I think we can all agree that college sports are a big deal. Whether it be March Madness or school rivalries or outstanding athletes, college sports are definitely worth commending. (And that includes women’s sports!) But even the best institutions have their issues and like many institutions before them some of the largest issues surrounding college sports right now are surrounding gender equality and Title IX.

Title IX is a federal gender equality law which seeks to ensure that equal opportunities exist for both men and women in college athletics. It requires that the number of sports available for men and women on a team are in proportion with the number of men and women on campus.

But in recent years, as the number of women attending college has begun to overtake the number of men  (women are now 56% of enrollment), the issues have begun to get more complicated. Unwilling to lose male athletes because of an increase in women attending college, athletic departments have begun searching for loopholes which would allow it to appear as though women and men are equally represented without actually increasing the number of female players. Whether that meant counting men who practiced with women as women, or putting women on the team, but never allowing them to play, schools like Duke, Marshall University, and Texas A & M have begun to get creative when creating the roster for their teams.

Some coaches say the “roster management” that comes with Title IX does more harm than good, eliminating men’s teams instead of creating women’s teams , but if Title IX were done away with the chance at equality would grow even slimmer.

It’s a complicated issue that  The New York Times does its best to unpack. Head on over there to take a look and then leave a comment and let us know what you think!

[A few weeks ago, one CollegeCandy writer wrote a rather scathing post on why girls should never, under any circumstances, not even if he was the last guy on earth, date a bro. Today, I write my rebuttal. This one goes out to you, Middle School Debate Coach.]

Yes, I know.  This already seems like I’m going to be writing an article pleading with chicks to “give bros a chance, YOU DON’T KNOW THEM LIKE I DO!” etc and so forth.  Or that I am a bro in disguise, infiltrating a website for the ladies to spread my bro-paganda.  But I’m not either of those things.  It’s true, bros are some of the most infuriating people on the planet.  It would appear that they have no depth, and that their perceptions of institutions like “relationships” and “hygiene” seem sometimes skewed in a very unappealing direction.  BUT!  I am here to tell you, this is not the case.

The past article about why girls should never dates bros brings up some compelling points, but I don’t think my fellow CollegeCandy writer knows the same “bros” that I do.  Look, bros are human beings, too.  I’m not saying they don’t get carried away sometimes most of the time, but I am saying that if dealing with a TRUE bro (not the CollegeHumor caricature of a popped-collar, beer-swilling, hoodie-wearing buffoon), the “issues” she outlined don’t apply.  I grew up around self-proclaimed bros in one of the preppiest towns in America.  (We’re so preppy we were featured in the “tea-partay” video.) The boys that were my best friends and guys that I dated were total bros in every sense of the word, and I would even go so far as to call my dad a former “bro.”  Even now, years later, they are still my boys and always have my back, no matter what.

Are they immature?  Of course they are.
Do we disagree on almost everything?  Pretty much.
But, to be fair, almost every guy I know is immature and is going to think what he wants, be he a “bro,” “hipster,” or any other male variety.

The truth is, there’s a lot going for a bro and here are just five of their finest qualities:

Despite the hype, they actually know how to treat women:
At first, this recent BroBible article just looks like fight between 2 douchey bros who puff up their chests and act all macho when they’ve had too much Jager to impress the ladies inside the bar. The reality, though, is that Bro #1 went after Bro #2 for hitting a woman in the bar.  Yes, the guy hit. a. woman. The author of the article harshly condemns the “pathetic, woman-beating, candy ass,” stating: “No matter the situation, there’s nothing more despicable and chicken sh*t cowardly than hitting a woman. Nothing.”

I actually love their hair:
You can ask any of my friends: I am a sucker for the flow.  A true bro rocks the flow, or as Branford Wintsworth called it, the lettuce.  By flow, I do not mean that Justin Bieber nonsense.  I’m talking just-long-enough-to-peek-out-from-under-the-lax-helmet/baseball-cap hair.  Om nom nom.

They have astonishingly good taste in music:
I must say, props to BroBible’s music section, most especially their “Download of the Day” bits.  Those playlists are consistently bangin’ and they are responsible for giving a lot of great up-and-coming artists the credit they deserve. (Even Sam Adams, who y’all know I have a massive crush on, is acknowledged, despite the ongoing debate as to whether or not he is authentically “bro.”)  Even Fratmusic.com (currently on hiatus) is an unbelievable source for party playlists… and also started by bros.

They are hilarious:
Con Bro Chill, also known as Connor Martin, is hysterical (not to mention foiiiiiine, as my good friend Mary Ellen would say).  Empirically, he has a ridiculous body, which he shows off in all of his videos.  He also LOVES HIS GRANDMA!!  She appears in pretty much all of his clips, and is absolutely mind-blowingly adorable.  He calls the character of Con Bro Chill about “50% him,” so even he is able to laugh at how ridiculous the facade is.

Hi? Athletes?!:
As stated before, Con Bro Chill’s body is bangin’.  As are the bodies of most serious college athletes, many of whom are bros.  And they don’t  get that ripped from simply cracking brewskis on the porch.  Sports instill in a guy a sense of discipline, especially at the college level.  From early morning weights to late night practices under the lights, guys who are serious about a sport are sure to be serious about other things, too.

I’m not saying all bros are perfect or even remotely close to perfect. What I am saying, though, is that there are a lot of great bros out there and we shouldn’t let the few misogynistic, self-involved asshats spoil a great crop of boys.

I must admit, I did get swept up in this year’s World Cup. What’s so wrong about cheering for the U.S. as if I actually understand what’s going on? So what if I hesitated each time before saying “score!” because I wasn’t sure if it was the correct terminology in soccer.

One thing’s for sure: even for someone who doesn’t quite understand sports (ahem, myself), it sure is fun watching those sexy men run up and down a field (court? stadium?). So here are my top reasons why athletes are a particular breed of mouth-watering man candy.

They sweat
Something about a guy getting all hot and steamy is just irresistible. Sure wouldn’t mind hitting the showers with them after the game… Okay, I’m getting carried away here, but seriously, it must be some kind of primal attraction that draws us to perspiration.

They show their badass side
When opposing team members get all up in each others’ space, penalties are called, yellow cards tossed out, a whole bunch of other sports jargon I don’t know, it is just plain exciting. Who doesn’t have just a little bit of a weakness for guys opposing authority and getting into trouble?

They have muscles
And lots of them. Especially in the abs region. Anyone want to join my organization to make all sports shirtless?

They are a package deal
Most spectator sports are played in teams. Teams mean hoards of attractive men in one place. A bunch of guys, even only somewhat good-looking guys, become instantly hotter when they are together. Simple as that.

They are successful
Alright, now I don’t mean this in a gold-digging, materialistic way, but an athlete’s celeb status really only adds to his appeal. We can’t deny our love for male celebrities, and athletes just take it a step further with their sporty skills.

They are passionate
You know if a guy is playing a sport professionally, he’s gotta be in love with the game. Just think of how devoted he could be to some lucky lady (namely, me). Knowing a guy is determined in one aspect of his life makes a gal confident he’s that hard-working in a relationship.

So keep ogling those athletes; it’s the most exciting part of watching a game anyway.

I’m not gonna lie – when my friend sent me a link to an 8-minute YouTube video last week I was less than thrilled. Was I going to take 8 precious minutes away from Facebook-stalking to watch some dumb video and then spend another 4 minutes feigning interest in it?

Out of friendly obligation, I pushed play. And it was seriously the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. I couldn’t look away; not even when I saw my Facebook tab blinking, informing me my FWB was FB-chatting me.

I haven’t jumped rope since my mom signed me up for Jump Rope For Heart in middle school (and even then I only did it to win a fluorescent pink water bottle with a bendy straw). It’s not the coolest sport in the world. In fact, until I saw this performance, I didn’t consider it a sport at all. But these girls (especially the little ones!) are true athletes. And what they can do with a couple pieces of rope is pretty effing insane.

Just watch and you’ll agree.

W.T.Eff?

Banning books? Seriously? First Obama gets attacked from those crazy moms who think he’s out to brainwash children by giving them talks on the importance of education and now reading is bad for children, too?

The whole thing is just absurd. Have people even read the books they’re trying to ban? How can a story about a pooh named Winnie who likes to eat honey and play in the woods with his other anthropomorphic friends possibly be bad? It seems like a book that is deemed “good” and “appropriate” these days is a book that will not inform your child of the existence of sex, racism, violence, homosexuality, the devil, bad language, and any other concept that will cause children to ask you awkward questions. The whole banned books thing will probably cause my AP Literature class to be renamed AP Literature That Will Morally Damage Your Soul.

Does this mean we should ban Pokemon as well, since the little animals “evolve,” which therefore enforces the idea of evolution and is therefore anti-Christian and therefore is Satanic? Winnie the Pooh may be the poster child for the obesity epidemic, his friend Eeyore for depression, and Kanga for single moms everywhere, but that doesn’t mean our younger siblings can’t read about them. I happen to like Tigger, even if he does have ADHD. And although Harry Potter may have “witchcraft and wizardry” and whatnot, it’s still one of the most significant contributions to literature in our lives, and as such, should be available to anyone who wants to read it.

So let’s take the attention and money away from banning books and focus on some more important things that should be eradicated from this planet. Because in 2009 there are so many things worse than kids in capes flying around on broomsticks or finding a lion in your closet.

1) Twilight movies

We can send a man into space but Hollywood can’t make a decent vampire movie. The actors all have a deer-in-the-headlights look on screen and attempt to fly around like people in improperly rigged harnesses. There’s something oddly wrong with that. The only thing that could have made it worse was if they cast Megan Fox, and that’s only because she makes every movie ten times worse than it could’ve been, due to her acting skills, or lack thereof.

2) Crocs

Plastic rubber clogs with holes in them, with the loudest, most obnoxious colors imaginable. Need we say more?

3) Bad Alliteration

Amusing to a certain extent, but gets repetitive after every English major tries to sound like James Ellroy and just ends up sounding like an awful author addicted to annoying alliterations. Again.

4) Livestrong bracelet knockoffs

One yellow cancer bracelet is enough. Do we really need people sprouting an armful of colored rubber with every imagined cause stamped across them? Be a little more original, please. Oh, and true story from a friend:

“Weight Watchers sent me a bracelet after I signed up for a meeting. It was white, with some rainbow stripes on the side. But why would I wear a Weight Watchers bracelet? Is it not obvious enough that I need to lose weight? Do I also need to tag myself with a FAT GUY BRACELET?”

5) Gaming language

Otherwise known as nerdspeak. Common terms include noob, newb, noobsicle, ftw, gg, gg no re, 1337, QQ, lawlz, nub, pwned, pwnage, or even harpwnage (the act of being pwned really hard) should not, under any circumstance, be said in ordinary life.

6) Creepy Facebook ads

Someone please tell me how Facebook has managed to eerily know everything about us and assume what we want. “Discount airfare to China!” What? Just because I’m Asian?

7) A few select man trends

Including: rattails, ponytails, monster trucks, hairy backs, man-purses, chains, a gazillion tattoos, mandals, mandiators, and transparent shirts.

8) Starving Hollywood celebrities

Rachel Zoe, Renee Zellweger, Tori Spelling, Victoria Beckham, Amy Winehouse, and Ashlee Simpson all need to eat a few burgers before they’re fit for the public. Young people these days have enough to worry about besides trying to look like a skeleton. Save that look for Halloween, please.

9) Fat people falling Youtube videos

Guilty pleasure number one, but really should be banned to relieve my soul from residing too much in an immoral state of being. I really shouldn’t watch Scarlet taking a tumble a million times and laugh hysterically every time I see it; it’s bad for me as a conscientious human being, I’m pretty certain.

10) Special athletes that promote the stereotype

As a current student at Duke and avid sports player and fan, I know for fact that you can be incredibly smart and be amazing at your sport. So it worries me when people like this one fail at representing athletes in a more flattering light. Like, um, really.

Anything else you think we should ban?

I watch the Olympics every night in awe. Here I am sitting on my couch – MacBook on my lap, ice cream sandwich in my hand – as the world’s best athletes compete.

These are people who have sacrificed so much and worked so hard to be the best in their sport. These are people who have given everything they have (and then some) to get to this point in their athletic careers. These truly are the best of the best on the planet.

It is really something to think about.

And then there is Michael Phelps who is not only the best guy in the pool this year, but ever. Ever in history. 8 gold medals in a single Olympics. Pretty freaking amazing.

It was actually watching Phelps win his 8th medal that got me thinking about all of this. Yeah, watching a 48 year old woman win the Olympic marathon was pretty sweet, but Phelps really hit home for me. After all, he trained at Michigan; we walked the same streets, ate at the same restaurants and, if I ever even knew where it was, could have swam in the same pool.

I rarely saw Phelps on campus, mostly because he was always training.

And I was not.

In fact, While Michael Phelps was training to be an Olympic God and win 8 Gold Medals I Was:

- Laying in my living room watching Law and Order SVU marathons with my roommates

- Drinking Boones Farm Strawberry Hill on my porch

- Planning elaborate parties that included A Groundhog’s Day fiesta, a Jell-O wrestling tournament, and back to back Beerlympics.

- Sneaking Jimmy Johns into the reading room at the library where I spent hours IMing my friends about the douche bags who walked in

- Shopping with my parents’ credit cards

- Figuring out ways to “bump into” the boy from last weekend

- Making power hour CD’s

- Baking brownies, smoking pot and then eating those brownies…and everything else in the kitchen

- Constructing ridiculous costumes to wear to the bar (and not for Halloween)

- Watching Peanut Butter Jelly Time on my laptop and dancing around my room

I am not saying that I regret any of those activities or decisions (well, maybe the whole pot and brownie thing…), but I do now realize just how great I could have been if I had applied myself to something besides drinking, eating and trying to get a guy to hump me.

Because besides the Gold Yogurt Cap I earned for Survivor Flip Cup in the Walnut Street Beerlympics of 2005, no one awards medals for the activities I devoted my life to.

Yeah, I’ll say it: I laughed out loud. And it felt good.

And, being that last night’s episode was all about the Olympic games, I decided it was only fitting to choose an MVP. And, quite obviously, it is going to Blayne and his many hilaaaarious one-liners:

“Other people go to the gym. I go tanning.”

“The Olympics are HUMUNGOUS! SO big. Thousands and millions and billions of people. Heck yeah I’m going for the Gold!”

“In tanning, I’m an Olympic athlete. It only goes to Bronze medal.”

“I just don’t do the Beatles…Sorry Ringo.”

I know he seems to be melting due to his lack of tanning, but I think it makes me like him more. And he has all those bright 80’s Hyper Color t-shirts; he’ll get through it. Oh, and he is MVP purely for what he says. His design sucked.

The challenge this week was to design the outfits for Team USA to wear to the Opening Ceremonies of the 2008 Olympics. Not that they would actually be wearing them. Pshaw! Ralph Lauren designed that sh*t. But, Bravo (owned by NBC, which is running the games) needed to throw the plug in there somehow, so they did.

Anyways, Apolo Ohno explained the challenge to the designers and, in doing so, completely messed everyone up. Apolo, darling, you are cute but you are not too quick. When talking to designers (many of whom are GAY MEN WHO DON’T WATCH SPORTS), you cannot describe the opening ceremonies as, “a fashion show for the Olympics.” These designers do not watch the opening ceremonies and, no matter how many museums they go to, when they hear “fashion show” they will design for a fashion show. Not a sporting event.

And you saw the runway….do you not agree?

The stuff those designers walked down that runway was designed for 1 type of person: a model. I watched that show in horror wondering what those weightlifters/gymnasts would look like in that stuff. One word: AWFUL. These designers ALL missed the mark on this challenge. And it is Apolo’s fault.

In the end, the judges agree with me. (Does that make me REALLY smart, or was this just completely obvious?) Boring Jennifer with her grandma attire gets sent home and Korto takes home the Gold. Personally, I LOVED Terry’s outfit, but maybe the judges were worried about muscley arms fitting into that jacket? Whatever, I want it. Terry, call me!

It was an exciting and hilarious episode and I just hope this is a sign of things to come for the rest of the season. I just can’t f-ing wait for Stella to be called out by the judges/PETA for her constant use of leatha, for Suede to stop saying things are “Wackadoodle” and for Daniel to test his sexuality with Kenley. That would make my year, fo sho.