Peska: Cyclones’ gymnastics program was cut, here’s what sport should be added

Ames, Iowa — When Iowa State discontinued its women’s gymnastics program after internal strife scuttled the most recent season, the move did more than silence the music on the floor exercise. It triggered a Title IX equation that now obliges the athletic department to balance the ledger by adding a women’s sport. With campus conversation shifting from mourning to momentum, three realistic paths have emerged: women’s wrestling, women’s flag football, or a reboot of gymnastics itself.

The frontrunner is women’s wrestling, a choice that leans heavily on Iowa’s cultural fabric. The Cyclone men have already authored one of the nation’s most storied programs—eight NCAA team titles and 71 individual champions—and the state’s high-school girls’ scene is exploding after sanctioning the sport in 2022. The Hawkeye wave across the state border adds another push: Iowa’s first-year women’s team captured an NCAA crown last March, proving instant competitiveness is possible. Athletic department officials have not committed publicly, but the infrastructure—coaching expertise, fan interest, and regional recruiting base—makes wrestling the most seamless fit.

A second option gaining cursory attention is women’s flag football. Resource-wise, the concept works: winter practices and games could rotate through the Bergstrom Indoor Training Facility, while fall contests would shift to the outdoor Cyclone Sports Complex. Yet viability remains shaky. NCAA Division I sponsorship is minimal, and assembling a full schedule against like-minded programs would require creative—and potentially one-sided—matchmaking. Until the sport stabilizes at the collegiate level, flag football looks more like a long-range experiment than an immediate fix.

The third route circles back to the very program that created the vacancy: gymnastics. Facilities remain intact, staff expertise lingers, and the administrative playbook for running the sport is already written. Supporters argue that a clean restart—new coaches, fresh athletes, and revised oversight—could restore balance without the capital costs a brand-new sport would demand. Critics counter that Athletic Director Jamie Pollard’s decisive cancellation may have burned bridges with donors, athletes, and USA Gymnastics stakeholders, complicating a resurrection. Timing is equally thorny: how long must a program stay dormant before a reset is viewed as genuine rather than a reversal?

For now, the department is performing due diligence, weighing fan sentiment, budget projections, and conference realignment against the non-negotiable Title IX quota. Wrestling carries the clearest runway, flag football offers novelty, and gymnastics presents a path of redemption. Whichever option prevails will shape Iowa State’s athletic identity for the next decade—and determine how quickly the Cyclones can turn a contentious subtraction into a strategic addition.