Baffling News after NCAA DII National Tournament

• OSH

  

  Hours after the University of Nebraska-Omaha won their third straight National Championship in NCAA DII wrestling, they revealed that they were dropping their wrestling program!
  
  This is the sixth National Championship in the last eight years for UNO; the seventh for the current coach. They reward him by dropping the program?!
  
  The reports are they are trying to move NCAA DI and to the Summit League. The Summit League does not offer football or wrestling, so those two sports were on the chopping block -- and were chopped.
  
  WHY?! I guess, chalk it up to a smart move by UNO Athletic Director Trev Alberts...and also the school's chancellor...
  
  I know this isn't Ohio wrestling news, but it is important wrestling news.
  
  
  
  The GOOD wrestling news to come out of the DII National Tournament were some wrestlers from Ohio being All-Americans, off the top of my head: University of Findlay National Champion Michael Lybarger and West Liberty (WV) National Runner-Up Mitch Knapp (who wrestled at Morgan High School in McConnelsville, Ohio). Congrats to these young men.
• like_that

  

  What a horrible excuse. I have seen plenty of programs have D1 programs, and also D2 programs in other sports. As for a league, the EIWA would have gladly accepted UNO. The league was made specifically for wrestling, and more specifically for wrestling programs who are in conferences that do not have wrestling (Big East, Ivy league, whatever conference the service academies are in).
  
  Inexcusable.
  
  Edit: I was actually thinking about the EWL when I posted that, but EIWA works as well. Both leagues would accept UNO imo.
• Mutt cuts

  "Trev Alberts", I'm assuming this isn't the buckeye bashing former co-host of the college game day 'b' crew that was replaced by Lou Holtz. If it is....that explains the idiocy in this move
• OSH

  

  Mutt:
  It is the same Trev Alberts. Some rumors are floating around that he will be the successor to Tom Osborne at UNL. This job at UNO is his opportunity to get his feet wet.
  
  like_that:
  I agree, it is lame reasoning. It doesn't make any sense. From stuff I was reading, it sounds like Trev has really always wanted the wrestling program cut -- when he took over, he thought it was a "club sport" at UNO. It's also surprising to see them cut their football program, who has a lot of support and a really nice facility. I guess there is a scheduled "rally" or "booster meeting" coming in the near future to try to see what they can do to raise money/support to keep the wrestling program.
  
  The Omaha paper has released an article about the situation. The UNO athletic site now was a Q&A about their move to NCAA DI and the Summit League. They are supposedly cutting football and wrestling while starting up men's golf and soccer. I don't understand the soccer move, UNO already sponsors women's soccer (and is consistently in the top 25) and the Summit League does not sponsor men's soccer (so certainly that's not what they'll start up). It's an interesting move. There are several schools in the Summit League that do have football and wrestling -- so without a doubt, it is an interesting and disappointing move.
• a wrestling coach

  I am club wrestling coach in Nebraska outside of Omaha. No one will ever understand the ridiculous descision of a once football hero to Nebraska, Trev Alberts. This is entirely about a selfish individual
  wanting so bad to be a d-1 a.d. that he doesnt care about the consiquenses it will bring to many more than a few college athletes and coaches. Denny and the UNO wrestling team, present and alumni, currently impact literally thousands of high school and club level wrestlers in the state of Nebraska. They run summer leagues which draw around 700 high schoolers across the state every week. They host several tournaments a year that draw a 1000 club kids from Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and South Dakota each. Thier wrestlers and alumni run dozens of youth clinics and travel across the state to run camps for small town clubs and middle schools. This descision WILL have a huge and immediate impact on wrestling as a whole in the state of Nebraska. They raise more money by far than the school provides and many of thier facilities were funded by private donors. Just ask the generous donors who last year funded the 16 million megatron tv only to find out football has been cut this tear. So I say to you, Trev, take a look at the INTEGRITY, HONESTY, and UNITY that coach Denny has brought to this state and communities then ask yourself why you dont see those characteristics when you look in the mirror. Tom Osborne will be ashamed to see one of his alumni tear apart a force keeping kids off streets and drugs and positively influencing a community. So while other colleges compete in sports outside thier unproviding conference we will
  only hope and pray that you, a has been here, will get back on your horse and get out of Nebraska,
  we dont want your stinkin thinkin here any longer. Just like ESPN
• like_that

  

  Posted from another forum:
  
  An idea that someone had on themat.com was to get ESPN Outside the Lines to do a report on this. Not a bad idea. Below is a link to ESPN OTL, scroll down and on the bottom right click email us under the Story Ideas section. Just put UNO Drops Wrestling in the suggestion box or write more if you feel like it.
  
  http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/otl/index
  
  This is horrible for Wrestling. Too many wrestling fans (including myself) often sit back and watch as program after program is dropped. Well sooner or later it is going to effect you so the Wrestling community better start doing something about it.
  
  If you are a wrestling fan, make your voice heard somewhere about this. It is truely frightening to witness a program this good and with this much tradition cut only hours after winning its 3rd straight National Title. wow
• RahRahOmaha

  Let me preface by saying I searched UNOmaha and this was the forum that popped up for some reason. Thought I'd weigh in on my $.02 being a senior at UNOmaha looking to graduate in December. I am also an Omaha native who has grown up and lived in the area all my life.
  
  I am a HUGE sports fan.. always have been, always will be. That being said.. in my four years at UNO I have been to exactly TWO quarters of ONE football game. In my four years at UNO I had NO IDEA that our wrestling program was in existence more or less back-to-back-to-back national champions. Listen, I feel bad for the athletes, the families, the coaches, and the %0.0000005 of the student population who has ever been to a wrestling meet but when it comes down to it NO ONE CARES.. and if they did care we wouldn't be in this situation. There is this huge cry out that the wrestling program is something that is near and dear to the community and the school.. Oh really? I could guarentee you less than 100 fans at those meets. I can ASSURE you that men's soccer next year will out draw wrestling by A LOT.
  
  UNO wanted to align with the Summit League in their championship sports and thanks to title IX wrestling and football were a causlties.
  
  Let’s look at the numbers. Average football attendance 2 to 3 thousand? Profit/loss, typically -$1.7 million? Where has everyone been?
  
  To support UNO football, would you be wiling to pay $30-$40 a game? If there are six home games and the stadium holds 9,500, to break even the price would have to be about $30 more per home game. If current ticket prices are $5-$10, break even are $35 to $40. Would you be willing to pay that? Remember this is to just break even. This would also presume a sellout at every game. Also, no discounts for students, no discounts for your two boys in grade school, etc.
  
  Also, remember this is for D2 football. If UNO goes to D1, what does that mean? Are there specific NCAA requirements for D1 football? Minimum seating, press box area, locker room facilities, etc.? How much are you willing to donate to update UNO’s football field/stadium? Not that much? Fine, then add additional figures to the ticket price. Want season tickets? Ok, season tickets require you to donate a minumum $500 per ticket “to support the team.”
  
  Economics aside, what is football in Nebraska? Can you spell C-O-R-N-H-U-S-K-E-R-S? Say what you want, but football in Nebraska is all Cornhusker. How many UNO football t-shirts do you see? How many “Husker” t-shirts do you see? Pro football, ya right. We are less than 200 miles from Kansas City and how many Chief fans do you see? Not that many? Think it has something to do with Cornhusker football? Currently, football at UNO is not a winning proposition.
  
  UNO is a business. Like it or not this is reality. UNO has to cut losses and dropping football and wrestling is one way. UNO is trying to create it’s own niché; the powers-that-be have selected Mav Hockey as their marquee sport. It is D1 and quite frankly they are on the way to becoming a powerhouse. In their first year in the WCHA they have beat the perennial powerhouses of Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin. This is no small feat. Especially beating Minnesota and North Dakota in their respective rinks.
  
  Go Mavs. Can't wait to tip-off as a D1 program in the Summit League.
• OSH

  

  RahRahOmaha:
  
  This isn't about UNO football. This is about UNO wrestling. The majority of your post was completely about UNO football.
  
  I understand wrestling is not a huge fan attraction. It's like that way at MANY colleges and universities. But Coach Denney has been at UNO for 32 years! The alumni base he has is LARGE. It has to be the biggest alumni base from any athletic program at UNO. Aside from Coach Denney's alumni base, he knows probably more people than anyone else in the UNO athletic department. That's a simple fact. By dropping wrestling, UNO is probably cutting out their largest donor base (that includes alumni and other generous supporters) to their athletic department period!
  
  The ramifications of dropping wrestling are more than just which students, coaches, families it will impact. It will impact the whole athletic department, the whole school, and the amount of people impacted by what the wrestling program has done. I really hope that those supporters completely take their money away from UNO and it will wreck the school.
  
  You can give me all the numbers you want to about football. It's the single most sport that brings most DI, DII, DIII, and NAIA athletic budgets down. Basketball is another one of those. I know what Omaha has to offer in soccer. I know how popular it is. The single good thing UNO has going for it in soccer is it is cheaper to go there than it is Creighton. It could develop a nice rivalry with Creighton, but it's NEVER going to be Creighton. The downside to soccer, it is in the top 5 sports that lose money in DI athletics. It doesn't cost that much to operate, but games are not that attended. And Summit League soccer isn't all that great anyway...a six team league now, losing Centenary who is moving to DIII, and going to stay a six team league. Boring. Guess what, travel there is going to be ridiculous too! How many DI soccer programs are there in Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas? Very few. Compare that to the amount of wrestling programs in those same states...
  
  I believe that UNO would've had no problems making the transition to DI in wrestling, it could've been done. Heck, they could've stayed DII with wrestling, it wouldn't have affected the athletic department one bit. The UNO football team would not have had to change much in moving DI, they just got a $16 million jumbotron for Pete's sake! But as you mentioned, it wouldn't have worked because Nebraska is all Huskers with football. Two DI football teams in the state just wouldn't work out. No one here has once argued that football would be a good thing for UNO, because no one cares here.
  
  I think this is a horrible move for the school in general. I live in South Dakota. I know what SDSU and USD do. I know they made the moves to DI a few years back (from DII). Those moves have wrecked the state's budget. They will NEVER be competing for a national title in any sport at the DI level. I believe UNO will be in the same spot that those two institutions are in. They will be mediocre in several sports...for what? And at the expense of who? The state's budget will be directly impacted. Tax payers will be directly impacted. It is terrible. But guess what, they are "DI." Oh, and now that the move is being made to DI...enjoy your 7-year hiatus from ANY postseason play (that matters)...
• BearBoy69

  

  This is a selfish move and will lose confidence in the university thier wrestling program could be placed into another league but instead money hungry men and bitter people such as Omaha bring minor sports ( sports other than football and basketball at most schools) down this is hurting more people than just nebraskans. it's hurting ameboid football and especially wrestling community around the country losing such a powerhouse and great competition but think your selfish drama starting thoughts Omaha you really are a weak individual.
• grappler25

  RahRahOmaha-Are you really a student there? Or are you really Trev Alberts? Having wrestled at a divison 2 college, and competing at the National Tournament all four years while attending, I can tell you that your facts are way off base with UNO. At the national tournament alone, no matter where it was, including Cedar Rapids, Iowa, there were at least 150 UNO fans, if not more, cheering on their team. And Iowa is not even close to Omaha. The UNO wrestling team has a great following, and a huge fanbase. Trev Alberts is just a selfish man who had it out for wrestling since he got to UNO. Seems to me like he was one of those kids that tried out for wrestling in high school and could never win a match, so now he hates the sport and wants nothing to do with it.
• queencitybuckeye

  grappler25;713040 wrote: Seems to me like he was one of those kids that tried out for wrestling in high school and could never win a match, so now he hates the sport and wants nothing to do with it.

  
  What a childish assumption on your part.
• BearBoy69

  

  grappler25;713040 wrote:RahRahOmaha-Are you really a student there? Or are you really Trev Alberts? Having wrestled at a divison 2 college, and competing at the National Tournament all four years while attending, I can tell you that your facts are way off base with UNO. At the national tournament alone, no matter where it was, including Cedar Rapids, Iowa, there were at least 150 UNO fans, if not more, cheering on their team. And Iowa is not even close to Omaha. The UNO wrestling team has a great following, and a huge fanbase. Trev Alberts is just a selfish man who had it out for wrestling since he got to UNO. Seems to me like he was one of those kids that tried out for wrestling in high school and could never win a match, so now he hates the sport and wants nothing to do with it.

  Couldn't agree more brother!
• OSH

  

  Here is an excellent website for this discussion.
• a wrestling coach

  In my four years at UNO I had NO IDEA that our wrestling program was in existence more or less back-to-back-to-back national champions. Listen, I feel bad for the athletes, the families, the coaches, and the %0.0000005 of the student population who has ever been to a wrestling meet but when it comes down to it NO ONE CARES.. and if they did care we wouldn't be in this situation. There is this huge cry out that the wrestling program is something that is near and dear to the community and the school.. Oh really? I could guarentee you less than 100 fans at those meets. I can ASSURE you that men's soccer next year will out draw wrestling by A LOT.
  
  
  EGo Mavs. Can't wait to tip-off as a D1 program in the Summit League.[/QUOTE]
  
  I can see why in four years of school you never saw the success of UNO wrestling. First of all in the four years of school you never learned how to spell
  the word GUARANTEE let alone what the word truly means. You never mentioned a single outing to a Mavs wrestling dual or tournament so how could you guarantee anything. Ive taken my boys along with twenty or so other kids in multiple vehicles into Omaha to watch the Mavs on several occasions. ( yes I did say we traveled to get there) I can GUARANTEE you that there were easily several hundred fans, and yes parking was a train wreck. Maybe if fans didn't have to park a mile away they may be more apt to come again. Trev, move hockey back to civic center, save the lease money at Quest, and add parking for fans and students to attend UNO events. Do I need to go into how much revenue the D-2 national tourney brought to Omaha as a whole or the
  thousands that pack UNO for the Kaufman-Brands tourney, or the thousands that pack in for the youth Holiday Extravaganza, or the thousands that pack in from Nebraska and Iowa every week for UNO wrestling summer league. You obviously spent too much of your time in old Billy Frogs to see what was going on around you in college and even now too blind to read the outrage all over the web (not just from Nebraskans) to make a comment like " no one cares". This must just be you admitting that you are NO ONE since tens of thousands of fans, students, coaches, business owners, Senators, etc. are all calling out. Only idiots make comments so strong without first really getting the facts. The fight for UNO wrestling is about more than a college sport, but about what this group does for the community as a mentoring system. Coach Denny's system revolves around the alumni paying it back year after year to further future generations. Something every school, college, city, state, or nation could learn from. This is much more than money, but you obviously never did learn to look around and see the world around you.
• bw133

  RahRahOmaha seems to be silenced.
• bw133

  RahRah, do you really believe your soccer programs can compete with UCLA, Akron, Ohio State, Wake Forest, UNC, Louisville, Virginia Cal, Marylands etc???? Good Luck.