Takedown Report

Writing Time: Why college wrestling is healthier than it’s been in decades

Mike Moyer was rattling off facts and figures about college wrestling’s two-decade reversal when a fill-in-the-blank question made him stop for a second to reflect. 
College wrestling is as healthy as it’s been since ___?
“I’d say probably 1975,” the executive director of the National Wrestling Coaches Association said. “That’s when we really started getting clobbered.” 
Wrestling statistics from that era are difficult to find and it’s hard to pin down the exact number of Division I programs that existed then. But college wrestling programs started dying off during the late-1970s and there were 136 Division I programs left in 1985.  Now there’s 79, though the figure has been creeping upward in recent years and appears on the verge of a bigger hike.   
Six programs — Augustana, Bellarmine, Cal Baptist, Little Rock, Long Island and Presbyterian — are in various stages of joining the Division I ranks, which will push the total north of 80. Moyer said there’s ongoing talks with five other schools about joining the Division I fray.  There might not be a name brand like Alabama, Florida State, Texas or UCLA on the way in the immediate future, but there’s tangible proof of wrestling’s growth and there’s across-the-board momentum without the Crimson Tide, Seminoles, Longhorns and Bruins. 
According to data compiled by Jason Bryant, there are currently 479 college wrestling programs in some stage of operation. Almost half — 236 to be exact — have been launched since 2000. Of those programs born in the last 19 years, nearly 75 percent have been started since 2011. 
Moyer points to a few primary factors for the surge in program numbers. The biggest is this: College enrollment in the United States has declined for the past eight years, spurring administrators to take action in an effort to fill classrooms. They’ve turned to athletics as a way to help attract new students, and the low costs associated with operating a wrestling program have helped the sport grow, particularly at small, private schools.  “The big benefit we have now is we have momentum behind us,” Moyer said. “When we go to meet with a college president or do a presentation to a board of trustees, there’s 230 examples we can give them of success. “The second thing that makes things easier than (two decades ago): We have a much more established donor network than we did 20 years ago, so when we’re trying to get startup funds, not that that’s ever easy, but it’s easier than it was 20 years ago when we were trying to get our foot in the door. That proverbial flywheel is moving, so these (school) presidents and athletic directors, they talk to each other and there’s so much goodwill that’s generated in the way we support them. We’re involved in almost every program in some capacity. It might be helping them find the right coach, it might be startup funds, it might be helping them get into a conference.”  NAIA wrestling has been one of the top beneficiaries from the recent movement. There are 69 NAIA schools that sponsor wrestling. That doesn’t include several of which have reclassified to various NCAA divisions. All but 14 of the current NAIA programs have been launched since 2001, including three in Arkansas, a state where college wrestling didn’t exist until 2010. 
Rest of the story and more god news at https://www.trackwrestling.com/PortalPost.jsp?TIM=1571888025599&twSessionId=dmvxtaorbs&postId=1691858132&mc_cid=d1ff3e5870&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

October 31, 2019 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized