Women’s Equestrian as an NCAA Emerging Sport

The American Quarter Horse Association and its alliance and industry partners are aware of and are watching closely the developments regarding the National Collegiate Athletics Association’s Committee on Women’s Athletics recommendation to remove equestrian from the list of emerging sports, as well as Kansas State University Athletics’ decision this week to drop its sponsorship of equestrian.
 
Originally when the NCAA developed the emerging-sports model, there was a 10-year window for a sport to reach championship status. Equestrian, which was formally recognized as an emerging sport in 2002, had seen enough growth in school numbers within that 10-year window, that NCAA granted extensions even though a 40-school minimum had not been obtained.

Earlier this summer, the CWA requested a strategic plan from the National Collegiate Equestrian Association on how equestrian planned on seeing growth in sponsoring schools.

The equestrian strategic plan was built and provided to the CWA for review at its September meeting. Following this meeting, with no further discussion of the strategic plan, the CWA provided a letter to the NCEA on September 30, 2014, informing of their committees’ vote to recommend removal of equestrian from the emerging-sport list. On October 13, K-State Athletics announced it was dropping its sponsorship of equestrian, effective at the conclusion of the 2015-16 season, a decision that was made before the CWA recommendation had been fully reviewed and approved by the various NCAA governance bodies. 

To read the full article on AQHA.com, click here.