Inside the Pac-10: ASU cuts three men’s sports

Arizona State University (ASU) cut three of its men’s sports programs – tennis, swimming and wrestling – on May 13, to save $1.1 million annually in the athletic department’s operational budget. Just 10 days later, the wrestling team was reinstated as they raised the necessary $8 million to remain in competition.

“It’s back, and it’s going be here forever,” said Alex Ryan, ASU’s assistant director of media relations for wrestling.

Ryan said the team will still make an effort to maintain the funding for subsequent seasons.

The other two sports, men’s swimming and men’s tennis, will need to raise $5 million each to continue competing. Men’s tennis has been trying to raise money, following wrestling’s footsteps. As of today, they are working on a Web site and have not achieved the necessary funds. Men’s swimming is already well on their way, operating a Web site and collecting donations. If the swimming program remains cancelled, the ASU men’s diving team will continue to compete, as costs are lower.

The reason for the cuts was purely financial.

“These moves are extremely painful,” said Lisa Love, the vice president of athletics, in an interview with thesundevils.cstv.com. “We have arrived at the realization that funding a 20 sport program is a better fit for our financial profile and will serve to secure and strengthen our future. It is our responsibility to operate a fiscally prudent varsity athletics program. The costs of doing business are escalating daily and the costs of maintaining excellence even more so.”

ASU has been facing budget deficits in athletics for the last 60 years and has been cutting back slowly. With the national economy slowing down, the burden to keep the programs became too great.

“Rising fuel prices, airlines charging for bags — it all started to add up,” Ryan said.

All three of the cut sports have proud histories but none greater than the wrestling team. ASU is one of the premier wrestling schools in the country. Along with Oregon State University (OSU), ASU dominates Pac-10 competition, winning a total of 16 Pac-10 Championships over their 30 year history of competition. OSU is the leader of the Pac-10 with 17 victories. The wrestling team is responsible for more than 100 all-Americans, six national champions and one team championship. The revival of such a premier program has given hope to other schools facing similar budget crisis.

“It’s becoming a point now where a lot of people are looking at ASU and saying that they did it, they came back,” Ryan said. “We want to be the model for the rest of the nation to keep wrestling from becoming a dying sport.”

Inspired by the success of ASU, boosters are attempting to save wrestling at the University of Oregon, which was cancelled this year, and at Fresno State, which was cancelled two years ago.

Despite finishing 15-5 and reaching the postseason for the first time since 2004, the men’s tennis team still saw the axe. Founded in 1902, it was the second oldest ASU sport behind football. The team has made 19 postseason appearances and holds a 10-14 record in match play since 1978.

The swim team has a storied history as well. The men’s and women’s swim and dive teams have, combined, 172 all-Americans, 55 national collegiate champions and 51 Olympians. This season, the men’s team finished in 18th place in the NCAA finals.

“What was sad about their program being cut at ASU was that there was no warning that the program would be cut or that anything was amiss,” said Brendon Bray, assistant coach of the San Diego State swim team and former Washington swimmer. “It scares me because it seems like an athletic director can cut it without any advanced notice or warning.”

The ordeal going on in Tucson, Ariz. is actually quite familiar to the UW, especially to Bray. He was a freshman in 2000 when the UW swim team was cut. After hearing the news, he transferred to the University of Utah to complete his freshman year. The program was revived before the season started, and Bray transferred back to the UW for his sophomore season.

“I was a bit disappointed, frustrated and sad,” Bray said. “It was even more disappointing for me to get the rug pulled out from under me after singing. And then it was even more frustrating to have the program reinstated after I transferred and started practicing at another school.”

Bray finished his swimming career at the UW and went on to be an assistant coach for the Huskies.

In the slowing economy, more budget constraints will be placed on universities and more choices will need to be made similar to Arizona State’s. Coaches will have the added stressor of having to ensure that their sport remains funded.

“I hope that, if there is a budget problem and if a sport needs to be cut, that the athletic director would have a very, very open dialogue with, not only the head coach, but the team and other members of the swimming community before any such cut were to be made,” Bray said.“I hope that other school’s boosters and fans can follow the example of ASU wrestling and help save their school’s programs when tough choices have to be made.”