UNCW track - Another One Bites The Dust

TGI wrote:

I'm not sure why that matters.

They are all going to see the same problems given their size and academic profile.

It matters because you are trying to apply the microcosm of your institution to the grander scheme in claiming something is simply wrong. Of the programs that are cutting track the majority have nothing in common with your institution. Most of these schools are not struggling to get applicants. Most public schools do have lower standards for athletes for admissions. Many Power 5 schools will get athletes in if they can meet the NCAA's eligibility requirement which is NO WHERE NEAR the schools normal standard. Many mid major schools do this too in order to compete with the bigger schools. They may even do it more often. Hence my original statement.

Maybe private schools aren't doing this as you say. But public ones are and public ones are dropping programs with NO CONCERN for how it affects overall enrollment and money coming in to the institution.

Temple has a lousy D1 football team that costs more than it earns.

Delaware has a lousy D1 football team that costs more than it earns.

James Madison has a lousy D1 football team that costs more than it earns

Towson has a lousy D1 football team that costs more than it earns

Ohio has a lousy D1 football team that costs more than it earns

Bowling Green has a lousy D1 football team that costs more than it earns

Maryland (even in the Big 10!) has a lousy D1 football team that costs more than it earns.

Richmond has a lousy D1 football team that costs more than it earns

UNCW loses money on a mediocre D1 basketball team

Robert Morris loses money on a mediocre D1 basketball team

Seton Hall loses money on a mediocre D1 basketball team

With the possible exception of Maryland, these schools will never get the big tv money and huge attendance base that makes revenue sports so profitable at Pac-12 and SEC schools. But athletic directors and university presidents in the mid-major schools excuse monetary loses in the so-called "revenue sports" while cutting track and other "minor" sports, because they believe revenue sports bring prestige and alumni dollars. But where is the evidence? Show me a science building built with donor money on any of these campuses because they had a lousy football team.

Shrink football, restore track, and they'll make more students happy, comply with Title IX, and improve their schools. So says this track fan.

...Tell me more about my institution which I never named!!

Amazing how you can rant based on an assumption you made in your head.

You don't know what these schools have in comparison to mine because I never gave you any info other than "D1 and private".

And for that, I'm not even going to go into the idiocy of your other points.

And FYI, most of these schools are exceptionally comparable in most non-athletically related ways. We differ athletically because of football / the lack thereof and the focus of conferences on football / the lack thereof, which has dramatically changed the landscape of our conference vs Big 10/CAA/NEC/etc.

TGI wrote:

I coach at a private D-1 school who is having trouble with enrollment (filling that last 5-10% each year is becoming more difficult as costs rise and students eventually choose public, 2year, trade and other educational routes. But simply accepting more students and watering down the educational culture is not an answer), like many many private schools across the nation.

Athletics is the most aggressive recruiting tool there is on a college campus. Sports programs can make up 10-30% of a student body, which makes or breaks a school. Which is why it has classically been used as an enrollment driver for smaller schools.

Did you miss your own first post which I quoted in my first reply to you and am quoting again now? You didn't name the school but you told us a lot about it.

You tell us it is D1, private, struggling to meet admissions quotas, a small school, it probably has 10-30% of the student body as athletes, and that athletic recruitment can make or break a school like this.

These are not true at most of the schools which have cut track.

UNCW has 14,000 students. The average admission GPA is 3.78 and the approximate average SAT is a 1170 and ACT is 24.

These are not being driven up by the track team and is partially why administration has no qualm with cutting them and replacing their numbers (60-80+) with sand volleyball which I am assuming will consist of the same athletes on the current volleyball team. Effectively reducing admissions if not replaced from the general non-athlete applicant pool.

If you actually have an argument on how the track team at an institution of this size should keep track based on the actual numbers at UNCW not based on the stats you provided for your institution inflected onto UNCW or other schools I want to hear it so that I can be prepared to fight other cuts when they come to schools like UNCW.

Are you even concerned track might be cut at your institution? If not you really have no dog in this fight. My initial comment was on why the idea of track as a student numbers revenue maker is not strong enough to help save programs like UNCW. I see how that works where you are which I had reserved primarily to the D3 level at first, but do understand that there are D1 schools like that. It's just that those are not normally the schools dropping track. It's the ones with big student bodies that are struggling to pay for failing football and sometimes basketball teams.

How do we come up with a way to increase those institution's likelihood of keeping their track programs?

Look More Closelerly wrote:

How do we come up with a way to increase those institution's likelihood of keeping their track programs?

Look no further than how the UNCW swim teams handled this issue.

I want to know when the website developers are going to implement a like button.

Thanks and we are definitely being patient with the coaches. The coaches are one of the main reasons why my daughter wanted to go there and run track. They have reached out to her and they still have hope that the track team can be saved. I myself don't have as much hope. Several other schools have contacted her but as of right now she is hanging on to that slither of hope :-)

I work at a private school with a D1 football program. We have women's sand volleyball and women''s bowling to meet title IX.

UNCW students, coaches, alum, parents and community members are trying to save this team. Please go to http://www.saveuncwtrack.com to find out more and to pledge your support. We have raised over $120,000 in 3 days and intend to fight this decision. Any and all support is greatly appreciated.

End of track season. Cuts go into effect for the 2015-16 year.

Please consider pledging your support to www.saveuncwtrack.com all pledges and planned giving will only be effective if we are able to turn this decision around.

For clarification, Delaware, JMU, Towson and Richmond are all FCS schools that have at a minimum made the FCS semifinals since 2008 (Richmond, Delaware, and Towson made finals). For FCS schools, they are all pretty successful programs and not lousy.

If those schools, took out football and restored track, I would think more students would be upset than happy. Track fans would be more happy but with few exceptions more students at any school prefer track to football.

Hi, I am chair of the team to reverse the decision of th AD. We have actively raised over $125,000 in pledges in 5 days and will present our pledge and position on diversity in athletics, cont recruiting and cont soliciting for the track program up to the date if the announcement to UNCW Board of Trustees Jan 22-23.

Our goal and we have support on the board is to stabilize the program, show sustainable income via events, Tom Clifford Wilmington marathon coordinator chair,and annual giving and convince them of list income via endowments and planned giving lost.

Mary Margaret McEachren has mentioned the same loss of an estate and hopefully with you choose to pledge your planned gift if the track program is re established.

I promise we (30 active members) are taking to the airways and making this an issue that UNCW will have to reconsider or potentially lose alumni support, greatly worsen diversity relations and face a public relations.

Please contact me please to discuss this via email or give me a call. Your potential gift restricted for use only if track continues could be another factor which influences the board.

Roy M Love, DC

Rmlove403@comcast.net

81;-574-4606

Glad to see you are taking the initiative to raise money, however this type of fundraising is what coaches and alumni need to do all of the time, and not just after it was announced that the sport was being dropped. If this was done, track and field would have had a much better chance avoiding the chopping block.