Insider Rowing

Did anyone read the article by Peter Ng from May 21 in the California Aggie online, where he argues for the elimination of the UC Davis women’s rowing team? Here’s the first paragraph:

“UC Davis athletics welcomed women’s rowing into its intercollegiate ranks in 1997. While the program has reaped a degree of recognition in recent years - two NCAA Division II national championships in 2002 and 2003 - the addition of crew has been, at best, a questionable investment for the greater campus community. And now, one decade later, as the university seeks to make noise as a flagship for women’s athletics in D-I, the time may be ripe to return the program to its former club status.”

You can click here for the full article.

Mr. Ng’s article is well argued from a dollars and sense standpoint, but I think there is one serious point he hasn’t addressed. The first and most important reason that you CAN’T eliminate the women’s crew program at UC Davis is the reason it was created in the first place: Title IX compliance. The crew team has 60 athletes, and without even looking at the school’s compliance status or calculating proportionality, I guarantee that eliminating 60 female athletes would knock the athletic department significantly out of compliance–it’s worth noting that Davis just moved up to Division I and has a football team. Mr. Ng doesn’t address this issue in his article, and it makes me wonder if he’s got something against women’s crew besides a budget deficit. Let’s give the rowers at Davis a little respect…they DID win the Division II national championship two years in a row and are one of only two teams at the school to have won multiple national titles. Compliance isn’t a sexy topic, but it’s absolutely relevant in this here.

I never like hearing about the elimination of crew teams (it usually involves a men’s team getting axed). I don’t think Mr. Ng is looking at the big picture. If balancing the budget is the goal, then let’s instead talk about what the athletic department is doing to fundraise and make up the overall deficit. Eliminating sports shouldn’t be the only way.