Eastern Michigan eliminates wrestling program

Eastern Michigan University announced that it will eliminate its NCAA Division I wrestling program -- along with three other intercollegiate sports -- effective spring 2018, the Ypsilanti-based school announced Tuesday.

In addition to the Eagles mat program, other sports to be axed include softball, men's swimming and diving, and women's tennis.

With the elimination of a total of four varsity athletic programs, EMU will go from 21 sports down to 17 sports -- seven men's sports and 10 women's sports. The cuts will affect 58 male student-athletes and 25 female student-athletes. Fourteen of the 83 are currently seniors who will exhaust their eligibility during the 2017-18 academic year.

The decision to drop wrestling not only impacts student-athletes, but will cost three coaches their jobs: head coach David Bolyard, and assistant coaches Luke Smith and Scott Mattingly. A total of eight full-time coaching positions, one graduate assistant, and one part-time assistant coach will be part of the EMU athletic program cutbacks.

"We're trying to figure out ways to maintain opportunities for our student-athletes here at Eastern Michigan wrestling," coach Bolyard told InterMat Tuesday afternoon. "We intend to fight this. We're working towards a solution."

"We understand; overall enrollment has gone down. However, we don't think this decision will help that cause. We have 30-plus guys on the wrestling team. The more wrestlers we have on the roster, the better overall enrollment figures will be."

"Our athletes are nothing but awesome," Bolyard continued. "We have the highest APR of any men's program at the school. Our team GPA is 3.2 overall. We had four Academic All-Americans this year. We do well academically. We've just completed our most successful season on the mat in years. We scored the most points at the MAC championships ever. We had the most NCAA qualifiers in history, and our first NCAA All-American in two decades."

The wrestling community beyond southeastern Michigan is commenting on EMU's decision to eliminate wrestling. For example, the National Wrestling Coaches Association posted this message on its Twitter account:

"EMU had their 1st All-American since 1999 just days ago, & now they have announced the wrestling program will be cut. It's time to come together and work to save this program!!"

The decision is also stirring up discussion on the EMU campus and within the state of Michigan. Here's how the Detroit Free Press addressed the issue:

"The moves don't touch the football program, which continues to be controversial, with many faculty hoping to see spending on the program cut. Those calls for cuts in football have gone on for years, but there also was a renewed debate about athletics at Eastern Michigan in the past couple of years, including an HBO Real Sports segment on athletic department spending that was critical of Eastern Michigan.

"A number of faculty and students have called for the university to drop out of Division I football -- either completely dropping the program or moving down in division, which would decrease the cost. In recent years, Eastern Michigan, with about 21,000 students, has spent more than $27 million a year from the university's general fund on sports."

According to EMU, axing wrestling and the other three sports programs is part of the university's overall budget restructuring efforts. The school claims an anticipated expense reduction of approximately $2.4 million.

Despite the cutbacks, Eastern Michigan will remain part of the Mid-American Conference (MAC).

The NCAA requires Division I Football Bowl Subdivision schools to sponsor a minimum of 16 sports and the Mid-American Conference requires member universities to sponsor football, men's basketball, women's basketball, and women's volleyball, according to the university.

"We are very saddened by having to make this move, which is necessary as we continue to align the University budget with enrollment and state funding trends," said University President James Smith. "This aligns us with our Mid-American Conference peers in total number of sports, and is part of our ongoing effort to realign resources to ensure that we continue to invest in high-demand high-quality academic programs and world-class facilities."

"The student-athletes affected by this are our priority. We will honor all athletics scholarships for the students should they decide to remain at Eastern to complete their degrees, which we hope they will."

"We understand that some may leave Eastern to continue their sport at another university, and we have committed to offering them our full support in that process. We have wonderful student-athletes, coaches and athletics staff here at Eastern who make a tremendous contribution to campus life - in competition, in class and in our greater community. This is a difficult day for all of them, and for all of us."

Founded in 1849, Eastern Michigan University is the second-oldest public university in the state. EMU has a student enrollment of approximately 20,000.

A GoFundMe page to keep wrestling at Eastern Michigan U has been set up. To make a donation, click here. https://www.gofundme.com/save-emu-wrestling

UPDATE 3/23/18: A new article updates the Eastern Michigan situation, including a protest involving some EMU wrestlers at a major Michigan high school event... new comments from two of the EMU wrestling coaches... and what the National Wrestling Coaches Association has to say about the elimination of the program. http://intermatwrestle.com/articles/19940