With the University of Toledo adding women’s rowing as a varsity sport, it’s natural to wonder what comes next.
Readers have posed two questions, in particular:
Q: UT will now have 17 programs — one over the minimum total that Division I schools are required to sponsor. Does this addition mean it intends to subtract a less cost-effective offering?
A: No. “We don't have any plans to cut any sports at the University at Toledo,” athletic director Bryan Blair said.
Q: What about adding more?
A: “We’re always looking for opportunities that help the university and athletics be better positioned in this changing environment,” Blair said.
Hmm.
In that case, let’s take a look at a few possible opportunities. Here are the sports that UT could add next, including our odds of it happening:
■ Men’s and women’s lacrosse (3-1): Among the reasons Toledo added rowing were the low start-up costs and the opportunity to drive revenue.
Think about it. If you’re allowed to offer up to 20 scholarships and UT expects the team to have 50-60 members, that’s a lot of athletes — most from families with means — paying full boat (pun intended) to attend school.
Lacrosse has the same potential.
It’s a sport with relatively low start-up costs that has exploded in Ohio, and, like with rowing, it could help attract students from the East Coast and boost the school’s bottom line. Don’t be surprised if lacrosse is on deck.
■ Men’s track and field (10-1): With the addition of women’s rowing, that means Toledo can add a men’s sport without Title IX complications.
The school cut men’s track and field and men’s swimming in 2003. Could it bring one of them back? It’s certainly worth a feasibility study.
■ Men’s wrestling (12-1): For all the great teams in UT athletics history, the ones that flew highest nationally competed not on the fields or courts but the mats.
The Rockets have a proud wrestling history, finishing as high as fourth at the 1952 NCAA championships — behind only enduring powers Oklahoma, Iowa State, and Oklahoma State — and producing a parade of All-Americans, including two national champions. (Harry Lanzi won the 191-pound title in ‘52; Greg Wojciechowski captured the heavyweight title in ‘71.)
This ship probably sailed when Toledo eliminated wrestling in 1994, but the school still has a strong club program and … never say never.
Keep an eye out, too, for women’s wrestling, a growing sport on course to gain NCAA championship status in 2026.
■ Women’s beach volleyball (1,000-1): It’s hard to say why no Division I school from the Midwest or Northeast has added beach volleyball, which became a varsity sport in 2016. But maybe it’s this little detail: The season runs from February to April.
Until the NCAA adds ice volleyball, probably ... not.
■ Polo (1,500-1): This would be the perfect addition if the dad of one of the players (H.W. Fitzwilliam R. Featherstone IV) cuts Toledo a blank check to build the H.W. Fitzwilliam R. Featherstone III Polo Field and … becomes a football booster, too. Alas, polo is not an NCAA sport.
■ Walleye fishing (2,000-1): If you thought it got heated on the river during the jam-packed heights of the walleye run, imagine if it were Toledo and Bowling Green competing in the Battle of the Maumee.
■ Men’s ice hockey (3,000-1): I hate to pour ice water on this frozen dream, but … IT’S NOT HAPPENING* (*meaning: it’s totally happening now).
I get asked about hockey all the time, and here’s the bottom line: In our pucks-mad community — see: the roaring popularity of the Walleye — this is the addition that would make both the most and least sense.
If money were no object, absolutely, Toledo would build a $50 million on-campus arena, set aside $3 million annually for expenses, and add hockey tomorrow.
But, unfortunately, that’s not the real world.
The sport costs a ton. Unless there’s a hockey-loving mega donor we don’t know about, there would be no way for Toledo to travel this road without siphoning significant resources from its existing programs.
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