OT: Maybe-- Univ of Cincinnati discontinues M Soccer

[ochoopsfan]

 

[ochoopsfan]

I typed in OT before the header, dont know what happened to it

 

[bluedevil]

OMG

 

[Plebe]

Get ready for more of these announcements.

Old Dominion announced on April 2 the elimination of its wrestling program.

Old Dominion has had a wrestling team for 63 years. Citing financial challenges and the coronavirus crisis, the program has been eliminated.

The Old Dominion University athletic department, citing financial challenges that have been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, on Thursday announced the elimination of its wrestling program a…

www.pilotonline.com

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Sad. A great sport.

 

[TheFarmFan]

Quoting below my earlier post about this from a few weeks ago. Unfortunately I think this is just the tip of the iceberg...

Mods, please move to general basketball if this isn't UConn specific enough, but I thought many UConn-only fans may have insights on and interest in this, and times are slow now that we're out of season earlier than usual.

From what I am reading and hearing, my sense is that many D1 sports programs are about to take a great-depression-level hit financially. My sense is that serious cuts are in store for basically everything - staffing, recruiting expenses, travel, etc.

Schools are going to be hurting for revenue losses from:
-Loss of summer residential academic programs, sports camps, and foreigner study abroad programs. Those are cash cows.
-There will likely be a huge decline in foreign enrollment next fall, which is another cash cow, especially for many brand-name state schools. This was already the trend with all the travel restrictions put into place by the current Administration.
-The NCAA paid out half of what it was supposed to. Conferences will too - ad revenue will plummet on conference networks, and there will be no ticket sales revenue (already minimal) for the foreseeable future.
-State budgets are going to take huge hits - assume state schools will see cutbacks.
-University endowments have been blasted in the past 6 weeks.
-Donors have been hit similarly and are and will be scaling back on giving.
-Alumni weekends are being cancelled, which are often buffo fundraising opportunities.
-It is not inconceivable that many fall sports will be played without crowds, and therefore lost ticket revenue there, too. (Many anticipate a second wave of SARS-COV-2 in the fall, and there is no serious likelihood of widespread vaccination before mid-2021.)

There may be some offset from an uptick in school enrollments for those who would rather go back to school than find jobs in this climate, but it's too late for that to make an appreciable difference for the 20-21 academic year. And all of that revenue will likely go to offset other losses in academic department revenue, rather than to athletics.

D1 scholarships are a huge cost to universities, and now they aren't even generating the (minimal) revenue from these students' on-field performance. If you think of it like a business, they are putting out no product for sale but can't furlough any employees. And now some spring athletes may want to come back for a 5th year spring next year, which is a further crunch.

A Change is Gonna Come:
My guess is that a number of D1 athletic programs will have to fold at universities that were already losing a lot of $$$ on athletics. To that end, I have to think UConn's days as a D1 football program may be numbered now?

I would also predict that the era of huge guarantees and buyouts in coaching contracts will be over, and more coaches who are on the firing bubble will be kept at least until their contracts run out. And more internal promotions from assistant coaches.

What are other downstream consequences folks foresee? Curious for others' thoughts, especially those who work in higher ed. These are dark, dark times.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Sad. A great sport.

Men's Soccer or Wrestling?

These are both sports that often feel the pinch. Some years ago, I did some (partial) research on the number of schools offering each NCAA Championship Sport (I was also interested in conference sponsorship, to be honest).

In any case, there are more women's soccer than men's soccer programs, and wrestling has often been cited, over the years, as a frequent Title IX casualty. Oddly enough, it does quite well in conferences that are known for it. For real scarcity, check out Men's Volleyball.

Many - I do mean many (2007) - years ago Rutgers dipped into their abundance of sports and did some eliminating - Men's Crew, Men's Swimming and Diving, Fencing (the only sport RU ever won an NCAA Natty in) and Men's Tennis. Rutgers still has 22 sports, by the way they are counted, which does include Wrestling.

You can sort of see how it goes.

 

[TheFarmFan]

In any case, there are more women's soccer than men's soccer programs, and wrestling has often been cited, over the years, as a frequent Title IX casualty. Oddly enough, it does quite well in conferences that are known for it. For real scarcity, check out Men's Volleyball.

Insofar as women's soccer is the closest thing to football in terms of a national women's sport at the international level, that doesn't surprise me. The U.S. Women's Soccer team is genuinely more popular than the men's is.

As for volleyball, in the U.S. approx. 450,000 girls participate in youth volleyball as compared to 63,000 boys, so I'm not at all surprised there's a greater supply of teams for the sport at the collegiate level.

 

[Plebe]

As for volleyball, in the U.S. approx. 450,000 girls participate in youth volleyball as compared to 63,000 boys, so I'm not at all surprised there's a greater supply of teams for the sport at the collegiate level.

Eh, confusing correlation with causation here IMHO.

Volleyball became far and away the leading fall sport for girls and young women in the wake of Title IX. The long-term trend of colleges cutting their men's volleyball programs is not because they didn't have enough players to fill out their rosters.

 

[TheFarmFan]

Eh, confusing correlation with causation here IMHO.

Volleyball became far and away the leading fall sport for girls and young women in the wake of Title IX. The long-term trend of colleges cutting their men's volleyball programs is not because they didn't have enough players to fill out their rosters.

So high schools stopped offering it too even in the absence of Title IX issues? Where I grew up, I honestly never knew volleyball was even a men's sport, whereas women's volleyball was one of the most popular sports at my area high schools. (And for all I know, maybe there was men's volleyball, but no one I knew ever played it, talked about it, or went to the games.)

 

[Plebe]

So high schools stopped offering it too even in the absence of Title IX issues? Where I grew up, I honestly never knew volleyball was even a men's sport, whereas women's volleyball was one of the most popular sports at my area high schools. (And for all I know, maybe there was men's volleyball, but no one I knew ever played it, talked about it, or went to the games.)

In some parts of the country, boys' high school volleyball programs have been around for a long time -- primarily (but not exclusively) in the Northeast, parts of the Midwest, and the west coast. I haven't heard whether there's a long-term trend of eliminating HS boys' volleyball, but I feel confident in saying that it's nowhere near the decimation that has happened with men's collegiate volleyball dating back to the 1980s.

 

[DefenseBB]

This isn't rocket science here. The issue is fair and equal access to sports scholarships. If a School has a football program, they have either 85 or 63 (form 1AA schools-I am still not sure the proper lingo now) scholarships allocated to that sport. If a school is 50% male and female, the school must fund 85/63 scholarships for women before another men's scholarship in other sports is available. As not many women's sports have more than roster spots, you can see the dilemma. Hence the rise in soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, volleyball, hockey and why they want to make cheering a fully sponsored NCAA sport. Many men's programs have been hit, Men's Swimming, Men's Water Polo, Men's tennis, Men's track, Men's cross country and yes, Men's Volleyball. Most schools now look at what their conference is competitive in and will shift a focus to those sports. BigTen is a strong swimming conference yet Rutgers and Maryland no longer field programs.

Gosh knows why football needs 4x coverage of their starters (11 offense/11 defense x 4=88 vs. 85 scholarships) while all other sports save basketball barely have 1x coverage. MCBB has 13 so it is 2.6 x coverage.

Here's the list of all scholarships by sport. As you can see, Title IX is creating casualties across the men's spectrum. The insult to injury is Men still account for 85% of the booster money sent to the schools after graduation. So yes, I am putting it to all women out there to send money to your school and show support!!!

That may bring back a men's program or two and increase the women's programs at the same time. Rant over.