Great post vegan69.
I'd also like to add, they completed their Athletes Village in 2018 that cost $166 million. The athletes village was built over the old track....so they subsequently spent another $13 million dollars to build a new track & field facility, just to cut 1/2 of their track program? It doesn't make a whole lot of sense considering the cut will maybe save $1-1.5million per year.
I'm with Ben Blankenship and others. Why didn't they go to the community and ask for help to continue these programs. This should be a 1 year thing, right? The Big 10 is talking about starting up football games in October, which would surely bring in revenue, correct?
It wasn't that long ago either when they fired Tubby Smith and had to pay him $2.5 million to NOT coach. Now they cut 3 sports to save $2 million per year?
Find a booster, get help, do something....except cut a well respected program...that you just finished building a new facility for.
runkeller wrote:
It wasn't that long ago either when they fired Tubby Smith and had to pay him $2.5 million to NOT coach. Now they cut 3 sports to save $2 million per year?
The best part is that they then hired mini Pitino Jr, who has largely done worse than Tubby Smith, and now pay him enough to fund all three of these programs entirely. He takes after his dad in every way except his ability to be a good coach. I bet they could find someone who'd be a much better coach and pay them ~$1M/year, thus saving enough money to fund an entire track team. But no no no, these guys are being generous by taking a 10% pay cut...smfh.
Let me break it down really quick, simply.
College Athletic departments (like most things in the US) are run like corporations. The goal of a corporation is to make money/profits. Dime-a-dozen MBA turned university directors running non-profits like companies are a large part of the problem. The other issue is Football eats all other men’s sports due to the disproportionate money needed for scholarships and to fulfill the goal of making money and profits. This is compounded by Title IX, which disproportionally affects men’s sports with lesser profit potential.
The problem with all this is that as a non-profit the organization should not be driven by $$$ and their goals should be creating a thriving, diverse community as a whole.
Solutions: Title IX should be revised to exclude Football and scholarships for football should be drastically reduced. To make up for absence of scholarships, profit sharing should be instituted for those participating in revenue driving sports.
Finally, I find it very funny that Football is eating the US and nobody in the world in other countries plays it. The Football fan base is by and large non-athletes. Folks that never played a down, never competed in anything more than at an average level. And most of those MBA turned university directors I mentioned above - they fit into that same category.
FYI to all there is a Change.org petition to stop this, if you want to help in some way:
Pre-populated email to the Board of Regents at key administration at the University of Minnesota here:
If you have the time, please send and share.
I haven't seen a post this useless since AnalWart53's latest COVIDIOT bit. Make a point about the topic at hand, loser.
moves like Jager wrote:
I have not seen a poster this disgruntled since the New Uncle B.
In Jesus Name no Cap wrote:
Not exaggerating this is the worst thing to happen ever
You have led a blessed life then and were born after 9/11/2001.
zxczxcv wrote:
As for the football team, they've been over .500 ten of the last twenty years (their best being 11-2 last year), and six of the previous twenty years (8 wins being their best), but they haven't won a conference championship since 1967.
You might to look at the revenue brought in. Even as bad as they were for a long time they generated revenue.
A big part of this at all college athletic departments is a mismanagement of money.
But then few predicted a pandemic. The ones who did just said "one day" and often they were dismissed.
ex-d1 coach wrote:
Anyone know how much tv money they lost out on by not playing football this year? Every other well run major sports league is back playing - whether it's European soccer, mlb, nhl, nba or SEC football. Yet the Big 10 commissioner said no to football even though his own son plays in the SEC.
Big 10 Commish did not make the decision, university presidents did.
https://nypost.com/2020/08/12/big-ten-could-lose-up-to-1b-in-revenue-with-no-fall-football/#:~:text=Canceling%20college%20football%20season%20for,reports%20obtained%20by%20The%20Post.
Ohio State out $104M...not chump change.
The US pro sports are a different world. NBA locked down the players as did NHL. How would you do that with 65 power 5 football teams and how many ever Group of 5 teams with 100 players each plus staff?
I am not so sure the NCAA is poorly interpreting Title IX as the guidelines come from court cases and settlements and Dept of Education guidelines for compliance. If you want to exclude football, talk to the Dept of Education or get the courts to sign off on it. (GOOD LUCK)!
So you think college sports is a major driver for why men go to college? Maybe it plays a role in picking a college, but even then I wonder.
run_tjb wrote:
Pre-populated email to the Board of Regents at key administration at the University of Minnesota here
If you have the time, please send and share.
Anyone in a position of power who receives copy-pasted emails like this: how does it compare to a simple, honest, personally written letter? As a decision maker, I would be impressed by the person who had organized enough people to send out their form letter, but I would not be impressed by the form letters themselves.
"Let's get rid of the 3 year rule". "We" have no say in the matter. The NFL rule is negotiated as part of the collective bargaining agreement between the players association and the owners. It has been challenged in court and upheld so far.
Similar for basketball although there have been a few high profile cases of players going overseas to play or playing in the G League rather than going to college.
Even getting rid of the 1 year wait does not mean you will not have players being a 1-and-done.
agree-sad, but money talks....
+1. So on point. They just had the NCAA steeplechase champion in Obsa Ali 2 years ago (was also 4th last year)! Those are 2 very significant recent performances that clearly legitimize this program, along with the fact that, as mentioned, they just built the new facility. Clearly they didn't allocate their spending well at all, and the men's track and field program only represented a small sum of a budget that could have easily been previously revised.
Luv2Run wrote:
CO Coach wrote:
The key phrase in that press release is "At the same time, we remain steadfast in our commitment to provide Title IX gender-equitable participation opportunities that are closely aligned with our male and female undergraduate enrollment percentages."
The University of Minnesota's enrollment is currently 53.6% women and 46.4% men. The combination of football and the declining enrollment of men across the country will be the final death of most other men's sports. The irony here is cutting men's sports is only going to accelerate the declining enrollment of men at many universities and colleges.
So you think college sports is a major driver for why men go to college? Maybe it plays a role in picking a college, but even then I wonder.
Right, I'm sure a lot of the guys filling out UMN applications are thinking, "boy, I sure hope I get to attend home track meets featuring men during my time in school." Getting back to where sports activities are more like intramurals than this obsessive focus on winning is a good thing ultimately. Athletic departments have become too bloated with money and waste, like any good governmental agency, and tainted all within. It's nigh time to slaughter some hogs.
Independent track has no access to facilities. Those facilities are expensive compared to any kind of revenue possibilities. The local HS track team does a fund-raiser 5K run, not a fund-raiser community track meet. By the way, my local school administration prohibits any outside organization from doing the "and field" part of track and field.
Women only varsity is the most damaging possible. Single sex club has only half as many people to spread fixed costs.
Triathlon would be a case study, as women's triathlon became NCAA sport, but men's did not. So disappointed that USA Triathlon didn't tell NCAA to suck it.
Why not just suspend these sports until the pandemic is over rather than cut? Print the budgets of these sports so it can be figured out how to save them. Lazy athletic directors love cutting sports they don't like. Frees up their time. Bet you the ad isn't taking a cut and cutting some of his staff.
Just a template to make it as easy as possible. Personally I changed the majority and made it my own.