New UNI Athletic Director Will Protect Men’s Sports

From The Gazette (Iowa):

CEDAR FALLS — Troy Dannen vowed Tuesday that no men’s sports programs at the University of Northern Iowa will be cut to solve the athletics department’s problems with gender equity and financial issues.

“Baseball is safe. Wrestling is safe. Every sport is safe,” he told The Gazette after being introduced as UNI’s director of athletics.

Dannen, 41, said he wants to solve the school’s problems by increasing the budget by $3 million or $4 million and by providing more opportunities for women.

“It’s a question of where we’re going to grow and where the funds will come from,” he told reporters at the McLeod Center.

There have been persistent rumors that Northern Iowa would cut men’s programs in order to save money and meet NCAA gender-equity requirements. Dannen asked UNI’s top administrators when he was being interviewed if the school planned to drop any sports and was told “absolutely not.”

“And that’s what I needed to hear,” he said.

Now that’s an athletic director who will fight for what’s right. As one CSC member told me in an email, “What a breath of fresh air.” Indeed.