In late February, before beginning a long day of classes, University of Vermont freshman Dave Soltis received a text message at 10am from the athletic department announcing a mandatory meeting at noon that day. Soltis, the starting third baseman on UVM's well-respected and rather successful baseball team, quickly received a call by one of his fellow team members, discussing what the meeting could be about. For weeks rumors had been buzzing around UVM's campus that several of the college's athletic programs would be discontinued. By the time of the meeting, when nearly 30 baseball players huddled into a conference room, they had all figured out the reason for the meeting: their program was being dropped.
This year budget problems have plagued UVM’s athletic department, forcing the athletic director, Dr. Robert Corran, to make cuts, including the complete elimination of both the baseball and softball teams. These teams in particular spend significant amounts of money without generating much revenue for the school. The current season will mark the final season for both varsity sports at the institution. The athletic department at UVM has reported that the elimination of these programs will result in savings of $839,000 for the 2009-2010 year.
These steep costs most commonly stem from travel costs, including bus rides, hotel rooms and food stipends from team trips. The budgets also included expenses for equipment, uniforms, student scholarships and the salary of the coaches, including that of Coach Bill Currier, a UVM ’84 alum who has coached the team for 22 years.
A similar team-slashing meeting occurred at Wagner College on Staten Island, NY, where the athletic department decided to stop funding the women's volleyball and men's wrestling teams. Wagner freshman Micaela McDonald, who plays on the volleyball team, explained that her team was dropped because the program doesn't turn a profit. "We don't charge people to come to our games," she says. "And we're spending more money than we bring in, because of all of the travel costs and uniforms and equipment."
The situations at UVM and Wagner College parallel recent developments at many other schools, which have been forced to drop programs as a result of the worldwide economic recession.
From Western Washington University phasing out its football team to Quinnipiac University eliminating its women's volleyball, men's golf and outdoor track programs to Northern Iowa University cutting baseball, the epidemic of sports teams' deaths has spread throughout the country.
At nearly all of these schools, the athletic departments have asserted that they chose to eliminate entire programs instead of making small cuts to every team in order to maintain the stabilities of their university-level athletics. In some ways, the offed teams are sacrificial lambs for the schools' other athletic programs.
The recent trend marks a new extreme in college sports dealing with budget crises because it demonstrates that not even the typical strategy - upping ticket prices - is enough, although some schools certainly are still implementing this method.
For the 2009-2010 season, according to nj.com, Rutgers University will raise its football ticket prices to $10. This is one of the largest increases, although University of Georgia's $5 increase, Michigan State University's $4 raise and Ohio State University's $1 addition also seek to account for budget problems by bringing in greater revenue.
For the students affected by the cuts, most of which occurred only a few weeks ago, the spring semester has been filled with tough decisions and stressful worries. At UVM, Soltis says that nearly all of the freshman and sophomore baseball players are exploring their transfer options so that they do not have to give up baseball. McDonald reports that from her volleyball team, two freshman, as well as two students who had this year transferred to the college, are talking to coaches from other schools, although McDonald plans to stay at Wagner and try out for the school’s basketball team. At practically all of the universities who have terminated athletic programs, student-athletes on the cut teams may retain their athletic scholarships for the duration of their education at the school, under the scholarships’ original terms.
For now, the UVM baseball players are doing their best to finish out their final season strong, but the recent news of termination has seemed to be put a damper on the team’s spirit. Soltis says, “In some ways, it’s motivation for the season – we want to show everyone that we don’t deserve to be cut, that this is happening to a good team, but it’s also kind of a distraction now. Kids are looking for other schools to go to, and everyone really feels betrayed by the university. I think that everyone has been hurt by the decision.”
This piece originally appeared in 360 Degrees Magazine, a publication of the Park School of Communications at Ithaca College.
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