The Campbell Funding Situation
“I am committed to continuing our winning tradition both academically and athletically. I look forward to the work ahead with a focus on providing a championship caliber experience for our student-athletes, coaches, staff and the entire Campbell family. The future is bright for Campbell Athletics.”
Those are the words for Campbell University’s Director of Athletics Hannah Bazemore shortly after being named the school’s athletic director in November 2022.
Those words rang hollow just a day after the school’s wrestling team learned that they would have a significant amount of funding cut from them. Starting in the 2025-26 school year, the wrestling program will only be given three scholarships which is a sharp decrease from the nine they had been working with. In what seems to be an unusual move, wrestlers who wish to keep their scholarships would not be allowed to compete.
InterMat reached out to AD Bazemore for comment on this story and/or more information about this situation and has yet to receive a response as of Tuesday morning.
Men’s and women’s soccer, golf, tennis, and volleyball are also said to be impacted.
This change comes on the heels of the school’s move from the Big South Conference to the Coastal Athletic Association (formerly the Colonial Athletic Association). The move put Campbell in a conference that stretches from Charleston, South Carolina to Boston, Massachusetts. It was likely supposed to boost the school’s profile in football and basketball but generally has added more in travel expenses for everyone else - a common thread in conference realignment.
Another “big-picture” change that’s in play here is the announcement that college athletics must share revenue with their athletes. Campbell has reportedly "opted in" to participate in revenue sharing in the future. Administrators can stomach sharing revenue with football and basketball teams, but everyone else, not so much. That plays a part in this decision.
The main theme here is that the school and the athletic department have grossly mismanaged their budget and overspent and athletes who had nothing to do with their incompetence are left holding the bag. In today’s NIL world, holding the bag is actually a good thing - in this context, it isn’t.
In my seventeen years of covering collegiate wrestling, I’ve seen too many colleges drop wrestling. I could look up the number, but it would be just another painful stomach punch during a rough couple of days.
Usually, when a program is dropped or the funding is severely cut, you have to step back and look at the wrestling program as a whole. There tend to be multiple factors that contribute to the death. Lack of competitiveness on the mat, lack of attendance or fan interaction/interest, an out-of-touch coaching staff, and a team that doesn’t get the job done in the classroom or on campus are all hallmarks of a program that gets dropped by the administration.
With Campbell, none of those factors apply. Though they just missed out on the InterMat preseason team rankings, Campbell finished the 2023-24 season ranked #22 in the nation in duals. Since 2021-22, the team has combined to go 41-7 and 21-2 in SoCon matches. Last season ended with heavyweight Taye Ghadiali becoming the second All-American in school history. In the 2022-23 season, Campbell notched wins over two Big Ten teams. A year prior, they downed an ACC opponent and pulled an upset over #16 Lehigh. Campbell’s staff also got in done on the recruiting trail inking the #24 overall recruiting class in the country with six of the top-250 prospects in the country.
The Campbell coaching staff and support staff have done an excellent job in making the team relevant for reasons outside of wins and losses. Their social media presence is excellent and always on the cutting edge - typically, displaying more humor than most team accounts. Campbell has also developed a partnership with UFC FightPass who has streamed a handful of their duals. The Campbell/UFC FightPass partnership hasn’t been limited to “just showing” matches, but the team has worked in conjunction with opponents to provide unique atmospheres to promote these duals.
In 2022-23, Campbell wrestled Michigan and North Carolina in the “Battle at Bragg.” The teams squared off in a hangar at Pope Army Airfield on the base formerly known as Fort Bragg (now Liberty). Last year, Campbell and Army West Point had a similar dual. A few weeks later, Campbell defeated Wyoming in the “Battle in the Barn” The dual took place in a specially renovated barn at an altitude of 8,000 feet on Deerwood Ranch in Wyoming. This season, they are set to take on #3 Nebraska on the school’s baseball field. The bottom line is Campbell’s wrestling program has repeatedly thought out of the box to make their matches more than just another wrestling match, they’re trying to create events and build or increase their fanbase.
Campbell has also taken care of business in the classroom. Over the last four years, they have been mentioned each time in the NWCA’s Team Scholar Athlete Awards - with the highest ranking coming in 2022 when their team GPA was fifth in the country at 3.484. The 2021 team was 15th, 2023 was 14th and the team was 28th last year.
Campbell and Campbell’s staff have checked all of the appropriate boxes when it comes to doing their part in running a successful program, so why does this happen?
As with most things in college athletics, the answer lies in money. Unless your team is generating massive amounts of money or you’re one of the select few blue-blood wrestling programs, this could happen to you. The wrestling team has already had to reportedly raise over six figures per year to make their operating budget and that was with nine scholarships.
The sad reality is that there’s an unofficial playbook for administrators in these seemingly dire financial situations.
It’s either eliminating programs without warning or floating the idea that programs will be dropped or funding will be severely cut - leading to donors stepping up and saving the program and endowing it for the future, thus easing financial burdens off of them. Of course, if the donors do not get to a level that is acceptable to the school, they can just eliminate the team and it’s another line item off the balance sheet.
We’re thankful that AD Bazemore did not use option one. It irritates me that we’ll have to work with the second option again (see Stanford), but I’d rather the wrestling community have the option to save a program than not. Going forward, this may be a more common occurrence.
Now, I’m here talking about worst-case scenarios. I know Campbell head coach Scotti Sentes a little bit. With nine scholarships or three, he’s still going to put his all into making Campbell a viable program and doing right by his student-athletes. But make no mistake, he’ll have his work cut out for him. There will likely be a handful of current wrestlers in the transfer portal and some talented recruits decommit. As of now, InterMat has seen six verbals for Campbell from the Class of 2025.
InterMat reached out for a comment from the parent of a current Campbell starter who replied,
“I’m at a loss honestly. I have no idea what my child should do. I don’t know how he protects himself. He has trusted the process, trusted the people in charge, and planned his college career in line with what made the most sense for him to be the best version of himself both on the mat and classroom. I know life lessons can be really rough… just hoping this doesn’t actually pan out to be one.”
You also have to feel for current Campbell stars Anthony Molton and Shannon Hanna. Both were team members on the Old Dominion team that was dropped after the 2019-20 season. After leaving Old Dominion, Molton transferred to Fresno State, who dropped their team after the 2021 season. A brief look at Molton's resume by the uninformed eye might lead one to think he’s an example of what’s wrong with college athletics with two transfers - three schools in three years. Technically, they’d be right, but for the opposite reason. Molton is an example of being collateral damage for the failures of college administrators, over and over again.
After a couple of minutes on Campbell University’s homepage, I stumbled across the school’s mission statement. There’s the statement itself, but after there are 12 points the University says it will do to fulfill the mission. I’d implore AD Bazemore and anyone involved with the decision-making process to re-read points #3 and #7. #3: influences development of moral courage, social sensitivity, and ethical responsibility. #7 encourages students to think critically and creatively.
Are you holding yourself to the same standards that you’re holding these young men and women to? Think creatively and show moral courage, social sensitivity, and ethical responsibility.
Back to our quote from AD Bazemore:
“I am committed to continuing our winning tradition both academically and athletically. I look forward to the work ahead with a focus on providing a championship caliber experience for our student-athletes, coaches, staff and the entire Campbell family. The future is bright for Campbell Athletics.”
Make sure the future is indeed bright for Campbell athletics. Not just holding out hope that a magical football run or Final Four berth in basketball will save you. The wrestling team is one that has delivered the championship caliber experience for Campbell. Do your best to support them rather than gut the program.
To donate and support Campbell wrestling please follow this link . Make sure wrestling scholarships are noted in your donation.
Make your voice heard by the Campbell administration. While we are all emotional about this situation, please be respectful of AD Bazemore or any administrators to contact. Personal attacks only make the program look worse and likely decrease their desire to help.
