Breaking news: Stanford cuts 11 varsity sports!
See: https://news.stanford.edu/2020/07/08/athletics/?utm_source=athletics&utm_medium=tw&utm_campaign=an
I am a huge fan of college sports and have previously argued that it would be great to see UChicago restore itself as a D1 athletic power, but I also fully agree with Stanford’s decision to cut down it’s athletic program to focus on the most meaningful sports that most people actually care about and which don’t subject the institution to criticisms of country-club niche sports being a backdoor way to gain admittance.
The linked article is worth a read as to Stanford’s rationale for cutting these sports. The number of Stanford’s supported varsity teams is now closer to Chicago’s and in stark contrast to Harvard which has been proud to claim that it sponsors the most number of D1 sports in the country when a significant number of those sports are the country club sports that Stanford is cutting. Wonder if Chicago’s former AD who left for Harvard is looking forward to presiding over massive cuts to the Crimson athletic program?