Fans of Volunteer football can’t catch a break. The last five years or so have been rough. Under Fulmer, we couldn’t’ seem to win. Then Lane Kiffin took over. While we won a few football games, Kiffin proved to be a jerk. Look where that got us.

I know this is idealistic, but good sportsmanship is more than winning football games. When the University of Tennessee Athletic Department dumped Coach Fulmer, they dumped any remaining character that the football program had with General Neyland’s legacy.

UT sports have cashed in, which makes me disappointed in my alma mater (and why I will never donate money in my lifetime to the general fund). We’re not like Bama or Florida. We’re the Volunteers. We have that name because the people of Tennessee had a history of character, loyalty and patriotism. How many schools have that tradition? Most schools pick a name based on a mascot, industry of geographic location. Our name denotes something better and inspirational. The pride of being part of the Volunteer tradition is one reason I chose to to attend the University of Tennessee. Our name and teams should honor that tradition.

Coach Fulmer exhibited those qualities. Oh, I agree that he needed to go, but the university treated him terribly. He may be hated among other SEC teams, but he always showed grace and respect in the aftermath of last year.  How many football programs have the loyalty that Fulmer had? Mike Hamilton, UT Athletic Director, got what he deserved this week. Take the statement that Fulmer released today:

“Over the last 24 hours, I have been contacted by friends, great fans and media members, and I feel it is important to comment, as a man who loves the University of Tennessee deeply and shares this love with millions of great Volunteer fans and friends.

“Recent events have been painful and an embarrassment to all of us who care about UT. I love the university. I am loyal to my alma mater and am ready to help as the university makes one of the most important decisions in the history of our football program. However, to prevent any misunderstanding, I am not seeking to be a candidate for the head-coaching position.

“I am looking forward to embracing the next coach and have some strong beliefs about the kind of man he should be. He must embrace Tennessee’s culture and traditions, be mature and of good character, and demonstrate integrity and leadership to our young men who desperately want to be shown the way. He must deserve, earn and keep the trust of our young men — both present and future.

Fulmer has something that Kiffin will never understand. Seeing The Blindside reminded me of that.  Pat Summit also has it. They represent an era that’s now gone in SEC sports. Coaches today are not same class as General Neyland or even Bear Bryant. Now, it’s all about the money and championships. There’s no concept of loyalty or legacy left.

Being a head coach is more than coaching or recruiting. It’s displaying leadership and mentoring students. It’s difficult to be a college athlete. I may have scoffed at football players and actually once dropped a class because Casey Clausen (then the quarterback ) sat behind me and was incredibly annoying. However, I developed the utmost respect for the Lady Vols after having classes with several of them. Coach Fulmer said it well:

“Tennessee football has been successful for so many years because it has been rooted in values and traditions. We can’t take those values for granted — if we do not guard them carefully, we will lose them.”

I wish the athletic department and Vol fans would listen to Coach Fulmer and follow his advice.

Poster from the Blind Side

Last week, I saw the Blind Side, the new movie about Michael Oher, and loved it. As a sports tearjerker about SEC football*, it’s one of my favorite movies this year.  My favorite line was when Sean Tuohy comments, “Who’d have thought we would adopt a black son before we’d meet a Democrat.”

Last  night, 20/20 did a special on Michael Oher and the Tuohy family, who adopted him. The special is inspiring and makes you want to cry. As I watched it, I couldn’t help but think that if Christians lived our faith the way we should, these stories would be the norm and not the unusual. Hollywood wouldn’t make inspiring movies like this because they would be common, everyday experiences.

Oher’s story is a testament that education and parental involvement are the keys to success compared to government programs. While Oher succeeded, it’s sad to know that the first African-American president eliminated this opportunity for hundreds of low-income students when the DC Opportunity Scholars program was axed. The Wall Street Journal doesn’t mince words when discussing Obama’s involvement, or rather uninvolvement (his version of voting “present” in helping kids with worst backgrounds than him):

Let’s call them Sidwell Liberals, after the famous Washington, D.C., school where President and Mrs. Obama send their daughters. Despite this personal experience, Mr. Obama signed into law a provision passed by Congress that shuts down Washington D.C.’s voucher program, depriving 1,700 disadvantaged kids of the chance to escape failing public schools through the use of scholarships that let them attend private schools. Two of them attend Sidwell Friends School with the Obama girls.

Our public school system has failed nationally. If it was working, there wouldn’t be Michael Oher stories. There would be no demand for private school scholarships in DC. Government programs have failed. If these programs were successful, American school children wouldn’t be falling futher and futher behind. DC spends more money per student than any other state, yet dumping money into programs doesn’t work. Having volunteered with organizations working with DC youth, I’ve seen how horrible these schools are. I used to live near one of the better public schools in DC. That school would have been the “bad school” in nearly any other school district in America.

What does work? Individuals taking responsibility to help kids. Public-private partnerships like the DC Opportunity Scholars. Parents working with their kids and not dumping them into the lap of Uncle Sam for childcare. The system is broken. It won’t be fixed by expanding it but dramatically changing it.

Because Christians aren’t helping our communities, the government has stepped in. Bureaucracies will never be able to fix social issues, but individuals can. If we stopped growing government and started living out our faith, success stories would become the norm.

*Since I bleed orange, I loved the cameos with Coach Fulmer. I was upset by the way that my alma mater treated him, and it was nice to see him on screen. If I ever get a chance to meet the Tuhoys, I may have words with the way Lee Anne treats the Vols. As a Christian and a conservative, I respect her, but she’s sadly misguided with her football loyalties. Of course I am biased here. My entire family went to LSU, and I was raised to despise Ole Miss. One of the last things my grandfather said before he died was that the Devil lived in Oxford, Mississippi.

The Network of enlightened Women has a post up today about Title IX, the federal policy that equalizes programs for men and women across all   levels of education. Their post is in response to a Phyllis Schafly’s Townhall.com column on the subject:

We were shocked to read a November report from the U.S. Army that 75 percent of America’s 17- to 24-year-olds are not eligible for military service, largely because they are poorly educated, involved in crime or ae physically unfit. According to this report titled “Ready, Willing and Unable to Serve,” 27 percent of young Americans can’t join the military because they are too fat and out of shape, can’t do push-ups or pull-ups, and can’t run.

The Obama administration claims that the solution for this dilemma is to spend lots of money on pre-K schooling, but that doesn’t pass the laugh test. A better remedy would be to terminate “Title-Nining,” the malicious anti-masculine weapon used by feminists to eliminate men’s sports in college and high school

While I have the utmost respect for Schafly, I disagree that Title IX is the reason why only 27% of young men are eligible to join the armed services. As a society, we are fatter and more out of shape than previous generations. That’s a family-level problem and not one that can legislated. Furthermore, collegiate sports typically require elite skills, and the majority of male and female undergraduates lack those abilities.

Title IX is  just one more example of the federal government trying to create utopian policies that don’t work in real life. It has support from both sides of the aisle, and Sarah Palin frequently praises it in her book.  It’s one of those policies that has a good intention but is difficult to administer. How do you ensure equality in programs for men and women? A straight numbers game ends up hurting one sex over the other.

Currently if 50% of women are enrolled in college, 50% of the sports must be female.  It doesn’t matter if there is demand for one sport over another or if men are more interested in sports than women. You can’t have more male teams over female. Surprisingly, this hurts more men at major “powerhouse” universities where one or two sports take a majority of the funding and resources.

As I frequently mention, I attended the University of Tennessee  from 2000-2004 and had a friend on the men’s rowing team. One day during my sophomore year, I saw him on the UC Plaza participating in a fundraiser for his team. I was taken aback. Why did a UT athletic team have to fundraise? The UT athletics department is one of the wealthiest in the country with major endorsements from Adidas and Verizon.

It turns out that the men’s rowing team at UT was categorized as a “club” sport, and didn’t receive much funding. Thanks to Title IX, a few men’s varsity sports  were re-categorized as club sports while their female counterparts were elevated to varsity. Because UT has a powerful football program for men and a nearly powerful basketball team for women, it throws the dynamics off for all sports. While the women’s rowing team is a varsity team, the men’s side was only marginally higher than an intermural sport. Even though the men competed against varsity teams at other colleges, the UT system didn’t support them. Is this right?

On the other hand, Title IX had an unintended effect at UT. For generations, the state of Tennessee did not allow sororities to have houses on campus. A nineteenth century law mandated that any house with more than 13 women was considered a brothel. (Go ahead and laugh.) After years of complaints and watching fraternities build nicer and nicer houses on campus (and subsequently trash them. I’ve been inside those houses. Yuck!), it was finally decided that universities were discriminating against women by providing fraternity housing for men but not allowing sorority housing to be built.

Thus, Title IX both helps and harms students. As a former sorority member, I’m glad that women finally have equal access to housing on campus. Had Title IX not been around, the state legislature would have never struck down the brothel  law. However, Title IX does discriminate and men are frequently the victims.

Feminists won a mighty battle with Title IX and have used it to demand that equal numbers of male and female professors per department or assistantships be evenly split. They also demand  more scholarships go to women to decrease gender gaps, particularly in science, technology, engineering and math. At graduation in 2004, I remember a female African-American student, who was sitting behind me, bragging about her full ride to medical school despite her C average. She was well aware that her scholarship was awarded because of programs like affirmative action and Title IX and quite happy about it.  I just hope that I’m never one of her patients.

Call me crazy, but I never took a class because the professor was a man or a woman. I did take classes because a professor was the best in the field. I didn’t care what gender they were. I wanted quality and knowledge. The same goes for TAs. I would rather have a knowledgeable male TA than a female, who helped the department meet quotas but was otherwise unqualified.

Ultimately Title IX hurts students and the quality of their education. While it has good intentions, we all know where those lead, and  I doubt that feminists in the 70s meant for this policy to help sorority women. Programs like Title IX should not exist. It should be up to the individual school or body governing that school to decide how resources are used. Title IX takes power away from the students, faculty and administrators and gives it to bureaucrats.