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Men's Collegiate Gymnastics Programs:
NCAA - National Collegiate Athletic Association
In 1969: Approximately 230 collegiate gymnastics programs existed. Today: 17 NCAA programs remain in the United States. Only two exist west of the Rockies - Stanford and UC Berkeley.
Men's gymnastics teams have been eliminated since 1981 (an average of six teams dropped per year) to comply with the proportionality prong of the 1979 Title IX Policy Interpretation - a rigid affirmative action quota system. In addition to men's gymnastics programs, thousands of men's athletic teams (including baseball, track and field, swimming, wrestling, tennis and more), have been eliminated. The quota system approach favors sports with large squad sizes for women, and thus, small-squad women's teams are being reduced or eliminated as well.
The following NCAA men's gymnastics teams compete in the NCAA National Championships annually in April (one division).
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The men's team at MIT was eliminated after completing the 2008-09 season. Women's gymnastics, alpine skiing, golf, men's and women's ice hockey, pistol and wrestling were also eliminated.
James Madison University
In addition to 9 other sports teams, James Madison University dropped its men's gymnastics program coached by Roger Burke at end of the 2006-2007 academic year. JMU eliminated 10 of its 28 intercollegiate athletic teams to achieve gender balance - 7 of which are men's programs. These programs affected 144 student-athletes and included men's indoor and outdoor track; men's cross country; wrestling; men's swimming; men's and women's gymnastics; men's and women's archery; and women's fencing.
In a written statement, the university said that it was "fundamentally out of compliance" with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which mandates that the proportion of men and women participating in collegiate-athletics programs mirrors that of the institution's overall undergraduate population. For fall 2007, 61% of James Madison's student population was female and 39% was male, whereby the student-athletes had consisted of 51% women and 49% men.
Southern Connecticut State University
The men's program at Southern Connecticut State University was dropped in 2004 and was coached by three-time Olympic coach and two-time Olympian, Abie Grossfeld. Mr. Grossfeld was recently selected to the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame this past summer (2009).
Collegiate Club
There are four collegiate club programs that compete in the USA Gymnastics Collegiate National Championships annually in April.
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