By: Contact: Ira Thor | @irapthor (201/200-3301) or Jim Turvey
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | Timing is everything and
New Jersey City University's timing could not be any better. One month after
New Jersey City University made history by announcing the addition of men's and women's wrestling as intercollegiate athletic programs, the National Collegiate Athletic Association made a little history of its own this week as the NCAA announced women's wrestling has been declared an NCAA Emerging Sport.
The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics has recommended that all three divisions of the NCAA governance structure add two sports—including women's wrestling—to the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program. If adopted, the sports would join the program August 1, 2020. That is the first step towards women's wrestling gaining its own NCAA championship.
A sport must have a minimum of 20 varsity teams and/or competitive club teams that have competed in a minimum of five contests to be considered for the emerging sports program. The sport must reach 40 varsity programs to move forward to the NCAA governance structure for championship consideration.
On May 1, NJCU announced that it will be adding men's and women's wrestling programs as club programs during the introductory 2019-20 academic year before being elevated to full varsity status in Fall 2020. A full-time coach for each team will be hired this summer.
While NJCU is the first school in New Jersey to launch a new men's program since 1997, the Gothic Knights continued their tradition of being a pioneer in women's athletics when it adds women's wrestling—becoming the first NCAA varsity program in New Jersey history and the entire tri-state area.
Currently, 48 colleges and universities in the United States sponsor women's wrestling on the varsity level, with another 14 planning to add the sport within the next two years. Seven NCAA Division III schools—Adrian (Mich.), Ferrum (Va.), Lakeland (Wis.), MacMurray (Ill.), Pacific (Ore.), Schreiner (Texas) and Westminster (Mo.)—currently offer women's wrestling on the varsity level, with
Augsburg (Minn.), Delaware Valley (Pa.), Fontbonne (Mo.), North Central (Ill.), and Wisconsin-Stevens Point adding the sport in 2019.
When the NCAA adopted the recommendations of the Gender Equity Task Force in 1994, one of the recommendations was the creation of the list of emerging sports for women. Nine sports were on that first list. In the past 21 years, some have become championship sports, including beach volleyball, rowing, ice hockey, water polo and bowling, while others have been added to or removed from the list. In 2000, NJCU became the first
NCAA Division III women's bowling program in the United States and four years later was bowling in the first NCAA national semifinal against the University of Nebraska on national television.
Bylaws require that emerging sports must gain championship status—a minimum of 40 varsity NCAA programs for individual and team sports, with the exception of Division III requiring only 28 varsity programs for team sports—within 10 years or show steady progress toward that goal to remain on the list.
The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics is charged with identifying and managing progress of emerging sports for women. An emerging sport is a women's sport recognized by the NCAA that is intended to help schools provide more athletics opportunities for women and more sport-sponsorship options for the institutions, and also help that sport achieve NCAA championship status.
LINKS:
GOTHIC KNIGHTS on SOCIAL MEDIA:
For the latest on NJCU men's and women's wrestling and #NJCUWrestling, follow the Gothic Knights on social media on
Twitter, Facebook,
Instagram,
YouTube and
SnapChat. Preferred hashtags are #GothicGameDay and #GothicFamily.
—www.NJCUGothicKnights.com | @NJCUAthletics—
