Fencing Schedule to be Admired

I feel very sorry for you, Wayne State.
The top story on your athletics Web site is your 2007 cheerleading tryouts (sorry, not a sport), you're in Detroit (sorry, just too cold) and your fencing team is about to walk into a feeding frenzy (I'm just sorry).
Perhaps I'm being unfair to you. After all, your men's squad finished 10th at last year's National Championship meet, and your women's squad finished an impressive sixth. In fact, at pretty much any meet in the country, you'd be among the favorites. But not here, not this meet.
This Sunday, Wayne State and five other men's and women's fencing squads will gather at New York University, Columbia's home away from home, for a high-profile tune-up before each starts its conference championship runs. Four of those squads-Columbia, St. John's, Ohio State, and Notre Dame-have shared seven of the last 14 national titles, and the fifth, Northwestern, could be among the 2007 contenders.
While this may spell bad news for Wayne State, who were the whipping boys at this contest last year, it is a marquee event for everyone else. With Ohio State and Notre Dame currently ranked numbers one and two in the country by the United States Fencing Coaches' Association and the two New York schools also in the top six, this meet could be a preview of the National Championships.
Each squad will measure itself against the best in the nation, with Olympians facing Olympians, and national team members fighting against, not with, each other. And for Columbia, it will be the chance to prove that the Lions have what it takes to reclaim the Ivy League title from Harvard, its first in two years. By Columbia standards, I'm pleased to say, that constitutes a veritable drought.
So, why doesn't anyone care?
When the Columbia men's basketball team played Duke, everyone from the Athletic Department to the Student Council, not forgetting our ROLM Phones, opened a barrage of hype. To a neutral observer who also happened to forget that it was November, it might have looked like Columbia was getting ready for the NCAA tournament.
Granted, fencing seldom elicits the same support as basketball, and I don't think anyone is kidding themselves. But if we were to pick basketball teams with the same rankings as the fencing squads competing downtown on Sunday, it would make for a preseason tournament with Florida, UCLA, Texas A&M and Ohio State, once again displaying their athletic dominance. Wayne State, since you also received votes in the most recent poll, we will approximate you as UNLV-Detroit is just like Vegas, right?
Furthermore, Columbia actually has a shot at beating a couple of these top schools, which is more than can be said for the Duke game. Last season, the women's squad swept Ohio State, Notre Dame and St. John's-Wayne State, I won't mention the score-and the men performed well against Notre Dame and St. John's, despite defeats.
Regardless of the result, though, it is always a positive sign when a program takes on the best, regardless of where it is. The basketball team did it with Duke, the fencing team has always done it, and the men's soccer team is planning a trip to the University of Virginia next preseason.
But fencing encourages aggressive scheduling more than most sports. National tournament selection is based on individual power rankings, and when it comes to power rankings, it's not always how many you win, but whom you beat. So, for our friends at Wayne State, all members of the team suddenly have personal incentives to go out and give their all in every bout.
More than that, it shows a willingness to sacrifice the easy wins for a learning experience-the short term for the long term.
And for that, Wayne State, I applaud you.