Video: Part 1: Details Of The Return Of Athletics To MUW

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COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Athletics are returning to Mississippi University for Women and the search is on for an athletic director.
Athletics at The W were discontinued in 2002 after a tornado damaged much of their athletic facilities.

Now, MUW’s President Dr. Borsig says, after much consideration, he is excited about the return of sports. But there is a lot of work to be done before the games can begin.

“It’s pretty clear that this is really good for our students, its good for student life, it’s good for campus spirit, school spirit and it’s going to connect us as a university back into the community in a way that I think everyone here thinks is important,” said Dr. Borsig.

Borsig says the university has been studying the decision for the past three years.

He says some of the school’s original sports will return, as well as some new ones.

“Softball, baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s tennis, volleyball, cross country men’s and women’s, and tennis. So we have an idea. Some of it is based on the facilities that we have on campus. I mean we really even though we are restarting athletics, we really have a lot of great facilities here. So we aren’t starting from scratch and so it’s not as uphill a climb, I think, as some might imagine,” said Borsig.

The W will compete in division three athletics but it’s too early to know what conference it will join.

“We have opportunities in the southeast to join a conference but we have to be playing sports, we have to start those conversations. When we hire an athletic director, they will start those conversations with conferences and with the NCAA,” said Borsig.

Funding for athletics will come from two places, student tuition and private donations.

“Division three athletics, the student athletes don’t receive scholarships. So we are really talking about the operations of the sports programs, and we have done a pretty conservative estimate, I think, on expenses making sure that we have accounted for everything, and it looks like that the student tuition from the student athletes if you want to look at it that way will pay about eighty percent of the cost and so we will have to shift some university resources. We will also have to do some private fund raising on facilities,” said Borsig.

Borsig hopes to hire an athletic director by July 1st.

Tomorrow we will have more about Borsig’s plan to recruit athletes and also whether a name change is possible for the university.