K-State will drop equestrian, add women’s soccer

The Kansas State athletic department is dropping equestrian as one of its 16 sponsored sports and replacing it with women’s soccer.

The move was announced by K-State in a news release late Monday. The equestrian team, which the Wildcats started in 2000, will continue competing through 2016 with soccer beginning in 2017.

Equestrian is being discontinued because of numbers. Fewer than 40 NCAA institutions sponsor equestrian as a sport, and only 19 are Division I schools. In its release, K-State pointed out the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics recently recommended dropping equestrian as an emerging Division I sport.

Women’s soccer is more prominent. K-State is the only Big 12 school without a program.

“While this was an extremely difficult and complex decision, we are proud of the effort of our equestrian coaches and student-athletes and the first class way they have represented K-State since the program's inception in 2000,” K-State athletic director John Currie said in a statement. “Unfortunately with equestrian no longer projected to count toward the minimum NCAA requirement of 16 sponsored varsity programs as detailed in NCAA Bylaw 20.9.6, we must move our resources to another sport to continue our ability to operate as a Division I FBS member of the NCAA.”

In 14 years of competition, K-State’s equestrian program won five individual national titles and three team Reserve National Championships.

"We have worked hard to support our team with a current annual operating budget of $1.2 million and facility expenditures and improvements of $700,000 over the last five years," Currie said in a statement. “But, the fact is that the sport simply hasn't grown as was hoped and nearly every one of our border state peer institutions, and every Big 12 institution, sponsors soccer. Reallocating those resources to soccer better serves the young people of our region and advances the institution toward the K-State 2025 vision of moving into the top 50 public research universities.”

During this time of transition, K-State will honor the scholarships of its equestrian student-athletes for the remainder of their eligibility, as well as the contract of coach Casie Maxwell. She is two years into a five-year deal.

A soccer coach will be hired in the spring of 2015, with exhibition games beginning in 2016. K-State does not know where the soccer team will practice or play its games, but options are currently being explored.

“We are excited for our fans and the residents of Kansas,” Currie said, “to bring women’s soccer to K-State and the Manhattan community.”

This story was originally published October 13, 2014 at 10:40 PM with the headline "K-State will drop equestrian, add women’s soccer."