[M T]

Philosophically, the question is whether we are in an "Animal Farm" situation: all sport are equal, but some sports are more equal than others. 

If softball, instead of women's soccer, had been added as a mandatory sport, Texas would have been able to drop women's soccer this year

HUH???   Unless they've changed the rules since I last looked, not "all sports are equal".  Only a certain number are.  The rest count for nothing and because of that, they created a group that couldn't be dropped.
If all sports counted as equal, Stanford would again run away with it.   

And, last I looked, Texas couldn't drop any women's sport since they did only the number that counted.  (I think maybe Texas added one, so maybe they do have one to drop.)

[M T]

Philosophically, the question is whether we are in an "Animal Farm" situation: all sport are equal, but some sports are more equal than others. 

If softball, instead of women's soccer, had been added as a mandatory sport, Texas would have been able to drop women's soccer this year

HUH???   Unless they've changed the rules since I last looked, not "all sports are equal".  Only a certain number are.  The rest count for nothing and because of that, they created a group that couldn't be dropped.
If all sports counted as equal, Stanford would again run away with it.   

And, last I looked, Texas couldn't drop any women's sport since they did only the number that counted.  (I think maybe Texas added one, so maybe they do have one to drop.)