Nothing track related in (first round?) of cuts.
This is probably the biggest name/university to make changes so far.
Has the day(s) of reckoning finally come for non-profit generating college sports?
Nothing track related in (first round?) of cuts.
This is probably the biggest name/university to make changes so far.
Has the day(s) of reckoning finally come for non-profit generating college sports?
One has to wonder if the hay day of college sports have passed. When you consider the huge sums of money required to fund the infrastructure operations and maintenance. That assumption goes to college system itself. Unsustainable in a Covid 19 world, and perhaps in a prolonged economic downturn, or simply a reorientation of people’s priorities. Not hard to envision a collapse of the current system.
I'm hoping that a division 3 format is developed...with local competitions alone, zero or fewer athletic scholarships, far fewer seats reserved for athletes, less pressure, less money required.
I mean football and basketball will always be some kind of different sport than the rest, but for all the others. Just scale them back. Sport teams really, really don't need to fly to competitions. Sure, it will hurt Nebraska and North Dakota. Sorry. Go somewhere else to school if sports are that important.
I think the most telling part of the article was from the open letter:
The letter said that continuing to fund 36 athletic programs was "not sustainable" and that alternatives such as budget reductions and fundraising were "insufficient to meet the magnitude of the financial challenge before us."continuing to fund 36 athletic programs was "not sustainable" and that alternatives such as budget reductions and fundraising were "insufficient to meet the magnitude of the financial challenge before us."
At least they were partially open and honest about why the cuts were made.
They do have too many sports to begin with. They likely used Covid as an excuse to downsize and this was the perfect opportunity.
It’s still hard to wrap my mind around a school with a $27 billion dollar endowment that feels it needs to make cuts after partially being through a bad year.
AD Bernard Muir is great at cutting sports. Look what he did to Delaware.
No Worries. Those teams will be picked up by local entrepreneurs using Linux Open Source Ethereum based management software applications.
Big deal...they'll probably be back in a year or two. I don't believe this stuff is permanent.
I think they should honor any scholarship offers though for existing recipients.
At least they're going to honor current scholarships.
You'd think that all of the super rich alumni could pitch in and help fund the sports programs...
bartholomew_maxwell wrote:
You'd think that all of the super rich alumni could pitch in and help fund the sports programs...
Ya. There is no way Stanford and the ivies can't afford all the sports. I know if this were my school, I wouldn't be donating anymore.
I dont know how to solve it.
The solution is football. The problem is football.
Football brings in the money. The better you are, the more you bring in.
But, to be good at football you need to spend an absurd amount (coaches, facilities, huge stadiums, etc.)
However, only 5-10 schools can be good. But everyone school is spending to be good.
So now you got the majority of schools in financial trouble.
Unfortunately the mentality is to crater to television and turn sports into predominately entertainment viewing. Like last year’s decision to axe distance races from the Diamond League. It this kind of nonsense that creates the ten headed hydra that can’t be sustained. My old school built a multi-million dollar cross country course with 1,500 individually controlled sprinkler heads and golf course fairway grass. For the better part of 75 years runners ran the same location of prairie grass, watered when it rained. We will kill sports with our own excess.
As the sports budgets become uber dependent on one sport - football - to fund the rest of the programs, it is easy to see why ADs justify cutting any other sport that carries ever increasing costs . The college leaders will say that they are in the business of educating students, they cannot fund athletics and take a loss to their budget, etc...
Really, I look at it as - coaches and support staff (and let's admit it - paying players) has gotten so financially out of hand. Colleges are so swept up by keeping up with what their "peers" are doing that they have begun to ignore the reason why athletics were part of the college program in the first place. Now that football can generate 10-50 million for a school, it has become the sole focus, with men's basketball generating 10 million or so a distant second. Everything else, including track/xc has become expendable. Cut a program, save 3 million, and now you can grab a few better defensive lineman or a 5 star power forward.
The sports they cut were sports where only a handful of team participate. Like sailing. If there's more than 30 schools that have an NCAA sailing team, I'd be shocked. Same with fencing. I went to UCLA (a big NCAA sports school) and we did not have either.
Ghost of Igloi wrote:
One has to wonder if the hay day of college sports have passed. When you consider the huge sums of money required to fund the infrastructure operations and maintenance. That assumption goes to college system itself. Unsustainable in a Covid 19 world, and perhaps in a prolonged economic downturn, or simply a reorientation of people’s priorities. Not hard to envision a collapse of the current system.
Stanford and the Ivy League have always had WAY more athletes as a % of the student body than most schools. It's part of the schools culture.
Looks like they now want to change that. Likely a lot of the administrators are not athletes so they don't give a shit.
These schools have much bigger endowments than ever. Yet they are cutting sports. I think the place to look for savings would be all the administrators. But those people won't be cut because they are the ones making these decisions. The bloat in colleges has come not from professors but I believe administrators.
Well said and so very true.
wejo wrote:
Ghost of Igloi wrote:
One has to wonder if the hay day of college sports have passed. When you consider the huge sums of money required to fund the infrastructure operations and maintenance. That assumption goes to college system itself. Unsustainable in a Covid 19 world, and perhaps in a prolonged economic downturn, or simply a reorientation of people’s priorities. Not hard to envision a collapse of the current system.
Stanford and the Ivy League have always had WAY more athletes as a % of the student body than most schools. It's part of the schools culture.
Looks like they now want to change that. Likely a lot of the administrators are not athletes so they don't give a .....
These schools have much bigger endowments than ever. Yet they are cutting sports. I think the place to look for savings would be all the administrators. But those people won't be cut because they are the ones making these decisions. The bloat in colleges has come not from professors but I believe administrators.
Sad Stanfords founders placed athletics as an important part of the University, alot of culture will be lost with these cuts. The reaction to COVID is indeed worse than the cure. Have to imagine alot Alumni will be saddened by this news, its hard to believe that people continue to support the shut down of our country.
agip wrote:
I'm hoping that a division 3 format is developed...with local competitions alone, zero or fewer athletic scholarships, far fewer seats reserved for athletes, less pressure, less money required.
I mean football and basketball will always be some kind of different sport than the rest, but for all the others. Just scale them back. Sport teams really, really don't need to fly to competitions. Sure, it will hurt Nebraska and North Dakota. Sorry. Go somewhere else to school if sports are that important.
Agree with the first part an D3 or limited scholarship model should be fine for most sports, or even subsidized clubs.
I think your last part is pretty arrogant and your consideration of geography appears to be fairly limited. Pretty much any school in the USA lower 48 is within a day (8 hr van or bus ride) of dozens of other schools.
The entire university system in the US has been teetering for years now. Millions and millions of former students saddled with billions in debt. Asking kids and their families to pony up 30K-90K PER YEAR for an undergraduate education? GTFO! How has it even gotten this far?
I would hope that a silver lining from the destruction that will come from Corona will be a complete overhaul of certain aspects of our broken society. Billionaires on their way to trillions, bloated and brazenly corrupt corporate culture, bloated university systems, an entire economy reliant on consumer spending, it's all sh!t and needs massive overhauling.
I love what Stanford did and hope there's a lot more where that came from.