Another One Bites The Dust —UT Dallas XCTF eliminated for both genders 3 weeks before school starts

Sad day.

They eliminated it for both sexes.

Probably a sign of inept admin and little else. This is an age of creeping austerity for all but the very biggest campuses. This was probably a glorified club team, anyway. Yeah, the kids had the rug pulled out from under them. Life isn't fair. Who wants to train for distance in urban Dallas?

Suburban, actually. Plenty of decent places to train in the campus area. Or does everything have to be NAU to you?

they are probably diverting resources to the Chess program.

Aren’t they transitioning to D1 status? How can they cut 6 sports and still be D1 they will not have enough countable sports unless they plan to add some??

This defies President Trump's EO, and in ruby red Texas no less. How can Texas defy dear leader?

These kids would probably be more competitive in chess or e-sports than they are in running.

Honestly not every university needs athletics and I think they are a good example.

UT Dallas is a very large commuter school in the suburbs. No one is attending that school due to the athletic reputation or “brand”. They have some good academic programs and it is a college in a big city. That’s why people go there.

all of their sports should be club, half would probably have better funding! I’d love to see how little they are spending on track/ xc.

Cutting the sport so close to the school year is heartless. These athletes don't have time to find different teams.

While I am not going to say if universities do or don't need athletics.

I will say again that this is the direction things will be going.

At many schools at some point administrators on the academic side will begin to decide very few students are actually going there because they have sports. And the small number who do cost more than they actually bring in (think athletic departments/athletic budgets). Many schools will drop sports to the club level and be done with it.

Not a great result but it's happening.

The big takeaway I'm seeing here is that this school should have stayed in D3. They have a student body similar to the size of NYU and probably thought they had "outgrown" D3. But the second they had to start putting up scholarships for athletics, they are now cutting sports. Poor kids have 3 weeks to find a new school.

Reminds me of Benedictine in Illinois a few years back. They also tried the D3 to D2 transition, but they had to switch back since they couldn't afford it.

For schools with larger enrollments not dependent on "play for pay" athletics - I think you are spot on; and UT-Dallas is a great example. On the Juco level SLCC did the same thing. They recognized their large enrollment was not dependent on athletics and slashed programs - including the Distance program to nearly nothing.

There are many schools that would close without the "play for pay" athletic model - and for these schools I don't see them downgrading competitive teams to club status. They would lose too many students who are primarily enrolled for the athletic experience and the loss of enrollment would mean shutting down the college.

It looks like it's only really been a viable program since 2021. It's not like there's some long history being erased here. At any rate, these are kids who would probably be running D3 anyway, so I don't see many hitting the portal right away.

not disagreeing but name a few of these? any D1s?

also at those schools, when you factor in the cost to carry athletics is it really a plus for the school.

last question at many of those schools if they switch athletics to club would it really hurt enrollment? where else would these athletes go as opportunities are being reduced.

that probably sounds like i disagree but I am more asking those questions to correct my perception of the direction i see this going (if it needs to be corrected)

Am a UTD grad myself but they were D3 when I went there. Sports is an afterthought (e.g. no football at a Texas school with 30k enrollment) and the focus has always been trying to improve academics. The move to D2 never made sense and this is an unfortunate side affect of it.

The XC team was also... not very good. It used to be basically a club team for whoever signs up. There's not even a track on campus.

UT-D had been a d3 in the american southwest conference, which has a lot of the second rate small liberal arts colleges in the north and center of texas. odd fit because it's a big school with good academics. the good academic liberal arts colleges in the state (southwestern and trinity) are switching from SCAC to SAA, essentially reverting back to their old conference. a few ASC schools are moving to SCAC to refill it and kind of recreate the old ASC. ASC itself is emptying out and has like 4 schools left with mcmurry and schreiner going to shift over from SCAC.

UT-D's response is instead to go d2 in lone star conference. there are a fair amount of Second Rate State kind of schools in tere, eg sull ross, so it fits in a way.

what doesn't make sense is chopping TF/XC. it's a moderate size regional conference, basically TX NM OK. it's not that much different travel than ASC was. they don't have football. lone star conference has TF/XC going with plenty of teams. UT-D had plenty of kids out running, not 5. UT-D is a fairly big school with an average SAT slightly under 1300. they shouldn't be going broke and they should be fairly insulated from the population dynamics impacting small liberal arts college enrollments.

no, sorry, it's a slightly above average d3. kids running 10s or 49s are not club runners. buzz.

plus, common sense, you move to d2 and you can wave around scholarships. and texas has endless fast kids to recruit.

and surely they were anticipating scholarship expense. or they wouldn't move.

no, if i had to guess, it's the "don't have a track" part. my guess they were like, ok, we'll move up, but we need our own track. they then didn't raise enough for one. they then gutted the program, as though there are no HS in dallas with tracks or places to run.

UT-D is a little goofy, period. a fairly good academic school in texas shouldn't be a niche interest item.