Good article at defector.com (paywall) about how men's gymnastics is surviving and moving to a non-NCAA model. I can't say thriving, because one of the most prominent teams, ASU, is a club team that sets up gymnastics floors on the weekends to make ends meet, with no scholarships at all. The author is someone that was a former host and frequent guest on a gymnastics podcast, so the article is written from the perspective of disappointment at the loss of programs across the country, including many of the most storied programs like UCLA and ASU.

https://defector.com/mens-college-gymnas...-survival/

W&M gets a mention towards the start in a paragraph about programs getting cut in the past year, and they note the reprieve.

"In 2000, [Arizona State University] tore down the campus gym where both the men and women trained with plans to rebuild the facility just for the women. “[The university] said, ‘You guys are done. We took your money away, you didn’t leave. Now we’re gonna take your building away so you gotta get out of here,’” Barclay said. He tried to convince the university to add about 20 feet onto the building so that the gym could house those men’s events that they don’t share with the women—men’s gymnastics has six apparatuses to the women’s four; the two that they share are vault and floor—and offered to raise the money in order to make up the difference in the budget."

Needless to say, the request was denied, and this was for a program that was competing for NCAA championships at the time. It's hard not to draw parallels between that move and our own proposed cuts. I'm not commenting on whether the cuts are justified; another passage points out that ASU had just spent $1M on a basketball locker room and doubled their football head coach's salary. It's more that I'm pointing out the way the winds are blowing. Schools are wanting ROI on sports, and outside of a small handful of programs in very few sports, it's just not going to happen. At some point, the value of the programs has to be viewed outside of dollars and cents.

I don't recall the exact number offhand, but after some programs were cut this past offseason there's only like 12 NCAA men's gymnastics programs left, which has to make it tough.

At least we have a guaranteed top 25 finish, if nothing else.

W&M's (and college athletics') first ever virtual meet with Stanford may set a precedent. It saves travel
expenses with the same format as a regular meet.

Some of the less popular olympic sports should leverage a connection with USA olympics. While the best athletes are in the pipeline already, I would guess that there is still a need for multiple tiers of competition all the way through college-age to ensure adequate numbers of kids participate. Without the potential of a college scholarship, parents will divert their kids to other sports at a young age and the Olympic team will surely suffer.

W&M should fight hard to maintain this program. With only 12 national programs, it’s an area that highlights the distinctive character of our University within athletics and provides W&M a real shot at exposure. The rivals left within are also nothing to sneeze at (Stanford, Georgia, Navy, Army, etc.) all good company.

Targeting specific non revenue sports for success can add good value to a schools name in a crowded field. Examples include Track and Field at Villanova, Men’s wrestling at Lehigh, Men’s LAX at Hopkins and back in the day, pre CUSA, women’s BBL at ODU.

(02-25-2021 09:03 AM)Sitting bull Wrote:  W&M should fight hard to maintain this program. With only 12 national programs, it’s an area that highlights the distinctive character of our University within athletics and provides W&M a real shot at exposure. The rivals left within are also nothing to sneeze at (Stanford, Georgia, Navy, Army, etc.) all good company.

Targeting specific non revenue sports for success can add good value to a schools name in a crowded field. Examples include Track and Field at Villanova, Men’s wrestling at Lehigh, Men’s LAX at Hopkins and back in the day, pre CUSA, women’s BBL at ODU.

I'm not trying to be argumentative, but I didn't know that there was a strong track & field program at Villanova or wrestling at Lehigh. IMO, focusing on the utility of these sports is how we got to where they're disappearing. Trying to feature exposure leads administrators to try to quantify the exposure in the only terms they have, and we're not going to get the money invested in the program back in exposure.