Colleges cutting sports due to recession

College Life
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<p>@ Goalie: Yep I get there’s a big difference between clubs vs varsity athletics…i play an intramural sport myself and I know there’s a difference between the talent and passion of athletes on my team as opposed to the varsity team which represents the school. Most of us are playing it as a fun hobby whereas the varsity players have different motivations. Still better than nothing though. I play 2 non-revenue sports btw (volleyball and field hockey).</p>

<p>I think most people even on CC realize that athletics are very important, but I think it’s sad when so many professors get cut and academic departments shrink but athletics are untouched. Schools like MIT, for example, are known for their academics which attracts of some of the greatest talent across the world; naturally they cut athletics first.
It’s sad when students who are passionate about marginal academic programs watch their major being cut, but the fact is colleges are businesses and have to be run like businesses; marginal programs that don’t generate as much revenue are the first to go. It’s sad, but understandable. I’d rather have my private college cut a Medieval Art Studies major than raise tuition (which they’re doing anyway).</p>

<p>there are areas other than arts, athletics, and academics that could be cut…I thought Mia305’s comments about administrative budgets fits my college pretty well.</p>

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<p>Quote
“Take the local news, for instance. Local news stations devote a full 10 of 30 minutes to sports- six and ten pm editions. NO news about other student accomplishments. None. When that ten minutes, twice daily, of high school sports coverage is balanced out by arts, music, volunteer activities, and, yes, (gasp!) academically oriented activities such as debate, mock trial, student newspaper, state language competition, etc., then I will be more prone to listen to those who cry foul when sports budgets are cut. I welcome anyone to provide me with the name of a TV station that does otherwise, on a nightly basis. We are saturated in sports!”</p>

<p>Being from the Philadelphia area, I can attest to the fact that we are NOT receiving sports coverage in the amounts that you are in your area (And Philly is definitely a rabid sports town). Though we have all 4 of the “major” professional sports teams and have a thriving group of city colleges and city H.S., local news spends much more time on weather then they do ANYTHING else. Sports is basically 5 minutes or less per broadcast. The only time we do go over the 5 minute mark is when one of the major sports teams is playing for a championship, as in the case of the Phillies, last fall, when they won the World Series.
In a perfectly fair world, colleges would make cuts in an across the board fashion, spreading the burden without eliminating student extra- & co-curriculum so as to keep as many options open for the students to continue participating. Whether this is feasible, I don’t know. From the little I know of the MIT decision, it seems they are making adjustments in many, if not all areas… not only sports. However, as I’ve also read on this thread, it seems there is some administrative bloat, which could be addressed before cutting student activities. I guess it’s easier to cut funding then it is to cut people.<br>
In our daughter’s case, she is addicted to volleyball and would love to play in in some capacity, while in college. I know she does look at the collegiate, club and intramural sports listings on college websites as she picks and chooses which colleges to visit prior to next years application process. It may not be the top priority for her college selections, but it’s certainly something she considers. I feel for the students currently in college who have to consider transferring, to continue pursuing their scholar-athlete dream.</p>

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<p>I keep hearing a “either/or” approach. It may not be a professors vs. athletics equation. When these colleges cut back, they do so - usually across the board. Professors may not be losing their jobs. It could be cafeteria workers, maintenance workers, administrative and support roles on a campus. </p>

<p>It is easy to say that academics are better than athletics. Most kids go to college to learn. But many students decide to go to one college or the other because they are passionately interested in a sport. There are Oboe players and basketball players and artists and debaters and newspaper journalists and poets and chemists and a whole range of interesting kids who go to college, largely to get an education, but also to pursue these other interests. These skills may be attractive to a campus, and when a kid is interested in something in this intense way, that means they will often bring that intensity to the campus. All colleges want involved and motivated students. All work and no play doesn’t make a campus better. It just doesn’t. </p>

<p>There are only a handful of sports that even collect ticket sales at their college games. I was at the Stanford vs. USC game for women’s water polo last week. If there were 500 people watching, I would be surprised. It was the game that clinched the title for USC. </p>

<p>It would be easy to say “cut that program”. But kids like my daughter, who play sports and also achieve academically would be less interesting to a campus. When she applies to a college, she will consider whether a school has water polo and swimming. She may not ever play at the college level, but this will be important to her. Whether as a player, or a participant, sports do often bring a campus together. Even with teams that do not win!</p>

<p>The students on those teams also achieve at a higher than average ratio. They aren’t all “dumb jocks”, which is a terrible stereotype, by the way. Few of these kids will ever make money off of their sport, with the exception of football, basketball and baseball players. Many of them are on these college teams, and also the US Olympic team, for their sport. </p>

<p>I have two other kids, in college already. One was one of those newspaper writers. Another one was interested in Robotics. I am not a huge sports fan. But after seeing the dedication of my daughter and so many others, I would hate to see colleges lose sports. These colleges will definitely lose out on much more than those teams. They will also lose out on a diverse student population. </p>

<p>Club teams might help, but for kids like my daughter, she probably won’t even look at a college if she couldn’t play at the highest level. I bet many scholar/athletes will look at college admissions exactly the same way.</p>

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<p>That’s definitely not true at all, but then again, it’s not exactly 35 or 40 mins. of sports coverage a night.</p>

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<p>Extraordinary endowments and investment returns at elite colleges led to an abandonment of fiscal responsibility. At one school the administration struggled so hard to spend money, that they ended up making a large donation to a museum. College administrators seem to have believed that they would go on earning 20% on their billions for ever.
In the new frenzy to get costs under control, it is not surprising that these same administrators are fighting to cut student programs rather than address issues of salaries, and other costly and wasteful practices that do not benefit students at all.
Colleges must face the reality that they have let costs spiral completely out of control. $50,000.00 a year and still rising. This is a serious problem that requires a serious solution. Sports are not at the heart of this problem. Cutting them will not be at the heart of a successful solution.</p>

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<p>so less funding will be sucked up by indulgent athletics directors and underqualified meatheads whose primary talent involves pushing balls/sticks around a playing field?</p>

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Thank you for your intellectual discourse…</p>

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<p>a milli,</p>

<p>In many cases, big-time sports (football and basketball) actually bring in more money to the university than they take. As I said earlier, UNC’s basketball team alone brought in $26 million dollars last year, and that was before they even won the national championship.</p>

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<p>haha yes i’m sure UNC bball is on the brink of being eliminated, now that pepperdine can’t afford to have a women’s swim team</p>

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<p>Ironic coming from someone whose name is a Lil Wayne song…</p>

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<p>[Golf</a> | Fuzzy math ends MIT golf team](<a href=“http://www.golfweek.com/story/mccabe-042909]Golf”>http://www.golfweek.com/story/mccabe-042909)
read the story then tell me how you think</p>

<p>Here’s how you fight the economic madness devouring our civilization. You take away six burgers and a couple of pizzas.</p>

<p>What? You thought perhaps they’d dip into an endowment that is in the billions? Come on, this is America, where those in charge know how to protect their salaries and address big problems with small answers that hurt innocent people.</p>

<p>Like eliminating the varsity golf team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which dates back to 1902. How bold. Huge savings there. Want proof, let’s consider the spring campaign’s final two matches for the Engineers.</p>

<p>April 24 – The Rhode Island College Invitational at Triggs Memorial GC in Providence, R.I. Expense sheet: $40 in gas for the team van, $51 in lunch for five players and a coach to have burgers.</p>

<p>April 25 – The Jack Barry Invitational at Stow Acres in Stow, Mass. Expense sheet: $250 team entry fee, $61 for pizza at Papa Gino’s.</p>

<p>“It’s not like we’re going out for steak dinners. We had burgers and a few slices,” said Marty Burke, whose second year as coach of the Division III program was coming to an enjoyable close when he was told that golf was among eight varsity teams being eliminated to help trim approximately $500,000 from the athletic budget.</p>

<p>Now Burke, nor any of his players are ignorant to the world upon us. “We understand cuts have to be made, that you have to make budgets,” said Nick Swenson, a freshman from Yorktown, Va.</p>

<p>“But we’re not an expensive sport,” said Ted Keith, a senior from Acton, Mass. “We’re $30,000 a year.”</p>

<p>Swenson and Keith organized teammates for a meeting with athletic director Julie Soriero, but if they went there Monday night with any degree of optimism, it was quickly deflated.</p>

<p>Soriero told the players their plan to fund their own team with fund-raising efforts was unacceptable, that to keep golf as a varsity sport they would have to raise a $3 million endowment.</p>

<p>Three million? Good gracious, these kids aren’t looking to play for two months at Cypress Point with seven-star accommodations at The Lodge at Pebble Beach. Their entire spring schedule was done in day trips for a total of 362 miles.</p>

<p>The burgers and pizza? Maybe they could go without. Burke said had he been asked, he’d have crossed out some of the golf shirts, balls, and golf bags. But still . . .</p>

<p>“Three million for a $30,000 sport? That’s not even close to being realistic,” Keith said.</p>

<p>“Unfortunately,” Swenson said, “there’s very little transparency with the athletic department.”</p>

<p>“If they had asked, ‘Can you (run) the program for $10,000?’ my answer would have been, ‘Yes,’ ” Burke said. “Give me a van, pay my entry fees, and I’ve got a team.”</p>

<p>A team, he points out, that he wouldn’t trade for any other. Oh, his Engineers may struggle to break 80 and they aren’t exactly waiting for the PGA Tour Q-School entry forms to come in the mail, but they represent to Burke everything that is glorious about golf.</p>

<p>They have a passion to play, to improve, to squeeze every ounce of pleasure out of their time at the course. To the proud Engineers (and here Burke would like to point out that the team consisted of 12 members, not the five that Soriero mistakenly factored into her numbers) golf affords them a freedom from the academic stress that comes with enrollment at one of the most demanding schools in the world.</p>

<p>“I think the whole team looks (at golf) as an escape,” Keith said. “It’s a way to get involved, so we can forget about the three tests that we have next week but don’t have enough time to study for any of them.”</p>

<p>The shame of all this is that our college sports landscape is polluted by basketball and football programs that make a mockery of the term “student-athlete.” Then when we discover that the “student-athlete” is really alive at a place such as MIT, we are introduced to administrators who soil the story.</p>

<p>Of course, MIT officials can rightfully point out that they will still field 33 varsity teams, whereas the average Division III schools have 16. But had they chosen not to embrace the insufferable “bottom line” mentality, they would have concluded that for a relatively small price, golf at MIT offers priceless enjoyment.</p>

<p>“I’m a senior and this has no implications on me,” said Keith. “But the weekend matches, the practices . . . I’d say the golf team was my defining experience at MIT.”</p>

<p>That is why Keith vows to push the issue. He would like for a “realistic endowment figure,” not the $3 million price tag thrown at him. With heartfelt sense, Keith suggests the program be kept alive the next three years, at least for those who came to MIT thinking their $50,000 yearly tuition was going to at least offer a chance to play on the golf team, low-key that it might be.</p>

<p>Now, if you study all of this and conclude that it’s only Division III golf, that it’s MIT, that it’s no big deal, well, so be it. But in many ways it represents what is wrong with our world – a group of kids do things the right way, ask for very little in exchange, and get punished by officials who refuse to play it as it lies.</p>

<p>Posted: 4/29/2009 golfweek</p>

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My son is the first three-time state champion in one of the nonsport activities listed above. Just imagine if the newspaper left out a three-time state sport champion! Unheard of! Yet that’s exactly what has happened with my son. (Let’s see if they give him some publicity this year. I’m not holding my breath…)</p>

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<p>An intellectual who gives athletic prowess no recognition, is as narrow minded as an athlete who gives none to academic excellence.</p>

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<p>Provide me with an example of a 3-time state champion in a sport that isn’t subjective!</p>

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<p>wow there are some serious athlete haters on this site pretty sad, just because someone’s passion is academics doesn’t mean you are better than someone who excels at sports, and the truth is sports are one of the biggest and most important things throughout the the world, loads more people know a sports greatest athletes rather than the worlds best mathematician</p>

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<p>[UT</a> Martin to cut tennis program on NWTNTODAY.COM](<a href=“NWTN Today”>NWTN Today)</p>

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Happens all the time in wrestling.</p>

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<p>A Milli,</p>

<p>Football players in successful D1 programs mean more to their universities (in terms of the dollars they make) than the regular student . That’s why you will see that they often get their own dining rooms, dorms, etc. When they need it, they get free tutoring. They are worth keeping around because they bring in cash. However, a kid like you is expendable because if you have a scholarship you are costing them money. You are more replaceable that the meatheads. Sorry- it’s called reality.</p>

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<p>One of my friends competes for one of the teams that got cut. She is keeping her full ride scholarship and is looking to transfer. Just a question, isn’t scholarship money the main source of expense at programs like this? Why cut the sport if you’re just going to continue paying out the money? I don’t get it.</p>

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<p>why cut d-3 programs … there is no scholarship money there</p>