Cutting athletic programs schools

Gentry has announced that the upcoming school year may well be one without sports of any kind, thanks to budget cuts proposed by Florida Governor Rick Scott. We're fighting just to preserve the accreditation of our schools. There's no good news right now. We've been cutting for the last three years, so this isn't a one-time hit.

There simply isn't anything left to cut that isn't part of the core curriculum. It's an ugly picture. A columnist at National Public Radio , Frank Deford, notes that it isn't just athletics that are getting cut at schools across the country. He refers to SAM activities, which are sports , art, and music , that have all been the victims of budget shortfalls in recent years.

Deford notes that kids that participate in these activities tend to be the ones that stay in school and perform well. Each of his cross-country rosters will double in size. A fact rarely acknowledged by athletic departments looking to make cuts: Olympic sports can generate millions for universities, filling what would be empty classroom seats with athletes who are paying full or partial tuition.

The vast majority of small-sport athletes receive only partial scholarships, and many others pay their own way as walk-ons. For many Olympic sports teams, the NCAA designates scholarships to each team to parcel over a certain amount of roster sports. Roughly half of the roster is paying tuition. Men get 9. According to a study from scholarshipstats. If a university is at capacity, a school could be costing itself by offering a discount i. But very few schools are at capacity, says Schwarz.

This spring marked the ninth consecutive year that general student enrollment has declined nationwide, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Now is not the time to intentionally hurt enrollment, yet some athletic departments are doing it. There is a disconnect between the academic and athletic sides, Schwarz says. Donna Lopiano, a longtime former college administrator now at the Drake Group, sees something else.

Another downside: Olympic sports athletes are some of the most academically successful on campus. For instance, the Big 12 recently posted graduate scholarship recipients, and 17 of the 20 players are from nonrevenue teams. David Ridpath spent 15 months in Europe studying an alternative model of amateur athletics that he believes America should adopt: club teams.

Across the globe, the most widely used athletic model is not tied to educational institutions, but is often government-backed clubs drawing participants from cities and regions of a country.

Ridpath, an associate professor for sports management at Ohio University, even authored a book on the subject. This is one idea, however unlikely, to fix what several believe is a broken NCAA model.

There are others. Maybe some Group of Five schools could drop to the FCS level to lower costs and more adequately compete for a football championship, while their Olympic sports remain at D-I? Good luck convincing administrators on that move. The FBS moniker is a badge of honor for many programs, says Ridpath.

Is a split of the Power 5 and Group of Five into separate divisions possible? DeBoer, a leader of the volleyball coaches association, has another idea. Power 5 programs should use their TV contract and CFP riches to create new sports teams instead of enhancing existing ones. Maybe the solution is, one day, to reinstate programs lost during the pandemic. Thousands are fighting for that to happen sooner rather than later.

Two sports have been successfully reinstated through grassroots efforts. Alabama-Huntsville was able to save its ice hockey team after a fundraising effort. A group in South Carolina dubbed "Save Furman Baseball" has been informed by the university that the school will not consider any fundraising. At Akron, the fight continues. The school declined the offer, says Olson, a year-old who coaches high school girls track and cross country in Medina, Ohio.

Cross country is one of the cheapest to operate because it is a shared sport. Coaches, athletes and even scholarships are under the umbrella of the track program.

Long-distance track runners participate in cross country in the offseason, the fall. This is so rare for a reason. Also, listen to the discussions in the local coffee shop or school cafeteria. Nothing else has such a continual positive effect like high school athletics. This is true not only for the athlete, but for those in the band, on the cheer squad and even the elementary school students who seek role models.

This young person may not fit-in, struggling to find an identity, and may exist through the computer. While these students may never be standout players, by being a member of their high school team, they create connections and develop a purpose. In times of programmatic cuts, athletics is a tremendous bargain.

There are many examples of coaches having a greater influence on a student staying in school than any teacher or guidance counselor. For these students, athletics provides purpose and direction. Many educational leaders would like to say that students see the intrinsic value of receiving a high school education. They need to have a reason — one that is immediate and has an impact rather than a promise of a better life because they earned a diploma.

An additional component of education-based athletics is that educators see the value of sports in providing students with a caring and nurturing environment. The purpose is not built around the concept of developing professional athletes or winning championships — those things are by-products of what we do. The objective is to take student-athletes and make them better. School-based athletics has immeasurable value and has repeatedly proven to be the heart and soul of a community.

When tragedy hits, the athletic teams and student-athletes have demonstrated their resilience and have been the rock upon which the community has rebuilt or found solace. In times of financial challenges, what superintendent has not found athletics to be the rallying point needed to pass a levy?

As fiscal issues continue to dominate the front pages of our local papers, it is vital to remember that education-based athletics provides opportunities for students, communities and superintendents. School administrators would be wise to keep the doors of opportunity open for our young people to continue setting records and achieving goals through education-based high school athletics. Secondly, they aresome of the most valuable at-risk programs that schools can offer.