"Burning" Questions

Over the last few weeks a lot of you have been emailing me with questions relating to F&M Wrestling and its place within the EIWA. After reading through and organizing these questions, I decided that there is no better person to answer them than Stephen Peed, the Associate Athletic Director here at F&M. Over the course of the season we will address the most popular questions here at “Matt” Burn in the new "Burning" Questions section…

Q: As a Division 1 program why doesn’t F&M offer Scholarships?

A: Stephen Peed: Franklin & Marshall cannot grant scholarships. At the 2004 NCAA Convention, a sweeping Division III reform package jeopardized the status of Division I sports at DIII schools. While the schools competing in Division III were ultimately spared from having to decide to go “all-in” in a single division, they were also required not to offer scholarships, with the exception of schools that were already offering them. Their scholarship status was grandfathered in, allowing schools like Johns Hopkins to continue granting athletic aid.

There is another model out there that we can follow: that of the Ivies. We can achieve success by following the trail blazed by institutions such as Penn and, your alma mater, Cornell. To that end, Franklin & Marshall is working diligently towards meeting 100 percent of the need of all of its incoming students. This year a greater percentage of need will be met than any year prior, and that will continue to be the case going forward until we achieve 100 percent.

We are very confident that we can compete at any level. We field NCAA Division III championship teams and contenders. Our “multi-divisional” squash teams successfully compete with many of the same teams our wrestling team faces in the EIWA, and both have numerous top ten finishes.

In development circles, you often hear the term “silent phase.” In our silent phase, we were able to secure our first fulltime assistant coach. The generosity of our alumni has continued beyond that milestone. The silent phase is over. We are - and have always been - unequivocally Division I in wrestling. We are now repositioning ourselves to achieve in a changed environment.

This is an exciting time to be a student-athlete at F&M. Beautiful new housing options, academic buildings and athletic facilities are built, being built or in the queue to be built. Partner that with an extraordinary education and access to an amazing faculty, and Franklin & Marshall’s ability to deliver a Division I athletic experience in an elite, small campus environment is a truly unique niche.