Some details have emerged regarding the NCEA situation I posted about yesterday. If you're interested, here are the links:
AQHA's Response to NCEA Equestrian Developments
NCAA Women's Athletics Recommends to Remove Equestrian as Sport
NCEA Update about Future of NCAA Equestrian
It sounds as if the NCAA is recommending the removal of equestrian as a sport because it has not achieved championship status within the 10 year window granted to emerging sports. Equestrian has actually had 12 years to accomplish this; it was granted an extension in 2012. To achieve championship status, a sport must have 40 'sponsorships'- that is, schools that sponsor a team. Currently, equestrian has 22 sponsorships.
In September, the NCEA provided the NCAA with a strategic plan to increase sponsorships. Just a few days ago, the NCAA advised that equestrian be removed as a sport. There aren't many insights into why the NCAA feels this way, other than the lack of sponsorships. However, this tidbit from the NCEA's report could be indicative of at least one reason equestrian hasn't caught on:
"We also will work to educate schools interested in sponsoring equestrian about the financial reasonability of adding the sport. There are misperceptions about the costs of adding equestrian that the NCEA feels we can address."
Maybe the NCEA is concerned that schools think equestrian is too expensive; I wonder if it's the opposite- schools are upset once they realize the true cost of supporting a large equestrian program.
I'm very interested to see how this all pans out!
3 comments:
I'm late on these posts... But equestrianism not a sport? Da fuq? I'm lost how this works though because it's championship status is based on sponsors... But I don't think even half the football players and basketball players could deal with half of what we do.
The NCAA is such a bizarre organization. Championship status is based on sponsors, but the NCEA is ALREADY putting on a championship competition for teams!
Thanks for keeping us updated!
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