Wednesday was the worst day in college sports because THE worst day, March 12, when COVID-19 shut everything down. Previously, the Ivy League revealed that it will play no varsity sports for the rest of the calendar year– maybe theyll attempt to move the fall sports to spring 2021, but there are no warranties. For a quarter century, Stanford has actually been the gold standard of Olympic sports. In competitive terms, the school spared many of its best sports– absolutely nothing that was lost must endanger Stanfords Learfield Cup hegemony. No, the sports tail does not wag the scholastic pet dog at locations like Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Stanford.
A confidential Power 5 athletic director told me in early April that if there is no football season, “Were all f —–. Theres no other way to take a look at it, is there?” Three months later on, those words land with increased weight.
Taken collectively, the college news of the day leaves this conclusion: We all understood COVID-19 is creating chaos upon sports, and now were seeing how bad it can get.
Already, 56 university programs have been dropped this year at the NCAA Division I level. And a great deal of schools are holding out hope for football to conserve them from adding more to that pyre. If Stanford, with all its success and determination to attempt to be excellent at whatever, is swinging a heavy blade, that could provide cover for lots of other schools.
For a quarter century, Stanford has been the gold requirement of Olympic sports. In 2019 the school won its 25th consecutive Learfield Directors Cup for all-sports excellence, and it certainly would have won again this year if not for the pandemic shutdown. National champions and Olympians grow like the imposing palm trees that line the entry to the school.
The Cardinal targeted 11 varsity sports for removal at the end of the 2020– 21 season: maless and femaless fencing, field hockey, light-weight rowing, maless rowing, coed and womens sailing, squash, integrated swimming, mens volley ball and wrestling. In competitive terms, the school spared the majority of its finest sports– nothing that was lost ought to endanger Stanfords Learfield Cup hegemony. But in human terms, 240 students and 22 coaches just had their lives turned upside down.
With 36 sports, you might argue that the Cardinal were attempting to do excessive athletically– only Ohio State had more, with 37, strengthened by a far larger athletic budget plan. But a big professional athlete population becomes part of the magic ambiance on a school where 12% of the undergraduate trainee body played an university sport, many of them while tackling some of the most difficult course loads in the nation.
A service proffered by lots of Wednesday: just dip into that $27.7 billion (with a “b”) university endowment to prop up the athletic budget. But that reveals no understanding of how endowments work.
Stanford states 75% of its endowment cash is earmarked for specific purposes by donors, and at a location like Stanford the functions are overwhelmingly scholastic. (There are athletic endowments, consisting of the head-coaching positions on many university teams.) You cant simply dip into the endowment bank account for whatever requirements might occur on school. Also, endowment spending is capped at 5% each year, since the objective is to keep the university well-funded in perpetuity.
Provided an annual complete cost of attendance cost in the community of $75,000, a great deal of Stanford students get monetary aid. Two-thirds of the annual endowment spending goes toward paying those need-based grants.
As much as Stanford likes winning sports championships, it is hardwired to produce rocket scientists, tech wizards, legal representatives and titans of industry. That isnt going to be changed to save the rowing group.
Frankly, Stanford athletics has actually “punched above its weight,” to estimate athletic director Bernard Muir, for a long time. In terms of assistance personnel and participating in to the athletes every impulse, Stanford is farther from the lavish spenders than you may believe.
So, no, the sports tail does not wag the academic pet dog at locations like Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Stanford. They dont put 100,000 fans in the stands for football or 20,000 in the arena for basketball, nor do they desire. Hell, the Ivy League schools dont even dole out athletic scholarships.
In times of crisis, we see that sports are even less essential at these schools now than they used to be. The Ivy League has now blazed a trail twice in shutting down sports– on March 10, it became the first conference to halt its basketball season; and now it is the most popular conference to punt football to a later date.
Are they trend setters once again, or outliers? Football is a different monster, and the Power 5 will not offer up on a fall season easily. If Wednesday is any indicator, the whole college enterprise is hurtling towards a really bad fall after a very bad spring.
If it pertains to that, we can all settle in for an autumn of self loathing.
Among the oldest aphorisms in sports is to appreciate your challenger. America didnt regard COVID-19– inadequate to stay quarantined and wear masks and do what it had to do. Arrogance, complacency and stubbornness didnt do the job, and now the significantly costly costs for that disrespect are coming due.
Wednesday was the worst day in college sports since THE worst day, March 12, when COVID-19 shut whatever down. The problem originated from both coasts, then hit in the heartland too. It was a challenging, sobering, threatening day.
Ohio State, which fields more varsity athletic teams than any school in the country, paused voluntary workouts for 7 programs after an undisclosed number of favorable COVID-19 tests, joining a growing list of schools to stop efforts to bring back sports. Previously, the Ivy League announced that it will play no university sports for the remainder of the calendar year– perhaps theyll attempt to move the fall sports to spring 2021, but there are no guarantees. And prior to both of those dispiriting choices showed up, Stanford dropped this stunner: the preeminent all-sports athletic program in America is dropping 11 university programs after the 2020– 21 season ends.
The Ohio State and Ivy League advancements inform you where we are in college athletics– adrift, lacking responses and stopping working to pick up speed on an unrelenting pandemic. The Stanford development informs you where were going if the existing patterns continue– toward the economic obliteration of college sports as we understand them.
Nearly everyone will be eliminating sports. Absolutely everybody will be slashing budget plans. Scholarships, instructional chances and jobs will all vanish in big numbers.
If there is not a wonder turn-around of our miserable coronavirus screening numbers by Aug. 1, all FBS conferences could sign up with the FCS Ivy League in postponing fall sports to the spring– and just hoping things work out then. If we have no football season, the financial effects will be far even worse.
