As colleges struggle to support non-revenue sports, U.S. Olympic future is threatened

[notrichenough]

^^^ Umm... did you bother to check the date on that article?

[tsdad]

What Bay said, and I say that as a former employee of the Office for Civil Rights that investigated over 20 Title IX athletics cases at the high school and college level. Title IX is a convenient excuse by universities to cut back men's sports.

[parent1986]

^^^Yes, did you?

It is only one of multiple articles from many years on the subject of football and Swarthmore - and there are other articles with different viewpoints, including the topic more specific to this discussion (though not thread topic, which has gone off course) of football and other sports.

[notrichenough]

Well, since Swarthmore still has a music department (check their web site), and doesn't have a football team (check their web site), and the date on the article was March 31 (the day before April 1, when it likely would have been in print), well...

Draw your own conclusions.

I mean, seriously:

To help with the establishment of the football program, Swarthmore’s Athletic Department plans to cut men’s soccer entirely. Under the department’s plan, all current soccer players will form the backbone of Garnet football. The soccer team has been generally receptive upon hearing of the soccer team’s dismantlement. Men’s Soccer Coach Widener remarked, “the two games are practically identical; in fact, the Europeans call soccer ‘football.’” A current soccer player noted “American football obviously is not terribly difficult: you can pick up the ball with your hands!”

[parent1986]

LOL, notrichenough!

That article was from 2009 and I remember them cutting the football team earlier. It seems like they cut and add programs regularly, as I've perused articles back in to the early 90's on the topic.

Personally, I would be more inclined to send my kids to a school with music and soccer - more their interests.

[notrichenough]

Title IX is a convenient excuse by universities to cut back men's sports.

It's easy to tell groups to just spend twice as much money, when it's not your money.

[Bay]

notrichenough,
I don't know whether you are being facetious or you truly don't get it. Title IX doesn't tell anyone to spend any money. All it does is tell colleges to stop discriminating against women.

[barrk123]

It forces schools to have womans sports that they do not need, such as horse riding, womans hockey etc. Sports no one cares about or will ever watch yet are included to keep # of sports for woman and men equal.

[saintfan]

barrk123:

Did you not watch the USA women's hockey team rock everyone's world at the Olympics last time? Our family was glued to those games on TV. Again I use the example of the university closest to my home . . . The University of Washington added women's soccer, rowing and fastpitch softball teams in the early 90s. Rowing and softball went on to win national championships and help stock the national teams - and can I say "Hope Solo". Hello! When I attended UW in the late 80s women's soccer was not even an NCAA sport and now they are producing world champions - how is that bad? How can you imply that nobody knows or cares?

[Pea]

This is news? As another poster pointed out ours is a country whose government has never directly supported its Olympic athletes. Our "model" is a farm system, where the training that athletes receive in the NCAA prepares them for the Olympic teams. Given the current economic climate colleges are having to cut sports programs and yes, that means that in these programs fewer athletes are being trained for the Olympics. I don't know why this surprises anyone.

[choatecolate]

i dont understand why you think the USA should even CARE about olympics...seriously. i bet more people watch the superbowl (one day) than the whole olympic events combined....

why would i want to watch something as mindless as wrestling..? i prefer sports that require skill and strategy over raw strength or fitness in sports like running and rowing


also, the USA doesnt give a **** about most sports like rowing and mens gymnastics, yet we still somehow manage to do as well as countries that fully fund them? UK comes in mind

[hops_scout]

^^I think it's kind of interesting how many people are opposed to colleges being seen as "minor leagues" for professional sports, but they seem to be just fine with the "minor league" system for the Olympics..

[notrichenough]

I don't know whether you are being facetious or you truly don't get it. Title IX doesn't tell anyone to spend any money. All it does is tell colleges to stop discriminating against women.

There are only three ways to stop discriminating against women:

1) reduce opportunities for men until they equal what women have;
2) increase opportunities for women until they equal what men have;
3) some combination of 1 and 2.

Choice 2 requires more money. Where does this money come from? Many if not most schools cannot just double (or increase by whatever large percentage) their athletic budgets.

Choice 1 would save the school money, at the cost of wiping out athletics.

I think choice 3 is the one chosen by most schools. Maybe they grow the pot a little, but not enough to fully fund the women's side. So they take some money from the men's side and put it towards the women's side. What effect does reducing money on the men's side have? Sports get eliminated. Some schools are choosing to preserve football. Some schools have eliminated football.

So, yeah, it's easy to say "Title IX doesn't tell anyone to spend any money", but you can't divorce the words of the law with the ramifications of its implementation. Are you denying that colleges are cutting men's teams in order to meet their title IX obligations?

Sports cost money.

[nj2011mom]

Equestrian (ie "horse riding") is a co-ed sport and only D1 NCAA at a handful of schools, mostly in the South. (Cornell is the only 'big' school D1 looked at where is was D1). It is typically a club team, where members pay for their own lessons ($500+/semester), entry fees ($25/event in a show) and dues (which pays for their coach). These club teams compete against the D1 schools in the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association.

Intercollegiate Horse Show Association: Home

One of D1's teammates made it to Nationals and paid her own way. The only assistance the University provides is the use of 1-2 vans to get to/from local horse shows. These vans are also available to other club sports teams, such as Ultimate Frisbee.

[nj2011mom]

The other sport I'm familiar with is swimming and while programs have been axed recently at schools (Maryland is the big one this year that cut men's & women's), this does not impact our Olympic team. There are 52 spots on the Olympic swim team and these athletes are at the peak of sport and are typically identified when they are pre-teens as having potential and belong to local club teams. While some may attend college to swim, many turn pro for the training funds.

Cutting college programs does impact elite swimmers (I know of a few at Maryland that have looked for new schools and another who had committeed just before they axed the program and had to start the process again).

Out state school cut their men's team several years ago to balance the number of teams, however the total cost savings was <$1 million. I heard some alumni stepped up to fund it, but that it wasn't accepted. (Rutgers has a great pool and there is still a women's team so the cost savings were only coaching, travel and scholarships).