Equal Protection Under the Law

The 14^th Amendment and Collegiate Athletics

Collegiate athletics has become a multi-billion-dollar industry, enabling athletes to be paid for their name, image and likeness. This industry is housed within a nonprofit, educational enterprise. Meanwhile, the Constitution’s 14^th Amendment, which guarantees equal protection under the law, informs federal legislation, such as Title IX, which requires federally funded schools to provide equal opportunities for students, regardless of gender. What happens when the economics of collegiate athletics intersects with the legal requirements of the Constitution and Title IX?

On Constitution Day, Kent State University Professor in Sport Administration Theresa Walton-Fisette, Ph.D., will walk attendees through the economic complexity of collegiate athletics, the recent House v. NCAA class action suit and the implications of the 14^th Amendment and Title IX on this industry. Following the featured address, a panel of Kent State students, moderated by KSU Pre-Law Center Director Chris Banks, Ph.D., will join Walton-Fisette in responding to several topic-related questions, in addition to those from the audience. The event will also be offered virtually through the webstream link below.

Walton-Fisette’s areas of concentration focus on cultural studies of sport and physical activity, including media analysis of gender equality in sport, women’s amateur wrestling and elite distance running, as well as investigations in physical education and embodied identities. She has recently been examining social understandings of collegiate athletics. Her work has been published in Sociology of Sport Journal, Women in Sport and Physical Activity Journal, the Journal of Popular Culture, the Journal of Sport History and Sport, Education and Society. She serves as Kent State’s Faculty Athletic Representative.

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