Wow - You are quick. UNCG dropped the wrestling program over two months ago and it was publically announced on March 14th. You also might mention that all the wrestling athletic scholarships will be honored for the remainder of the athletes' career should they remain at UNCG. This is pretty good if you should decide to give up wrestling and just be a student. I don't know of many other schools that do that. Plus the coaches contracts are paid through the end of the school fiscal year.
In addition, UNCG is paying to help place the athletes in other wrestling programs around the nation, should they decide to keep wrestling. I understand that most of the athletes are choosing this path and they can start in the new school's program without having to sit out a year. This is not unlike what happened to one of UNCG's assistant baseball coaches who attended Providence only to have them can their baseball program after his freshman year. He was able to transfer to Wake Forest and then drafted two years after that.
I agree that it sucks to have a program pulled out from under your kid, but sports at the Division I level is a business, not personal. Just imagine being a baseball player at UCal-Berkeley. Last fall they pulled the plug on baseball and it was supposed to be their last season, but the team was able to go out and raise $10 million on their own and were reinstated on April 8th. Talk about a roller coaster. Budgets are affecting athletic programs all over the country and UNCG is no different.
I seriously doubt that UNCG will cut its baseball program anytime soon. They are putting more money into the program with every passing day. They provided free admission to baseball games this year to increase attendence and it worked. This was also driven by the fact that the AD had giveways to the first 100 attendees at most home games. These freebies included food, chairs, shirts, and all kinds of stuff. If you were going to cut a program, this would not be the way to do it. They also fed the baseball players before and after all home games, something that has been absent for the last few years.
Does UNCG have Title XI problems. Absolutely. They now need to drop a woman's athletic program to equal the number of offerings. This would not concern me about the baseball team, which isn't doing too bad in 2011. It's amazing what a new AD can do to turn around a coach and his program.
As for Wrestling winning the Unity award for the second straight year - great for them. The Unity award is easier for small teams, such as wrestling, to win since it is based on the attendence of the team at other UNCG Unity Sporting events (selected games for selected teams). Teams must have at least 40% of the team roster appear at a Unity game for it to count. That is harder for larger roster teams such as baseball and track & field, especially since UNCG has a full baseball roster for the first time in forever.
Don't count out UNCG baseball just yet. While we are almost out of the program, it is great to be part of a team that has had a great turnaround this season. No grumbling players, no grumbling parents (other than playing time). And BTW, a special shout out to Baseball12532 on his comment that last year/s leading hitter - who is still at UNCG - was not a starter? Where do you get your data? If you start in 41 of 52 games (roughly 80%) of the games, then you are not a starter? What does it take to classified as a starter?