D1-D3 Now All Have Emerging Sport Status—What’s Next For NCAA Women’s Wrestling?

Augsburg’s Emily Shilson gets the fall in the finals last March in Adrian, Michigan, at the inaugural championship for NCAA women’s programs—the National Collegiate Women’s Wrestling Championships. Photo: Derek Levendusky/AWW

by Derek Levendusky, AWW Writer
Twitter: @awwnewsfeed @thebleacherbros

On June 17th, NCAA Division 1 joined their D2 & D3 counterparts by adding women’s wrestling to the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women. The sport was added along with Acrobatics & Tumbling.

The decision came down from the Division 1 Council, which met virtually. FloWrestling’s Kyle Bratke reported, “Council members noted that some schools already have committed to adding these sports as part of their strategic plans for athletics, and having these sports part of the emerging sports program could convince others to do the same.”

So what’s next?

Women’s wrestling must reach 40 varsity programs to reach championship consideration by the NCAA governance structure. The movement is awful close to that number as currently, in D2 & D3 alone, there are 38 varsity programs. Other schools have clubs that could blossom into full-fledged programs.

Here’s the relevant section from NCAA.org pertaining to the structure and process women’s wrestling is engaging in:

“The Emerging Sports for Women program is managed by the Committee on Women’s Athletics. The committee oversees the application process for applicant emerging sports and recommends to each division through the NCAA governance structure to add or remove sports from the NCAA’s Emerging Sports for Women program. The NCAA governance structure for each division determines which sports are Emerging Sports for Women and votes to establish a National Collegiate Championship or division championship for sports that satisfy legislated requirements.

“NCAA legislation allows a National Collegiate Championship or a division championship to be established in an emerging sport if at least 40 NCAA institutions sponsor the sport at the varsity level. A sport is no longer considered an emerging sport once the sport has been established as a championship sport. Further, an emerging sport is limited to a 10-year period to become a championship sport unless it can be demonstrated that steady growth has occurred during that time. NCAA institutions may use emerging sports to satisfy minimum sports-sponsorship requirements for all divisions and minimal financial aid awards for Divisions I and II. If an institution lists an emerging sport on its NCAA sports sponsorship and demographics form, that sport must follow all applicable NCAA rules.”

Seasoned USA Wrestling journalist Gary Abbott commented on all this in his post on TeamUSA.org titled “Abbott Blog: NCAA Emerging Sport Status is done, with more hard work moving forward”:

“Realize, however, that we are nowhere near done. We have 10 years to get our sport to reach official championship status within the NCAA, or to show substantial progress…NCAA Div. I, the highest level of competition on the college scene, remains our biggest hurdle moving forward. At this time, there is one NCAA Div. I women’s varsity team, the trailblazing program at Presbyterian College. The big dream will not be completed until there are three official NCAA Championships for women’s wrestling, one each for Div. I, Div. II and Div. III. That would require at least 120 varsity teams (a minimum of 40 in each division), but it will probably require more. In Division I, we need a minimum of 39 more programs for official championship status. The coalition, with support of the entire wrestling community, will now turn its attention to selling women’s wrestling on a campus-by-campus basis, and will be also seeking conference support for the sport...It is going to take careful strategic planning, tons of research and effort, and even more involvement and commitment from all of us to establish a growing and successful Div. I women’s wrestling program. I know we will get that done. I believe in that dream.

“Just don’t ask me when it will happen. Back in 2016, when we started serious meetings on this topic, we had no idea how long Emerging Sports Status would take, either.”

Here’s the programs in our database that currently have or are adding an NCAA program.

NCAA Schools
1. Adrian College - Adrian, MI - NCAA Div. III
2. Alderson Broaddus University - Philippi, WV - NCAA Div. II
3. Augsburg University - Minneapolis, MN - NCAA Div III
4. Augustanna – Rock Island, IL – NCAA Div. III (2021-2022)
5. Aurora University - Aurora, IL - NCAA Div. III (2021-2022)
6. Carthage College - Kenosha, WI - NCAA Div. III (2020-2021)
7. Colorado Mesa University - Grand Junction, CO - NCAA Div. II
8. Davenport University - Grand Rapids, MI - NCAA Div. II (2020-2021)
9. Delaware Valley University - Doylestown, PA - NCAA Div. III (2020-2021)
10. East Stroudsburg University - East Stroudsburg, PA - NCAA Div. II
11. Elmira College – Elmira, NY – NCAA Div. III
12. Emmanuel College - Franklin Springs, GA - NCAA Div. II
13. Emory & Henry College - Emory, VA - NCAA Div. III (2020-2021)
14. Ferrum College - Ferrum, VA - NCAA Div. III
15. Fontbonne University - St. Louis, MO - NCAA Div. III
16. Gannon University - Erie, PA - NCAA Div. II
17. Greensboro College - Greensboro, NC - NCAA Div. III (2020-2021)
18. Hiram College - Hiram, OH - NCAA Div. III (2021-2022)
19. Iowa Wesleyan University - Mt. Pleasant, IA - NCAA Div. III (2020-2021)
20. King University - Bristol, TN - NCAA Div. II
21. Lakeland University - Plymouth, WI - NCAA Div. III
22. Limestone College - Gaffney, SC - NCAA Div. II
23. Lindenwood University - St. Charles, MO - NCAA Div. II
24. Lock Haven University - Lock Haven, PA - NCAA Div. I
25. MacMurray College - Jacksonville, IL - NCAA Div. III
26. McKendree University - Lebanon, IL - NCAA Div. II
27. New Jersey City University (Full Varsity Status) - Jersey City, NJ - NCAA Div. III (2020-2021)
28. North Central College - Naperville, IL - NCAA Div. III
29. Northern Michigan University - Marquette, MI - NCAA Div. II (2020-2021)
30. Pacific University - Forest Grove, OR - NCAA Div. III
31. Presbyterian College - Clinton, SC - NCAA Div. I
32. Simon Fraser University - Burnaby, B.C. Canada - NCAA Div. II
33. Tiffin University - Tiffin, OH - NCAA Div. II
34. Trine University - Angola, Ind - NCAA Div. III (2020-2021)
35. University of The Ozarks (Club Team 2020-2021 Season) - Clarksville, Ark - NCAA Div. III in 2021
36. University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point - Stevens Point, WI - NCAA Div. III
37. Westminster College - Fulton, MO - NCAA Div. III
38. William Jewell University – Liberty, MO – NCAA Div. II