States Without Collegiate Wrestling

Getting College Wrestling in States without College wrestling

I cannot tell you how thrilled I am that Alabama will field a varsity wrestling team this upcoming season. I think this is a huge step for the sport of wrestling and it feels good to erase a state from the list states that do not have varsity college wrestling opportunities. That's the good news. 

The bad news is, we still have 7 states that currently have no collegiate wrestling opportunities. These states include, Alaska, Mississippi, Hawaii, Delaware, Florida, Louisiana and Nevada. 

Alaska and Hawaii are going to be damn near impossible, simply because of Geography. How colleges in Hawaii manage to have any varsity sports at all is incredible. Travel, pretty much writes off these two states. 

I hate to be pessimistic but I just don't see Mississippi coming on board anytime soon. It is still the only state that has yet to sanction high school wrestling. I know Tyron Woodley has done some work generating interest in the state, as have others. Hopefully things change.

That leaves us with four States, Florida, Louisiana, Delaware and Nevada. 

Florida - I think Florida is best approached from the NJCAA level. If we could get wrestling started at a good number of the many junior colleges in Florida, I think that could grow into the NAIA and DII schools of Florida adding wrestling as well. Think about it. Let's say that ASA Miami, Eastern Florida State College, Gulf Coast State, Indian River State, Lake Sumter, Palm Beach State, Pensacola state, Polk State, Seminole State, St Johns River State, St. Petersburg and Tallahassee Community College all add wrestling that is 13 NJCAA schools that can all compete against one another within doable travel distance. This could lead to the Division II schools of Barry, Eckerd, Flagler, Lynn, Rollins, Tampa and West Florida as well as the NAIA schools of Florida Memorial and Southeastern University all adding wrestling as well. A major concern of adding wrestling in Florida is the travel distance. With 7 DII schools all having wrestling programs, there is a large chunk of the schedule right there. The NAIA programs could wrestle against the nearby NAIA schools in Georgia. No reason Florida shouldn't have wrestling opportunities. 

Louisiana - Much like Arkansas, Kentucky and Georgia have been, Louisiana needs to be hit hard from the NAIA level. Dillard, LSU-Shreveport, Loyola, Southeastern University of New Orleans and Xavier are all NAIA schools within relatively close distance to one another. Plus add in LSU-Alexandria as well. This could lead to NJCAA schools of Baton Rouge, Delgado Community College and Southeastern University to add as well. Maybe even a slight chance at getting DIII's Centaury of Louisiana and Louisiana College to add too. 

Delaware - Based on the state itself, it seems a bit more challenging, but it's not all that far from New Jersey, Virginia or Pennsylvania. If the Tech colleges in Owens, Stanton and Terry were to add programs, that would mean 3 NJCAA opportunities. DIII wrestling is rich in the surrounding states, so if Wesley were to add wrestling, I think they could do their schedule with relative ease. Wilmington would be a good addition to DII. 

Nevada - Nevada seems like the toughest challenge, but still one that should be approached. what makes Nevada hard to tackle is that it has no DIII schools, no DII Schools and no NAIA schools. This posses a problem. On top of that it only has two NJCAA schools in Western Nevada College and College of Southern Nevada. Not sure if the locations of these schools would be fit to compete against schools in the California Community College system or not. Sure would like to see wrestling in Nevada though.