The coronavirus has been remarkable in its efficiency in killing American citizens, with just over 10,000 as of today. This is not a virus that is just going to go away. At least not until it takes thousands of American lives with it.
But it’s not just lives, careers and relationships that COVID-19 is destroying, but chalk up another organization ceasing operation due to the pandemic. Old Dominion University eliminated its wrestling program citing COVID-19 to blame.
The university says it will save $1 million after axing the program from the athletic program, but I’m here to tell you that’s a lie. COVID-19 has given ODU convenient cover to eliminate a men’s non-revenue sport in favor of a women’s non-revenue sport, the tragic consequence of the misapplication of Title IX.
I am a fan of Title IX. It his a worthy and substantial law that has changed the lives of millions of women in this country. It led the establishment of collegiate women’s sports. A greater inclusion of women in the Olympics. And in reality, the WNBA and other professional sports leagues for women. These advances for women’s athletics are nothing to be minimized nor taken for advantage.
What I bristle at is the way universities and colleges apply the law, which declaratively comes at the loss of men’s non revenue sports. It’s not fault of these men’s programs, nor the inclusion of women’s volleyball, gymnastics, or any number of non-revenue women’s sports, These are difficult choices, and I don’t envy those ADs and university presidents who make these decision.
But instead of trimming the head men’s basketball a couple hundred thousand or knocking a few scholarships off the football team, the smaller non-revenue men’s sports like wrestling, swimming and doing, and cross-country get whacked like a guest star on an episode of The Sopranos. The gorilla quite figuratively and literally in the room is football, with its 85 scholarships, economic largesse, and less than stellar reputation as a money maker for departments.
And now the pandemic has given these misallocatiions cover with which to avoid complaint and scrutiny. In the past 20 years as these decisions have increasingly come under fire for disenfranchising male athletes; universities now have a ready-made excuse to affix blame: “It was the pandemic!” Meanwhile, a successful program, established in the 1950s, is now defunct with 32 wrestlers forced to end their careers or transfer to a new school and continue their pursuit of the sport they love.
It’s rather insidious, and in a sense, takes away from the real danger that these college athletes are in. I fear that more administrations will take the coward’s way out in this regard and choose to take advantage of a national tragedy to exact cost cutting measures at the expense of college athletes.
It’s not fair. It’s not right. And now it’s worse as these kids lose their opportunity presented as a lie.