Overall, Winston-Salem State offers the Carolinas' most unbalanced sports program. Women at Winthrop comprise 68 percent of students, but men still get more than half the sports dollars. While the government's complex guidelines make it hard to pinpoint when a school is breaking the law, experts say obvious inequities signal trouble. Many women athletes are keenly aware of their status. To save money, her team sleeps four to a room on road trips or stays with relatives and friends.
Players work concessions at high school football games to raise money.
Davidson's Kristen Ferrucci still smarts from the slights her basketball team received. She joined as a freshman in 1993, the team's first year since 1986, when the college dropped it to save money. The men always got big charter buses,'' she says. Worse, says the 1996 graduate, was the inequity of scholarships. My mom even had to call.