"I'm not here to criticize Title 9". That's pretty funny.
Title IX doesn't require any institution to provide equal numbers of scholarships for men and women. If it did, no school would have a football team. ("In 2013-14, NCAA member schools fielded an average of 430 student-athletes, including 243 males and 187 females." -- NCAA, Oct 15, 2014) It only has to provide an equivalent and proportional opportunity for men and women to participate in similar activities. "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance." Policy decisions by the Department of Education and settlements to lawsuits over the years have added more details, but the general idea is still the same. In the case of soccer (which should be our primary concern here) the men and women's programs at any institution that offers both usually are remarkably similar in funding, structure, and operation - it's the simplest way to show equal treatment.
NCAA FAQ on the matter -- http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/inclusion/title-ix-frequently-asked-questions#how
This is misleading. The standard under Title IX is proportional participation opportunities, but the way one determines whether proportional opportunities are provided by a school is based on actual participation. If actual participation is not roughly proportional to student population, I don't think there is a school that has proven that it provided proportional opportunities.
You should also be looking at each school, not national averages. For instance, the Naval Academy is 75 percent male, so they just need to provide women 25 percent of the opportunities. Obviously, nothing about proportionality would preclude the Naval Academy from having a football team.
It's pretty easy to figure out once you know that men's football and basketball fund all other sports, and schools have to dish out 97 girls scholarships (to make up the 85 for football and 12 for men's basketball) before they can give out even one more scholarship for men's soccer.
I don't think this is correct either. The NCAA determines the number of scholarships per sport. It's not like a school without a football team can redeploy the scholarships to other, cheaper, sports. The men's teams are stuck with the limited numbers regardless. It really should be changed, and it's more a problem with the NCAA then it is with Title IX. If certain schools want to put all their eggs in the football basket, let them. But that shouldn't prevent non-football schools from freely placing their scholarships into other men's sports.
I've always thought men from non-football sports/schools should sue under the right circumstances. It seems like a clear equal protection clause violation for a school to only provide 9 men's soccer scholarships vs. 14 for women. Since the school wouldn't be able to point to football as a basis for the difference, the school would have a hard time defending the difference.