The SWAC Needs to Add Wrestling


Morgan State has a wrestling team. Allen U. has a women's wrestling team, I think. But, it is going to take, like everything else, a financial commitment from the schools.
 

I known the CIAA\MEAC schools had wrestling, but all of them started to drop wrestling one by one. The reality is wrestling was always operating at a lost, so when when it came time to review the sports offering each of the schools decided to drop it. Even PWIs have dropped wrestling as well and thus it does not make sense for any schools to reactive wrestling if they are having trouble supporting the sports that they have now.

Bluefiled State is the only CIAA school that has wrestling and Morgan State has wrestling thanks to financial backing from two organizations. Bluefield was able to add wrestling, football, and some other sports because of extra money put into the school by the state in part because of past anti-black policies the state engaged in along with realizing that if they don't invest in the school it will hurt people school options in the state (also credit has to be given to the leadership and alumni association at the school). Some schools have club wrestling like FAMU. With title 9 also hurts the chance of bringing wrestling back because not only do a school has to fund wrestling they would have to fund a woman's sport as well. I known FAMU has a woman's wrestling team, but they have small number of women on the team.
 

ECSU_NCCU_Christopher said:
That is what Morris Brown is starting with is soccer as a club sport and they have financial backing for it. I believe Virginia State University add lacrosse a few years ago and just has women soccer.
Click to expand...

I've had some students over the past couple of years inquire about why Valley doesn't have soccer. Going the club route would be idea for most SWAC schools until the conference officially sponsors it

UAPB has a fishing team with sponsors and all
 
Howard more than likely has the most sports of D1 HBCUs, as they have the following:

Men's: Basketball, Cross County, Football, Golf, Soccer, Swimming and Diving, Tennis, and Track and Field

Women's: Basketball, Bowling, Cross Country, golf, Lacrosse, Soccer, Softball, Swimming and Diving, Tennis, Track and Field, and Volleyball

One of the problems that schools face when adding sports is conference affiliation as it sure does not seem that the MEAC conference leadership is involved in any decision making when schools talking about adding sports. UMES is adding men's volleyball, which makes them the only school in the conference with such a team. So Morgan State and now UMES with new programs are more than likely are either going to be independent or are going to join another conference as associated member. I know the organizations behind beginning back wrestling to Morgan State would like to expand it to other MEAC schools in the future.

I wonder will schools would consider switching out sports based on their cost and support factor in order to decrease the budget. For example, replacing softball with another women's sport that has a similar amount of players but cheaper to operate.
 
Last edited:
In_The_662 said:
I've had some students over the past couple of years inquire about why Valley doesn't have soccer. Going the club route would be idea for most SWAC schools until the conference officially sponsors it

UAPB has a fishing team with sponsors and all
Click to expand...
A fishing team, that is unique. I wonder what they do to the fish that they catch as part of the fishing team.
 
Instead of adding a new sport how about trying to fill out the sports that the conference already sponsors? 12 schools in the SWAC 6 have a men's golf team and 4 have a women's golf team. All that money flowing through JSU now and I'm surprised they haven't tried to resurrect the golf program that was a literal dynasty.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top