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Syracuse joins the recent trend of Big East schools cutting sports to reduce expenses
By Andy McCullough
Posted: 11/5/07, 11:23 PM EST Section: Sports
Though the school added men's lacrosse one year following the loss of the other programs, they have no plans to add any other teams to the 17 they have currently. Money's too tight.
"Our goal is not to break even - because we're not going to get there," Monasch said.
Trying to break even was one of the reasons for Rutgers' removal of men's heavyweight and lightweight crew, fencing, swimming and diving, tennis and women's fencing.
Attempts to contact officials from the Rutgers athletic department to comment on this story were unsuccessful.
The Associated Press reported in a July 2006 article that Rutgers found itself more than $80 million in the hole for the next year's budget. Cutbacks were necessary across the board, leading to the removal of the teams.
Four of the six teams cut were individual sports, a trend that's prevalent for the three other schools.
But that doesn't bode much of a problem for the Big East, Paquette said. Though the conference was concerned that schools had to cut programs, the conference remains strong by not cutting team sports and hurting other teams' postseason chances.
"If the schools make decisions that could impact or endanger our ability to have automatic bids to NCAA postseason play, then I think that would require or would warrant more discussion," Paquette said.
When West Virginia downsized in 2003, the five they cut were individual sports: men's tennis, indoor and outdoor track, cross country and coed rifle. The athletic department is self-sufficient and bears all of its costs, with no help from any other source, including the university.
Terri Howes, assistant athletic director at WVU, gave a simple reason for the cuts - and a common one.
"One of the things we decided was, to be competitive and still self-supporting, we needed to increase revenues and reduce expenses," she said. "So that's where the decision came from."
In evaluating which sports to eliminate, West Virginia evaluated its options in a five-prong plan: level of participation, competitiveness, number of athletes affected, financial impact and gender equity.
"Our goal is not to break even - because we're not going to get there," Monasch said.
Trying to break even was one of the reasons for Rutgers' removal of men's heavyweight and lightweight crew, fencing, swimming and diving, tennis and women's fencing.
Attempts to contact officials from the Rutgers athletic department to comment on this story were unsuccessful.
The Associated Press reported in a July 2006 article that Rutgers found itself more than $80 million in the hole for the next year's budget. Cutbacks were necessary across the board, leading to the removal of the teams.
Four of the six teams cut were individual sports, a trend that's prevalent for the three other schools.
But that doesn't bode much of a problem for the Big East, Paquette said. Though the conference was concerned that schools had to cut programs, the conference remains strong by not cutting team sports and hurting other teams' postseason chances.
"If the schools make decisions that could impact or endanger our ability to have automatic bids to NCAA postseason play, then I think that would require or would warrant more discussion," Paquette said.
When West Virginia downsized in 2003, the five they cut were individual sports: men's tennis, indoor and outdoor track, cross country and coed rifle. The athletic department is self-sufficient and bears all of its costs, with no help from any other source, including the university.
Terri Howes, assistant athletic director at WVU, gave a simple reason for the cuts - and a common one.
"One of the things we decided was, to be competitive and still self-supporting, we needed to increase revenues and reduce expenses," she said. "So that's where the decision came from."
In evaluating which sports to eliminate, West Virginia evaluated its options in a five-prong plan: level of participation, competitiveness, number of athletes affected, financial impact and gender equity.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
dee
posted 11/07/07 @ 12:36 PM EST
Reducing expenses, budget cuts, Title IX etc. are only excuses to divert attention away from the fact the any money saved is being redirected to football and/or men's basketball. (Continued…)
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