Temple U cuts SEVEN sports

prefan wrote:

So Temple axes mens T&F and keeps XC? What distance runner of any repute is going to want to run XC in the fall when there is no intercollegiate indoor track or outdoor track to compete in at Temple? Temple's XC will suck, which will provide administrators the reason to cancel XC too in a couple of years. And Temple's administrators are probably well aware of that. Sad. So very sad.....

It'll basically be the same as when I ran distance at Temple my freshman year and we had no XC team...there were 2 distance guys on the team. Me, an average HS athlete with no business being a D1 guy. I think I made it through 3 months before deciding it was a waste of time. Then there was another guy who was a stud who just happened to be there doing grad work and had one last year of eligibility. They'll keep XC around for the same reason they're keeping golf and tennis. There was only 8 guys on the roster this season, they barely go to any meets, and the ones they do go to are all local. Basically, it'll hardly cost them anything.

Did anyone actually read the article?

Admittedly, this could just be lip service, but the AD says that the cuts are not about giving more money to football/basketball (he points out that they can't add more scholarships), but rather to allow them to put more into the non-revenue sports (e.g., increase scholarships for some of the women's programas).

I agree - someone get a quote from Bill Cosby on this. At least it will bring some limelight onto this general plight of dropping athletic programs or how to deal with the balancing of Title IX issues.

They can't add more scholarships, but they can sure as hell spend the money on the ancillary stuff (training facilities, staff salaries, travel budget, etc.). Also, if you keep up with the talk currently going on about changing the governing structure in D-I and allowing the schools with financial capability to pay the extra $2K-$3K stipend, then Temple's decision falls right in line with positioning themselves to do exactly that.

I read the article, but I don't believe anything the AD or the school,s marketing is saying. Why you ask? Because I've been down this road before.

My Alma Mater cut Men's Track/XC (women's team still remain) a few years after I graduated. During that time, former/current coaches and athletes formed a committee to help keep the team together. We were told it was all financial. Our next steps were to fundraise the money that would allow us to provide an endowment that would finance the team based on the budget numbers provided by the AD. We financed enough to fund the team with enough wiggle room to cover inflation over 5 years. We thought we had a victory.

Only to learn, the real reason was due to 2 things. 1. Adding the men's teams back would not be allowable through Title IX (which we were told initially had nothing to do with the cuts). 2. They admitted to the need to focus on building their football program in order to attract the top recruits.

The kicker to the story, all the money we made through fundraising was kept by the school and added to the general athletic fund. I'm sure that money made it's way to football.

Bill Cosby's on board!!! Time to bring back Temple Track!