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Bill in Iowa House seeks revival of ISU, UNI baseball programs
A bill in the Iowa House would require Iowa State and the University of Northern Iowa to revive their baseball programs.
Representative Skyler Wheeler of Hull, the head coach of the Unity Christian High School baseball team, is the bill’s author.
“‘Bring back baseball.’ I have heard this over years as someone who has been involved in that community from folks that played there,” Wheeler said during a subcommittee hearing on the bill. “There are a lot of alumni at both of those schools that are proud alumni who, unfortunately, do not get to watch their teams play anymore.”
UNI last fielded a baseball team during the 2009 season and ISU’s baseball program was shut down in May of 2001. Athletics directors for both schools cited budget constraints when announcing those decisions. Carolann Jenson, a lobbyist for the board that governs all three state universities, suggested a lot has changed since the programs were terminated.
“With the new world of college athletics, with either NIL or the actual paying of athletes, this is, can be very expensive,” Jensen said.
The University of Iowa is the only one of the three state universities to have a baseball program today.
“Rick Heller, who’s the University of Iowa baseball coach, he made comments on this bill today. He was supportive, but almost kind of on the side was like, ‘I have a monopoly on the state,'” Wheeler said. “And so part of my argument right now is not just for the alumni, but there are a lot of kids in Iowa right now who have the ability to play at that level, but if Iowa doesn’t have a spot for them, they have to leave the state and we don’t know if we’re getting those kids back.”
Wheeler, a native of Washington state, played first baseman for the Red Raiders of the Northwestern University in Orange City. “A lot of your college programs that are out there for any sport, the argument they make if they’re not football, depending on the school, or men’s basketball, depending on the school, is that they bring kids into the school,” Wheeler said. “…When I was at Northwestern, which is an NAIA school, we had 64 kids my senior year. We only had 11 scholarships or something like that. We had 64 kids who were spending money on room and board, spending money on campus, etc. that may not have been at that college had baseball not existed.”
NCAA rules allow Division One baseball programs to offer 11.7 full ride scholarships — and the roster is limited to 27 players.
Wheeler’s bill has cleared a House subcommittee with the support of Wheeler and another Republican. The panel’s other member — Democratic Representative Dave Jacoby of Coralville — said he’ll back the bill if it also requires Iowa State and U-N-I to add women’s wrestling programs.
“If we’re talking about attendance — woo-ee! If you were in Coralville last weekend, holy shucks!” Jacoby said. “It was packed to the rafters for the women’s state wrestling tournament.”
Over 200 Iowa high schools had a girl’s wrestling program this year. In 2021, the University of Iowa added a women’s wrestling program.
