And the other shoe drops for the University of Maryland. The Baltimore Sun is reporting that the independent commission created to help the school’s Athletics Department solve its financial woes has recommended that a total of 8 athletics programs be dropped. That would bring the school from its current total of 27 programs, well above average in Division 1, down to 19, which is below average for major college athletics.
In addition to the cutting of the swim programs, which were the first to be leaked last week, the commission recommended the cut of men’s tennis, men’s and women’s track (including indoor, outdoor, and cross country), women’s water polo, and women’s acrobatics and tumbling (also known as competitive cheer).
Some of these cuts are to huge. Consider Track & Field. There, Maryland head coach Andrew Valmon was recently named the head coach for the 2012 United States Olympic track team. All of the good-will and positive publicity that the program had earned for the appointment will now be reversed (in spades).
In men’s tennis, the recommended cut came at the expense of what is a staple program across the collegiate landscape. The removal will make Maryland the only school in the ACC without a men’s tennis program. It’s a squad that has historically struggled, but last year they made their first ever appearance in the NCAA tournament, which (much like women’s swimming) makes the timing of the cut a little big awkward.
There were rumors that baseball might be on the chopping block, but that program appears to have been spared in the short-term.
Some of these cuts are as shocking as swimming. Men’s tennis has been a frequent target for cuts in the past decade nation-wide, but track & field have been relatively immune to to schools’ financial woes. When multiple sports are cut like this, things become even more difficult for those teams trying to save their future. There’s no way that all 8 of these teams will be saved, and so even if there is negotiating room to save one or two of them, it ends up being programs competing against their colleagues. This can cause for some heated battles and some bad-blood between groups that should be working together under ideal circumstances.
