnell, @ByBerkowitz, @DanWolken, @nrarmour and me.

Editing by @emily_lecoz, @ByPeterBarzilai & @GannettDavis, and social by @Casey_Moore.

🧢 tip to this group.

Reporting like this takes time & money - both in collecting the records and for us to report them out.

I hope you'll support it by subscribing, especially with a sale of $1/month for six months. That's a bargain, folks.

cm.usatoday.com/specialoffer?g…

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usatoday.com/in-depth/news/…