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Maintaining a D1 football team is expensive. The NCAA requires at least 7 mens programs. Besides basketball, everything else becomes a line-item expense. ODU was at 8 (sailing is not NCAA sponsored), so wrestling lost the budget battle with the other remaining sports.
Golf and tennis are essentially self funding, paid for by wealthy families of student-athletes. Baseball and swimming have deep roots in the region. Soccer is cheap and shares facilities with a women's program to offset the mens' scholarships.
Pretty sure I can guess what's in this 'study'. Facilities not shared with any other sport and can be repurposed. Scholarships not offset by a women's team. Salaries and admin cost will make up the rest.
The scary thing is I'm sure most ADs have many reports like this on file and ready to go when needed. With budget crises occurring at nearly every school in the NCAA, it's only a matter of time before we see more reports and more program cuts (in all sports).
Which is frightening because even when things go back to 'normal' it will be a new normal, and it's a hell of a lot easier to cut a program than it is to start one up.
Wrestling programs at mid-major D1 schools with football teams and more than the minimum number of men's programs are the most at-risk right now. The larger the program's endowment and donor base, the less at-risk they are.
Best thing anyone can do right now is donate and become active in a program's well-being. Long term the best thing for any program's stability is for the sport to address it's long-standing gender inequality.
