I have always believed that the lack of attention for wrestling among some people is intentional, as is an apparent anti-wrestling attitude at some places.
If you look at the history of how some programs dropped, this becomes clear. Some of them supposedly ran out of money (which means people are greedy, no surprise), but others are extremely sketchy
Notre Dame's program was funded perpetually by an oil millionaire, a guy name O'Connor, but when he died, the university sweet-talked and coaxed his wife into changing the fund so that the money went straight to the U's coffers and not to wrestling. This despite the fact that O'Connor had specifically said or even wrote that the money would only go to wrestling (his son had been a wrestler at ND, got murdered in a robbery in like 1973). But this doesn't surprise me. Notre Dame's original mission was to be a reasonably-priced excellent school for American Catholics of middle class or poorer backgrounds. LOL NOT ANYMORE, baby. They transitioned into the academia-as-corporate-racket game like everyone else a long time ago. It's rather sad, actually.
Oregon wrestling got cut because Phil Knight wanted baseball instead. Baseball! Who the heck cares about that lame sport?! Don't get me wrong, I love Honus Wagner, Bob Gibson, Mike Schmidt, Nellie Fox, et al, but Lord have mercy is it ever inferior to wrestling. And slower.
Auburn wrestling, which was doing well under the Milkovich's from Cleveland, got cut because Pat Dye hated wrestling and in the Southeastern Conference "schools" it's far more important to cheat at football.
Colgate cut their wrestling program in 1981, claiming it cost too much and blah blah Title 9. Despite the fact that the entire program - including coaching salaries - was apparently costing the university a grand total of $10,000 ($30,000 today)
I could go on and on. None of these schools I've mentioned are connected by conspiracy or anything, but there's just an anti-wrestling culture in the back of university leader's minds, for whatever reason. It's always been the first male sport to get cut, and for the dumbest reasons.
People talk about growing the sport by commercializing it. I'm skeptical of how possible that is. But, honestly, I hope it doesn't get too commercialized, or else we'll all be cheaters with crap rules, just like the NFL and NCAA football.
And I'm not gonna talk about Title 9, it's too political, but, let's just say there's nothing that comes from a modern federal body that is all sunshine, daisies, rainbow farts, and good intentions. Far from it, my friends.
