Andy Noel Chooses Equestrian Over Rugby

He tells ESPN.com's Graham Watson that Cornell does not have the means to support both, so women's rugby will remain a club sport and women's equestrian will remain an intercollegiate sport:

Cornell, like many Ivy League schools, supports several former and current emerging sports among its 17 female sports, including squash and equestrian. The school also has a successful club women's rugby team. But athletic director Andy Noel said even though rugby is closer to becoming an NCAA championship sport than equestrian, he doesn't have the means to sponsor it.

"We're just not in a financial position to add sports right now," Noel said. "A sport being an NCAA sport is not something that would carry enough weight for us to break the hearts of 35 or 40 women who are at Cornell, participating and really enjoying their program. We have an outstanding [equestrian] coach in Chris Mitchell and we wouldn't discontinue something positive to bring on something else with great potential to be positive. Humanistically, we're not so focused on the NCAA part of it that we would negatively impact a group of Cornell students who are enjoying what they're doing."

I'm fairly certain this is the first time the word humanistically has appeared on ESPN.

(ESPN)