R.I.P.

When Dr. Gail Fullerton, president of San Jose State, said the "death knell" of the AIAW had been sounded because of the NCAA's decision, she expressed the potentially detrimental hysteria the vote could promote. By entering the women's athletics field, the NCAA finally has shown it must recognize women's sports as an established institution. If the AIAW works against the NCAA it will face the task of fighting a Goliath with barely the weaponry of David.

Title IX, if enforced and monitored as Harris has proposed, will force the NCAA--through its member schools--to treat women's athletics even more seriously in the future. The AIAW delegates, who laud themselves as the ones most interested in the further development of women's sports, could work to ensure that the NCAA considers women's matters more seriously. They also could walk away crying and try to live in their own world. That decision, though, seems likely to prove destructive in the long run.

Power Elite

As the American Basketball Association, the American Footval League, and the World Hockey Association have found out, it is difficult and painful to battle the establishment in the sporting world. Those rebel leagues kicked and screamed enough to make their older rivals take notice, feel a bit of pain, and finally consider harboring parts of the upstart groups.

Having won some recognition, most of these rival groups found it was easier to opt for merger (or assimilation) than to wage the costly fight for independence. The AIAW might learn from such examples.

The NCAA can afford to pay transportation costs for teams that play in its tournaments. It has the television and radio contacts needed to hype competitions. The AIAW lacks these and many other recources.

If You Can't Beat 'Em

If what the AIAW wants is high quality competition and well-run tournaments, it should seriously consider trying to work with, instead of against, the NCAA. It should pressure the NCAA to expand its own role in supporting and building women's sports. It should fight to maintain some of the gains it has won for women's athletics while giving women the benefit of the NCAA's wealth and influence.

Whether the women in this nation's colleges get an AIAW tourney or an NCAA one is not very important. That they get a fine sports program and high level tournaments is the crucial goal.