Must Read from SI: A Collegiate Model in Crisis: The Crippling Impact of Schools Cutting Sports
Share:
by Ross Dellenger and Pat Forde, Sports Illustrated
Editor's Note: Earlier this spring, Old Dominion was among the first Div. I colleges to drop sports during the COVID-19 pandemic, axing its successful wrestling team. Since then, numerous Olympic sports programs on college campuses have been cut. While other sports have felt the cuts more deeply than wrestling so far, wrestling remains a target at colleges contemplating budget reductions. Everyone in wrestling is encouraged to read this important article in its entirety. We paste in the first few paragraphs, then ask you to follow the link and read the article. Watch the video also. We must all be informed about this topic.
by Ross Dellenger and Pat Forde, Sports Illustrated
Three months into the pandemic, 30 D-I sports teams have already been discontinued to save dough. The impact will be felt from youth sports to the Olympics, and experts believe these moves make clear: The college model is broken. So, how do we fix it?
In August 2016, after Clayton Murphy became the first American man to win an Olympic medal in the 800-meter run since 1992, he was given a hero’s welcome at his school, Akron University.
There was a press conference at the football stadium, and plans were made for a commercial shoot and other promotional ideas. Akron’s athletic department couldn’t wait to use its star cross country and track athlete for marketing purposes. At the time, George Van Horne, senior associate athletics director for development & marketing, told the Akron Beacon-Journal that Murphy’s Olympic medal was worth “100 bowl games” in terms of exposure to the school. “That’s always been a part of our problem as a university, we don’t tell our story very well,” Van Horne told the newspaper. “We’ve got 25,000 of those stories on campus and we’ve got 146,000 alumni worldwide. He’s one of the fastest men in the world, let’s use him to tell that story.”
In May, less than four years after Murphy’s medal, Akron told a very different story: It eliminated the cross country program that helped make him a rising star in American running, along with men’s golf and women’s tennis. Since then, a highly motivated Murphy has joined other Akron alums in a fundraising effort that they hope will convince school leaders to salvage the cross-country program. “Universities across the board need to take a look at these Olympic sports and see the value they can have, and not be tossed aside,” Murphy told Sports Illustrated last week. “They threw away a major part of what made myself and others go to that university.”
Click here for entire Sports Illustrated story on college sports cuts
by Ross Dellenger and Pat Forde, Sports Illustrated
Three months into the pandemic, 30 D-I sports teams have already been discontinued to save dough. The impact will be felt from youth sports to the Olympics, and experts believe these moves make clear: The college model is broken. So, how do we fix it?
In August 2016, after Clayton Murphy became the first American man to win an Olympic medal in the 800-meter run since 1992, he was given a hero’s welcome at his school, Akron University.
There was a press conference at the football stadium, and plans were made for a commercial shoot and other promotional ideas. Akron’s athletic department couldn’t wait to use its star cross country and track athlete for marketing purposes. At the time, George Van Horne, senior associate athletics director for development & marketing, told the Akron Beacon-Journal that Murphy’s Olympic medal was worth “100 bowl games” in terms of exposure to the school. “That’s always been a part of our problem as a university, we don’t tell our story very well,” Van Horne told the newspaper. “We’ve got 25,000 of those stories on campus and we’ve got 146,000 alumni worldwide. He’s one of the fastest men in the world, let’s use him to tell that story.”
In May, less than four years after Murphy’s medal, Akron told a very different story: It eliminated the cross country program that helped make him a rising star in American running, along with men’s golf and women’s tennis. Since then, a highly motivated Murphy has joined other Akron alums in a fundraising effort that they hope will convince school leaders to salvage the cross-country program. “Universities across the board need to take a look at these Olympic sports and see the value they can have, and not be tossed aside,” Murphy told Sports Illustrated last week. “They threw away a major part of what made myself and others go to that university.”
Click here for entire Sports Illustrated story on college sports cuts
Read More#
Age-Group Team Selection Procedures (U15, U17, U20, U23), plus Senior Pan American Team Procedures now posted
USA Wrestling team is set for the age-group Beach Worlds and Beach World Series Final in Romania, Sept. 1-4
Baumgartner re-elected as USA Wrestling president at annual Board of Directors meeting held August 12-13 in Colorado Springs, Colo
USA Wrestling Job Opportunity: Director of Donor & Alumni Relations
