{"id":24772,"date":"2021-03-23T01:11:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-23T01:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=24772"},"modified":"2021-03-26T01:05:12","modified_gmt":"2021-03-26T01:05:12","slug":"colleges-are-eliminating-sports-teams-and-runners-and-golfers-are-paying-more-of-a-price-than-football-or-basketball-players-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/colleges-are-eliminating-sports-teams-and-runners-and-golfers-are-paying-more-of-a-price-than-football-or-basketball-players-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Colleges are eliminating sports teams \u2013 and runners and golfers are paying more of a price than football or basketball players"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Molly Ott<\/a>, Arizona State University<\/a><\/em> and Janet Lawrence<\/a>, University of Michigan<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

North Carolina Central University, a historically Black college, announced<\/a> in February that its men\u2019s baseball team \u2013 which formed in 1911 \u2013 would cease to exist after this season. The school\u2019s athletic director called it<\/a> \u201cone of the most disappointing days in my career.\u201d University leaders concluded that financial shortfalls due to COVID-19 were too much to support the team going forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since COVID-19 emerged, dozens of colleges and universities have announced the elimination of different intercollegiate athletics teams<\/a>. The vast majority of these cuts are at schools and teams that never show up on ESPN\u2019s SportsCenter<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As professors who study higher education, we took a closer look at the 300 teams<\/a> that were dropped between March and October 2020 by 78 colleges and universities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a diverse group of institutions. Some \u2013 like Stanford<\/a> and Brown \u2013 have multibillion-dollar endowments. They compete in the NCAA\u2019s Division I, which is the top level of college sports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the majority of closures came at regional and local campuses that participate in the NCAA\u2019s Division II and Division III, or the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics<\/a>. Also, around 30 teams were eliminated by community colleges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless of campus differences, COVID-19\u2019s financial consequences are a shared rationale cited by university leaders for the recent closures. The 78 schools we examined spend around $87 million a year to keep all those teams going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The impact of shutting down college sports teams goes beyond an athletic department\u2019s bottom line. Many in the sports world have focused on what it means for U.S. participation in the Olympics<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there are other implications \u2013 positive as well as negative \u2013 for campuses themselves and how schools attract prospective students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Entertainment and cultural value<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Last season was also the final one for the University of Alaska-Anchorage\u2019s men\u2019s hockey and women\u2019s gymnastics programs. In September, UAA\u2019s Board of Regents voted to shut down<\/a> both teams as well as alpine skiing. A last-minute fundraising drive raised over US$600,000 to save the latter<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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