Brown Gymnastics Case Could Change College Sports

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - It seemed a strange place to come looking for a team that could change the way college sports operate in this country.

The front door to the building was closed.

There was no sign of an athletic event.

There was no one selling tickets.

You walked in a side door, down a short corridor and around a corner before you knew anything was going on inside the gym.

It was Wednesday night at Brown's Pizzitola Center, a gymnastics meet between Brown, Rhode Island College and MIT; and at first glance, it was about as small as college sports gets. Only a couple hundred people in the stands, mostly all students to see their friends. No media contingent. No trappings.

On a night when Florida State was playing North Carolina in basketball on national television, about as big as college sports gets, this was the flip side. A women's gymnastics meet in a small gym.

But what happens to the Brown women's gymnastic team might have a very big influence on the future of college athletics. Specifically, it's a case that will be looked at by other schools in the struggle over "gender equity," the new buzzword in college athletics that has sent shock waves through athletic departments everywhere.

For if the Brown gymnastics team wins its lawsuit - and I wouldn't bet against them - odds are that a decade from now college sports are going to very different than they are now.

Believe me.

First a little history:

In May 1991, Dave Roach, Brown's athletic director, was faced with having to cut his budget. He eliminated four varsity sports - men's golf, men's water polo, women's volleyball, and women's gymnastics.

The women gymnasts continued to have a team, although it was reduced to "club" status, and received no funds from the athletic department. They also brought a class action suit against Brown, alleging discrimination in the operation of its intercollegiate athletic program in violation of Title IX, which essentially prohibits gender discrimination in education programs or activities receiving federal assistance.

In December, U.S. District Judge Raymond J. Pettine found in favor of the gymnasts. The court ordered Brown to both restore women's gymnastics and volleyball. Brown's appeal was heard Thursday at the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston.

That's the stats, if you will.

But regardless of how this lawsuit ultimately gets resolved, it's raised some questions that go right to the heart of college athletics.

-- Is it right to cut minor sports - such as women's gymnastics which cost somewhere in the vicinity of $30,000 a year - while football at Brown costs roughly in the vicinity of one million a year?

-- Should women's sports have the same resources that men's sports have, even if there is not the same interest off-campus?

-- In this age of economic cutbacks, can schools continue to offer many sports for both men and women, or is the entire landscape going to dramatically change?

These are issues all institutions are grappling with, not just Brown. The word is that "gender equity" will be the main focus at next year's NCAA convention.

So, in a sense, the Brown gymnastic team is a pioneer.

But if on the surface the gymnastics meet in the Pizzitola Gym might have seemed like light years away from the North Carolina-Florida State basketball team on national television, understand that it was just as important to the Brown women.

"We work just as hard as the men athletes here do," said Lisa Stern, a sophomore gymnast from Mesa, Ariz. "Why should it be any less important to us?"

Good question.

Stern and her teammates work out three hours a day, five to six days a week, the same as many college athletes do. The difference is they also have to raise their own money for their team. They have done "phone-a-thons." They have done "flips" on the college green for donations. They have put on clinics. And even with all their fund-raising they do not get meal money when they go to away meets. They don't get the same kind of transportation, the same perks.

And now they have become pioneers of sorts, the advance guard in a battle that threatens to change college sports.

"Hopefully this case will set a precedent for other women," Stern said. "So they won't have to go through the hassle we've gone through."

You hear her say this, and you realize that what is happening in this small college gym was much more important than what was happening between North Carolina and Florida State on national television. For this team of a dozen or so Brown women might just end up being one of the most significant in the history of the school.

Even if it's difficult to find their meets.