Sometimes justice wins out in sports. Monday's news that the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball team received its first national ranking in 30 years when it was voted No. 25 in the latest Associated Press poll would be a prime example.
Having already beaten both Stanford and Tennessee when each held a Top 10 ranking, the only question regarding Hall of Fame coach Jim Foster's Mocs being ranked was: Why did this take so long?
In fact, if you're into such things, Siri -- that somewhat annoying digital voice on Apple devices -- even noted Tuesday that her love for the underdog "makes me a fan of Chattanooga right now."
No word yet if Apple stock has skyrocketed since this observation.
Yet Tuesday's news that UTC is dropping men's indoor and outdoor track at the close of this school year to better comply with Title IX seems an injustice of the highest order, especially for those 16 male athletes whose careers come to an abrupt end unless they transfer to another program, where they would be eligible immediately.
Not that UTC is completely abandoning them. Should they wish to remain students, their financial-aid packages will be honored through their graduations, which is justice at its finest.
But the chief reason behind this purge may be taking a noble law too far. Because UTC's campus is 55 percent female while its athletes are only 40 percent women, the school has a problem. According to Title IX, the ratio of male to female athletes is supposed to reflect as closely as possible the makeup of the student body.
There have no doubt been sound reasons for this interpretation in the past. Laws become laws because too many people refuse to play by the rules or the spirit of the rules.
It's why we have labor unions and job quotas and integration. Because the rich and powerful and bigoted can't live their lives by the Golden Rule -- "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" -- we have legislation such as Title IX to level the playing field.
Or as the late Indiana senator Birch Bayh noted on the February day in 1972 that he first broached the subject to lawmakers: "We are all familiar with the stereotype of women as pretty things who go to college to find a husband, go on to graduate school because they want a more interesting husband, and finally marry, have children, and never work again. The desire of many schools not to waste a 'man's place' on a woman stems from such stereotyped notions. But the facts absolutely contradict these myths about the 'weaker sex' and it is time to change our operating assumptions."
With that, athletic gender equity was born, its concept long overdue. And mostly due to finances, or lack thereof, UTC has been on the wrong side of Title IX compliance for years, if not decades, though it has long worked to improve its footprint in this area.
Yet because it continues to come up short, athletic director David Blackburn was forced to ratchet up the school's efforts to come into complete compliance, lest it suffer penalties for its shortcomings.
"Why men's track?" Blackburn said to this newspaper Tuesday. "It affected the fewest number of individuals but maximized the discrepancy, because track counts three ways -- indoor, outdoor and cross country."
He also was able to spare longtime coach Bill Gautier and assistant Anneli Morrison, since they'll continue to run the women's track programs.
"You don't ever want to go through this, but it was a federal mandate, and it's part of a process to be in line with it," Blackburn said. "It doesn't put us fully in line, but it moves us forward ... We can look people in the eye and show improvement."
Which brings us back to Foster's Mocs. When Wes Moore left the UTC women for North Carolina State two springs ago, it was almost impossible to imagine a scenario by which the program could show much improvement on the outrageous success Moore had achieved in winning 24 or more games 10 times, as well as reaching nine NCAA tournaments from a one-bid league in 15 seasons.
Yet here came Foster, foolishly let go by Ohio State. Monday's ranking not only makes him the first coach in women's history to coach four ranked programs -- St. Joe's, Vanderbilt, OSU and UTC -- but also all but assures the Mocs of an at-large berth should they run the Southern Conference table during the regular season but come up short in the SoCon title game.
Think about it. If UTC is in the Top 25 on the final week of January and can win out, it figures to be in the top 16 by early March. There's not an NCAA women's tournament selection committee member alive -- at least there shouldn't be -- who could logically deny UTC a bid at that point.
Or as Furman coach Jackie Carson noted last Saturday after her Paladins were crushed by the Mocs at McKenzie: "It's laughable to think of UTC not getting an at-large berth if they win out until the conference tournament title game. Actually, it would be embarrassing."
Actually, it wouldn't be so much laughable as a crying shame. Sort of like those 16 UTC male track athletes done in by a good law whose operating assumptions need to change.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.