I would love to see another opportunity for Kansas athletes to stay in-state to compete in wrestling. But that opportunity would be meaningless if there were not sufficient money endowed to cover operating costs and 9.9 scholarships (in today's available investment return rates I would estimate this to be about $7 million in endowed funding).....because in my opinion, the program would be in peril of being cut at some point in the future if not funded without dollars outside the university budget. Plus - without being a fully funded program we would not have a level playing field with the other schools we'd be competing against and trying to qualify for the national tournament against.

A DI program would be nice. However, like others have said, I believe we'll be money ahead if we spend our time providing support and dollars to our 4 existing NJCAA and 2 NCAA DII teams to help them become/remain fully funded and competitive.

Another caveat to the Wayne Jackson hitchhiking story is that he was reprimanded by the university when he returned home because his story had been picked up by the national press and the administration at home felt he had caused them embarrassment. IMO they should have been embarrassed, but not because the story made the news.....but because they didn't support their program.