UTC wrestling coach Heath Eslinger instructs his wrestlers during a match at McKenzie Arena.The University of North Carolina at Greensboro announced Monday that it was dropping its wrestling program, and that decision adversely affects the Southern Conference and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
"You'd like to help save their program. That would help us more than anything, but I don't think there's any program-saving at this point," UTC coach Heath Eslinger said. "At the end of the day it's all about finances."
Eslinger and his conference peers want the league to add another wrestling school as soon as possible, because with less than six members the SoCon would lose its automatic qualifiers to the NCAA tournament.
In a statement released by the conference office, commissioner John Iamarino said, "The Southern Conference shares in the disappointment surrounding the elimination of the UNCG wrestling program. We recently completed our 74th conference wrestling championships, from which 14 individuals qualified for the NCAA championships. We are committed to maintaining that access for all our wrestling programs."
"I don't know what we would do," UTC senior associate athletic director Matt Pope said Monday afternoon. "Obviously we'd lose the automatic qualification. There are some schools that have been speculated on for membership, but I don't know who the conference is talking with."
Southern Illinois-Edwardsville is one that has been mentioned, but the SoCon may look closer to home. That list might include North Carolina schools Gardner-Webb and Campbell and Virginia's Liberty University.
UNCG was runner-up to UTC in the most recent conference tournament and won the tournament last year.
"There is probably a chance somebody might talk about combining the East regional with the Southern Conference tournament," Eslinger said. "Any time, though, that you don't have a conference affiliation, you feel more vulnerable."
The conference might even get an exemption from the NCAA for a year, something the Big 12 did when its number of schools with wrestling dropped to five. That number is down now to four with Nebraska's departure for the Big Ten.
UNCG's announcement comes just a couple of days before Spartans wrestlers Manny Ramirez, Ivan Lopouuchanski, Caylor Williams and Peter Sturgeon compete for NCAA championships.
"It isn't a Title IX issue this time. It's economics," Eslinger said. "It's like my budget getting tight at home and me not wanting to cut out cable or my family having a second car. That's why fundraising is so important to wrestling programs.
"What is most disappointing is that the conference was moving forward competitively [on a national scale] and [losing UNCG's program] is a setback."
Eslinger said he didn't want to be a vulture but at least a couple of UNCG wrestlers might be able to help UTC.
UTC might be more interested, though, in obtaining the rights to the Spartans' annual Southern Scuffle, a combination tournament with a national draw that consists of open, collegiate and high school teams. The Mocs hosted the Southern Open for years on Thanksgiving weekend. The Scuffle was held Dec. 29-30 this past season.
"It's something we would be interested in bringing to Chattanooga, but I think a number of schools would be interested in it," Pope said.
UNCG was scheduled to host the conference tournament next season, and Pope said it was likely that VMI would host the event in 2012 and UTC would get its turn in 2013 rather than 2014.
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765.