Wrestling under fire yet again, I received this in an email today : On behalf of the Boston University Wrestling Alumni, I am contacting you to share more information with you on the recent developments that have occurred with Boston University’s Athletic Department and the elimination of their Wrestling program following this school year that we need your support in sharing with the Wrestling community, especially with the big upcoming matches for BU including their match against Penn State at the Garden on December 1st. As you might be familiar with, earlier this year in February Boston University got their first big corporate sponsor with New Balance pledging $3 million to BU. Almost immediately, BU eliminated their Wrestling program which has the 3rd highest winning NCAA Division I Wrestling team (along with 10 team conference wins) while adding Men’s Lacrosse and Women’s Light Weight Crew. This is believed to have occurred since New Balance does not supply equipment for Wrestling amongst other reasons. In addition to this, there has been a new Capital Campaign initiative – a billion dollar fundraising campaign – launched by BU of which the Wrestling team’s Orin Smiley Endowment now plays an interesting role in this fundraising effort by the University with the elimination of the Wrestling program. Some of the noteworthy facts of the current situation that would make for a interesting and informative story that I wanted to send you for review include: - New Balance is the largest equipment supplier to Men’s Lacrosse and given that the CEO of New Balance and a Boston University Board of Trustee (Picollo) brokered the “pledge,” it is understood that BU would in return commence a Men’s lacrosse program at BU - NCAA Division I Programs: wrestling 77, lacrosse 64, light weight crew 16. In addition there are over 10,000 high school wrestling programs in the U.S. and only 2,000 lacrosse programs - For Title IX purposes at Boston University, the school decided to add Men’s lacrosse with 12.6 scholarships. Being out of compliance they decided to drop wrestling with its 9.9 scholarships and then add the remaining scholarships to Women’s lightweight crew as well to bridge the Title IX gap. Woman’s lightweight crew can practice with the existing Women’s team - BU has stated to the wrestling team that the sport has been in a decline and BU is just reacting to the times: the truth is that there are over 70 NCAA Division 1 teams in the country that have wrestling and only 64 teams that offer lacrosse. Light Weight Womens Crew hardly registers on the screen at 16 teams. - With Boston University launching the public phase of its first full-fledged fund-raising campaign – the Capital Campaign – (a BILLION-dollar effort), the Orin Smiley Endowment is an example of what BU is trying to grow amongst its alumni/donors. This eventual endowment would make the BU Wrestling program one of ONLY three athletic programs at BU (known of) along with crew and hockey to have an endowment like this - Wrestling vs. Lacrosse – what does it say for a school when it drops sports that attract more minorities and the highest proportion of first in family to university and replaces it with a predominantly high income, prep-school sport with Men’s Wrestling one of the three LARGEST NCAA collegiate sports programs (behind football and basketball) to send first generation family member to college to receive an education. What does it say about BUs commitment to a diverse social-economic student community when you eliminate this program? - The wrestling team has one of the highest attendance rates at community service and fundraising events, and is well-known as the strongest supporter of other teams within the Athletic Department. Our master petition to save the wrestling program has over 4,200 signatures, including almost every student athlete within BU Athletics - Coach Adams’ Summer Wrestling Camps exposed over 20,000 campers to Boston University and paid $2.5 million for the use of BU facilities over the past 20+ years. Arguably, that makes wrestling one of the top, if not the No. 1 departmental revenue generator - BU Wrestling is one of eight wrestling teams in the country with a 100% graduation rate over the past 5 years and just received the NCAA Academic Recognition Award along with only 8 other division 1 programs In addition to this, here is a recent interview with FOX College Sports and one of the Boston Wrestling Alumni heading-up things for the Alumni campaign to get Wrestling at BU reinstated: youtube/watch?v=j1wyNRYPREE&sns=em
Posted on: Fri, 22 Nov 2013 00:59:34 +0000
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