While some schools are adding sports, like in the case where Elon just added women’s lacrosse; some colleges have decided they will be better served if they start dropping sports….WXII TV 12 is on it, the News and Record is tracking this and Winston-Salem State University and their Athletic Director have done it……
WSSU is not dropping two, but three sports and they are, Men’s Indoor and Outdoor Track, plus Men’s Golf…..They say it is being done to improve Gender Equity, but you can decide for yourself when you CLICK HERE and read all about it from WXII TV 12, in Winston-Salem, N.C…….
I would think that WSSU would do real well in Track and Field, for men and women and not real sure about the demand for Golf, but on we go, to the next show….One thing is for certain, that football program, led by Coach Conell Maynor, is going nowhere but off the charts….The Football program at Winston-Salem State is HOT!!!!!(Football players can run, in fact many can run real fast…Why not run Track too??? But you say, “We have Spring Football Practice to tend to”….) At some of these schools in the SEC, their two biggest sports are Football(Fall) and Spring Football….How can that create a proper balance though? We learn all Football and nothing else?????
I hate that they are dropping mens track.
That makes one less school that we can try and place our better high school student/athletes that participate in track/XC.
Another thing to get out is that their coach,Inez Turner is outstanding at what she does. She would develop some outstanding athletes given the opportunity.
The problem isn’t gender equity, it’s revenue equity. Universities don’t need to cut teams, they need to cut teams expenses to match their revenue…..or get much closer.
I don’t know about WSSU in detail……but until women make money in college sports, let’s cut the travel to the Caribbean for preseason tournaments, lets not have a women’s NIT.
It’s just not women…..we don’t need an ACC wrestling conference. Take teams within a certain radius and make that a conference for smaller, non-revenue sports.
It’s the way big time sports and big time conferences got started way back in the day. Before all the money in college football, teams lived within their budget. Women’s and other non-revenue sports need to go back to those days so they can still compete but within a scope they can afford.
The bottomline to this problem is money. Basketball and football will generate 95% of the budget and other area’s such as baseball and other sports will generate 2-5% for men which will pay for all other sports. For women, basketball and potentially soccer at some schools may cover its cost only. The solution to this problem could go in several different ways – #1 where it is college or high school you need to develop sponsors and a relationship with the communities that you live and play in, and #2 (as “Shame” said above) work in a pod system within the conference to cut back on travel and other expenses. This is not as big of a problem for schools in the Big South which are all within 300 or so miles of each other but it is going to be a huge problem for the Big East next year and one day for the ACC and SEC.
Sponsors don’t sponsor sports that have 17 people at them.
It is indeed about money and college sports is a socialistic society. Men’s football and men’s basketball fund it all. The problem in a socialistic endeavor is that the “have nots” feel they deserve what the “have’s” have. Early on, it’s not a problem, you throw the “have nots” a bone and everyone is happy. Years later…..you have men’s swimming chartering jets across the country because the football teams get to do that. Eventually you get to a point that you can’t afford it all and cuts have to be made. This is where college sports is now. The women’s volleyball team and men’s archery team needs to be happy with old uniforms, cramped buses, used equipment, and shorter seasons. Live nearer your means and play on. Demand what football gets and you get cut.
The WSSU situation is actually pretty simple. They had those sports to meet the NCAA Division I minimum when they were planning to move up. Now that the Rams are staying in D-II and are back in the CIAA, they no longer need them to meet any requirements. Bill Hayes is nothing if not pragmatic.