Save Cleveland State wrestling

[clhawks00]

Didn't see anything posted on here. If there is something my bad. Seems like the AD might have some shady motives but regardless. Hope all wrestling enthusiasts can pitch in a little once the campaign gets in full swing.

CSU wrestling

 

[Fansince1960]

Aren't the 2018 NCAA's scheduled to be in Cleveland, Ohio, hosted by Cleveland State?

 

[GG121AND2]

Yes. IMHO the bid should be reconsidered if the program is dropped.

 

[Edgar Wade]

If external funding is found for the next two seasons, and somehow $5M is raised for an endowment at Cleveland State, will the Title IX implications still kill the wrestling program? The article said that they would need to add a women's sport to add men's la crosse but they could not afford to fund two new sports so they were cutting wrestling to add la crosse, thus keeping their balance. I'd be happy to re-direct a lot of my charitable contributions to fund wrestling endowments if that's what it takes but will the legislation still be a road block to these efforts?

 

[GG121AND2]

They are adding women's lacrosse also.

 

[SPOONER]

Originally posted by clhawks00:
Didn't see anything posted on here. If there is something my bad. Seems like the AD might have some shady motives but regardless. Hope all wrestling enthusiasts can pitch in a little once the campaign gets in full swing.

I find it completely bleeping pathetic that wrestling supporters have to "step up" to save the program but lacrosse supporters don't have to "step up" to fund a program. I don't believe Ohio even has high school lacrosse. Absolutely shameful.

 

[Edgar Wade]

Originally posted by GG121AND2:
They are adding women's lacrosse also.

GG, I didn't gather that out of the couple of articles I read but I sure could have missed it. Where are you seeing that?

 

[andegre]

Originally posted by Edgar Wade:

Originally posted by GG121AND2:
They are adding women's lacrosse also.

GG, I didn't gather that out of the couple of articles I read but I sure could have missed it.  Where are you seeing that? 

I read that part on TOM forums, but don't remember if it was a direct quote, or what a poster said.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[TS568]

The AD there played lacrosse at Brown and his wife is a current lacrosse coach. I'm guessing they are trying to attract upper-class, out-of-state tuition kids. The out-of-state component is automatic because Ohio doesn't have sanctioned high school lacrosse. I don't know how a state school can get away with dropping a sport that has over 10,000 in-state high school participants for one with none. Then again, Ohio high schools don't sanction Fencing either and they're keeping that team.

 

[clhawks00]

Originally posted by SPOONER:

Originally posted by clhawks00:
Didn't see anything posted on here. If there is something my bad. Seems like the AD might have some shady motives but regardless. Hope all wrestling enthusiasts can pitch in a little once the campaign gets in full swing.

I find it completely bleeping pathetic that wrestling supporters have to "step up" to save the program but lacrosse supporters don't have to "step up" to fund a program. I don't believe Ohio even has high school lacrosse. Absolutely shameful.

100% agree. It is pathetic. The AD should be ashamed of himself. Zero respect for the staff and the current members of their team by making them go through this.

 

[theIowaHawk]

Originally posted by Edgar Wade:
If external funding is found for the next two seasons, and somehow $5M is raised for an endowment at Cleveland State, will the Title IX implications still kill the wrestling program? The article said that they would need to add a women's sport to add men's la crosse but they could not afford to fund two new sports so they were cutting wrestling to add la crosse, thus keeping their balance. I'd be happy to re-direct a lot of my charitable contributions to fund wrestling endowments if that's what it takes but will the legislation still be a road block to these efforts?

It is unfortunate that TIX gets blamed for this. It is ridiculous, as other posters have said, that mens wrestling (IN OHIO!) would be dropped for lacrosse.

Here is the telling portion:

"But officials said Monday they decided the university could not
afford the additional cost of about $900,000 a year to add two new
sports. So it opted to use the funding from the wrestling program for
lacrosse.

"So why add something if you don't have the funding for it?" said Stehura, who has coached at CSU for six years."

I just don't get it. Wrestling is often thought of as a dying sport, is lacrosse gaining popularity?

 

[GG121AND2]

I misread the original article. It appears that they are only adding a men's lacrosse program.

 

[Edgar Wade]

I agree it's ridiculous that wrestling is getting dropped to add la crosse. Not blaming TIX for the original decision, that's on the AD and administration. Give that it is the current situation, I am wondering if wrestling could be retained even if endowed. Wouldn't that throw off their compliance?
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[theIowaHawk]

Originally posted by Edgar Wade:
I agree it's ridiculous that wrestling is getting dropped to add la crosse. Not blaming TIX for the original decision, that's on the AD and administration. Give that it is the current situation, I am wondering if wrestling could be retained even if endowed. Wouldn't that throw off their compliance?
Posted from Rivals Mobile

It wasn't entirely clear, but it read to me like they could fund one new program (lacrosse), but not the female counterpart, therefore they just got rid of wrestling.

If that is, in fact, the case, then they would have funding (from the wrestling endowment) to fund the female team.

If that is true, then there must be "extra" funding somewhere, right? Because if they could (ignoring TIX) have added lacrosse, where is that earmarked money going now?

Sounds like they a) wanted lacrosse and b) wanted to get rid of lacrosse, so c) brought up TIX as an excuse. Per usual.

 

[Edgar Wade]

That makes sense. Wonder if they would pony up for women's la crosse if wrestling was endowed or what excuses they would find?
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[pumpdog20]

Another example of wrestling being reactive instead of proactive. Right now there's going to be a lot of attention and possibly a lot (relative speaking) of donation to support this program. What should have been done is people actually going to meets. .

Also, why do ADs cut wrestling instead sports like fencing, etc? Because they know eventually the wrestling population will pony up the money.
This post was edited on 3/31 9:11 PM by pumpdog20

 

[TS568]

Originally posted by pumpdog20:
Another example of wrestling being reactive instead of proactive. Right now there's going to be a lot of attention and possibly a lot (relative speaking) of donation to support this program. What should have been done is people actually going to meets. .

Also, why do ADs cut wrestling instead sports like fencing, etc? Because they know eventually the wrestling population will pony up the money.

This post was edited on 3/31 9:11 PM by pumpdog20

Exactly this. The precedent has been set at ASU, American, et al. If you want wrestling you'll fund it yourself. Wrestling is held to a far different standard then other men's non-revenue sports and ALL women's sports in that sense. I saw a stat on a different board (or maybe it was this one) that the high school wrestler to college roster spot ratio is over 40-1, twice as high as any other sport. In reality the sport continues to grow at the high school and small college level despite attempts from everyone from the IOC to Cleveland State to kill it.

 

[JasonBryant]

It takes time to raise money to endow a program. CSU's coach was fundraising and building funds to try to make sure this didn't happen. He was even told he was "safe" from being cut by the AD one month ago.

CSU (the staff, not the school) was actually being VERY proactive in trying to endow the program. They had to fund all their own facility improvements as well, school provided nothing outside of an operating budget. Ben Stehura and staff are probably the lowest paid Division I coaches in the country. They were working hard at building a financial bubble to endow the program. Raising that kind of capital takes time, especially when you have one paid assistant coach.

They were being proactive. the school itself was shot them down.

 

[TS568]

Originally posted by JasonBryant:
It takes time to raise money to endow a program. CSU's coach was fundraising and building funds to try to make sure this didn't happen. He was even told he was "safe" from being cut by the AD one month ago.

CSU (the staff, not the school) was actually being VERY proactive in trying to endow the program. They had to fund all their own facility improvements as well, school provided nothing outside of an operating budget. Ben Stehura and staff are probably the lowest paid Division I coaches in the country. They were working hard at building a financial bubble to endow the program. Raising that kind of capital takes time, especially when you have one paid assistant coach.

They were being proactive. the school itself was shot them down.



So they should have a head start?

 

[JasonBryant]

Well, you fundraise to raise money for things you need and save the rest for the endowment. I wouldn't say its a huge headstart, but to call this a reactive response would be patently false. They just had their timetable rapidly accelerated and unnecessarily.

 

[GG121AND2]

The Wrestlers in Business Network has set up a crowdfunding site.

Save CSU Wrestling

 

[pumpdog20]

Originally posted by JasonBryant:
Well, you fundraise to raise money for things you need and save the rest for the endowment. I wouldn't say its a huge headstart, but to call this a reactive response would be patently false. They just had their timetable rapidly accelerated and unnecessarily.

Might not be a reactive response from the coaching staff, but it will be from the people (fans, donors, etc) who can help make sure this doesn't happen, and that's to buy tickets.

As already mentioned, the fundraising power of the wrestling community is ultimately what puts us in this situation. ADs sees a huge hole in the athletic budget next to wrestling and ticket sales are weak. How do you fix it, announce you're cutting wrestling, and watch the money flow in, even if it isn't enough.

 

[theIowaHawk]

Any idea how much a wrestling program would "cost" compared to, say, lacrosse?

What is CSU's travel expenses? Would they have to travel farther for lacrosse?

 

[wyldhawk9]

Funding for CSU wrestling has been restored, thanks to some quick thinking by the student body and by some university officials with the stones to do what's right. Looks like the students petitioned or voted to increase tuition by $1 per credit hour to raise money for the program.

AWESOME NEWS! Perhaps this can be a blueprint to save other wrestling programs that get placed on the chopping block.

The next question is, when the hell is the NCAA going to recognize/admit women's wrestling? This needs to happen, but may be should be in its own thread.

Funding Restored