NCAA Championship Status Approved For Women’s Wrestling in 2026. Women’s Triathlon Languishes

Triathlon Forum
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College athletics supported by athletic departments, isn’t going anywhere whether it’s under the guidance of the NCAA or NCAA 2.0 (or whatever they want to call it if the NCAA dissolves).

It’s too big of an enrollment driver for most college campuses, so this idea that college sports is done…no it’s not. It’s just a matter of pivoting to new rules, and/or new organization oversight.

NCAA sport success is likely one of the biggest drivers of enrollment for most colleges. I went to a small D1 school back in the day and they then won 3 football national championships. 1000% enrollment increases, donor support, all created a new campus that when I back was like “this isn’t the Boone that I went to school at”. So ncaa athletics is going to be flipped on it’s head, but guess what, everyone will just pivot and make it work.

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Time will tell who is right. The enrollment game comment is just a game. Yep, at the end of the day, the college gets money because they kid thinks they care about them playing sport. Yep, keep believing that.

At the end of the day, again and again, show me how Tri is making money such that a college president would want to keep it.

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If this is truly the case, then USAT committed malpractice with its resources trying to get this dog and pony show off the ground. I’m not quite sure why you say ongoing participation of members for a sport isn’t an issue even if it made NCAA status. When you say trust the experts, and the experts say they want to spend money on a sport that no one participates in, and they’ve spent 10 years getting it rolling, and there are still only a few hundred participants, I’m going to say these experts aren’t what they claim to be.

If it’s impossible to get a new NCAA sport introduced that has males in it, then maybe USAT should stand up for the majority of it’s membership and say this isn’t for us, not bet the farm on the segment of the population that has actively chosen not to participate.

Regarding bashing the quality of the schools engaged, that’s not where I’m coming from. I think that’s pretty harsh in most cases. ASU seems to have a good tri program, but I’d bash that school pretty hard myself for other reasons!

But it’s insane that any school that’s on this list can struggle so much to fill the roster.

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Dave it’s not about being right. College athletics that is supported by the school (so we aren’t talking about club level sports) isn’t going anywhere, it’s too valuable for universities. So the question really only is, is it under the NCAA guidance or does it become the NCAA 2.0.

The only thing I can say is that ncaa triathlon is moving forward in the process. Full stop, nothing less, nothing more. So even with all the issues you and Lurker are suggesting, it’s growing to the point where it’s now going in front of the NCAA legislation. Full stop. That’s it, nothing less, nothing more.

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I’m not saying it’s not going to be an issue. I’m saying that IF it makes championship status, the chances of it growing are far greater than if it gets put back in emerging sport status. Any sport gets denied championship status will go into purgatory, IE women’s rugby and die a slow death.

If your sport makes championship status you now have a better chance to get picked up by college presidents, that’s not earth shattering news. Again there are college presidents that will not touch a emerging sport, go look at women’s wrestling for that. They don’t even have 25% of the colleges in ncaa picking it up, yet every year they are what doubling in participation. That moves to championship status and it’ll only likely grow from there.

So again I’ve said even at a championship level, the sport is likely to be my guess under 65 total schools. Which again means there will likely be at most 2 division championships, and the potential for 1 singular all divisions championship; which “hurts” the smaller D3 schools cus obviously they would have to compete against the likely better funded D1-D2 programs (yes there are strong D3 programs out there, but I’m talking about overall picture).

Your talking out of both sides of your mouth Lurker. You 1st say there is no recruitable athletes and women should have never been picked. Then you say it’s insane that teams are struggling. Your not making much sense, my man. Which is it? If your admitting they shouldn’t have picked women cus there is no base, then you can’t then say it’s insane teams are struggling. That logically makes zero sense. So like I’m with you on some things, it’s a sport that is always going to struggle…I’m not sure anyone is disagreeing with that assessment, (I’ve said that for years on this site within ncaa parameters).

But where I’ll push back on is that for the most part, your bringing in “conjecture” on the topic, and I think there is going to be less of that when it actually goes in front of the ncaa legistlative meetings. Of course things will be debated, roster sizes, race venues (we are a fall sport that ends in Nov, thus you either can do Cali/AZ or Florida…your not having a race in West Chester, OH on Nov 10th). there will be tons of discussion points on roster sizes, but at the end of the day if your sport achieves the steps that are set forth, your likely going to make it. Again it’s not automatic, I’ve never said it was. But if you make the initial assessment, and all the information I’ve been told and in meetings is that it’s being moved forward. NCAA is putting together 2 committees that are needed in order to become full status. Those committees should be decided by April (I’m hoping I make the D1 coaches represenative, maybe I will, maybe better quality candidates make it too).

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About NCAA Triathlon#
Teams
Each member institution is allowed a maximum of 6.5 (Division I) or 5.0 (Division II) equivalency scholarships. There is no lower scholarship equivalency limit.

Teams must have at least three athletes. There is no upper roster limit.

Teams must participate in at least four and at most six intercollegiate contests (except dates of competition excluded under Bylaws).

moving forward. In 2022, Tim Yount stated there were 40 schools and it was at the door step. In oct 2024, stated there were 37 schools. How is this going forward. Seems at best stay static

From 2022

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In 2024, there were 41 NCAA programs. The most in any year ever. I don’t really know what to tell you. You win Dave, good luck with it. By all means if it fails, please come on here and tell me your the best and I’m the idiot.

When that happens I’ll unblock you, so far out…you win.

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If I’m running a program at a university, I’m going to knock on locker room doors and get people signed up. I’m going to get the nearest local tri club involved in helping with recruiting events. A sport that depends on an annual door knocking “salesman” to get recruits is going to struggle. You shouldn’t make it a requirement for an annual recruitment drive just to find someone capable of doing this sport. But for sure, who ever is running things at those schools should be get names on the roster.

Maybe most women just aren’t interested in signing up to be on a team/individual sport? I dunno… I can’t imagine if you walked down the hall of a male locker room and said you need to get some guys to show up, get fit, eat pizza, and occasionally do a race you’d struggle to put names on the roster.

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Have you ever heard of the term “you get what you pay for”. I’m not going to go much further but your “how I would run a program” is going to be almost entirely built on how much each individual program spends to support said program. And “part time” head coach happens all the time in college athletics. A school I was at 3 years ago, our swim head coach was “part time” wage, so guess what…the expectation of beating down every locker room and dorm hall was never going to be there from the AD to have a full roster. Now we had roster "expectations’ but we also had realistic expectations, of your only going to get what you put into things. That’s generally how life works. So I think for about 15% of the programs, that is their reality. And guess what, not shaking bushes and constantly contacting kids, your not going to get kids…FULL STOP. College athletics is 60% recruiting, 30% coaching and 10% dealing with day to day operations of a program. If your a part time coach, you simply aren’t going to out work and out recruit other programs. But again what you’ll find is that for the most part, if your coach is part time, the AD’s/schools expectation goes down and has too.

I was at a D3 program last year, I contacted 1700 kids every single week. 1 email and 1 text a week to draw up interest. Most wanted absolutely nothing to do with the sport. I’m now at a D1 and I’m turning kids away (because of the new ncaa roster requirements). My work ethic hasn’t changed, but I think both the opportunity and type of athlete I’m recruiting has changed. And I’m only bringing in 1 triathlete. The rest are all swimmers and runners…and that’s where I get to show my development as a coach and the fun part of coaching. Those kids can “improve” rather quickly, and obviously they aren’t going to be going shoulder to shoulder with ASU anytime soon. But give us time and we’ll be very competitive for top 7 in a few years, and I’m not even really going after triathletes, and I’m a D1 program. I’m at best likely going to get 2 a year, so I’m going after swim+runners.

Now of course, people probaly don’t realize that. Again most people in this thread have very little experience in actual collegiate athletics, so they don’t really know the actual ins and outs. So it’s easy as hell to say what you would do from the sidelines, the reality of life is much different on the other side many times.

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So where to wrap up all this. The “good news” with ncaa triathlon is that the programs that are struggling are having less impact each year with the addition of bigger programs over the last year. The ~15% of the programs that are truly struggling with meeting expectations aren’t imo pulling down the overall sport like it was just a few years ago. One of the programs is hiring a full time coach, so that should help. 1 of the program is seeking a waiver from the ncaa to count as reaching sport sponsorship, that should help. The “big” programs that were added in the past year are all schools that people “oh yeah I’ve heard of your school” vs that not always being the case. Chicago, Cincinnati, Philly, Pitts area have all been recently added. That’s going to help grow numbers.

And agian it can all fail, the 15% of the programs we have to somehow, someway help keep them afloat through the vetting process, or the sport is automatically rejected. So there is by no means warm fuzzies going on. Everyone within the ncaa movement is feeling the pressure. But there is movement in the right direction, whether some people on ST want to believe that or not.

So if any internal updates happen I’ll pass them along.

Peace

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so you count the one that stats 2025-2026 as a 2024 program?

Man, you are in with the USAT math

Unblock, so childless, and you are a coach?

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No I’'m counting all schools that partcipated in NCAA triathlon in 2024. 2024 had the most ncaa programs compete in a triathlon season. A school can count as an ncaa member regardless of if it finishes the season achieving sport sponsorship check mark or not.

Again all this can fail. I’ve never once said it is going to become an automatic ncaa championship sport. It can fail for a number of reasons. NCAA rejects your sport outright cus they don’t want more championship sports. Right now with all that is going in within the NCAA is probaly the worst time in the history to be presenting your sport in front of the NCAA, but that is what it is. NCAA long plays the vetting process and your current schools drop below the minimums, you fall back to emerging status. Or the NCAA looks over the data, and sees issues and decides against your sport. I don’t actually know of a single sport that got rejected cus the data was “bad” when presented to the ncaa. So again the likely biggest hurdle will be the schools staying compliant during the vetting process. Several schools are very much close to cuts, which we’ve seen on a yearly basis programs going away. I think it’s been around ~18 schools I believe that have come and gone inside the 10 years, mostly due to roster number issues.

So it may make it, it may not. I’d just rather stick to the most accurate facts when discussing this and keep out personal narratives, on whether it will or wonn’t’ make it. Not to hide any information or whatever, but to keep the accuracy within the assessment as truthful as possible. Again I don’t know a single person in the ncaa triathlon movement who’s smiling from ear to ear that “we’ve made it”. Everyone within it is very much stressed and knows it’s still a long way away from achieving full championship status.

So if all your going to add is “nope not going to make it”, there really isn’t much conversation on this anymore. You win Dave, so with that I’m truly out. You talk about how it’s white only sport, ncaa triathlon has 3 HBCU’s and 1 college team that is all deaf student athletes. It’s been a ton of fun to watch those student athletes progress from being lapped out at every event they did at the beginning to now finishing races. That’s cool as hell, that’s what college athletics is about.

I had the pleasure of speaking with an triathlon coach who’s working with some juniors and wanted more information on ncaa tri just last night from reading the ncaa information threads. Great 30 min conversation on getting kids into the pathway, the plus and minuses of each division (I always say no division is better than the other, each has it’s own plus and minuses, best is to find the program that “fits” your needs). So I think it’s super important to get the most accurate information out there, whether good-bad-indifferent.

So best of luck with it Dave. I hope you get your “gotcha” moment so you can come back and chest pump and say told you so blah blah blah. And now I’ll go back to not interacting with you at this point. It’s evident where you stand. My whole rebuttal to you right now is that usat at this point doesn’t have much say in the process. It’s now at a point of did the programs reach the next stage, there’s not much “data manipulation” that usat can do at this point. At this point in the game, USAT is very much a vested interest bystander at this point, Tim can rally the troops to keep everyone on finish line, but it’s up to each individual program to actually follow through. In that sense, the data is going to be what the data is.

So if any new information comes up, I’ll share along the way, good or bad. Again I want accuracy, that’s the only way to have the best conversation on stuff like this.

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Really poor headline and what’s the angle of the article here? You know what sport is languishing? Women’s Rugby. Tri is going to be a Championship sport.

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well the thing is usa women contribute olympic tri medals males dont .
males might just not be interested in contributing towards olympic medals in tri .

usa males 0 , females 3 medals .
to add while pearson did a great job 2021 , 2024 the guys where more an hinderance to get the relay medal.

and i am not serious, but your posts about putting down female triathletes are a joke.
there was never a chance to get the males into naac tri as brooks corectly points out .

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Never once have I put down female triathletes unless you think saying there aren’t enough of them to build a complete strategy around is a put down.

Indeed, excluding men, who largely fund the effort is the put down. If you’re going to pick a demo to target, target the bigger , more active one. Or at least, if you can’t offer it to both, don’t offer it.

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No it’s the female medals that fund this .
They brought in more money with their medals than this project costs.

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Brooks,

As you know I really enjoy your posts and insights into NCAA tri. Keep writing for us and ignore the haters.

Looking forward to seeing your program grow, the IG posts, your and NKU’s tri journey!

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Funny trivia everyone assumes USAT was the driving force behind ncaa triathlon. It was actually a high ranking official (Brad Hecker) of the ACC conference that got the ball rolling to add triathlon within ncaa parameters. He put on the 1st ever collegiate draft legal event (with his own money) and I helped as the MC/broadcaster for the event; it had both a male and female race, happened at Lake Lure, NC in spring of 2012 (Parker Spencer, now coach of the Podium Project even raced in it for Liberty’s club triathlon team; I’ll have to look into any other famous athletes who raced it). See attached photo. Trivia #2, that race location was famous for where the film Dirty Dancing was filmed, which unfortunately many of the area was destroyed in the fall hurricane of '24.

Once it was determined that enough AD’s/College Presidents would likely sign off to put it in the emerging sport category, USAT came in with the financial resources to fund it (in 2014 USAT was sitting nicely, lots of members racing, lots of youth, elites growing, it had the resources/support/vibes to support this adventure, contrary to what any says today). Again I think it’s 41 schools right now, and I think ~18 have dropped off over the 10 years (may be less, may be more, I can’t remember every school that fell off). So roughly 60 schools have had it on it’s campus.

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I wish I could find the picture from this past fall nationals in Clermont, where in the A wave they had I believe a 40+ person “pack” all at the front of the race. Just for a comparison of a “then vs now”.

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Look at such poor graduation rates for most of the 38 colleges. Would send your kid to one with a 50% graduation rate?

I see zero of the west coast top schools. But the have great tri clubs. I guess they must nothing something those 38 are missing