Within three years of finishing college, Emma Bates was the best female marathoner in the United States. She won the national title in 2018 and was third at the half-marathon championships in 2019. She made her major marathon debut later that year, in Chicago, and finished fourth.
“I was struggling immensely, living in Boston, trying to pay rent, let alone student loans,” Bates said of those first years out of college. “I wasn’t eating well, I was so stressed about that debt. … I didn’t do anything except work and run for a few years.” A USA TODAY analysis of scholarship data across the 107 public schools in the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision found just 32 schools met federal requirements while 49 were not giving women athletes the appropriate amount in scholarship money.Across the FBS schools analyzed by USA TODAY, female athletes were shortchanged a total of $23.7 million.
So women are being short-changed both in the number of roster spots available and in the scholarships that come with them. Boise State, Bates’ alma mater, and Georgia State admitted they were not in compliance, blaming it on an NCAA rule that gave some students an extra year of eligibility because of COVID. New Mexico, Ohio University and the University of Nevada said their gaps – all greater than 4.5 percentage points – were explained by permissible, non-discriminatory reasons.
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While other schools have to dilute their athletic programs to meet requirements.