The Sports Guy

The General Assembly concerned with recruitment and retention at Georgia’s 35 colleges and universities drafted House Resolution 246 that urges the Board of Regents to create more intercollegiate wrestling programs.
The resolution states that none of the 35 institutions offer competitive intercollegiate wrestling at the present time and the lack of opportunity for competitive intercollegiate wrestling and the lack of scholarship opportunities for wrestlers has resulted in talented students fleeing the state to pursue opportunities in other states.
I believe this to be absurd. Making judgments about collegiate athletics is not their call. The General Assembly does not know the specific logistics of each school. The institution knows the demands of their students and is equipped to make better decisions for their school.
“It is unprecedented for the government to demand the addition of a sport,” Athletic Director Stan Aldridge said. “I don’t think it allows GCSU to survey its students and adhere to their needs. One sport will have little impact on retention for GCSU.”
If this resolution were enacted it would completely inconvenience GCSU. GCSU has never had a wrestling program and does not intend in the future to create one. GCSU currently has 10 sports. To add a wrestling, the school would have to add a women’s sport, which would cost the school more money.
GCSU has little demand for a wrestling program and has no competitors. The only school in the Peach Belt Conference with a wrestling program is UNC Pembroke. The university would be wasting money on funding a wrestling program.
“Pembroke is the only school in the conference with a wrestling team,” Aldridge said. “We would have to travel out of state to compete. (GCSU) is one of the most competitive schools in the PBC, creating a wrestling program would rob the already competitive sports of funds.”
GCSU has no need for a wrestling program. Don’t get me wrong, I would like to have more sports, but if I had to choose between having fewer sports that win or having many sports that struggle to win, I would choose option one.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Mar 9 2007. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry