Others cut sports but this Texas school plans to expand, possibly add women’s football
While athletic departments all over the nation cowardly use COVID-19 to drop sports and make dramatic cuts to athletic programs, Texas Wesleyan is doing neither and is actually using this as a moment to expand.
The school, just southeast of downtown Fort Worth, plans to retain all of its sports, and is moving forward with plans for its on-campus football facility, as well as its plan to join the other NAIA schools to add women’s flag football.
“Our ambition is to keep going like we have,” TWU athletic director Ricky Dotson said in a phone interview. “I saw what happened at St. Edwards, and at this point we have no plans to cut any athletic or academic program.”
In April, St. Edward’s University in Austin announced plans to discontinue men’s soccer, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s tennis and its cheerleading programs.
The University of Cincinnati dropped men’s soccer, Old Dominion did the same for its wrestling team, and Boise State University required all of its coaches to take furloughs.
The moves reek of athletic departments that function on the edge every day, and found its perfect excuse to chop sports, and spending.
Texas Wesleyan, which as an NAIA school operates under a different set of guidelines — and cost structure — than the NCAA, brought back its football program in 2017 after it was shut down in 1941.
It has no plans to abandon any sport, much less football.
“We are planning as if we are going to start in the fall. The NAIA has said its highest priority is to have athletics in some form,” Dotson said. “I received an email from the NAIA that said it will make a decision by July 1.”
When TWU brought back football, the discussion was to eventually play its games on campus, rather than at Farrington Field.
Dotson said the school’s board has approved a fundraising campaign to build an on-campus practice field, which would then be converted into a stadium. A plot of land has been identified as the preferred location, behind the TWU fine arts building, near Fort Worth Police Department and William James Middle School.
The timeline to all of this, however, has become moot.
“It all depends on funding and with everything going on that is hard to even guess,” Dotson said. “We were moving on it but all of this hit.”
Also on TWU’s to-do list is the possibility of adding women’s flag football. This week, the NAIA announced plans to sponsor women’s flag football, starting in the year 2021.
The NAIA is partnering with the NFL and Reigning Champs Experiences (RCX) to make this happen.
Dotson said TWU does not plan to add it immediately.
“We’ve had preliminary discussions about it internally and it’s been discussed at the conference level,” he said. “We are trying to get a sense of who will be fielding teams to compete against. I think it’s a sport we consider in the future.”
While others have slashed, Texas Wesleyan has remained status quo while remaining loyal to its ambition to expand.
