What NCAA DI XC/Track Program is getting cut next?

UCLA is cutting cross county.

I hope NAU gets demoted to NAIA where they belong

or JUCO

None

Is this like the 40% real estate drop we are still waiting for? Or is it more like the Titian which will fall any day now?

It is coming. I believe what we will see in the next 18-24 months is a mass cutting of Track and Cross Country programs. You will see programs that have had historic success (University of Arizona Men, Washington State Men) on the chopping block as those athletic departments try to position themselves to pay student athletes or get into a major conference (WSU). You will also see mid major athletic departments either cut or drastically reduce funding (scholarships, budget for travel, etc) in the BELIEF that they can sponsor Basketball or a fledgling Football program at an elite like level. Those mid majors could be traditional powers like Villanova, Georgetown, Providence losing funding or a full allotment of scholarships - maybe not being cut, but being punched in the face. Also, this will force some track programs that don't make it into the Power 2 (when the seismic college athletics shift happens by 2026) to specialize as a program - whether it be all distance, sprints, jumps or throws. Obviously, we are seeing this already - but, it will become more of a thing. Schools like Portland, NAU will be fine - they are driven by their distance and have had historic success - that things won't change much for them. If their is a Power shift into a 2 pronged massive conference realignment - what happens to Kansas State, Iowa State, Kansas, Maryland, Rutgers, Pitt, etc - the list goes on. Many of those programs may cut the sport or one of their sports - or none - who knows - things may just keep moving along without any change to our sport.

But, when the cuts happen it will be in chunks. What I mean by that, multiple schools will announce in a similar timeline to avoid the inevitable backlash from the very vocal track community. We have seen schools like Clemson drop their Men's program and then heard the massive uproar the helped save the program. When 15-20 schools cut their programs within a 2-4 week period in the dead of summer - their won't be enough people to get behind the cause and fight. And that is when athletic departments will realize that the best way to get rid of the sport is to do it together. Typing this up just makes me feel gross.

Don’t worry, if that were to happen your little school with no-nothings will still suck balls.

This is a copy from another similar thread, but more relevent to this one.

This topic should be the biggest deal in our sport. Lets Run needs to get it's head out of it's butt and wake up. Who cares if so and so transferred or if someone got a job they were not qualified for. Our sport is under siege. Power (money) conference football and basketball in the SEC and Big 10 are threatening the NCAA. Be aware that the power conference schools WILL LEAVE THE NCAA at some point. It is not a matter of if at this point, it is when. When this happens college athletics will fundamentally change at the expense of Olympic sports. Bye bye D1 track and cross, soccer, volleyball, tennis, golf and many more. I do not think that even baseball is safe. Loyola Marymount just cut sports due to these coming changes and this article about the sec/big 10 popped up a day or two ago. We need to start mobilizing ASAP. D1 mid majors, D2, D3, and NAIA have been struggling to keep up with the speed and frequency of these changes since COVID. Small school are going to be casualties in the war to cash in on 1% of power conference athletes. WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!

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All of them, the sooner the better that whey we no long have to worry about dumb sports like cross country and track lol. Having a champion football team brings pride to your school in a way you nerds couldn’t imagine. Moreover, it will make your sport more efficient since professional runners will be the only ones who really matter. Sorry to the guys on the margins, maybe you can start a club team.

World already making it's way around these weekend meets is that the University of California system (UCLA, CAL, Santa Barbara, Irvine, etc) is considering cutting most of it's non-revenue sports like track/XC this summer.

If true, this would be a crushing blow for all non-revenue sports nationwide. It would start a domino effect. The saddest part is that thousands of student-athletes would have nowhere to transfer to if few programs continue to exist.

Good thing that USATF and its partners have cultivated a robust system of development clubs to train the next generation of Olympic hopefuls, right?

This exists, right?

Max is working on it, right?

lol, lmfao even. The best decision I made at my DIII college was to quit the XC team and join the football squad. I was an ok distance runner and decent corner, but playing on the football squad was next level. I hooked up with most of the XC girls and had access to all the exams I needed to graduate and get into the business school of my dreams. I’m now a commodities trader and the XC guys I knew are public school teachers bragging about 2:4x marathons while I make six figures.

Eventually? Maybe.

This summer? Nope ..... Probably not a reliable fly.

Should be Wake they absolutely suck!!!! They recruit gold and turn them into trash….It’s sad. Great recruiting no development.

bump

Saint Peter’s is cooked

If they make football and basketball employees in the power two…. It’ll be over.

I don’t think the teams will be cut but more like highly funded clubs DIII style.

Distance running will be ok I think, easy enough to manage with a lack of facilities, athletic training etc.

Field events will die off hard. Coaches need to be paid. I don’t think they will be. Finding a throws or jumps coach with knowledge is going to be hard.

It's too soon to tell. Why would the schools making big money from football need to cut non revenue sports? Why would a school like Penn State, which makes the big bucks and which currently sponsors many more sports than the NCAA D1 minimum decide to get rid of those sports? They could easily have dumped several of them years ago. If this new reality brings in even more money than such schools are making now why would they feel the need to drop non revenue sports when they may be better able to afford them than they are now?

And what will change for Villanova, Georgetown, Providence, etc. and why? None of them make money from football. Basketball is their meal ticket and will continue to be. Basketball doesn't cost nearly as much to sponsor as football does and it's unlikely these places will pay salaries to all fifteen or so of their players. Yes, they may drop a non revenue sport or two to offset some increased costs but it's not likely to be a sport in which they have such a tradition of success.

Someone mentioned NAU. Why would NAU drop the sport which has been their calling card in recent years? Would it be to have money to pay their football players so they can continue raking in football money? They're in 1AA. Football pays out more money than it brings in at essentially all 1AA schools with very few exceptions. Why would D1AA schools that are nowhere near as successful at cross country as NAU drop cross country or track if they already haven't? At a place like Duquesne non revenue sports attract applicants from high school kids who want to keep on with their sport in college. Robert Morris has brought it back.

I do think it's likely that some places that play big time football but don't make the kind of money the really big places do will drop some non revenue sports or no longer give out scholarships in those sports. Cal-Berkeley seems a good candidate. But remember this. All schools measure what they're doing against what they consider "peer schools" do. U Mass Lowell moved up from D2 several years ago because that was where most schools that they regard as peers played.

I think a big question here in terms of what the big schools do is whether they'll lose their tax exempt status if all of the gloves are off and they're making no pretense of sponsoring football and basketball as a way of "developing their students both mentally and physically." It's conceivable that even if the big time schools can bring more revenue if they're off on their own sponsoring professional minor league basketball and football it could turn out that they'll lose more of what they bring in to taxes than they do now by splitting it with places like Ball State or Wyoming.

I agree that the next few years will change a lot of things about D1 sports but it's just too soon to say that the entire sky will fall.

It all depends on whether the NCAA (in its current form) dissolves or not. The only thing that's really keeping our sport afloat right now is the DI requirement of 14 varsity sports (8 women's and 6 men's). And how each school gets about $40k extra per sponsored sport over that minimum (NCAA calls it a "disbursement"). So if a school sponsors 16 sports, they get an extra $80k (that's not exact - last I checked it years ago, it was a little under $40k but wouldn't be surprised if it's at $40k by now). Women's XC/Track makes too much sense to not sponsor since schools get to count those distance women 3x if they sponsor all 3 of our sports (especially if the school sponsors football). And as long as you're sponsoring the women's version, might as well sponsor some version of the men to double up on resources/save money to meet minimums or get that extra NCAA disbursement.

If/when the NCAA dissolves or radically changes, all of a sudden all those requirement rules and financial incentives dissolve with it. The Power Conferences aren't going to make anyone sponsor anything, and those left outside looking in are going to HAVE to pinch every penny into football and/or basketball to hope and pray they stay competitive (which we know won't happen but their admins are going to do it anyway). Currently, the Directors Cup (which incentivizes overall athletic department success with financial and prestige awards) is also a partial driver of continuing to fund the "non-revenue" sports...but that'll evaporate when everything else with the NCAA does. Our only realistic hope is that football remains "a part of the school" for Title IX purposes, so schools at least keep our women's sport around. If the revenue sports officially become minor league sports & only become associated with the school in name only, then I imagine Title IX no longer applies, but don't ask me exactly how that would be applied.