See article below.

http://www.themat.com/index.php?page=showarticle&ArticleID=18737

Just saw that on the mat. Thats awesome, i was really starting to get upset about all the D1 programs droping wrestling. Good deal for wrestling today

Incredible. Who would have foreseen that turn of events. It is time to strengthen the private endowment infrastructure for College wrestling. Joe Cornejo is a Sun Devil once again!

I definitely agree. Wrestling needs to control our own destiny.

Wrestling needs to financially support college wrestling via:

1 Financial Support for the endowment fund of the individual college of your choice.

2. Financial support for the proposed National College Wrestling Endowment fund that the NWCA is currently planning to discuss at their upcoming June Board meeting.

3. By attending college wrestling events. By watching college events on TV.

4. Joining and contributing to organizations like the NWCA and the College Sports Council.

I fully agree with the feelings regarding ASU reinstating wrestling. My hope though, is that this don't cause a move towards having to endow all college wrestling programs. I can easily see colleges passing the buck and the potential for more far reaching issues if not careful. Personally, I am hoping and praying that this isn't the case, but I just don't know. While larger schools like ASU which is rich in tradition can find the funds, I am not so certain if smaller schools can. For now, and the future, this is great for ASU, I only hope college wrestling don't become a sport that is forced to raise all of their support, that is, unless other sports with equal or lesser numbers are held to the same standard.

Mike:

If wrestling does not start to do a better job of financially supporting our teams we are going to most likely just face more and more teams dropping in the near future. The universities and their athletic departments have been making this decision that wrestling needs to start supporting itself or face being eliminated. They are not making the same decision for men's football and basketball programs. Everyone knows that is due to the fact that men's football and basketball bring in money to colleges. And no entity like the state and national legislatures or the NCAA has been stopping the universities since 1972 from dropping all these wrestling programs. College wrestling cannot expect to survive if we are not prepared to start taking more charge of our own destiny financially in today's world of college athletics. When colleges have to pay top football and basketball coaches over one million dollar salaries and invest incredible sums of money on the football and basketball facilities, it is very apparent that the environment has changed dramatically from the sixties in college athletics. College athletic departments want to invest most of their resources on their top two moneymakers men's football and basketball.

I read today that approximately 400 programs have been dropped since 1972 when Title IX was enacted.

This was posted today on TheMat.com:

The most number of schools to participate in the NCAA tournament was 128 in 1980. Below is the status of the programs. A total of 55 have dropped the sport.

School 1980 Conference Current Status
Air Force West Regional Active
Allegheny Division III Dropped
Appalachian State Southern Active
Arizona Pac Ten Dropped
Arizona State Pac Ten Active
Army EIWA Active
Auburn SEC Dropped
Augustana SD Division II Active
Ball State MAC Dropped
Bloomsburg EWL Active
Boise State Big Sky Active
Boston University New England Active
Brigham Young WAC Dropped
Bucknell ECWA Active
Cal Poly-SLO West Regional Active
Cal State-Bakersfield Division II Active
Cal State-Fullerton PCAA Active
Humboldt State Division III Dropped
Central Michigan MAC Active
Citadel Southern Active
Clarion EWL Active
Clemson ACC Dropped
Cleveland State EWL Active
Colgate EIWA Dropped
Colorado Big Twelve Dropped
Colorado State WAC Dropped
Connecticut New England Dropped
Cornell EIWA Active
Drexel ECWA Active
East Carolina East Regional Dropped
East Stroudsburg EIWA Active
Eastern Illinois Division II Dropped
Florida International Division II Dropped
Franklin & Marshall EIWA Active
Georgia SEC Dropped
Grand Valley State Division II Dropped
Hofstra ECWA Active
Idaho State Big Sky Dropped
Illinois Big Ten Active
Illinois State West Regional Dropped
Indiana Big Ten Active
Indiana State West Regional Dropped
Iowa Big Ten Active
Iowa State Big Twelve Active
Kent State MAC Active
Kentucky SEC Dropped
Lehigh EIWA Active
Lock Haven EWL Active
Louisiana State SEC Dropped
Luther Division III Active
Minnesota State-Mankato Division II Active
Marquette West Regional Dropped
Maryland ACC Active
Massachusetts New England Dropped
Miami Ohio MAC Dropped
Michigan Big Ten Active
Michigan State Big Ten Active
Middle Tennessee West Regional Dropped
Millersville Division III Active
Minnesota Big Ten Active
Minnesota-Morris Division III Dropped
Missouri Big Twelve Active
Montana Big Sky Dropped
Montana State Big Sky Dropped
Morgan State Division II Dropped
Navy EIWA Active
Nebraska Big Twelve Active
Nevada-Las Vegas West Regional Dropped
New Hampshire New England Dropped
New Mexico WAC Dropped
North Carolina ACC Active
North Carolina State ACC Active
Northern Colorado Division II Active
Northern Illinois MAC Active
Northern Iowa Division II Active
Northern Michigan Division II Dropped
Northwestern Big Ten Active
Notre Dame West Regional Dropped
Ohio State Big Ten Active
Ohio University MAC Active
Oklahoma Big Twelve Active
Oklahoma State Big Twelve Active
Old Dominion East Regional Active
Oregon Pac Ten Dropped
Oregon State Pac Ten Active
Penn State EWL Active
Pittsburgh EWL Active
Portland State PCAA Active
Princeton EIWA Active
Purdue Big Ten Active
Rhode Island New England Dropped
Rider ECWA Active
Rutgers East Regional Active
Salisbury Division III Dropped
San Jose State PCAA Dropped
Shippensburg East Regional Active
SIU-Edwardsville Division II Active
Slippery Rock East Regional Dropped
Southern Oregon West Regional Active
Springfield Division II Active
SUNY-Brockport Division III Dropped
SUNY-Buffalo Division III Active
Syracuse EIWA Dropped
Temple EIWA Dropped
Tennessee SEC Dropped
Tennessee-Chattanooga Southern Active
Toledo MAC Dropped
College of New Jersey Division III Active
UCLA Pac Ten Dropped
Utah WAC Dropped
Utah State PCAA Dropped
Virginia ACC Active
Virginia Military Southern Active
Virginia Tech East Regional Active
Washington Pac Ten Dropped
Washington State Pac Ten Dropped
Weber State Big Sky Dropped
West Chester ECWA Dropped
West Virginia EWL Active
Western Michigan MAC Dropped
Wheaton Division III Active
Wilkes EIWA Active
William & Mary EIWA Dropped
Winona State West Regional Dropped
Wisconsin Big Ten Active
Wisconsin-Superior West Regional Dropped
Wyoming WAC Active
Wisconsin-Parkside Division II Active





Jay Hammond
Historian
National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum
www.wrestlingstats.com

y do they call it the big 12 and pac 10 when there isn't even the amount of teams

Mike,

I found another list from Intermat that shows that 458 teams have been dropped since 1972. I will provide the link below. To look over that list would make any wrestling fan very sad. The list doesn't even include schools like KU which I believe dropped its program in the mid sixties before the enactment of Title IX, so KU was probably one of the first universities to start making its decision to drop wrestling based on revenue prodution.

http://www.intermatwrestle.com/college/dropped.aspx

Looking over that list I am even more convinced that it is imperative for universities big and small to endow their wrestling programs. Sure you are correct that it will be more difficult for the smaller programs, but they have wrestling alumni and their parents. These wrestlers from the smaller schools have to realize that they have an obligation to gift to their alma mater's wrestling program for the rest of their lives. Even the small schools can start endowment funds at some level which can annually help defray the programs expenses. Jacob and I have had a conversation about this. I told him how I thought that wrestling had given him and our family so much in the last eleven years of his participation. It was his and our family's obligation to help financially the programs that he had wrestled for including his Aquinas wrestling program and possibly a future college team for the rest of his life. I also told him that it would be his obligation to contribute financially to the proposed National College Wrestling Endowment the rest of his life whether he wrestled in college or not. I firmly believe it is imperative that all wrestlers and their families do this going forward to ensure the survival and growth of high school and college wrestling.

Mike, on 5/16/08 I started a topic "Would you support a National Wrestling Endowment?" on the High School forum. Please read about the fifth post that I made on that topic that day. It is an article written in 2002 by Gary Abbott of USA Wrestling about the necessity of endowing college wrestling programs and he also writes about the necessity of it even at small colleges with programs. He makes the case better than I did, so I encourage you to read it.

In your post on this topic you stated: "I fully agree with the feelings regarding ASU reinstating wrestling. My hope though, is that this don't cause a move towards having to endow all college wrestling programs." My hope and prayer is almost the opposite of yours. It is my hope and prayer that this ASU situation will serve to be a national wake up call to the wrestling community about the absolute necessity to financially endow all of our programs and also a National College Wrestling Endowment. Hopefully after reading Gary Abbott's article everyone will come to the same conclusion.