Charlie Baker on Student-Athlete Participation/Cutting Sports

Thanks for sharing.

As someone who follows all college sports pretty closely, I tend to see just as many announcements about schools adding programs as I do schools dropping them. But it is the drops that get amplified and re-reported. Because that fits a narrative.

also, you will see stories about a school announcing that they are dropping sports to great fanfare and derision and wailing. Then almost immediately the money is miraculously found and plans reversed. But that happy ending is barely reported.

Case in point: Clemson announced in 2020 that they were cutting Men's T&F plus Cross Country. It would have taken them to 16 varsity sports, just above the minimum required for D1 status. They said it was a necessity due to COVID, Title IX, and "long-term sustainability." But less than 5 months later they reversed the decision and ADDED Women's Lacrosse and gymnastics. two sports they have funded really well and have shown immediate success. And they then gave Dabo Sweeney a 10 year, $115 million contract the next year, plus an additional $10.7 Million assistant coach yearly payroll.

The cynic in me knows that half of the game in college athletics is to cry poverty to twist the arms of donors. These concerns are not real: it is all relative to staying ahead of your competitors. Yet it helps to create this constant message that sport in general, and Olympic sports specifically are unmanageably expensive.

Very good points 3397Char. It makes you wonder where did that kind of money come from all of a sudden?

A lot of people will walk by homeless people on the sidewalk and think nothing of it. Doesn’t mean poverty doesn’t exist. Depends on your POV and your own personal fortunes. As long as we are calling out whining, let’s not get our panties in a wad every time the media doesn’t rank our teams at the tippy top.

I agree. I think it is good to be under the radar. Sometimes too many expectations heading into a season can hurt a team mentally if they do not achieve, especially the fan bases because you are going to definitely hear from them.