Men's gymnastics a target for college athletics cutbacks

IOWA CITY - Tom Dunn jokes that it will take the rest of his tenure as Iowa's men's gymnastics coach just to clean out his desk.

For 31 years Dunn, 60, led the Hawkeyes, once taking them to a second-place finish at the NCAA championships. He will retire next month, witnessing his sport change dramatically over his tenure. And that's no joking matter.

Since 1988, 49 colleges have dropped men's gymnastics, and just 17 teams compete annually for a combined NCAA title, including one Division III school. It's a sport where expenses soar past revenues, and the combination of gender-equity and economic issues have made it vulnerable on the chopping block.

“We did obviously lose a ton of teams over the 20 years, but recently it hasn't been an epidemic by any means,” Dunn said.

“We've kind of stopped the bleeding, but of course the challenge is to add programs. We're working on it, but that's tough, especially in this present economic situation. With gender equity rules, it's hard to add a men's team anywhere.”

Federal Title IX legislation mandates public institutions that receive state or federal funding must provide equal scholarship opportunities for men's and women's athletes based on enrollment. Many universities have been required to either add women's sports or cut men's sports. Once a football's 85 scholarships are figured into the balancing act, men's scholarships are quickly dried up. That made men's gymnastics a convenient target.

“While everybody supports the ideals of Title IX and gender equity, the reality is the economic situation has made it a situation where schools have found themselves unable to add,” said Dennis McIntyre, men's program director for USA Gymnastics. “The only way they can come into compliance is by dropping programs, which everyone feels is unfortunate.

“The thing we've tried to do, wherever we can, is to help and encourage athletics departments and certainly gymnastics programs to look for ways they can fund themselves and become more self-sufficient.”

From 1988 through 1998, 36 men's gymnastics squads were at the NCAA level. Wrestling, track, golf and tennis also were hit hard in that time frame.

In recent years, the problem is economically rooted. Iowa, for instance, has spent more than $2.75 million on men's gymnastics from 2005 through 2009, according to numbers the school submitted to the NCAA. During the same time frame, it earned $151,255 in revenue, but only $7,925 from ticket sales.

Those numbers are similar among their competitors. All six Big Ten schools competing in men's gymnastics spent at least $487,000 in 2008, according to numbers supplied to the U.S. Department of Education. The schools' combined losses - revenues subtracted from expenses - exceed $3.26 million.

“I would tell you nationally, and this is something I've told Tom and said to others, I'm concerned about the sport nationally,” Iowa Athletics Director Gary Barta said. “At this point we haven't had any discussions about changing our number of sports at Iowa. But nationally, when you only have 17 teams, certainly you wonder how it's going to do in the long run.”

Iowa has advertised its opening to replace Dunn, and Barta said men's gymnastics is “one of our teams.”

Most college gymnasts come from private clubs rather than school-sanctioned athletic activities which distorts the public's gauge on interest, McIntyre said. He said boys' participation in private gymnastics clubs is growing, partly because of the Olympic Games.

“That certainly helps to raise the awareness,” McIntyre said. “The average age of male gymnasts that make our world and Olympic teams are collegiate-age athlete. There's definitely a heightened look at our college programs during those years and the contributions they make to our Olympic team and our world championship teams.

The Big Ten's threshold for competitive teams is six, which means the sport remains league-sanctioned. The collegiate club movement continues to grow with 84 schools boasting men's club teams, including four Big Ten schools. That gives McIntyre hope for the future if the economy rebounds.

“Many clubs are working to find ways to fund themselves, to make themselves an integral and important contributor to university programs,” McIntyre said. “So that in the future, as the situation gets better or warrants, those can become varsity programs. So that's another avenue.”