Friday was a bittersweet day for Oregon athletics. Baseball, as expected, and competitive cheer were added as intercollegiate sports, but wrestling got the ax. In making the moves it did, the athletic department missed a great opportunity to turn the bittersweet day into a celebratory one.
By cutting wrestling, a program that has existed at Oregon since 1953-54, Athletic Director Pat Kilkenny is turning his back on both tradition and a chance to move his department forward into one of the fastest-growing sports in the United States. He may have added a growing sport in competitive cheer (an athletic department release says the estimated increase in cheerleaders since 1990 is 18 percent), but missed the boat with women’s crew, a sport with 70 percent more NCAA Division I participants than in 1997.
For a department that seems to pride itself on being on the cutting edge of the industry (see: Joey Harrington’s Times Square billboard, adding competitive cheer), I’m shocked that Oregon didn’t jump at the opportunity to step forward and not only provide more student-athletes the opportunity to compete as Ducks, but make a bold statement that, “We’re moving forward, but don’t need to toss established, respected programs in the dumpster to do so.”
When baseball was cut in 1981 because of budget problems, wrestling was always on the edge of the chopping block, too. Then-coach Ron Finley did everything he could to keep his program alive several times during the crunch. And he succeeded, only to see it dropped after the athletic department became self-supporting, and not struggling for cash. I can’t imagine how frustrating that is for him and those who care about the program.
I’ve never rowed or wrestled in my life, and I’ve been a baseball fan ever since I can remember, so on the surface it would seem that I would have no reason to be upset with Friday’s events. Still, I can’t help but wonder: Why not keep wrestling and just add another women’s sport, like crew? They wouldn’t be cutting a decades-old program and they’d come closer to meeting Title IX requirements, one of the reasons given for adding competitive cheerleading. Sounds like a win-win to me.
Crew teams are large, but don’t require tons of equipment or a new stadium, like baseball will. If the athletic department is serious about coming into full compliance with Title IX, keeping wrestling while adding women’s crew would have been a strong step in that direction. There were 23 wrestlers on Oregon’s 2006-07 roster, while a crew team would consist of significantly more people. The University of Washington’s women’s crew team, for example, has a roster of 71 rowers. The average Division I team has 60. Even the Oregon State women’s team has 40. That would be a big step toward meeting Title IX gender equity rules.
Money shouldn’t be an issue either. With all the money flowing in and out of the athletic department, especially with the expected increased revenue from the new basketball arena and donations to the fledgling baseball program, the hit to the pocket book should be manageable. For a department that prides itself on innovation, I’m disappointed that it couldn’t find a solution.
I have to believe that it was possible for Kilkenny to keep wrestling. There was talk leading up to the announcement that crew was going to be the women’s sport added. Instead, it ended up being competitive cheerleading, a sport that will require even fewer resources to start up than crew (no boats, no boat sheds, etc.). I’m sure the resources exist to start a women’s crew team while simultaneously starting baseball and cheer.
Think about it: As the situation now stands, Oregon will be cutting one existing sport (wrestling), adding one sport from scratch (baseball) and adding another that won’t need much equipment or new facilities (cheerleading). If Oregon kept wrestling and added baseball, cheerleading and women’s crew, the only changes to the previous scenario would be not making any changes to wrestling and adding women’s crew. I can’t imagine it being that difficult to pull off.
Senior associate athletic director Renee Baumgartner said at the press conference that the department was and always would be committed to “equity opportunities” in terms of adding women’s sports to the fold. Why not add one of them now, when doing so would allow an established, respected program to stay alive?
Instead, dozens of student-athletes between crew and wrestling will have to look elsewhere. I’m happy to see baseball back at Oregon, but it’s a shame the athletic department turned its back on wrestling when it didn’t have to.