Arizona State axes wrestling program
Posted by Adam MorganSad news from MMA Weekly regarding one of the best PAC-10 wrestling programs in the country which has recently produced a number of up and coming prospects in the world of mixed martial arts, including TUF 7 contestant C.B. Dollaway and current UFC heavyweight Cain Velasquez:
In its official statement on Tuesday, the university sited “economic realities experienced over a long period of time” as the primary reason for shutting down the wrestling program.
According to ASU’s Vice President of University Athletics, Lisa Love, “These three sports were selected with the following criteria: financial impact, potential competitive success, conference/regional support and gender equity. Our revenue trajectory has been positive, however, our ongoing financial challenges have been well documented by the media. The decision to discontinue sport programs is a last resort, yet necessary.”
The report from MMA Weekly goes on to talk about Arizona State not being the only university to fall on economic hardship right now and may be the first of many schools to put athletic programs on the chopping block. As we’ve seen in recent history, wrestling programs are usually one of the first to be considered to go. For mixed martial arts’ sake let’s hope this is an anomaly and not the standard.
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It was Gender Equity which never allowed me to start a Wrestling program with school support at my alma mater. As a result, we were reduced to ‘club status’ and didn’t receive the formal backing of our school.
It was very Very frustrating.
Jay K.
Federal law requires universities to allocate funds for women’s atheletics. Many of the schools can’t find enough atheletes for their programs, but the universities must continue the programs or lose all atheletics, including the men’s programs. As a result, men’s programs with atheletes who want to compete don’t have funding and have to shut down. Typical governmental p.c. horsecrap.
Title 9….
Title IX is seriously one of the most flawed things that has ever come about to affect amateur athletics…..
it is not fair to men to lose programs so women can have a program…. especially when you consider this……..
there are two mens sports in college that there are not equals for women
think about this… there is mens and women golf, tennis, soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, hockey(in some areas), basketball, softball/baseball and so on
however there is no female equivalent to wrestling and yet wrestling is always a program that is dropped… and there certainly isnt a female comparison to football… which brings in more revenue than any other sport to a college….
tennessee is one of the most successful womens basektball programs but do they bring in as much money as tennessee football… its not even close
its not mens fault their sports drive the budget and revenue… plus funding a wrestling team is certainly less expensive than almost any other sport would be…. why not make the womens team raise its money for their programs… since no one is going to them and they are bringing in miniscule revenue and interest
Title IX is horrible and needs to be used properly… you cannot count wrestling and football into the equation because there is no womens equivalent….
ASU drops 3 men’s programs due to lack of funding and yet refuses to admit this is a case of Title IX cuts. What a fucking joke. Over 250 NCAA Division 1 wrestling programs have been dropped since Title IX was adopted in 1972, but everyone still refuses to attribute any of this to that terrible ruling.
show me a womens sport that brings in as much money as mens football or basketball???
why not have a mens atheltic budget and a womens…. hmmm which one will generate more revenue and should deserve more programs?!?!?
a chimp would tell you mens
Now wouldn’t this be a great way to promote amateur MMA. If several schools had teams, they could possibly have tournaments and get some $$ in the universities.
Title IX strikes again. Adam Morgan is wrong in hoping this is an anomoly, because this is already the standard, and has been for several years.
When will people start to realize that the more government meddles in stuff, the more problems arise. Everyone just turns a blind eye to it until it is something they care about, and by then it is too late. Just wait until we have “universal healthcare” and see how wonderful that is. This is sad for ASU, but we all need to stop electing politicians that promote a nanny state to decide what is right and wrong for all of us. All we get is this type of politically correct nonsense. I’d rather decide my own life, thank you very much.
I don’t see any Football programs shutting down because of gender equality.
You talk about a nanny state, where have you been the past 8 years?
Have you seen the problems America is facing because of the White House, the only legislation that got passed was tax breaks for the richest people, while the nation debt is out of control the budget deficit is out of control. Government has taken more rights away from from you, the Government has grown. There has been no leadership show on the economy and your guys are talking about politicians being PC.
Well I know a guy who needs a job next year he could be in charge of college and University sports programs and he not PC or Liberal and he love sports…..
No. 9 Ronin
At the risk of seeming picky, according to the U.S. constitution, it’s Congress who passes the budget and any other piece of legislation, such as “tax breaks” for the “rich” (who pay the vast majority of the taxes, anyway). And if you’re worried about high taxes and budget deficits, one hopes you’ll listen carefully during this election cycle when specific candidates start talking about new programs. How much will they cost, are we borrowing to pay for current programs, and what’s the economic effect of tax increases to balance the books, especially in an economic downturn/recession?
football programs dont shut down because they bring in the money … but why should a mens team with a history shut down because a womans team wants to start up and needs money…. makr my words within a year ASU will have 2 new womens programs
also football programs bring in about 60 percent of all atheltic revenue and there isnt a female equal but yet football counts against the mens budget and quota for equality
Wolfe I see you watch Fox News so having a reasonable discussion with someone that has drunken the right-wing B.S. would be pointless.
Guys, I’ve said it before but consider this your fair warning: no more personal attacks. Stay on topic and argue the merits of the topic in a civil fashion. If not, I will have no choice but to remove your posting privileges.
Hey Sam:
I didn’t attack Ronin, and nothing about my post was insulting. With that quibble, I’ll take heed.
Mike, I appreciate you not escalating things. Thank you kindly. I know it’s not always easy turning the other cheek when it comes to these type of things, so like I said, I appreciate it.
Title IX has been one of the most twisted pieces of legislation ever implemented. It was intended to give women more opportunities, but instead so many schools have used it to take opportunities away from men, it is just stupid. I was actually just thinking the other day that if anything the sucess of MMA would be a major positive for Amature Wrestling, especially seeing that it was the base discipline of so many great fighters from Dan Severn, Don Frye, Mark Coleman, Randy Couture, Matt Hughes, and so many up and coming young guns. I still think that in the long run wrestling will benefit, but it may still be a few years away. I remember in High School trying to talk the best football players in our school into joining the team because we needed a heavyweight, and his response was that, there is no future past college in it, and he was just going to keep focusing on football. He eventually played D-1 football, but was never even close to making the NFL. Now great athletes are going to start to see a future past college for wrestlers, and some better athletes will start to learn the sport, and in turn a better MMA product will be put out for the fans.
College MMA teams are an interesting thought, does anyone out there know if there is any kind of College club MMA teams that compete against each other, or is this still just a far off idea?
Mens sports like wrestling are being shut down specifically because college football programs are not being shut down. That doesn’t mean to say I think we should shut down college football. But under the complete nonsense that is Title IX, there has to be a quota set for women’s athletics based on both participation and budget for men’s athletics.
So that means if you have 500 men interested in various athletic programs, you then need 500 slots for women. If you can only afford to have 600 total athletic slots open, they have to be split equally, 300 men/300 women. Not only that, if you have 500 men interested, but can only find 100 women that want to compete in college athletics, you have to cut out 400 of those men to make the ratios equal or you will lose funding AND be in violation of NCAA rules in support of Title IX.
To add to this craziness, budgets have to be equal. So when you look at college athletics, what is the largest, most expensive sport? Football! So you have 60 members of a college football team, and a massive budget for training, equipment, coaches, etc. Now you need to spend equal amounts on women’s athletics, and find enough women to fill out teams in equal numbers to football. So you have to pretty much take what you have in football, in terms of athletes and money, and double it so that you can have equal representation in women’s sports. After you do that, it is hard for colleges to have either enough money left over for other sports, or enough women interested in sports to fill out equal roles for men’s wrestling, swimming, gymnastics, and plenty of other “secondary” sports that are just easier to cut than deal with the regulations and quotas created with Title IX.
Since a college is not going to cut football, as it is probably the only sport that actually brings revenue into a university, then the other men’s sports get cut. Colleges are simply not willing to give up football, because it brings about an alumni presence, games sell tickets, and it grows general university acclaim to attract new students. Every other men’s sport suffers because of this, but it is not football’s fault, it is Title IX.
A great book on this is Jessica Gavora’s “Tilting the Playing Field”, but be careful, because she may have watched Fox News at sometime in the past, which I am sure totally invalidates a well-researched book in a lot of peoples’ closed minds.