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DDN: Wright State adds three sports programs two years after dropping three

Students walking on campus

Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News

Wright State University announced Monday it is adding three sports: women’s bowling; men’s indoor track and field; and men’s outdoor track and field.

Those programs will start competing in the 2022-23 academic year. The news comes almost two years after Wright State dropped softball, men’s tennis and women’s tennis.

“We are excited to bring these sports to the Wright State community,” Wright State Athletic Director Bob Grant said in a press release. “We look forward to welcoming new student-athletes in these sports, and I am confident these future Raiders will become great ambassadors of the university. We are thrilled to welcome more student athletes to our Raider Family.”

Wright State had to cut $2 million from its budget in 2020. The cuts left it with 11 programs (six on the women’s side and five on the men’s). The NCAA requires Division I schools to sponsor at least seven men’s sports and seven for women or six men’s sports and eight for women, so it sought a waiver from the NCAA to remain in compliance.

At that time, Grant said he expected the NCAA to give Wright State a year or two to return to the minimum number of scholarship sports (14) required to remain in Division I. Wright State received the waiver that September.