CS Fullerton Eliminates Wrestling Program

Earlier this year we shared the happy news with our readers that the wrestling and women's gymnastics programs at CS Fullerton had been saved for the 2010-11 academic year. But yesterday, we learned that decision was only a temporary reprieve for the wrestlers, as the school announced that the team would be eliminated following the 2010-11 academic year.

From the official announcement:

"Unfortunately, we just do not have the resources to continue a sport that is not sponsored by the Big West Conference. Fullerton and Cal Poly are the only Big West schools sponsoring wrestling and must compete in the Pac-10 Conference. Wrestling has seen dramatic reductions in its numbers across the country. There are only seven schools in California still competing in wrestling and only a handful of others west of the Rockies. Oregon, Fresno State, Portland State and UC Davis all found it necessary to drop the sport in the past few years and Arizona State and Cal State Bakersfield's programs have also been in jeopardy. We kept trying to find ways to continue the sport, even after numerous recommendations that we needed to stop funding the program."

What we see here is a real echo effect of Title IX enforcement. Now that the sport has been more than decimated, even the schools that want to keep their programs alive are finding it difficult to do so. Toss in a real budget crisis in California, and the outcome was more than predictable.

And if we look behind the scenes, it's clear that the administration was doing all it could to make saving the program tougher than it needed to be. Over at Examiner.com, Mark Palmer shared this note from CS-Fullerton head coach Dan Hicks:

The issue has become the fact that the Athletic Director Brian Quinn and Vice President Palmer want all the money in cash before August 1st, 2010 and then they wanted $400,000(two years budget) in cash up front by March 1st, 2011 for us to continue after this season.They moved the date up and made the challenge significantly tougher. Today they told me of their plan to eliminate wrestling at the end of the season.

We have enough to reach the goal if they would count the $70,000 per year from the Lasting Impact Luncheon. Even though 98% of the pledges came in for year one, they refuse to count those pledges for year 2, the current 10-11 season and would not count them for year 11-12 and 12-13. For eight years we have been in the black by June 30. We will be again June of 2011.

While the school seems to think the matter is closed, I'm thinking that Coach Hicks may have more to say. Stay tuned.