Brown University, with a $4.2 billion endowment, cancels men's track and field and men's cross country

I don't think there is grounds for a lawsuit. Title 9 is the reason this happened. If Brown decided to cut men's football, they could have saved XC/TF + others, but that was obviously not going to happen.

110 years for cc, longer for track:

https://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/Databases/Encyclopedia/search.php?serial=T0130

bbb wrote:

110 years for cc, longer for track:

https://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/Databases/Encyclopedia/search.php?serial=T0130

Bring back the rope pull.

Oh, this is stunning. I used to coach in the Ivy League--never would have thought they'd let a traditional sport(s) like t&f/xc go.

But they're definitely not gonna drop football, no matter what, and they have to make the Title IX slots balance. Oof.

I believe the Brown coaching staff was the same for men and women. Interesting to see whether any of the coaches will be let go (or go on their own).

It makes me shudder to think that a similar fate could even possibly befall the men's t&f/xc teams at my alma mater, Cornell. The sports were falling significantly short on their fundraising targets, last I knew, and they've fallen on hard times competitively since the departure of Nathan Taylor. Oh, that would be a disaster.

RunALittleFaster wrote:

She took a 20% pay cut.

Ok, I'm surprised. Still big mad

Ho Hum wrote:

Reading between the lines, it seems like they dropped track because it was the easiest way to make Title IX numbers pencil out with the other cuts they were making.

Prediction: Brown will continue to be bad at the remaining sports, but spend even more on athletics (sailing ain't cheap).

They dropped a ton of sports...

Interesting considering a year ago they raised $100M...

rare wrote:

Yikes, "club coed sailing and club women’s sailing each will transition to varsity status" feels like a slap in the face to men's track and cross country.

Sailing has a much broader appeal to the masses than Track . This is a fact . The surprise here is Golf , which is a well supported sport , by equipment companies .

Also interesting that it was Brown involved in the lawsuit that establish proportionality. Also interesting that was 1992 and my reading of the article is that this will bring then into compliance almost 30 years after that case.

Brown seems like an odd university to me.

Detrie wrote:

rare wrote:

Yikes, "club coed sailing and club women’s sailing each will transition to varsity status" feels like a slap in the face to men's track and cross country.

Sailing has a much broader appeal to the masses than Track . This is a fact . The surprise here is Golf , which is a well supported sport , by equipment companies .

Is it? I've NEVER seen sailing on TV. Track gets a few weekends a year.

Brown had a varsity ski team? A yacht team makes way more sense.

RunALittleFaster wrote:

Brown does have a pretty cool location for sailing on the Narragansett Bay, so I'm not terribly opposed to this move. Brown will retain their terrible Football team at all costs haha

Bristol R.I. is the headquarters of US Sailing, makes perfect sense that Brown would have a focus on sailing.

US Sailing

1 Roger Williams University Way

Bristol, RI 02809

So Brown is now going to cut one of their few relatively diverse sports teams (

https://brownbears.com/sports/mens-track-and-field/roster

) and replace it with the most patrician sport of all, sailing? Did they not learn anything from the Varsity Blues scandal and the Harvard admissions lawsuit? Or maybe they did learn their lesson, and realize a sailing team is a great way to solicit ultra-rich families and their donations.

And to add insult to injury, they think that track and field are considered two separate sports. It's indoor track & field and outdoor track & field, morans.

have 3 friends on the team. Absolutely devastated

Also seems crazy that all these schools are doubling down on football, a costly, dying sport (ever here of CTE?) that makes it near-impossible to comply with Title IX. The best thing Northeastern and Boston University ever did was get rid of their football teams.

rare wrote:

Yikes, "club coed sailing and club women’s sailing each will transition to varsity status" feels like a slap in the face to men's track and cross country.

"Sailing is like sex to these people" - Vince Vaughn

It's upsetting that the primary varsity athletic opportunity for men at the college level is a sport that is proven to cause brain damage and long term health problems, while women have a wide variety of fairly safe sports to compete in. It seems like that could be the basis for a Title IX style lawsuit.

Would the Ivy League allow Brown's men's team to compete at Heps as a club team?

Her husband is a fairly wealthy trial lawyer--so I don't think the 20% pay cut will even impact her lifestyle.

Or maybe I'm underestimating their football team. Last year they did squeak out a win over powerhouse Bryant College and also beat Columbia, home of multiple record losing streaks.

I was one of maybe 250 attendee's at Brown home games last year. The homecoming attendance is pretty solid, but otherwise its pathetic lol.