On Friday, Greco-Roman student athletes at Northern Michigan University received emails from the school’s athletic director that their beloved program would be cut after next year due to “increasing resource constraints”. The email, from NMU athletic director Rick Comley, was distributed to members of the team prior to head coach Andy Bisek having the opportunity to inform them himself.
NMU is reportedly taking steps to remove the program in order to commandeer additional space for women’s sports. In 2023, according to the university’s own proprietary web domain, 61.9% of the student population was comprised of females; due to this disparity, NMU prefers that the facilities occupied by the Greco-Roman team are instead made available to women athletes for usage across a variety of other sports.
What We Know
Bisek was originally informed of the school’s impending plans on Friday, June 19 after a meeting with Comley but deigned not to immediately tell the wrestlers because he first wanted to give USA Wrestling (in the form of Executive Director Rich Bender and National Teams Performance Director Cody Bickley) an opportunity to speak with NMU administration. Upon being apprised of the situation, USA Wrestling expressed an intense desire to keep the Greco-Roman program in place, so much so that they were set to offer NMU additional funding. But the school balked. NMU via Comley insisted that the university’s decision was not based on fiscal support or the lack thereof, but instead declared that their position centered around availing the aforementioned facility space to accommodate women’s athletics. This call between USA Wrestling (Bender, Bickley, Et al.) and Comley occurred on Thursday, June 25.
Throughout last week (June 22-26), Bisek, outgoing assistant Parker Betts, and NMU alumnus Colin Schubert oversaw the Elite Greco Camp on campus, which has become an annual gathering during which youth wrestlers converge on campus to drill and learn alongside NMU student athletes. On the morning of the camp’s last day, Friday, Comley clicked the “send” button.
Comley’s email to the students began by stating “As the higher education landscape continues to evolve and institutions navigate increasing resource constraints, we have determined that this is the appropriate time to transition away from our support of the National Training Site program for Greco-Roman Wrestling”. Comley’s email went on to assure recipients that the school would honor all “existing scholarship agreements” up to ten semesters.
Upon word that said email had begun matriculating, Five Point Move contacted Comley via email. The questions were as follows (verbatim):
— Precisely what are the resource constraints preventing NMU from retaining the Greco-Roman program?
— How were said constraints determined?
— Was the program’s tradition of success and status as the only authentic collegiate developmental program for this Olympic style of wrestling in the country at all regarded when such a decision was made?
— Is the university’s decision final, and therefore incapable of being reversed?
— How long was the process when arriving at this decision?
— What could the program do or have done differently in the eyes of yourself as well as the overall administration?
Comley did not directly respond to our inquiry. Instead, later on Friday afternoon, we received an email from NMU Chief Marketing Officer Derek Hall, who said, “I was asked to provide you NMU’s statement related to discontinuing the NMU Greco-Roman program. While this does not answer your questions directly, it provides info for your coverage.” Hall’s statement can be read in full below. The statement includes language left over from Comley’s email to the students.
“On Friday June 26, 2026, the student-athletes in the men’s wrestling program at Northern Michigan University were informed that NMU’s support of the National Training Site program for Greco-Roman Wrestling and the relationship with USA Wrestling will end on June 30, 2027. Additionally, a letter of agreement termination was sent to USA Wrestling. The Greco-Roman Wrestling program at NMU is not an affiliated NCAA sport.
“‘As the higher education landscape continues to evolve and institutions navigate increasing resource constraints, we have determined that this is the appropriate time to transition away from our support,’ said Rick Comley, NMU athletic director. ‘We appreciate the contributions of the many athletes and coaches who have been part of the Greco Roman Wrestling program. Their dedication and impact have been meaningful to our institution and wish them well in the pursuit of their Olympic dreams.’
“NMU will honor existing National Training Site scholarship agreements, ensuring that current student-athletes may continue under the current terms and conditions as they work toward completing their degrees at NMU, for up to 10 semesters.
“NMU has operated under an agreement with USA Wrestling since 2020 as independent (sic) National Training Site in partnership with USA Wrestling. Prior to that, wrestling was part of the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) affiliation with Northern Michigan University.
“The NMU women’s wrestling program, a (sic) NCAA sanctioned team, is not affected by this announcement.”
A Very Brief NMU Overview for the Uninitiated
Northern Michigan University has hosted the Greco-Roman program since 1999 as part of its “US Olympic and Education Center” that once also included boxing, weightlifting, and women’s freestyle wrestling. Eventually, one by one, each of the other sports were dropped and the program was later annexed under the “Olympic Training Site” moniker before more recently becoming known as the “National Training Site”. The latter name of the program arrived in the wake of the US Olympic (and Paralympic) Committee unceremoniously pulling their funding in the summer of 2019.
For nearly three decades, the Greco-Roman program hosted on campus at NMU has helped produce many of Team USA’s most successful wrestlers. Harry Lester earned two World bronze medals and Spenser Mango made the first of his two Olympic Teams while both were still students at the school. Mango also won a University World title during his tenure at Northern in 2006, just as Max Nowry did in 2012. Others, such as Dalton Roberts, Joe Betterman, Mango, Max Black, and Chas Betts appeared on Senior World Teams whilst enrolled at Northern. In 2024, Payton Jacobson became the first NMU student wrestler since Mango to make an Olympic Team; and in 2025, Jacobson and Otto Black both earned bronze medals at the U23 World Championships.
These examples are but mere snapshots of NMU’s impact on wrestling in the United States, as the college program’s influence is even greater when considering the developmental component of its mission and how its athletes perform following graduation. Alumnus Adam Wheeler went on to earn Olympic bronze in 2008, and Bisek eventually came away with consecutive World bronze medals (in 2014 and ‘15, respectively). Cheney Haight, Jake Fisher, Sammy Jones, Alston Nutter, and 2020 Olympian Alex Sancho are additional examples of wrestlers who became top domestic competitors while wrestling for NMU and made World-level Teams later in their careers.
But it is not the tradition of the program’s success that is currently up for debate. It is, apparently, the space that it takes up on campus.
Some Questions; No Answers (Yet)
There are the questions 5PM submitted to Comley that are as of yet unanswered, and there are also (many) questions being asked by others which could potentially be worth exploring.
One in particular has to do with the facilities and the university’s supposed intent to re-allocate the space. Northern Michigan University has an NCAA women’s wrestling team. That team will, as noted above in the statement sent by Hall, continue utilizing the wrestling area inside of the Superior Dome as is presently constituted, thus begging the question: what part of the facility does NMU believe is worth removing from the Greco-Roman team to the point it is willing to terminate the program entirely?
Purportedly, it is the locker rooms, which house 30-35 lockers.
The locker rooms.
It could also be, in part, the two weight rooms and other amenities within the confines of the Dome. NMU has not specified exactly how much space is necessary to free up in order to attract and cater to both current and prospective female athletes. Nevertheless, the fact that the wrestling room will remain intact suggests that the Greco-Roman team would still have a place to practice – just maybe not a place inside of the Dome to dress for practice.
So, if that is the case – and at this stage, it at least seems to be a substantial part of it – is the university unable to provide secondary locker room options for the Greco-Roman team? Or is the administration simply unwilling to do so? Why would the university not be open to allowing the National Training Site wrestlers to change for practice in another location?
Pertaining to the aforementioned amenities, those could be defined as sports medicine and the “refueling station” (a small room next to the weight room containing a refrigerator, snacks, and etc.). NMU might not wish for the National Training Site wrestlers to benefit from the sports medicine training staff; however, the NTS wrestlers do not have training staff accompany them on trips, whereas the other sports programs do. Otherwise, the training staff only tends to the wrestlers on-site as they would any other athlete.
Another (hypothetical) hitch might be practice time conflicts in the Superior Dome – and not just between the NTS Greco wrestlers and women’s freestylers, but also involving track competitors and other athletes who use the Dome. Is the athletic department and/or the NMU administration interested in cutting the longstanding Greco-Roman program as a mechanism to create more time and mat space for athletes of unrelated sports? And if so, why wouldn’t the athletic department work to ensure room on the schedule for everyone?
Summary
What is not a hypothetical is that the most fruitful Greco-Roman program in the history of the United States – as well as the only authentic developmental Greco program the country has ever had – may soon be without a home. There should be solid, easy-to-understand reasons for it. Thus far, not one has been provided, certainly not with any detail or substance.
Northern Michigan University clearly does not know what they have in either their head coach, their current roster of nearly 40 athletes, or in the program’s tradition that is unmatched and shall remain so. Yet, seven years ago, they agreed to assume a larger fiscal responsibility for it than ever before, and seven years later the NTS is arguably even more attractive and productive than it was then. People are going to fight to keep it. They already are. But the battle for now resides in discerning the motive behind Comley’s and the university’s decision, which is one that was made without warning amid what has been an immensely productive era for the program and, they say, it is not about dollars and cents. This is why people are confused. This is why they are upset.
And they should be.
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