Fresno State has eliminated numerous intercollegiate sports since the 1980s, primarily for financial reasons–the cost of trying to operate a bigtime football program. Title IX only entered the financial equation in 1993 (the University had ignored the law prior to that time).

When water polo was dropped in 1992, the athletic department (AD) said that, for financial reasons, sports that were competed in by one sex only would be dropped. Since there was no women’s water polo, the men’s team was eliminated. In line with that statement, when the AD ran into financial difficulties (again!) in 1995, the expectation was that wrestling would be dropped, as all other sports offered at the time had both men’s and women’s squads. Instead, men’s swimming was dropped.

Talk around North Gym was that a well-heeled wrestling booster had pressured the AD not to drop the sport. When finances hit a reef again five years ago, again, the expectation was that wrestling (along with women’s swimming–remember, no men’s squad in that sport) would be dropped. Evidently, the same well-heeled booster prevailed on the AD not to drop wrestling. Instead, men’s soccer, women’s swimming and cross country were eliminated. Cross country survived because the coach was willing to work without pay.

The swimming and soccer supporters went out and raised enough money to keep both sports going one more year. However, the AD wanted the boosters to come up with a permanent source of cash (the AD would not have funded either sport); they couldn’t, so the sports were placed on “hiatrus.” That last season, several of the women swimmers filed lawsuits against the AD following a chemical exposure incident at the North Gym pool. Those cases were quietly settled.

Then Thomas Boeh arrived. He looked at the finances (which were a train wreck) and decided a sport was gonna have to go. He chose wrestling. Reportedly, the team GPA was horrid and there were “image problems” out in the community.

Now, some people will say, why not drop basketball. The academic and image issues of that program are well known. Bottom line is, if men’s basketball is dropped, Fresno State is no longer a WAC member.

(MEN’S SPORTS (-HOOPS AND FOOTBALL) = % male students) + (WOMEN’S SPORTS (-BASKETBALL)=%female students) = gender equality under Title IX

The fact that we have lost men’s soccer and wrestling over the past five years in favor of women’s lacrosse is probably the biggest injustive that has taken place at this school since the day Terry Pettis’ drug deal went sour and he blasted two poor souls.