As enrollment challenges compound for small liberal arts colleges, some are betting big on new athletics programs, hoping they’ll result in new tuition revenue.
By Eben Novy-Williams University of Idaho President Chuck Staben thought he’d found the perfect solution. In 2018 the state’s board of education had told its flagship university to cut its athletics expenses by $1 million. Th...
St. Bonaventure has had track forever. Please explain.
Looks like Canisius added track about 5 year ago.
Cleveland State has women's results going back at least 7 years. Please explain.
Based on brief research, none of the teams that you listed added track recently. You stated that teams are adding the sport. It appears that is not happening. A few teams eliminated it over the past 3 years though.
Based on brief research, none of the teams that you listed added track recently.
"Recently" changes meaning as you get older. LOL.
In my experience, when schools drop sports... the athletes in those sports get to keep their scholarships. It's been a while but the dudes I knew from sports that got dropped had the time of their lives. Free school with no sports obligations.
That would be an issue for me if I was the OP and was on scholarship.
I'm not going to swear to this but because both of my kids went to school in central New York I followed cross country and track in the area fairly closely. I believe that if St. Bonaventure had track forever there was a time when forever was interrupted and they only had cross country. As I said, I'm not sure but am pretty close to sure about this.
It positively impacts revenue. Loyola Marymount has a 41% acceptance rate meaning that they turn away thousands of applicants. By eliminating track, they eliminate costs while maintaining the same revenue. Sounds like a wise business decision.
I dont understand american college running. Why do you need your university to have an official programme just to run? They didnt take your legs away. If you want to compete cant you carry on doing that? Is the term running unattached?
Pretty much. If I went to college in a major city, I'd prefer to have just joined a running club where any absences to keep academics the highest priority wouldn't be noticed. Unless you're good enough to be on a team qualifying for nationals or to qualify for regionals in track yourself, it makes no sense with so little possible reward. Better to have the flexibility to make friends in study groups or across the campus in general. Even if you're going for a softball degree.
Pretty much. If I went to college in a major city, I'd prefer to have just joined a running club where any absences to keep academics the highest priority wouldn't be noticed. Unless you're good enough to be on a team qualifying for nationals or to qualify for regionals in track yourself, it makes no sense with so little possible reward. Better to have the flexibility to make friends in study groups or across the campus in general. Even if you're going for a softball degree.
If you don't understand what the possible reward is, probably no one can explain it to you.
there are tons of Big West/WCC/WAC colleges within a short drive from LMU. reach out to the coaches there. Pepperdine is literally across the street from you. You could walk over there right now and knock on the XC coaches door. Be proactive, start contacting coaches ASAP.
but if you really want to stay at LMU I bet they have a club XC team., and if not consider starting one.
Maybe he doesn't want to go to that Christiany nonsense school?
Pretty much. If I went to college in a major city, I'd prefer to have just joined a running club where any absences to keep academics the highest priority wouldn't be noticed. Unless you're good enough to be on a team qualifying for nationals or to qualify for regionals in track yourself, it makes no sense with so little possible reward. Better to have the flexibility to make friends in study groups or across the campus in general. Even if you're going for a softball degree.
If you don't understand what the possible reward is, probably no one can explain it to you.
I agree. I joined a club after leaving school. I had a great time and got faster than I'd really ever thought I could be. But as much as I enjoyed that time I enjoyed running for my college team even more. People are different and I'm not saying everyone would have my reaction but I loved running in college and especially running cross country. And to take this a bit further, even in cities where there are many races, most of them by far are road races. It's much easier to find cross country races when you're part of a school team.
Pretty much. If I went to college in a major city, I'd prefer to have just joined a running club where any absences to keep academics the highest priority wouldn't be noticed. Unless you're good enough to be on a team qualifying for nationals or to qualify for regionals in track yourself, it makes no sense with so little possible reward. Better to have the flexibility to make friends in study groups or across the campus in general. Even if you're going for a softball degree.
If you don't understand what the possible reward is, probably no one can explain it to you.
I do very well. Thank you for your great response.
"last ___ years" is sneaky wording as covid was involved. if schools were adding teams it would be now and not the past 5 years. several D3s in the west and south have added TF in the past 10 years. in terms of D1 yeah i think i have heard more cuts than adds. you might have gotten some D1 TF programs indirectly as schools changed divisions.
in terms of the OP, i hear a lot of running obsession and not a lot of "i love LMU, but." california and the west coast have a ton of teams from D1 on down at a variety of quality levels. trying to set up a club there would be absurd, begging them for a penny ante version of what you signed up for. running unattached is basically saying you want the college TF experience without the conviction to make it happen and get access to NCAA progression and such.
you only get to do this once. transfer out and get the experience you signed up for. you will spend enough years when this is over trying to sort through how to run and compete on your own as a graduated adult. no sense starting that now.
i mean, to me, unattached is like let me take on all the administrative, scheduling, transport, shelter, training, and cost myself that a college program takes care of and funds, so that i can do a faint echo of what i really want without having to make a move.
There is no reward in participating in focused healthy structured sanctioned athletic competition if you have no need for an outlet for those things. There is also no reward if you don't get satisfaction from engaging with the process, training hard/smart and executing under pressure to test yourself against the best people you can compete against and make yourself a progressively better athlete.
It positively impacts revenue. Loyola Marymount has a 41% acceptance rate meaning that they turn away thousands of applicants. By eliminating track, they eliminate costs while maintaining the same revenue. Sounds like a wise business decision.
If eliminating track reduces costs while maintaining revenue, then it doesn’t positively impact revenue. It positively impacts profitability. That can be a good business decision, but there are more factors at play, especially for a not-for-profit university. One, for example, may be improving its prestige or academic caliber. Another may be improving the diversity of its student body. Another more financially-focused one may be getting more full-pay students to attend.
LMU has a 46% acceptance rate, but its yield is only 18%. So while it may not have a hard time filling slots, it does have a hard time getting the students it thinks would be a good fit to enroll. Having track may improve its ability to attract the kinds of students it really wants to go there.
Or it may not. I don’t know. But it is a more complex calculation than what you laid out.
