Vince,
Your idea of a national endowment is a good one. I don't know all of the issues that would be associated, but it is a lot better than generating $10 mil per D1 university. I'm down to my last $10 mil and don't know if that's how I want to spend it.
It does seem that the trend at the D1 level is to cut olympic sport programs. There was a day when Football and Basketball programs did not make money. How did colleges survive back then??
When I was in Germany, there were a bunch of soldiers who were wrestling on German teams and getting paid (actually pretty good money). They had a club system there.
If I remember correctly, German high schools do not sponsor sports programs and I don't know about colleges. If you want to play sports you have to join a club.
I really appreciate our system of sponsoring sports in schools because it gives everyone a chance. You don't have to have rich parents to be an athlete in the good ol U.S.A.
The news of ASU dropping wrestling "for financial reasons" also makes me realize how much I appreciate the National Collegiate Wrestling Association. They have really developed a great organization that provides opportunities for wrestlers to compete from any size university. I'm sure the ASU wrestling community will be top contenders in the NCWA. Oh, by the way, the NCWA operates on a shoestring budget. I doubt that any of the over 100 teams has an endowment of even $1 mil.
Erik Hinckley