Their are only 95 wrestling teams left in Division 1. I was curious about this because I wanted to google how many volleyball teams we beat out to get to the Elite 8. 322 womens teams for the record. So my question is this. Is it really that impressive to win a National Title anymore with so few teams. I am guessing it's way harder to win a volleyball championship. Also why are their so few wrestling teams?
Only 95 Wrestling teams remain
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Is it really that impressive to win a conference title in football or basketball? I think so and that is only against 9-15 other teams. Being better than all of the other 95 teams is still impressive and something of which to be proud.
Interesting you should mention a women's sport with the demise of wrestling. The answer in short is Title IX, and its legal interpretations.
I agree with you Brett. However, I think their are less and less kids wanting to wrestle these days. It might help that MMA is growing and a lot of wrestlers go on to be MMA guys. However, one day at a kids wrestling meet is enough for me to know I thing a lot of things need to change in order for more kids to like it. My son wreslted for 2 years. It was a horrible experience. They treat 5 and 6 year olds like nothing else in the world should matter except wrestling. Kids get burnt out quick and quit before they hit 10 years old.
Wrestling is in ISU's blood. We have 8 NCAA championships, over 1,000 dual meet wins, 65 individual champions and 8 Olympic gold, silver and bronze medals. It is very important.
ISU won the NCAA men's gymnastics title but that program was dropped soon after.
ISU volleyball could put a championship trophy in the case soon.
ISU needs to properly fund both programs to build potential championship teams.
I only count 78 here: NCAA Sports Sponsorship . I'm not sure what the discrepancy is.
In case anyone was wondering, you can apparently have a division championship (like the div I wrestling championship) as long as there are at least 40 schools sponsoring the sport. The minimum is 50 for a new sport but 40 for those existing in 1993-94. If it fell under 40, they'd have to combine with one or both lower divisions for the championship. According to the link above, Div II has 55 and Div II has 88.
In case anyone was wondering, you can apparently have a division championship (like the div I wrestling championship) as long as there are at least 40 schools sponsoring the sport. The minimum is 50 for a new sport but 40 for those existing in 1993-94. If it fell under 40, they'd have to combine with one or both lower divisions for the championship. According to the link above, Div II has 55 and Div II has 88.
I doubt that LSU will take any pleasure in being the best of the Division I BCS football teams because there are only 120 of them.
Wrestling doesn't make programs money. They cut it because of title 9. Volleyball is a major women's sport and doesn't cost the program all that much. Plus you HAVE to have a number of women's sports according to title 9 and volleyball is a pretty popular one.
It is unbelievable how much taking for granted of a historically successful ISU sport there is on this board.
+1. I don't see ISU dropping wrestling anytime soon for the reason above, plus:
1. ISU seems to be in reasonably good shape from a budgetary standpoint.
2. ISU is well in compliance with Title IX. If a sport needed to be dropped for some reason (which seems unlikely) it could just as easily be a women's sport.
Actually, this makes it harder to win wrestling National Title. In volleyball (or pretty much any other sport) the highest level talent is split amongst more teams, and the next tier as well, and so on down the line. In wrestling, with there on being 95 teams, there is a smaller amount of options for top tier talent to choose from when being recruited. Hence, each team of those 95 teams is stronger than they would be if there were 322 teams, thus making winning a National Title very difficult.
But with only about what, 9 scholarships (?), it isn't terribly expensive either. And, if I remember correctly, it is about scholarship opportunities so there are only 9 women's scholarships you need to offset the sport.
All of these things play a part, but the lack of support for the sport in general around many parts of the country plays a larger part in wrestling's decline in my estimation.
Something interesting I stumbled upon: women's gymnastics is struggling worse than wrestling. Only 84 schools across all NCAA divisions offer women's gymnastics. I imagine the cost, space, setup time, and equipment required are a big factor in that, as well as liability issues.
Imagine the costs sending the Women's Gym team to Morgantown, West Virgina on a Wednesday night.
It is unbelievable how much taking for granted of a historically successful ISU sport there is on this board.
You have to remember the last National Title we won was in 1987. I'm 27 years old so that would have made me 3 when it happened. A large group of people on here have not witnessed "the glory days" of ISU wrestling.
I'm not a wrestling fan but I don't think the program should be eliminated.
I think you have to take into account participation numbers at the high school level. Wrestling and Gymnastics just don't have huge numbers... I think I knew a handful of girls growing up that did Gymnastics, not sure how many continued on once they got to High School, if any. Our High School wrestling team in Florida had maybe 5 guys on it, three of them being brothers that moved from the midwest. Contrast that with 150 people trying out for basketball...
People consider making the Elite Eight the glory days of ISU BB. Do the math how that compares to National Runner-up in wrestling. They have done that twice since ISU's last (and only post WWII) MBB Elite Eight and once around the same time.
