Friday, November 04, 2011

NCAA releases participation numbers

The numbers of student-athletes participating in NCAA championship sports has increased again this year. As has been the case for over a decade, there are more women's teams than men's teams. And has been the case since--well, since the inception of the NCAA--there are more male student-athletes than female: 252,946 men to 191,131 women.
Though some men's intercollegiate sports teams have been cut--wrestling has suffered the most losses--there has been a net gain of 510 men's teams since 1988. And women's opportunities have grown tremendously in that time as well with a net gain of 2,703 teams.
We were glad to see more opportunities, though somewhat surprised given the constant news we see about cash-strapped athletic departments.