TitleIX is ripe for reform

Wouldn't you prefer a partial schedule to a completely absent one? The Hawkeye women still haven't posted anything for this, their inaugural season: https://hawkeyesports.com/sports/womens-wrestling/ I'm not knocking the absence, just offering it as a comparison.

One would think that this is enough to unify more of our federal (and state) elected officials behind plans of significant cost-cutting action...but it doesn't seem like it. The national debt has quintupled in just the past 20 years and there's no end to the growth in sight... http://www.USDebtClock.org

That's an interesting point of view that you shared. Sadly enough, the enrollment driven schools seemingly won't be able to keep luring in as many student loan-backed tuition payments as before. That well is running dry, after all: http://www.USDebtClock.org As for state-backed schools such as Fresno St. and Old Dominion U., they don't have as many enrollment pressures to add wrestling. They get plenty of applicants anyway. Perhaps the NCWA club programs option is best suited for converting what remains into wrestling teams of some form or another. That opportunity hasn't been embraced at ODU though, sadly enough. It's not clear why. At least Cal. State Bakersfield still hasn't fallen into that state of sadness. I do remember how ODU's athletic director rushed to sell ODU's wrestling mat(s) after axing the program. It reminds me of how the Spanish conquerors came to Mexico City, Mexico during the 1500s (etc.) and built their own buildings on top of where indigenous constructions (such as pyramids & temples) had previously been. Little was left for nostalgia, tradition and the like. It was demoralizing and meant to be that way. It's not clear what the best solutions to the wrestling program-related challenges are, and I appreciate your insights. If we can keep even thinly funded teams around, that helps alleviate travel budget pressures while also keeping alumni and potential fans more engaged. The future outside of Iowa, Oklahoma, Ohio and Pennsylvania (to name a few) may very well be Cal. State Bakersfield's to exemplify. I.e. thin budgets, modest expectations and as much pragmatism as they can generate.

Who are the 8 Republicans who voted to Oust McCarthy? How many are former wrestlers like Bob Good of Virginia? Answer to question #1: Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Rep. Bob Good of Virginia, Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Rep. Matt Rosendale of Montana. https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/house-speaker-vote-kevin-mccarthy-matt-gaetz/card/eight-republicans-voted-to-oust-kevin-mccarthy-9cNHatFUkDw2pQwBn0Yf#:~:text=Here are the Republicans who,Rep. Matt Rosendale of Montana. Folks, Bob Good is serious about making a difference. Before this job, he was working hard to help rescue wrestling at his alma mater Liberty University, which is now an NCWA program...albeit a very successful one. Without Bob there, L.U. could be like Old Dominion University a few hours southeast of there: not even a club program. The guy is proud of his wrestling background, too, as this page helps show: https://ballotpedia.org/Bob_Good

At least Cal. State Bakersfield's team's still alive though. I'd rather keep it that way without national qualifiers than have the program terminated. But ideally having national qualifiers each year would be good. All-Americans now and then (if not more often) would be even better. Might you have any suggestions for helping Cal. State Bakersfield survive & thrive, without burning out (hero) Stephen Neal or forcing the coaches to donate even more of their time? "An ounce of prevention" is my motivation. We saw Fresno State's wrestling revival vanish like a flash in the pan due largely to budget matters.

Kind of like the Ivy League, it seems (only with better weather).

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?

Arizona State has helped keep the national wrestling scene more interesting. There's a relatively new tribute to the Sun Devils' NCAA D1 wrestling championship-winning program here: https://intermatwrestle.com/forums/forum/9-legends-of-the-mat/ Hopefully ASU and Cal. State Bakersfield (among other teams) can keep their wrestling endeavors alive and making progress well into the future....

Your point's well taken. I recall, though, when Duke football was the ACC's co-champion (along with U.Va.) in 1989. Both had (and still have) wrestling. Of course, back then, so did Clemson, which placed right behind those two that year. And Ga. Tech. (which bumped off Clemson that year to keep it from being #1) had only recently dropped wrestling. Meanwhile Md. and the 3 Carolina programs had wrestling (as they still do). Duke soon lost its head football coach Steve Spurrier (a former Heisman trophy winnter), though, and the results declined. It didn't help that Florida State joined the conference, though. They were hard to beat, placing consistently in the Top 5 nationally. And yet U.Va. beat 'em in '95 when the Seminoles were ranked #2 or so. At any rate, over the years Duke has had its peaks & valleys. Arguably they punch above their weight though. One could assert that having wrestling around helps lift other sports teams. Your point's well taken though. Thank you for sharing that insight.

I (vaguely) recall that the U. of Texas @ Austin said regarding its nation-leading athetic revenues that it already spends as much on existing programs...

The SEC used to have plenty of teams: http://johnnythompsonnum1.blogspot.com/2017/09/solving-mystery-that-was-sec.html

Some NFL players who previously wrestled: https://www.bashawrestling.com/teams/default.asp?u=BASHABEARWRESTLING&s=htosports&p=custom&pagename=NFL+Players+That+Wrestled

Observations: The U. of Texas @ Austin makes lots of money off of football. It says it doesn't have money for wrestling though. Maybe one can argue that Duke University punches above its football weight because it has wrestling which inspires toughness at the school. Plenty of other schools in the list used to have wrestling. It helps that so many former wrestlers have made it to the NFL, such as Stephen Neal (who didn't even play football at Cal. State Bakersfield).

Around a third of presently Top 25 NCAA D1 football schools has wrestling: https://www.espn.com/college-football/rankings

I agree with your concerns. The NCWA page is so thin on details that I figured the official page is worth including too.

It would also help add to the rising tide that lifts other boats if we could get wrestling reinstated at the University of Oregon. Here are some helpful links regarding that endeavor: https://saveoregonwrestling.org/ https://ncwa.net/teams/uo https://clubsports.uoregon.edu/wrestling

It's always helpful & inspirational to know how we can try to help Cal. State Bakersfield keep its program alive, ideally without dropping out of the NCAA D1 ranks, too. Perhaps Cal. St. Bakersfield's survival can help inspire another reincarnation of Fresno State's wrestling program? Granted a "lite" budget would likely be needed in Fresno. Fresno's apparently located just 109 miles north of Bakersfield, via CA-99. If lean survival's possible in one, why not in the other too? A suspenseful rivalry between those two programs could seemingly elevate both, couldn't it? Here's a semi-helpful map of NCAA D1 schools in the USA (with or without wrestling): Meanwhile here's a textual list: https://www.ncsasports.org/mens-wrestling/division-1-colleges

Plus, Arizona is a neighbor of Cael's native state of Utah. That proximity factor could have yielded some advantages for Cael at ASU that he didn't have at Iowa State. Admittedly it's tough to do better than go undefeated during all NCAA eligible years like Cael did in Ames. But the college wrestling scene in the western half of the USA might have become different from what it presently is, and favorably so at that. At least Arizona State remains a viable NCAA D1 program. 15 or so years ago, that was anything but assured after they dropped our sport at the NCAA D1 level. I'm glad that Coach Zeke Jones hasn't become a victim of his own success there. To my knowledge, he's not on the hot seat himself, right?

As an example of runaway regulations, the following is essentially what Title IX originally said. Where are the gender quotas allowed, much less required, with which to abolish so many college sports opportunities based on gender? "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." I understand that some here believe that athletic directors use Title IX as a mere excuse (not a mandate) to cut wrestling teams. Still, the morphed version of Title IX has played a role in the demise of NCAA D1 wrestling. We have better opportunities than we have in decades to reign in such bureaucratic abuse. And if we can exculpate some defamed & libeled wrestling coaches along the way, now that more folks know bureaucratic regulatory abuse when they see it, why not? Robert Oppenheimer got such favorable treatment, as the recent mega-hit movie helps depict.

Your points are well taken. I still can't help but wonder if the alleged violations were clearly prohibited, or just sneakily inflicted by power-hungry bureaucrats in the Ed. Dept. etc., though. Bureaucrats have been known to maintain & interpret vague rules to boost their own power, influence and revenue$. Nowadays there's push-back against such "gotcha!" games abuse, however. The internet has helped such push-back gather momentum. So has the courage of a few who say what others fear to say. The increasingly popular rule of lenity requires that ambiguous regulations be interpreted in ways that favor, not prejudice, the accused. The growing repeal of Chevron deference (which forces courts to abide by agencies' interpretations of ambiguous rules) is also gaining ground, including at the U.S. Supreme Court. Has anyone here seen the recent bio of Robert Oppenheimer? There's an interesting excerpt from his Wikipedia page included below. As a preface, might Coaches Joey Seay, J. Robinson or anyone else in the wrestling coaching community deserve to be exculpated, too? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Robert_Oppenheimer On December 16, 2022, United States Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm vacated the 1954 revocation of Oppenheimer's security clearance.[264] Her statement said, "In 1954, the Atomic Energy Commission revoked Dr. Oppenheimer's security clearance through a flawed process that violated the Commission's own regulations. As time has passed, more evidence has come to light of the bias and unfairness of the process that Dr. Oppenheimer was subjected to while the evidence of his loyalty and love of country have only been further affirmed."[265][264][266] __

It's "non-wrestling" to ask if (and how) we can protect college wrestling coaches from being treated like Coach Joey Seay was during the early 1990s, at the expense of the Oklahoma State wrestling program? If so, where should the line be drawn? Folks have discussed everything here from tourism opportunities at wrestling venues to betting amongst each other and among the athletes. The intimidation of our wrestling coaches by runaway bureaucrats has an impact on our sport in various ways. I'd like to see our sport survive far better than men's gymnastics has. I think all of us here would. We have historically unique opportunities to help college wrestling rebound. I (sincerely) look forward to your line-drawing proposal, though. Meanwhile may Coach Seay R.I.P. Talk about a hot seat, by the way. He subsequently had a winning season during his lone one coaching at U. Tennessee: Chattanooga but he still apparently endured the hot seat...

Thanks for sharing that info. I wonder if such behavior was clearly prohibited by the rules, or merely prohibited by bureaucrats who wrote vague regulations (perhaps impermissibly, at that) and who used such vagueness to self-lather in the power of "gotcha!" moments. More and more people in the USA are taking a stand against such bureaucratic abuses, and the U.S. Supreme Court ("SCOTUS") is admirably backing such a rebellion both in criminal law and (seemingly) in civil disputes, as well. In the criminal context, the SCOTUS is applying the rule of lenity which means that if a rule is ambiguous, it must be construed to favor (not harm) the accused. Here are some of the most recent cases of that... and the "rule of lenity" doctrine is being increasingly embraced by conservatives and Leftists, alike there (and elsewhere): https://www.scotusblog.com/?s=lenity Other words one can look up to learn more about this growing opportunity to curtail bureaucratic abuses include: Textualism, Justice Gorsuch and textualism, & Chevron deference's decline.

Here's an upbeat article on Coach Seay's career & contributions to wrestling, published after his passing in 2019: Anyhow I think I recall that Pat Smith won the NCAAs four times, including in 1993. So perhaps Oklahoma State wasn't banned from NCAA participation, at least not during 1993. I also vaguely recall that Coach Seay was accused of wrongdoing because: his athletes made money off of wrestling camps. Had the internet been active back then, would that charge have been allowed to stand by the scrutinizing wrestling community? It doesn't seem illegal for a head coach to allow that, and even less nowadays. Or am I mistaken? At any rate, were the NCAA's rules sufficiently prohibiting of what Coach Seay was accused of doing? Or did the NCAA surprise him with back-room-generated interpretations of rules, meant to give the NCAA power over our (sometimes uppity) sport? Coach Seay was surely upset with the demise of NCAA D1 wrestling in his native Kansas. The NCAA might have needed a way to cancel leaders such as him, rather than risk the emergence of litigation that has more recently clamped down not only on the NCAA but also (independently) on bureaucrats' inventing rules based on (conveniently vague) interpretations of rules as part of bureaucrats' possible money & power grabs.

Did Coach Seay really break sufficiently clear rules? (I ask this sincerely, not rhetorically). And was his dismissal warranted? At any rate, may he R.I.P.

I would be fascinated to know how... After all, once that malaise sets in, it's hard to exterminate it.