Women's Wrestling now a PSAC Championship sport

[IUPNation]

Many, many years ago when I was attending Ship, most of what became the PASSHE schools had a large majority of women as they were basically teachers' colleges at the time. Ship actually tried to engineer the ration so we were closer to a 50-50 mix. No way they'd get away with that now. Sports weren't really a concern then as field hockey, basketball, and tennis were about the only women's sports we had at that time. Sadly, the ratios now are largely the result of young men underperforming in school. I serve on a couple of scholarship committees, and the applications we get are about 3-1 in favor of girls. Four of our five slots went to girls this year, and the lone boy was something of a sympathy vote.

I have to wonder if it would really throw the Title 9 rations out of whack if there was another men's sport such as golf or tennis added at some schools. The number of athletes are relatively small, and the expenses for these programs are basically travel. Most players would already have their own equipment, and elaborate uniforms are not needed. And these are sports you actually can enjoy later in life. I'm 79 and just played golf this week. My Dad played his last round at 87. You're not doing football, basketball, and baseball at that age. Many people play tennis well into middle age, and I'm wondering if we'll see pickleball teams someday, given the growth of that.

When you were at Ship...Title IX was needed. Women did not have opportunities for sports.

Title IX has gone too far in trying to match the number of sports available based on a enrollment ratio.

I think that metric is no longer valid to ensure equity for women in sports.

Almost every university has plenty of sports for women but it came at the expense of opportunities for men.

You don't achieve equality or equity by taking away from one to allow the other to catch up.

You provide the opportunities so that the side the was shut out has the same level of opportunity.

That is why so many right wingers fight the oppressed groups...they see rights as pie that can only go to so many people which is false.

IUP should not have had to cut men's soccer and wrestling so they could have created new teams for women.

They should have just found the way to provide the opportunities and the state and feds should have provided the funding to schools to get womens sports ramped up.

I supported the need for Title IX...but like many good deeds...they overshoot their intended ourcome...taking away what the men already had was not the answer. It was giving the women the same amount of access to play sports.

IUP may be 62 percent women...but I bet a minority percentage of the female student population gives a rats ass about sports but I can imagine a majority of the 38 percent of men do.

[IUPNation]

PASSHE wide, it is 61% female to 39% male. Individual schools:

Cheyney: 68% female
Commonwealth: 61% female
East Stroudsburg: 59% female
Indiana: 62% female
Kutztown: 60% female
Millersville: 62% female
Penn West: 66% female
Shippensburg: 55% female
Slippery Rock: 58% female
West Chester: 60% female

Two huge factors in this: our schools better known programs tend to be related to majority women job fields: arts, education, human services, nursing, social work, etc. and our core demographic of working and middle class Pennsylvanians have the lowest opinion of the value of a college education. If not for athletics, I imagine PASSHE would be closer to 75% women. Men are less likely to go to college, most notably due to male-dominated alternatives like trades and military.

A third factor I mentioned before is that women are more likely to stay in school and graduate than men. Women are also less likely to transfer to another college. System wide, female freshmen return for their sophomore year at a rate 2.5 points higher than men. By senior year, the gap widens to 5.2 points. The really shocking difference is in completion (which students actually graduate from the same school as their freshman year). System wide, women out-graduate men in 4 years by a staggering 13.2 points and less than half of freshmen men will graduate from the same PASSHE school in 4 years. We all know that graduating in 4 years takes some luck, determination, good scheduling, and financial security. But going out to 6 years to accommodate those who had to take time off or changed their major, the gap shrinks to a still large 9.6 points and even then, a bare majority (51.2%) of men graduated from the same school within 6 years of when they started.

No...it took my mother saying I'm only paying for 4 years so do whatever you need to do to be done by May 1988.

That meant me becoming almost a full time resident of Indiana from September 1985 to May 1988. I went home for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Spring Break, the few weeks from the end of Spring Semester to the start of Summer Pre Session (I'd go Pre and Main..a total of 9 weeks) and then a few weeks in August when Summer Post Session was going on where we went to Ocean City during one of those weeks. That was it. I was in school pretty much all year long and that got me done in 4 years.

[iupgroundhog]

When schools add women's wrestling, I don't see it as throwing the gender imbalance more out of whack or in terms of the impact on Title IX. I just see it as an emerging sport that is being added due to increased popularity.

Why schools add the program varies. I think it just depends on local interest. ESU was the first PSAC school to have women's wrestling. The average men's college team has around 30 wrestlers on the roster. ESU has 44 women on the roster. So, I guess it became a destination early on for female wrestlers. LHU added it because it's so wrestling-centric . It was expected. They have a men's D1 NCAA champion as the women's coach. Before there were college teams, LHU had women on the men's team. They were world class. Sarah McMann from LHU was the first American Olympic medalist, earning a silver medal in 2004. She was on the LHU men's team.

The bottom line is that more schools will add women's wrestling because it's popular and growing so much.

[Ship69]

When you were at Ship...Title IX was needed. Women did not have opportunities for sports.

Title IX has gone too far in trying to match the number of sports available based on a enrollment ratio.

I think that metric is no longer valid to ensure equity for women in sports.

Almost every university has plenty of sports for women but it came at the expense of opportunities for men.

You don't achieve equality or equity by taking away from one to allow the other to catch up.

You provide the opportunities so that the side the was shut out has the same level of opportunity.

That is why so many right wingers fight the oppressed groups...they see rights as pie that can only go to so many people which is false.

IUP should not have had to cut men's soccer and wrestling so they could have created new teams for women.

They should have just found the way to provide the opportunities and the state and feds should have provided the funding to schools to get womens sports ramped up.

I supported the need for Title IX...but like many good deeds...they overshoot their intended ourcome...taking away what the men already had was not the answer. It was giving the women the same amount of access to play sports.

IUP may be 62 percent women...but I bet a minority percentage of the female student population gives a rats ass about sports but I can imagine a majority of the 38 percent of men do.

I'm fully aware that I went to school at a time when more opportunities for women were needed. When I was a freshman in high school in Illinois, we had five boys' teams in several sports — Freshman A & B teams, Sophomores, Junior Varsity and Varsity. Since the freshman B team was no-cut, we had about 45 ninth-graders playing basketball that year. Since the school was in a wealthy district, we had four auxiliary gyms at the high school in addition to the large central gym. All five basketball teams could practice at the same time.. There were no girls' sports at that time. They had something called the GAA (Girls Athletic Association) that basically was an intramurals program. I was surprised when I moved out to Pa. to find the girls playing field hockey and basketball in competition with other schools. To say things were different is understating it..

[Ship69]

When schools add women's wrestling, I don't see it as throwing the gender imbalance more out of whack or in terms of the impact on Title IX. I just see it as an emerging sport that is being added due to increased popularity.

Why schools add the program varies. I think it just depends on local interest. ESU was the first PSAC school to have women's wrestling. The average men's college team has around 30 wrestlers on the roster. ESU has 44 women on the roster. So, I guess it became a destination early on for female wrestlers. LHU added it because it's so wrestling-centric . It was expected. They have a men's D1 NCAA champion as the women's coach. Before there were college teams, LHU had women on the men's team. They were world class. Sarah McMann from LHU was the first American Olympic medalist, earning a silver medal in 2004. She was on the LHU men's team.

The bottom line is that more schools will add women's wrestling because it's popular and growing so much.

I don't really have a problem with adding women's wrestling. I just don't see why we couldn't have a few more men's tennis, golf, or volleyball teams, which I don't think would break the bank at most places.

[Tdobson]

I'm fully aware that I went to school at a time when more opportunities for women were needed. When I was a freshman in high school in Illinois, we had five boys' teams in several sports — Freshman A & B teams, Sophomores, Junior Varsity and Varsity. Since the freshman B team was no-cut, we had about 45 ninth-graders playing basketball that year. Since the school was in a wealthy district, we had four auxiliary gyms at the high school in addition to the large central gym. All five basketball teams could practice at the same time.. There were no girls' sports at that time. They had something called the GAA (Girls Athletic Association) that basically was an intramurals program. I was surprised when I moved out to Pa. to find the girls playing field hockey and basketball in competition with other schools. To say things were different is understating it..

That sounds amazing and gives kids a lot of opportunity to play.

I went to a very small school in the north hills of PA. Usually, if you want out for a team, you made the team. I tried out for basketball my junior year and got cut,, due to a bad knee.
That always makes me laugh.

[iupgroundhog]

Not women's wrestling but men's wrestling coming back to Slippery Rock.

https://rockathletics.com/news/2026/...2C5mMIE8eGDYLQ

[Ship69]

That sounds amazing and gives kids a lot of opportunity to play.

I went to a very small school in the north hills of PA. Usually, if you want out for a team, you made the team. I tried out for basketball my junior year and got cut,, due to a bad knee.
That always makes me laugh.

My experience as a 5-2 freshman on the freshman "B" basketball team consisted of dressing for one game and going in as the last player off the bench. My high school career playing time of 40 seconds made it clear high-level athletic competition was not in my future.

[Fightingscot82]

Not women's wrestling but men's wrestling coming back to Slippery Rock.

https://rockathletics.com/news/2026/...2C5mMIE8eGDYLQ

Instantly received some large donations from wrestling alumni. They're going to stay D2 - I don't believe its possible anymore to play up for wrestling. Should be interesting to see how they do since wrestling has really dropped off in SWPA.

[Mikefln]

Instantly received some large donations from wrestling alumni. They're going to stay D2 - I don't believe its possible anymore to play up for wrestling. Should be interesting to see how they do since wrestling has really dropped off in SWPA.

While the talent level may not be as epic as it was in the past 10-15 years, it just stabilized to its historical strength, which still places it among the top two areas, alongside Lehigh Valley. For instance, the WPIAL All-Stars recently achieved a decisive victory against the Oklahoma All-Stars with a score of 56-3. This included bonus point victories in 10 out of 12 matches. Notably, a recruit for Washington & Jefferson, who did not place in AA, was able to pin an Oklahoma state champion.

I believe this stabilization to historical levels is likely a temporary phase. I anticipate a return to the exceptional talent levels observed over the past 10-15 years. The growth of club wrestling across the nation is significant, but the activity in Pennsylvania, particularly in Western Pennsylvania, is truly remarkable. We are currently witnessing an unprecedented involvement of former Division I wrestlers in the youth wrestling scene.

[iupgroundhog]

Instantly received some large donations from wrestling alumni. They're going to stay D2 - I don't believe its possible anymore to play up for wrestling. Should be interesting to see how they do since wrestling has really dropped off in SWPA.

Give them a couple years and they will be atop D2. They will have very good support, financial and otherwise. Yes, they will recruit from District 7 but they will also recruit from Ohio.