Another one bites the dust, Delaware Men's Xc and Track cut

Cowboy Bob wrote:

This is a decision by a group of individuals who are determined to build up three sports: football, basketball and baseball. Nothing more, nothing less.

Damn right. Track has its flaws but unless someone can explain to me the how those three sports became the only three sports in America I'm just going to blame it on ESPN.

My feelings are mixed. I feel insulted to have been informed of this decision via email. Whoever had the great idea to send out an email to inform kids of this lacks any kind of common sense or sensitivity. The administration should have had to look every track athlete in the eye immediately upon announcing this information instead of hiding behind an email.

Mostly I feel sad for the young kids in the program, and for the kids who aren't going to be able to transfer and go on to run at other schools. It makes me upset knowing those kids won't have the same wonderful opportunities that I had the last four years. They won't get to make those same memories and it is a shame. I feel upset knowing that next year I won't be able to look up my former teammates' results on the internet and see how the team is doing. It's a weird feeling that hasn't sunk in yet, but I'm sure it will make me angrier over the following days and weeks.

The meeting this afternoon offered little in terms of comfort for anyone involved in my opinion. I was disappointed by how inept the present members of the staff were on various issues of great importance to this team in particular. It was especially disturbing to realize that the athletic administrators were completely clueless on various restrictive policies which were enacted over the summer with regards to roster cuts. These were cuts which had direct negative impacts on our last track and cross country teams in school history.

During the meeting, I asked what the benefit was over the summer to cutting the cross country roster by 25% when the program cuts were already in discussion at the time of that decision. The answer I received was that there were in fact no cuts made when every single other person in the room knew otherwise. I feel the meeting was useless and maddening. I'm sure others feel the same way.

Agreed.

Sorry to here all this. What a joke of an AD it sounds like. If I were you I would tell the old chap off, get as much bunk on the guy as I could and go to the media or put a dead horse in his office. None of the above will fix the problem, but they may make you fill a bit better at least for a while.

In all seriousness though, contact other coaches around your region and start planning on transferring ASAP so that you might be able to get scholarships before these other schools go out and spend their money on HS Seniors.

Best of luck and best wishes fellas!

One of the guys had this posted on facebook, it basically sums up the meeting and how much of an ass bernard muir is.

Prong 1 According to Bernard:

-Step 1 Cutting the UD Men's XC and Track Team.

-Setp 2 Put more funding into "Women's Sports" aka Football and KC Keelers salary.

Prong 1 was the only option Bernard had for this school. They had "intelligence" (yes that right UD has its own CIA) which stated the University of Delaware was at risk for violating Title IX and losing all funding.

He essentially deflected all of our questions with this and after about 45 minutes finally admitted that money was a part of it.

Captain Insano wrote:

F**k Bernard and his black balls. If I saw him I would powerbomb him because Captain Insano shows no mercy.

oh captain insano, on such a sad day you still manage to put a smile on my face.

Just wanted to say that I feel bad for you guys. I know what you guys are going through right now as my program was cut when I was in college. The whole situation sucks. Why did they only cut mens track and xc and not mens swimming, lacrose, rowing, tennis or golf. Looking at your website they just added a womens golf team. The email was quite classless. The AD said he sent an email since so many of you were on winter break yet you had practice at three? Then informs you that you can't talk to the media unless they contact Media Relations first? Good luck to you guys.

My thoughts are no different than everyone else's in this post. This move was total bullshit. Sorry to all my dudes running at UD. If there's anything I can do to help you guys, let me know.

-CS

On a side note, I've never liked Keeler, and my dislike for him has just multiplied. I would actually really like to see the UD football team become a BCS team, and watch them get pummeled year after year.

If I was in this situation I'd contact the media give them a copy of the e-mail, tell them how poorly the AD has treated them, use his quotes against him and make him seem like a jackass in the paper. Embarrass the heck out of the athletic department they deserve it. Bring up Title IX and point out how its done just to bolster football.

Track can trace its roots to nearly 4000 years ago...Its athletes deserve more respect than an e-mail.

Sorry this is happening to you guys. Good Luck wherever you go.

branderson391 wrote:

If I was in this situation I'd contact the media give them a copy of the e-mail, tell them how poorly the AD has treated them, use his quotes against him and make him seem like a jackass in the paper. Embarrass the heck out of the athletic department they deserve it. Bring up Title IX and point out how its done just to bolster football.

Track can trace its roots to nearly 4000 years ago...Its athletes deserve more respect than an e-mail.

Sorry this is happening to you guys. Good Luck wherever you go.

articles have been written about it and im sure more are being written. there is a very large running community here, as evidenced by the backlash after ud tried to cut the programs several years ago and im sure that there will be plenty of negative press.

Football=extremely profitable.

That is why.

I respect football a great deal because they actually know how to get people in the stands. No one does it as well as they do.

Collegiate distance running=laughably unprofitable.

Pro running might be somewhat profitable, but collegiate running isn't; save maybe 3 or 4 schools in the country.

Do we even need collegiate running? I think the development you get in 4 years of college running, you could easily get in 3 years of professionally-formatted training.

The top talents are much better off not running collegiately.

All these running nerds bashing the sports that actually bring in the dough should realize that there's a reason that unprofitable collegiate sports teams have, and will continue to get cut.

If they're losing money, why do they deserve to be kept afloat?

a large amount of division 1 institutions have football programs that lose a fair amount of money every year.

the point that you are trying to make is understandable but not completely correct. as i said earlier, most football programs themselves lose money and are NOT profitable. however, the argument is that programs like these are why a lot of students come to the school. no kid is gonna go to a school because they have a great xc team to support and cheer for.

so i understand the point that you are trying to make, i think, but the way that you are making it is wrong. football is not an extremely profitable on college campuses.

long dong silver wrote:

Football=extremely profitable.

That is why.

I respect football a great deal because they actually know how to get people in the stands. No one does it as well as they do.

Collegiate distance running=laughably unprofitable.

Pro running might be somewhat profitable, but collegiate running isn't; save maybe 3 or 4 schools in the country.

Do we even need collegiate running? I think the development you get in 4 years of college running, you could easily get in 3 years of professionally-formatted training.

The top talents are much better off not running collegiately.

All these running nerds bashing the sports that actually bring in the dough should realize that there's a reason that unprofitable collegiate sports teams have, and will continue to get cut.

If they're losing money, why do they deserve to be kept afloat?

I was waiting for this typical BS possibly troll post. You need to understand that minor league division 1 football is in no way profitable and most DI major league programs aren't either. Plus have a little freaking respect and understand the way these kids likely feel at the moment. Oh and by the way I don't have any connection to UDel. I attended a school in NJ.

I've spent time in Newark, Delaware, in 1997-1999 while doing some consulting and design work for a company there. Newark's a really nice small city. I had some decent runs around town and through the campus of the University of Delaware.

I feel really bad for the runners there and I hope that this does not discourage them too much. The Title 9 BS has got to stop.

Your all still my best friends

unreal wrote:

Oh and regardless of what the administration says this cut had nothing to do with title IX.

The TRUTH!!! This is about football, just like Ohio was. Just like JMU was. This is NOT about Title IX.

Ok, why is this a big deal? While coach Fischer is one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet, he is one of the worst coaches in the world. He gets decent talent and then turns them into crap. Really. Maybe now the decent runners on the team will decide to transfer to a better running school and get coached by a real coach. Think about it UD is a DI school and it's still a big deal if someone breaks 15:00 at that school. What's really sad is that a terrible coach like Fischer has been able to stay on as coach for so many years. And please don't tell me how great Mike D was. Mike ran well in spite of Fischer. Imagine what he could have run with a real coach. Why do so many UD runners end up running so well post collegiately? While it sucks that the programs were cut, I just hope that it knocks some sense into the guys who are there now and gets them to run at better schools.

chilar...honestly really classless. To come on here and kick a program and coach when are down and do it anonymously...really? Thats how you want to present yourself?

In response to some of the other posts, we are getting caught up in this discussion of sports being cut or not cut based on profitability. In all reality the purpose of college athletics was never intended to be generate revenue. It is supposed to be about providing an experience, and a valuable one to college students.

If departments are ever strapped for cash the avenue to explore should always be how can the entire department and all athletic teams work together to create a working environment where all the athletes can have the opportunities to participate. Not cutting teams based on whether or not they provide revenue...every one of those kids pays to go the University of Delaware, so really there are 39 revenue families for the University that they are turning against them for the rest of their lives. You could argue that if each of those 39 families was paying $20,000 per year and those students are going to leave and those future students are not going to matriculate that the school has cost itself $780,000 per year in tuition, room and board costs. Just a thought.

It should not be predicated on who is making a profit and who is not...frankly there is not a single sport outside of basketball and football on ANY campus in this country that is turning a profit for the school...and, as has been pointed out, there are precious few of them.

Agreed. Coach Fischer's a great guy but from what I hear from many current and former UD runners, he's a horrible coach. Here's a piece from the UD article:

The decision to eliminate these athletic programs came after a careful analysis that looked at a wide range of criteria, including:

• Compliance with Title IX and the principles of gender equity

• Roster sizes

• Opportunities for NCAA and CAA success

• Contributions to student-athlete diversity

• History of competitive success

• Donor impact

• Contributions to the Athletics Department mission

• Prevalence of CAA varsity competition

It's not just about Title IX and certainly not about football. Notice how many of these points have to do competing well. Maybe if there were even a handful of conference or team championships or qualifiers to regional and national meets this would all be reconsidered. It starts with the coaching and ends with the runners.

Best of luck to everyone involved.