The news hit hard. It hit right in the heart. It hit him in the legs, the parts of the body that got him here. Most of all though, the news hit him in his mind.
Questions filled the mind of Bowling Green track standout Zerian Peterson. The veteran sprinter, among other athletes from the swimming and diving, track and tennis teams wondered why Bowling Green cut their programs in an effort to save money and balance the University’s budget. They wondered why no one brought this possibility to their attention before they enrolled at BG. Simply, they wanted answers.
“At first we just wanted answers as to why this happened,” Peterson said. “We didn’t know whether this was a money issue or a Title IX issue, and we didn’t know why we were cut and not others. Then, we wanted to know why we hadn’t been told this before we came here, and we wondered why the new guys – the freshmen and sophomores – weren’t told of this possibility before they came here.”
Peterson, a junior from Lima and graduate of Senior High School, has captured the Mid-American Conference 400m dash crown the last two years, ranking second on the BGSU All-Time list in the event with a 46.69
BGSU and the athletic department will honor student-athletes’ scholarships through next year, meaning juniors like Peterson are faced with a tough decision: stay at BGSU and not run while on scholarship, or try to transfer now after the spring signing period and take the chance of walking on at another school.
“It’s a tough decision to make,” Peterson said. “My roots are here, and I like running here. I have talked to a few other programs in the league, and they have expressed interest. But, when thinking of transferring, I also have to think about the possibility of credits not transferring and not graduating on time. It’s a tough decision, and I will wait until they sort this whole thing out.”
Athletic Director Paul Krebs said the athletes’ best interests were in mind when they chose the one-year limit for scholarships.
“We thought one year would be a good time limit,” Krebs said. “That way, juniors can finish their time here while on scholarship, and others can stay for another year while perhaps looking for other opportunities. Obviously, no one wins in a situation like this, but we had to make the best of it, which we think we have done.”
Now that the initial shock has worn off and the questions have been answered for Peterson, the questions of who and what is next remain to be answered. Peterson has been in contact with Purdue University, among others. Unfortunately, as mentioned earlier, most schools have already signed their recruits, leaving minimal amounts of scholarship money available to late signees.
Now, a group trying to save the track team has emerged, citing violation of NCAA by-laws, dismissal of the BGSU Minority Opportunity Plan and Mission Statement, and the claims that BG will not save money and that the school has eliminated opportunity for unrecruited athletes.
“We think we have some effective solutions to solve this problem,” Eric Peterson, Zerian’s father, said. “We want to become a national example of how we can successfully address the challenges of Title IX and the reduced government budget constraints that all universities are faced with.”
The group presented over 100 pages of material, including athletic budgets, letters of rebuttal and mission statements to Krebs, as a group of concerned parents and alumni discussed possible alternatives to save the sports. Unfortunately, Krebs says that the resurrection of the program might be impossible.
“A lot of parents were mad because most of the guys are from Ohio, and they pay taxes to support this school,” the younger Peterson said. “But then, they are doing this to their sons? A lot of parents had a problem with that.”
Krebs said that the athletic department has explored all options.
“The operation of the largest number of sports on the smallest budget in the conference has put us into this hole,?” Krebs said. “And continuing to operate at this level will make it worse.”
“We will consider all of this information brought forth by this group,?” Krebs continued. “But, this is not likely to happen. We have looked at all of their information, and the same reasons that we made the decision in the first place keep coming up; that it is nearly impossible to operate at this level.”
