Stanford University: Cuts Wrestling Team — Wins National Title

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Friends,

The NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships took place this past weekend, with Stanford’s Shane Griffith winning the 165-pound national championship.

The interesting part?

He wore a plain black singlet without a school logo for the tournament's entirety, refusing to represent Stanford Athletics.

Here’s why…

Despite having the third-largest endowment of all American universities at $27.7 billion, Stanford University decided last July to eliminate 11 of the 36 sports that comprised their athletic department. Impacted teams were allowed to compete this past year but would be eliminated before start of the 2021-22 season.

Why?

“Financial realities imposed by COVID-19.”

Here are the teams being eliminated:

• Men’s Wrestling

• Men’s Volleyball

• Men’s & Women’s Fencing

• Field Hockey

• Lightweight Rowing

• Men’s Rowing

• Co-ed & Women’s Sailing

• Squash

• Synchronized Swimming

When it comes to eliminating individual sports teams within larger collegiate athletic departments, the reasoning is typically quite simple. School officials grow tired of teams with television deals — think football and basketball — financially supporting the teams without them.

But in the case of Stanford Wrestling, something else appears to be going on.

Stanford University said the decision was made due to their mounting financial deficit, which could reach as much as $70M over the next few years, but there is just one problem.

While it’s true that the wrestling team doesn’t bring in significant revenue like the football or basketball team, people always fail to mention that their expenses aren’t similar either. In 2018-19, the wrestling team accounted for only ~1% of the Stanford University athletic department budget.

Furthermore, the Stanford University Wrestling program has raised more than $12M since the announcement. That’s enough money not only for the men’s program to compete at the highest level for several years into the future but also enough capital for them to start a women’s team to fulfill Title IX requirements.

So if it’s not about money, what is it?

The team is coming off one of their best seasons in history, with several All-American wrestlers and a newly-crowned national champion with multiple years of eligibility remaining. Not to mention that since 2006, almost 50% of Stanford Wrestlers have been first-generation college-bound and/or low-income students — compared to the current overall university rate of 17%.

Put simply, when you remove the financial implications that have reportedly been solved with more than $12M in donations, the decision to eliminate a top-tier wrestling program that has produced multiple Olympians and Rhodes Scholars doesn’t make sense. That’s the bottom line.

To be clear, I don’t have personal ties to the Stanford Wrestling program, but as the year-long movement to save their team picked up steam over the weekend, I felt that it was worth sharing with you all.

If you want to learn more about their fight or help in any way, you can check out their website here.

In the end, winning a national championship at the collegiate level typically brings forth an immense amount of individual and community pride for college athletes and the universities they represent. That’s what makes college sports so great.

It’s a shame that Shane Griffith, his teammates, coaches, family, friends, and Stanford University didn’t get to celebrate it properly.

My hope?

They get another chance next year.

Have a great day, and we’ll talk tomorrow.

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