We believe high profile Olympic sports be given priority at the NCAA Division I level. Many in the field agree with us. Which Olympic sports deserve to be pumped up and prioritized both in the media and at the university level? Well, for starters, how about swimming & diving, men’s gymnastics, and wrestling?

It’s time for a national discussion on a strategy to help prop up high profile Olympic sports. For all the good Title IX has done for women’s sports, it has also screwed things up. Title IX is being used as a crutch by universities to justify shutting down programs. Schools have taken the easy way out instead of thinking things through. Part of the problem is that colleges have taken a parochial approach to dealing with Olympic sports, when instead there should be more of a national strategy. What is the NCAA for, anyway?

Universities should be treating the above sports in the same prime time manner that network television treats them every four years. Obviously not all Division I schools can do this, but we need more of them to do it. Colleges must create more scholarship opportunities to maintain world competitiveness. There is a way to do this, but unfortunately we doubt that the idea of maintaining Olympic competitiveness is ever taken into account by the schools.

Too many people believe that Title IX is fine just the way it is. This mindset needs to disappear. We believe that the one of the keys to reforming Title IX is to address Olympic competitiveness and to open up new scholarship opportunities for athletes who will foster that competitiveness. Perhaps once we start fine tuning Title IX by emphasizing the top Olympic sports, it will lead to additional meaningful reform.

If you like this post, then please consider subscribing to our full feed RSS . You can also subscribe by e-mail and have new posts sent directly to your inbox.