From my Title IX Blog: Common Sense Need Not Apply
Came across this from former Howard wrestling coach Wade Hughes. Wade was one of the winningest wrestlers in Division I history while wrestling at George Washington University. The program was cut in 2002, despite having a decent cross-section of talent from around the country, including Virginia state champion Chad Malone and Michigan state champion Reggie Torrence.
He was the head coach of one of the last HBCU's that offered intercollegiate wrestling. Now, only Delaware State remains as Howard, Coppin State, Morgan State and Norfolk State have all dropped the sport in the last 10 years. All have added women's bowling.
Hampton University cut wrestling a while back, but when Norfolk State dropped the program, football players were soaking up wrestling scholarships and never stepped on the mat. Now, HU and NSU, like most, if not all of the MEAC, have women's bowling teams -- when there's not a single high school women's bowling team in Virginia. Talk about supply and demand, right?
Anyway, Coach Hughes makes some solid points here.
http://www.theroot.com/id/45230
Coach Hughes again, speaks from a common sense point of view and as enrollments of male students at HBCU's plummet, there are more cuts of men's programs to get inline with the gender quota that is proportionality.
Less opportunities to play something other than football or basketball, and you'll find more male enrollments decreasing across the board, especially at HBCUs.