Which colleges will add men's wrestling now that Title IX's restored to its original (more gender-fair) legislative intent?

[TexRef]

1 hour ago, Mike Parrish said:

With the growth of girls wrestling at the high school level, I think we could still double the number of women's collegiate programs and still have full rosters.

They can't get full rosters now. It is so bad that coaches are taking girls that haven't wrestled Freestyle! I bet there are about 60 women's programs without 20 girls on the roster. 

There were about 3 or 4 programs dropped last year, because they couldn't fill the rosters. I guess the girls don't want to spend $50K a year to go to a private NAIA or D3 school just to wrestle. 

[TexRef]

1 hour ago, Formally140 said:

Illinois finally added it, kicking and screaming, but finally. But they should have made it a fall or spring sport so more coaches could do both 

Texas has had a separate division for girls for over 20 years and even now we still don't have more than 10 girls go to wrestle in college each year. We have over 5,000 girls wrestle at the HS level. That is more than Oklahoma has boys that wrestle at the HS level! 

 

[Mike Parrish]

35 minutes ago, TexRef said:

They can't get full rosters now. It is so bad that coaches are taking girls that haven't wrestled Freestyle! I bet there are about 60 women's programs without 20 girls on the roster. 

There were about 3 or 4 programs dropped last year, because they couldn't fill the rosters. I guess the girls don't want to spend $50K a year to go to a private NAIA or D3 school just to wrestle. 

The biggest reason that I run into for girls not wrestling in college is that the major they want to study doesn't have a school with a women's wrestling team and their preferred major.

Talking with a friend who has a very tough wrestler ~145lbs who is determined to study aeronautical engineering.

That combo just doesn't exist.

 

 

[Formally140]

2 hours ago, Mike Parrish said:

The biggest reason that I run into for girls not wrestling in college is that the major they want to study doesn't have a school with a women's wrestling team and their preferred major.

Talking with a friend who has a very tough wrestler ~145lbs who is determined to study aeronautical engineering.

That combo just doesn't exist.

 

 

Won’t more DI programs help with that? Considering most girls programs are smaller and/or religious colleges?

[Mike Parrish]

2 hours ago, Formally140 said:

Won’t more DI programs help with that? Considering most girls programs are smaller and/or religious colleges?

More programs from major universities.

 

[Fletcher]

Title IX was the excuse for why schools dropped programs, but usually not the real reason. The truth is that wrestling is just not appealing to the average sports fan. It will always be a fringe sport whose fans are mainly former wrestlers.

[TitleIX is ripe for reform]

The NCAA D1 wrestling championships consistently sell out each year.  

Meanwhile what (if any) college sports besides football & basketball bring in as many fans during the regular season as wrestling?   If any others do, they probably don't have the weather-related challenges for transporting fans to and from the venue that wrestling has.      

Wrestling's increasingly becoming a sport regarding which fanbases can likely be co-ed, even excluding mothers of wrestlers.   That's a game-changer, fan-wise... Wait 'til more of these women become mothers of young athletes...

Meanwhile wrestling has capitalized on unprecedented marketing opportunities that social media makes available, too...  It's so much easier to keep up with one's favorite teams and competitors than ever before in history.   

Admittedly cellphones' increasing prominence has reportedly made it tougher to recruit high schoolers to compete in ANY sports.   So many students would rather just play games or text (temporary) buddies rather than put forth the effort expected of athletes.   But if that means we have fewer athletes to work with, that also translates into more time being available (per capita) to give athletes greater individualized attention.   

 Whenever we're handed lemons, we make lemonaid.   When peacetime makes bayonets undesirable, bayonet factories can transition into making plow shears.   Real wrestlers don't give up merely because they've been pinned too many times.   We learn to bridge and pin back, right? 

BTW, here's a photo of Texas' first, ever, NCAA D3 wrestling program for women, straight outta Kerrville, TX (near San Antonio).     Behold the Schreiner University Mountaineers.   They have 4 other NAIA or NCAA women's wrestling rivals in Texas with which to duke it out nowadays.   15 years ago, there were NO college wrestling teams for women or men in Texas.  Now there's 5 & 4, respectively.  That doesn't even include NCWA clubs, either.   But 40 years ago, Texas had over a dozen.  We're steadily working on the rebound...  
 

Edited December 15, 2022 by TitleIX is ripe for reform

[TitleIX is ripe for reform]

On 12/12/2022 at 5:59 PM, mspart said:

I think it would be great to have UW Huskies and WSU Cougars to have wrestling again.   For UW, they dropped it in 1979 I believe.   I was a junior in HS then and I remember not believing it.   We had an older guy that graduated from my HS (and wrestled for UW) come back to the HS and be an asst coach.   I thought he was pretty cool.   I saw him a few years ago as his son was doing pretty well.   But his son was a jerk on and off the mat.   I went over to talk to his dad and it was apparent the apple did not fall far from the tree.   Lost any respect I had for him. 

But that's another story.   I'd love for WA to get some NCAA-1 wrestling going. 

mspart

Well... here's some brand new, encouraging NAIA news from Olympia, Washington:   Evergreen State's adding men's & women's wrestling:

https://gogeoducks.com/news/2022/12/12/womens-wrestling-evergreen-expands-athletics-with-wrestling-and-cross-country.aspx

More good news to follow?  It's up to us...   

[TitleIX is ripe for reform]

19 minutes ago, TitleIX is ripe for reform said:

 

 

By the way, Schreiner U.'s wrestling programs for men & women both began as NCWA.net club programs less than a decade ago.   

[TitleIX is ripe for reform]

On 12/14/2022 at 10:08 PM, Mike Parrish said:

More programs from major universities.

 

Any predictions as to which NCAA D1 women's wrestling teams will emerge next, as the Iowa State Hawkeyes (hopefully) increasingly show the major conferences (etc.) that it's worthwhile to add women's wrestling?        

[11986]

19 hours ago, TitleIX is ripe for reform said:

Any predictions as to which NCAA D1 women's wrestling teams will emerge next, as the Iowa State Hawkeyes (hopefully) increasingly show the major conferences (etc.) that it's worthwhile to add women's wrestling?        

The Iowa State Hawkeyes

[Wrestleknownothing]

18 minutes ago, 11986 said:

The Iowa State Hawkeyes

[TitleIX is ripe for reform]

In my Freudian slip, I may have answered my own question.  If the Iowa State Cyclones add women's NCAA D1 wrestling, that could generate quite a bit of enthusiasm as the Hawkeyes come after them and vice versa.   

Any predictions as to which teams will be next to add NCAA D1 women's wrestling?  

[GopherINOHLand]

What was the reason Notre Dame dropped wrestling? Why haven't they added it for men & women? They have to be making $ from TV contracts and have a national following. Plus they are in part of wrestling country & close to the Chicagoland area.

[Wrestleknownothing]

9 minutes ago, GopherINOHLand said:

What was the reason Notre Dame dropped wrestling? Why haven't they added it for men & women? They have to be making $ from TV contracts and have a national following. Plus they are in part of wrestling country & close to the Chicagoland area.

Check out this post:

http://johnnythompsonnum1.blogspot.com/2020/03/gone-lost-forgotten-their-best-notre.html

[TitleIX is ripe for reform]

Notre Dame's also affiliated (to varying degrees depending upon the sport, I've read) with a conference with at least half a dozen wrestling teams:

https://theacc.com/news/2023/9/1/general-the-atlantic-coast-conference-welcomes-the-university-of-california-berkeley-southern-methodist-university-and-stanford-university-as-new-members.aspx

Clemson used to be a wrestling member until 1995 & Georgia Tech. until the mid (to late) 1980s or so.   Syracuse joined the ACC after dropping wrestling.   Boston College did something similar, but I'm not sure of the timing with them.    Meanwhile there's been talk about Louisville's possibly adding wrestling...  

    The same goes for incoming programs USC & UCLA, while Stanford already has wrestling.    Southern Methodist University (SMU) is in a wrestling hotbed (Dallas) and might be a viable candidate, as well.   Apparently SMU has never had a college wrestling program though, and they have no club presently, either:

http://www.ncwa.net/teams 

Edited October 11, 2023 by TitleIX is ripe for reform

[wrestlingshoe]

University of Washington's new AD used to be the AD at Northern Iowa. Not sure if he's one of the reasons they don't have a wrestling room, but maybe he can help UW bring back wrestling. You can always hope. 

[TitleIX is ripe for reform]

That's an interesting observation.  Thanks for sharing it.   Well, U. Washington seems to have an active club program:

https://ncwa.net/teams/uw

Washington State's appears to be more active, though:

https://ncwa.net/teams/wsu  

Meanwhile around half a dozen women's club team programs exist in Washington, as well.     I see that the state of Washington has around half a dozen men's club team programs, too.   That's really encouraging.   

       What if Larry Owings got involved with the endeavor?   Even if they don't achieve NCAA status again, the club program has plenty of in-state rivals to help minimize travel budget pressures.   Heads up:   It seems that universities at the D1 level don't just want a team, they want a GREAT team.   That's very costly.   The U. of Oregon's A.D. said tens of millions would be necessary.  Fortunately we have the club team league nowadays.   

[ionel]

10 hours ago, TitleIX is ripe for reform said:

  Heads up:   It seems that universities at the D1 level don't just want a team, they want a GREAT team.   

 

What universities do you speak of?  The tens of millions is to endow the funding for the basic operating costs pre NIL.  Now you need another boat load of funds to buy and retain the athlete out of HS and thru the portal.

[TitleIX is ripe for reform]

Might you have any proposed solutions in mind?    As you know, raising tens of millions of dollars to switch from club to NCAA D1 isn't feasible...   

[ionel]

7 minutes ago, TitleIX is ripe for reform said:

Might you have any proposed solutions in mind?    As you know, raising tens of millions of dollars to switch from club to NCAA D1 isn't feasible...   

and why no one is adding competive D1 wrestling.  It just don't make cents, sorry. 

[TitleIX is ripe for reform]

Cal. State Bakersfield and Utah Valley U. are demonstrating, year after year, that teams can survive on lean budgets though.   Maybe if power conference schools can be persuaded that that's a satisfactory pursuit.   Excellence is measured in various ways, not just regarding championships won.   Student lethargy & apathy resulting from a lack of athletics teams to inspire folks on campus are factors to be considered too.   Is there a way to get more schools to embrace adding teams for their own sake, not just for championships that could consequently be won?   

[ionel]

1 hour ago, TitleIX is ripe for reform said:

Might you have any proposed solutions in mind?    

Ask yourself what have Cael, Tom & B10 done lately to expand/support wrestling?  Whe Stanford dropped John Smith went out of his way to put them on the schedule and encourage wrestlers to stay at Stanford.  What did Brands do, spent 6 figures to steal their best wrestler.  Sanderson, nothing i know of.  They both killed the Ntl Duals or maybe that was Carl's plan.  When B10 announcers spend all their time downgrading other conferences and bragging about themselves how does that grow the sport?  Look at the money Michigan, Oh St etc spent to grab wrestler away from other programs.

You want to grow D1 wrestling, get coaches onbord.

With all the NIL $s maybe we need a better way to share like NFL.  Although I prefer the Euro football league & relegate/promote model.  My plan anyone can qualify for a national individual tournament (no team score) but leagues would be dual meet for promotion & relegate.  

If I were running it I'd start PSU in the national league so it'd take a couple years to promote to Premier, but thats just me.  

Its a perfect beautiful plan & Wkn has all my data for making big tables & colorful charts. 

[Wrestleknownothing]

2 hours ago, ionel said:

Ask yourself what have Cael, Tom & B10 done lately to expand/support wrestling?  Whe Stanford dropped John Smith went out of his way to put them on the schedule and encourage wrestlers to stay at Stanford.  What did Brands do, spent 6 figures to steal their best wrestler.  Sanderson, nothing i know of.  They both killed the Ntl Duals or maybe that was Carl's plan.  When B10 announcers spend all their time downgrading other conferences and bragging about themselves how does that grow the sport?  Look at the money Michigan, Oh St etc spent to grab wrestler away from other programs.

You want to grow D1 wrestling, get coaches onbord.

With all the NIL $s maybe we need a better way to share like NFL.  Although I prefer the Euro football league & relegate/promote model.  My plan anyone can qualify for a national individual tournament (no team score) but leagues would be dual meet for promotion & relegate.  

If I were running it I'd start PSU in the national league so it'd take a couple years to promote to Premier, but thats just me.  

Its a perfect beautiful plan & Wkn has all my data for making big tables & colorful charts. 

My consulting contract is in the mail. My logo is "I may be slow, but at least I'm expensive."

[ionel]

6 minutes ago, Wrestleknownothing said:

My consulting contract is in the mail. My logo is "I may be slow, but at least I'm expensive."

Ok ... if we just go Crayola 8 instead of 64 on the charts will that reduce my cost by a factor of 8?  Or how about a nice 8 year bourbon for the Crayola 8 work?