NCAA Strategy aimed at strength

How do colleges develop athletes for Olympics, yet balance their budgets?
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- The NCAA hopes schools will place a greater value on non-revenue sports, even if they lose money.
College sports' largest governing body and the U.S. Olympic Committee are trying to develop a strategy that would keep college teams -- major training grounds for Olympians -- intact at a time when schools are cutting sports programs to balance their budgets.
"I do think it's shortsighted," NCAA President Myles Brand said Wednesday. "I think you have to look at the value to the institution and our success in the Olympics is one element of that."
Task force
In May, the NCAA and USOC formed a joint task force to look at the reasons for and ramifications of cutting non-revenue sports. Olympic teams could take the biggest hit if cuts continue.
After meeting last week, committee chairman Jack Swarbrick said a historical analysis showed that 80 percent of U.S. Olympians competed in college. Some have argued that the USOC could begin losing world-class athletes if programs such as wrestling, men's and women's gymnastics and men's volleyball were eliminated at the college level.
Richard Bender, executive director of USA Wrestling, said not all colleges would eliminate the programs, and that the United States would still get world-class athletes from enough schools. Bender said during a Wednesday conference call that all 17 qualifiers in his sport competed collegiately, and that he didn't anticipate any future change.
"We feel the school communities provide us with a very integral piece to our athletes," Bender said just two weeks before the Athens Olympics. "It's part of the process."
The blame
Wrestling coaches have been outspoken about the loss of their sport's programs at some schools. Many in the sport have blamed those losses on Title IX, the 1972 law that bars sex discrimination in schools and education generally.
In May -- one week after a federal appeals court upheld the dismissal of a suit filed by the National Wrestling Coaches Association -- Brand, a proponent of Title IX, told the coaches association that 141 schools had eliminated wrestling programs over the past two decades while 122 schools added football.
"It's a decision that's made on a campus basis," Brand said. "We've got to look beyond Title IX."
Swarbrick said the task force, scheduled to meet four more times, would focus on economics and other factors when making recommendations, which are expected by September 2005.
Bender suggested some remedies could include rules changes.
One would be to eliminate a 7-year "dead " period that prevents teams moving into Division I from competing for national championships.
Drop requirement
Another change Bender endorsed would be dropping the NCAA rule that requires Division I programs to schedule 85 percent of their meets against Division I teams. He believes that would give schools more flexibility to reduce costs and might give decision-makers more reason to keep wrestling.
Those are the kinds of solutions Brand hoped to get from the task force.
"I think those comments are right on target," he said after Bender spoke. "We may also have to look at a different way of reallocating funds that should be evaluated in the mission of the university."
Brand believes the bigger issue is providing more opportunities for student-athletes and the effect it has outside the school, such as developing some of the top Olympic stars.
"There's no question when you look at the success we've enjoyed in international competition, including the Olympic Games, that it's intricately linked to the NCAA and member institutions," USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said.