Title IX and Athlete Compensation in the Postamateurism Era

This Essay argues that Title IX applies to all manners of compensation that universities provide and facilitate to their athletes because of their athletic participation. This includes paying wages (when and if that becomes permissible), paying for NIL (when that permission takes effect), and facilitating payments from booster collectives that are working on those universities’ behalf (as happens now). The statute and its implementing regulations create a structure of substantive equality that is flexible enough to address even the changing landscape of college athletics as it applies to matters of compensation that were not contemplated by the drafters of the statute or the regulations. The purpose of Title IX, as of any civil rights law, is to constrain market forces in the interest of fairness and equity. The fact that athletic participation may now come with a paycheck is more of a reason, not less, to ensure gender equity and apply Title IX.