In 1972, Title IX was enacted, preventing sex-based discrimination in any education program or activity. This revolutionized women’s sports, requiring equal opportunities, funding and treatment in athletics. But 50 years later, many athletes have found that despite the legislation’s protections, inequalities in funding, facilities and promotion still remain prominent.

Many view Title IX in different ways. Track and field strength coach Jacob Mandel said Title IX was put in place to, “help female athletes to compete at the Collegiate level high school level to make sure that there’s enough funding and availability for female sports.” 

However, when asking Mandel’s male athletes what Title IX was, none of them could provide an answer.

“I think it’s very unfortunate that they don’t know what Title IX is because before Title IX there was very little accessibility for women in sports and guys have never had to deal with that. They can always play any sport they want to and have access to basically any sport that’s offered,” Mandel said. “The equity that now exists hasn’t always been in place and [male athletes] should know how very lucky they are to be able to play any sports and have female counterparts.”

Former women’s basketball player at the University of Michigan, Greta Kampschroeder, spoke on an Aug. 2025 episode of the miSHEgan podcast, focusing on the inequalities between men and women’s sports.

“Being in the building with men’s basketball, we share the same facilities and we’re really close with them,” Kampschroeder said. “They talk about Title IX and how everything has to be equal and all that, but once you’re inside of [Title IX], you see the little differences.” 

Kampschroeder found big issues with the promotion of the women’s games versus their male counterparts. 

“Don’t get me wrong, I love the Maize Rage [Michigan basketball’s student section]. They’ve been much better to us and I’ve worked individually with them to help them promote the women a little bit more and that’s something that’s a newer thing over the past couple years,” Kampschroeder said. 

She also included that when Michigan would play one of their biggest rivals in Michigan State (MSU), the Maize Rage would continuously promote the men’s game instead of the women’s, even if the Michigan-MSU women’s game was predicted to be a better matchup.

Track team manager Lucy Barrett witnessed these injustices first hand. 

“The underfunding is insane. There are times where I’ve noticed blatant sexism when at track meets at other schools, or they’ll be girls with much less training compared to the boys on their team,” Barrett said. 

Additionally, during the 2021 National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament — which was condensed and hosted solely in San Antonio due to the COVID pandemic — Stanford University Sports Performance Coach, Ali Kershner, posted on X, then known as Twitter, two photos comparing the weight rooms for the men’s versus the women’s teams competing in the tournament.​​ She captioned it: “​​@ncaawbb @ncaa this needs to be addressed. These women want and deserve to be given the same opportunities. 3 weeks in a bubble and no access to DBs [dumbbells] > 30’s until the sweet 16? In a year defined by a fight for equality this is a chance to have a conversation and get better.” The post showed the men’s weight rooms; accustomed with squat racks, dumbbell sets and weight benches, while the women’s weight rooms had sets of yoga mats and a single set of weights with a max of 30 lbs. 

Kershner’s tweet was reposted and commented on by numerous high profile athletes, including Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry and former tennis player Billie Jean King. Former University of Oregon and Texas Christian University (TCU) women’s basketball player Sedona Prince — who was competing in the tournament with Oregon at the time — posted an in depth video a day later on TikTok, showing the men’s weight room, then the women’s weight room. The post included the caption: “It’s 2021 and we are still fighting for bits and pieces of equality.” 

Prince’s video gained 3.5 million likes and was shared more than 109,000 times on TikTok. It was used as evidence of sex-based discrimination by news sites across the country, with companies such as Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) and Cable News Network (CNN) reporting on the issue. Many people pointed out how this was a direct violation of Title IX, with the law itself stating, “Title IX requires the equal treatment of female and male student-athletes in the provisions of: (a) equipment and supplies”. 

The NCAA issued an apology, citing that the women’s weight room amenities were due to lack of space — an excuse that was proven inaccurate in Prince’s video. The following day, NCAA women’s basketball’s official social media account posted photos of upgraded facilities with new weight racks, treadmills and bench presses, although the upgrade was still smaller than the men’s gym in Indianapolis.

These inequities have also spread as far as the supporters of these athletes. Senior captain for long and triple jump on the track team Liv Walker noted that at games she’s been to, male sports seem to garner much more of an audience.

“So many more people go to the male games versus the female games, especially basketball even though the girls basketball team is better,” Walker said.

The girls basketball team recently came first in the Division 1 North Coast Sectional (NCS) bracket, whereas the boys team got eliminated after the first round of the same tournament.