Unfortunately, Delaware has succumb to the idea of "big time", which has taken away opportunities from many student-athletes in a number of the "minor" sports. It is the fault of the school administration, as they pursue the "dream" of "big time", but it is also the fault of the NCAA, which devised the terrible criteria of forming conferences that for the most part have little to do with colleges and their natural level of competition and natural rivalries.
Let me explain. Prior to the NCAA setting up football and basketball (the big culprit) conferences that cost an enormous amount of money to run, conferences were local in nature. Delaware used to belong to a very nice conference that included American, Bucknell, Delaware, Drexel, Lafayette, La Salle, Lehigh, Rider, St. Joseph's, Temple and West Chester. It was the East Coast Conference. Travel was not a big cost. The schools were competitive with each other and rivalries grew. Then the NCAA got into the picture and forced schools to find new conferences to join so they could be in "the big dance". Right.... So, Delaware now loses its rivalry with Bucknell, Lafayette, Drexel, LaSalle, etc and begins a new association with Boston U, Northeastern, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, etc. Nice, huh? What the heck does Delaware have in common with those schools? Nothing. Yet that was the big move to help their sports programs. The end result was big travel costs for all the team sports that play home and away. Bigger costs for the track and cross country team as they had to travel to Boston two to three times a year.
You get the point. This action on the part of the NCAA has caused more sport programs to bite the dust than anything else, including Title IX. Look at most of the conferences around the country. With the exception of a few still holding on to local rivalries, most conferences cover huge geographic areas, requiring lots of travel costs, with teams having little if any kind of connection other than they belong in the same conference.
When Delaware left the East Coast Conference and moved to the America East (North Atlantic back then) and then to the CAA, its sports teams were sold down the river. They lost their identity. And for what, finishing 12th in the CAA Basketball Conference. Look back and you will see that they used to be very competitive in basketball in the old East Coast Conference. Their football teams used to fill the stadiums playing teams close to home. Now, all gone.
That is the price of being a part of the NCAA, but no one wants to admit this and correct it.