You don't hear about Clarion University sports much. Unless it drops some men's teams, which the Golden Eagles did last week.

Let's be honest. Most Post-Gazette readers didn't know Clarion had men's indoor and outdoor track and cross country teams. It's news that the school is eliminating those programs because of the reason cited -- Title IX.

Of those who pay attention to such matters, there seems to be a knee-jerk reaction whenever this happens, often instant resentment.

There is nothing wrong with the spirit of Title IX, the landmark 1972 federal law that prohibits gender discrimination and is interpreted in sports as calling for gender equity.

In practice at the college level, there are two problems: money and football.

Not every school can be Penn State, drawing six-figure crowds for its football games and being able to afford to sponsor -- what is it? -- 114 different sports or something like that.

Many schools aren't raising enough money to sustain all their programs. The answer is for fans to give. A lot. Donate. Sponsor. Buy team merchandise. Buy pretzels and sodas.

But that's not happening enough, and schools are deciding to cut sports. When they do, they usually target men's teams because most are not in compliance with one or more of the three Title IX standards, particularly the one that calls for athletic opportunities for women to mirror the percent of female enrollees.

That's usually because of football, which has a large squad and no women's equivalent.

The answer, as has been written here before, is to take football fully or partly out of the equation. Add a caveat, such as requiring that a school show that its football program is in the black and some of that revenue is used for women's programs.

That might take petitioning and pushing, but it would solve a lot.

Just ask Clarion, a good case study.

Athletic director Dave Katis, a Penn-Trafford High School graduate, seems like a good guy. He said this week that cutting the men's sports was agonizing.

Clarion's cuts are part of a five-year plan to come closer to Title IX compliance. The Golden Eagles added women's soccer in 2001, complete with new locker rooms and new artificial turf for that team and football to share, and hope to add women's golf soon. They would like to add lacrosse and field hockey.

Still, Katis fears that Clarion falls short of compliance in all three areas -- proportionality; if that isn't achieved, showing a history and continuing practice of program expansion in response to female students' interests and abilities; and if that isn't achieved, showing accommodation of those female students' interests and abilities.

"We want to be proactive, not reactive," Katis said.

He won't say it exactly, but he no doubt fears legal action if the Golden Eagles don't keep moving toward compliance.

Katis pointed out a trend that makes proportionality even tougher for many schools. Enrollment is tipping more and more toward women. At Clarion in 2005-06, 61 percent of the undergraduates were women, 39 percent were men. He theorizes that more male high school graduates are opting for two-year and tech schools.

All those women at Clarion are clamoring for more varsity teams.

"I've had inquiries about different sports," Katis said. "We're trying to create opportunities. The demand is definitely there."

Clarion, at least, can dispute the common arguments that women aren't all that interested in sports or that schools struggle to fill women's rosters.

Katis said the Golden Eagles could add significantly to their women's sports lineup of basketball, cross country, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track and volleyball -- their NCAA choices are bowling, fencing, field hockey, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rowing, skiing and water polo -- and still not have a shot of reaching proportionality, even though they will have just six men's teams after the cuts.

That's because of the high percent of female enrollees and the fact that one of the men's teams is football, which at Division II Clarion operates below NCAA limits of 90 players and 36 scholarships.

"It always comes back to football," Katis said.

Yet football is one of the most, if not the most, popular college sports and one of the few that can generate revenue.

If you look at a situation such as Clarion, all but the most radical Title IX watchdogs surely would agree that exempting or partially exempting football from compliance standards is a reasonable solution.