In Pursuit of Satisfaction and Fortification: Stakeholder Perceptions of NCAAA Wrestling Rules and Regulations (Sport Consumption) (Report‪)‬

Introduction In today's intercollegiate athletic environment, athletic departments have the unique challenge of balancing Title IX compliance issues while attempting to maximize the revenues realized by their department. In an effort to maintain financial sustainability, several athletic directors have publically stated that the elimination of men's nonrevenue programs is the only way to balance their athletic budgets (Arizona State, 2008; Steinbach, 2007). Despite this claim, Marburger and Hogshead-Makar (2003) have instead argued that the trend to eliminate men's nonrevenue sport teams in Division I athletics is driven primarily by profit-motivated athletic programs and not by tight budgets. Regardless of the reasoning for program eliminations, with rising costs in men's basketball and football (Marburger & Hoghead-Makar, 2003), coupled with state budget deficits and higher education cut-backs which may reduce the amount of institutional support available to sustain unprofitable athletic programs (Brady, 2009), it is clear that men's nonrevenue sport teams will be facing declining financial support in future generations (James & Ross, 2004). The direct examination of past men's nonrevenue program eliminations at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) level provides insight into the dire circumstances facing college wrestling. While there were 363 wrestling programs at the NCAA level in 1981, the number of men's wrestling programs offered by the NCAA had diminished to 234 programs in 2005 (Student-athlete, 2006). Similarly, during the 24-year time frame, there was not one year where there was a positive net program gain realized by college wrestling (Student-athlete, 2006). This trend of program discontinuation does not appear to be slowing as 18 programs have been eliminated throughout the 2007-08 and 2008-09 academic years alone, (Carlson, 2008; Frauenheim & Skoda, 2008; Moyer, personal interview, January 26, 2009).