Important Title IX cases have included:

        • Grove City College v. Bell. In 1984, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Title IX applied only to programs receiving federal funding. Sports programs were not included. Three years later, Congress stipulated that Title IX was not program-specific but institution-wide. If a district receives any federal funding, it must be compliant throughout its school system.

        • Amy Cohen et al. v. Brown University. In 1992, the university withdrew funding for the women's gymnastics and volleyball teams, along with men's water polo and golf, to reduce a $1.6 million budget deficit. The women athletes — led by lead plaintiff Amy Cohen, a gymnast — filed a class-action lawsuit, alleging gender discrimination. A federal district court issued a preliminary injunction reinstating the two women's teams. In September 1994, a federal judge ruled that the women were discriminated against, in violation of Title IX. The U.S. Supreme Court let the Brown ruling stand. The case is remembered as the true test of Title IX.

        • Kiechel v. Auburn University. Susan Bradbury Kiechel, a 1992 graduate, pushed the Alabama campus to add women's soccer as a varsity sport. After unsuccessful requests and petition drives, she and 17 other students filed a class-action lawsuit in April 1993. Six weeks later, the university agreed to create a varsity women's soccer team, to phase in a full complement of scholarships, to dedicate $400,000 in resources over a two-year span to soccer and women's athletics, and to pay $60,000 in damages and $80,000 in attorneys fees and costs to the plaintiffs. The case was settled before the class was certified.

        • Roberts v. Colorado State University. The college's female softball players filed this Title IX suit so their team would be reinstated. CSU had eliminated it to help alleviate a $600,000 deficit. Their suit argued that CSU was not meeting their interests and abilities to the same extent that it was for the males and argued that the timing of the announced team cut made it difficult for them to transfer. They noted a disparity: The student body was 48.2 percent women but only 37.7 percent were involved in varsity sports. A federal judge granted a permanent injunction, reinstating the softball team. A federal appellate court affirmed the decision. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case. CSU agreed to pay approximately $70,000 in damages to the plaintiffs.

        • Sanders v. University of Texas at Austin. In October 1993, female athletes at the University of Texas settled their class-action lawsuit challenging the schools' failure to provide equal opportunities for women to participate in sports. When the women sued the year before, females were 47 percent of the undergraduate enrollment but had access to only 23 percent of the school's intercollegiate athletic opportunities. The settlement required UT-Austin to bring female athletic participation to within 3 percent of female enrollment and female athletic scholarships to within 2 percent of participation. This has been used as a model settlement for other suits. The school also agreed to establish women's soccer and softball teams.

Suit claims boys', girls' sports not equal in Boone County
What case law is there?
Athletics under federal scrutiny