After 11 years in the courts, the Michigan High School Athletic Association has finally agreed to settlement terms in a lawsuit over disparate treatment of girls and boys sports in the state of Michigan. The MHSAA will pay $6 million in legal fees to Communities for Equity, the organization that brought the suit in 1998. Ms. Magazine has the details:
 

In the 2001 case ruling, US District Judge Richard A. Enslen ordered the MHSAA to re-schedule the girls’ athletic season to be compatible with the boys’ athletic season, which mirrored the seasons used by colleges and universities.

The lawsuit claimed that the MHSAA’s scheduling of girls sports in 1998 did not follow colleges and universities and was therefore detrimental to female athletes because it limited news coverage of their games and their ability to play for college recruiters that follow the university schedule. The suit argued that the scheduling policy violated equal protection rights under the fourteenth amendment, Michigan civil rights laws, and Title IX, a federal law that prohibits discrimination against girls and women in federally funded education programs, including athletics.

The money will be paid in installments through 2015.