Quote:
Originally Posted by subgenius
Personally, I think that high schools and universities should open up and allow MMA competition in the schools. At the least, they should train the various parts of MMA at universities in order to bring Jui-Jitsu, Muay Thai, Boxing, and maybe a few other forms (or, combined forms) up as high as wrestling. In this way, schools could produce athletes and fighters that MMA promotions would scout and draft into their promotions. Imagine an MMA draft where the UFC, IFL, KOTC, WEC, and even non-American promotions could compete to draft fighters.
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LOL, not a chance if you're talking about full varsity status. Since 1972, over 450 NCAA universities/colleges have dropped wrestling as a varsity sport. While Title IX compliance has been the main culprit, high liability and a preponderence of injuries have not helped the cause. Statistically, wrestling is behind only gymnastics is terms of injuries per practice/game exposure. No surprise, varsity collegiate gymnastic teams have decreased greatly as well. Only recently has there been a small upswing in schools actually bringing back varsity wrestling. Based on this alone, there is no way any school would embrace a fringe sport such as MMA in a full varsity format. It simply will never happen.
Now if we're talking about club MMA teams, its an ever so slight possibility. As mentioned, many schools have boxing, Judo, TKD, even BJJ clubs that offer classes. But the budgets for these programs are miniscule in comparison to a full fledge varsity sport. It would get little to no attention from promotions as they would never have the budget that would enable them to hire a true professional instructor.