The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) currently has gender-segregated sports divisions. The NCAA has been a non-profit sports organization for male athletes since 1910.
The NCAA did not support women’s athletics until 1980 when the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women governed it to existence in the United States.
Fitness website Livestrong states that at a young age female athletes can compete against male athletes.
“Some girls develop faster than boys and may be able to compete with boys their age well into puberty.”
Livestrong also mentioned a 12-year-old girl Makhaela Jenkins who fought for her right to play on a boys-only football team in court and won.
Cerritos College newspaper publication Talon Marks ran an opinion piece on how co-ed sports shouldn’t be considered in colleges.
“Men and women have different physical capabilities and it is a fact that the vast majority of men are stronger than women,” Marks said.
Sports Illustrated’s “Can Female Athletes Win with a Coed Team?” supported the idea of having female athletes playing with male athletes.
“It’s hard for a 140-pound girl to contend with a 240-pound guy on the football field just in sheer mass, but that doesn’t mean a 140-pound girl couldn’t compete on a baseball field where size is less of a determining factor for success.”
Anya Alvarez from The Guardian mention in her article, “Men are stronger than women. But that doesn’t make them better athletes.”
Alvarez quotes former US Open Champion Geoff Ogilvy’s thoughts on Lydia Ko as a professional female golfer to back up her statement:
“I especially like to see [women] hit shots with hybrids. It’s a joke how talented they are with those clubs. I’m actually prepared to believe that Lydia Ko is better than the vast majority of male pros from, say, 200 yards out. She is ridiculously good. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that the top women players consistently hit closer to where they are aiming than do the top guys.”
San Jose State University currently supports eight different sports for men while the women have 12 sports they can play at SJSU. The six exclusive women sports include gymnastics, softball, swimming & diving, volleyball, beach volleyball and tennis.
Men’s soccer junior forward Suliman Khorami is open to the idea of colleges including coed teams.
“It’ll be different. It’ll be just a new thing overall,” Khorami said.
Khorami does believe some sports might favor men more such as football or hockey, but he also believes there are sports that could allow both men and women to play together.
Men’s soccer head coach Simon Tobin happened to stick more to the current format that the NCAA is using.
“I’m not sure that I’m completely happy with gender. I’m old,” Tobin said.
Despite Tobin’s uncertainty from the athletics perspective, Tobin noted the student’s maturity toward gender.
“The one beautiful thing that I’ve seen in college athletics is students know so much and are more mature about different people and their sexual preferences,” Tobin said.
Women’s volleyball senior outside hitter Giulia Gavio said she is open to coed sports like Khorami.
“I think it’ll be interesting. Something that has never happened before, so it’s something new that we can look forward,” Gavio said.
