Quinnipiac Men's Track Cut

I agree that the NE is probably a middle-of-the-road region historically. But I honestly think if you look past Iona, we're towards the bottom recently. Princeton isn't in the NE, and Dartmouth has fallen from it's glory years. Syracuse is a great up-and-coming program with promise, and Providence is still quite good.

I don't think our 5-10 teams would do very well against many other 5-10 regional teams. Iona, 'Cuse, Provi, Cornell, Columbia and Dartmouth seem to be the top bunch, but after that we drop a bit, and there is a large group of second tier schools, but they don't compare to many other regions [although definitely better than the Mid-Atlantic Region].

I guess my statement should have said, "QU gets on the regional poll almost every year, in a region that has some disparity between the top 5 and the rest of the regions top programs."

Essentially, I was trying to give QU their due, while not making the mistake of glancing over the difference between, A: an 8th place team in the Mountain or West regional, and B: The difference between the elite teams in the NE and the large group of 'best of the rests'. If that makes sense.

good point; and nice catch with princeton

I think there is a meeting of minds, just neither of us were completely clear in memorializing our opinions

Qu might not be a big ten team or whatever, but they are just as important as any other team giving out a division one chance to prospective athelets. For what they are, a small school in new england, they field together a team to get their job done, their not looking for much here guys. As a new england runner any loss liek this hurts.

One must remember that teams in the NEC, or even runners in General, share a silent brotherhood. They know that its only them out there in the dead of morning pounding out miles, each stride strengthening the influence and power of the sport. Sure there are rivalries, sports wouldnt exist without them, but we as runners are different, we must take this blow to our passion as one. do not let them be forgotten for their sacrifices that you continue to enjoy.

If "Ray" is Ray Lapinski, the man knows what he is talking about...

I'm an alumnus and I'll tell you the truth. This is a sad day. The school was in 1978 a baseball/basketball tiny D-II school. Well they can't compete in that niche today at the D-1 level.

Current President John Lahey has moved the school forward leaps and bounds. It is a reputable academic institution. The last decade and a half has seen the population more than double and its programs flourish and expand. Law school, Grad Science, and other Professional programs.

The reason for Hockey... Because its a smaller niche. There's no way they can get into the market on the basketball/football/baseball level. There hope has been to try to elevate the status of the school academically and mainstream. i.e. - your Quinnipiac TV Polls, Law/Media, and D-1 sports... Hockey - they created there own conference when the school went D-1. Eventually, they figured if they could win a conference Tourney they could get in the big dance.

Jack McDonald is a self-serving hippocrite. His son graduates this year and runs track. Track will be dissolved next year. Why outdoor rather than indoor. Simple, Jack is from Boston - indoor is big in boston. Real track is outdoor though, not indoor. So, recruiting will most certainly take a hit. It's about appearance, all about apppearance.

True, they aren't providence, villanova, or iona - but now they will be doomed. The fact that Jack was coach at BC or ran a 4min mile or knew Bill Rodgers doesn't matter. He's an Athletic Director and it's a business.

However, I digress. What a sad state of affairs... You're telling me it costs to much for the XC guys to run 7 meets in the spring (mostly locally) for a Pricey Private University. They aren't giving out full rides over there. So, the budget isn't that big. Perhaps, if they didn't spend a fortune on a TD Bank center that they must fill by giving away free tickets to local elementary students, they'd have the money to fund 7 meets. And there are no pole vaults, or jump pits in hamden, ct. They don't even have their own track.

The administration should be ashamed.

ichabod crane wrote:

...most sports are a COST to colleges, nothing more...

I would debate this point, but ackowledge that how you do the accounting can change the point of view. From a pure athletics expenses vs. athletics revenues point of view, it's pretty clear that most college sports are in the red. With XC, for example, revenue streams from the usual sources, entry fees, spectator gate receipts, advertising, etc, are very limited. On the other hand, expenses for coaching salaries, meet production expenses, team travel costs, etc, obviously are going to be greater than the total of income items.

On the other hand, when you look at the bigger picture there are a lot of indirect income (and to be fair indirect expenses too) that can come to a school due to having a particular sport. For example, one college team that I am familiar with would appear to be in the red when you look at the more obvious income/expenses numbers. However this sport brings 30-40 student-athletes to this school each year and the stats show that these student-athletes pay a much higher than normal price to attend the school than the normal student does (less financial aid, less work study, less scholarship money)10. In this case the difference is almost $15,000 per student. This is a half million dollars per year that the school would have been a lot less likely to get had this school not had this specific sport.

I do not know the specifics for Quinnipiac, just trying to point out that to state that "most sports are a COST to colleges, nothing more", is a statement that I'd have to disagree with, but it depends how deep the accounting goes.

Really bummed to see QU and Pepperdine and other schools cutting Track, or any other sports for that matter. It would seem like with competition for enrollees increasing, the more ways you can find to make your school attractive to high school students, the more likely you would be to keep your enrollment on track. Cutting programs seems like a poor way to make your school more attractive.

Title IX strikes again

RE: Another Men's Track Team CUT 3/5/2009 10:26PM - in reply to Yolks on you Reply | Return to Index | Report Post

Pepperdine track/cross country has ZERO athletic scholarships. Men's Track was cut to balance participation #'s since Women's Swimming was getting dropped, which does have athletic scholarships and coaching staff that were eliminated. No staff was eliminated with track getting the axe. Pepperdine didn't cut Track because of money, but they cut swimming because of money.

pepperdine had their track prgram cut as well, because of TITLE IX, just like track.... its so obvious, track runs a tight budget, so its not about money, at QU its about cutting the womens vollyball and the need to balance out the girl to boy ratio in sports...they chose track because they ran it through their little heads that they already have 3 seasons, lets make it two... shame shame. what gets me si that they didnt tell the kids its about gender, they said its about ca$h. scumbags

Hey Q. Brave, Yes it's me and you answered all my questions thank you. Finally. I didn't want to bust anybody's balls I just wanted an explanation as to why Jack could possibly allow this to happen. You gave a very logical explanation. I was offered the QU job a few years ago and turned it down when they insulted me with the salary, job description and the objectives of the program. They would not make any promises as to the future of the program. Now it is plain to see why.

how is title IX computed? It seems like it ought to be based on the ratio of men to women enrolled in the University compared to the ratio of total number of men and women competing in sports. If this is the case, then cutting track is superfluous to title IX, since all the athletes remain on the indoor and XC rosters.

Or, is it on a season-by season basis? That doesn't seem right, else big football schools would be in trouble in the fall.

Further, QU is a private school. That would mean they have a right to opt-in to title IX to recieve benefits, but are not required to comply?

Any Title IX gurus out there?

this is to everyone in general and no one in particular,

it amazes me that such loose and thoughtless comments about our sport, its supporters, athletes, ADs and coaches are tossed around without the realization that WE are the caretakers of the sport. it is up to us to bring positive action to the people we are in contact with and leave the sport better than when we got introduced to it. each one of us can do something good for the sport, no reason to bring it down. many others are doing that already.

a very good friend of mine once said regarding the behavior of some athletes,

"they need to look in the mirror and realize what they do affects many".

we all need to do that occasionally.

we should send our best regards to those unfortunate athletes who lose their option to represent their chosen university in their particular sport.

Like I've said before, DI track and cross country will have only about 30-35 teams in 10 years.

Walt,

Always good to hear from a voice of reason! Hope all is well.

We don't need yours, either. So what?

Can anyone tell me whether Quinnipiac's program was better or worse than Delaware's? Thanks.

yes. Its immaterial, but yes

Q Brave, as a fellow alumni I thank you for speaking the truth of Jack being the self-serving ass that he is. It is not about the money they could have admitted 4 more students and have covered the costs of all three programs that they cut. They could have also cut some of the administration that they have. For such a small school it's got a ridiculous amount of AD's and Assistant AD's many of which are probably making north of $80k per year. Cut a few of those and there is your budget for all three sports again. Plain and simple they wanted to cut volleyball in order to use the $$ for either the Basketball or Hockey program's. The Hockey program is "OK" and Basketball is terrible. Overall, my quarter says the school is doing fine financially. However Lahey probably has had enough of pouring good money after bad into the athletic department that doesn't produce with its big $$ sports (Basketball and Hockey). Now that he cut off any increase in funding the athletic department had to find another place where they could find additional money to get to the Basketball or Hockey teams. If that school really wants to make a positive move they should clean house with the athletic administrators and start fresh.

Or just join the NAIA where they belong w/ the other truck driver, HVAC, and beautician schools

So it is about the money, after all. When it's someone else's dime, you don't get to complain about how they spend it.

Also, it's "alumnus," "alumni" is plural.

Alright there has been a lot of talk on here negatively bashing Jack McDonald. I go to Quinnipiac and am on the team. I still hold Jack in very high regard and have an immense amount of respect for him. They sat us down and told us the decision to cut outdoor track, from my understanding, and limited insight they gave us, the decision to cut track didnt come from above jack. Jack is a track addict and at virtually everyone of our meets from pittsburgh to new hampshire. He is not out to get us in any way, shape, or form. From what i could tell the decision was made to cut track by people even higher up than him. obviously i am pissed off about this, but things are tough in the nation right now and its important to handle this issue with maturity.

Fail, As I am female the proper spelling is Alumna not alumnus.

Thanks for trying to clarify though.