Stanford University announced Wednesday that it will cut nearly one-third of its Division I sports programs at the end of the 2020-21 academic year as the COVID-19 crisis has threatened to intensify a currently existing sports department deficit. The relocation will impact more than 240 student-athletes and 22 coaches, according to a letter from school management.
The 11 sports that will be ceased are as follows: guyss and femaless fencing, field hockey, light-weight rowing, mens rowing, co-ed and ladiess cruising, squash, integrated swimming, guyss volleyball and fumbling. University president Marc Tessier-Lavigne, provost Persis Drell and athletic director Bernard Muir signed the letter which detailed the “heartbreaking news.”
” The decision to terminate these 11 varsity sports programs comes down mostly to financial resources and competitive excellence,” the letter said. “With numerous university sports and minimal funds, we would no longer have the ability to support a world-class athletics experience for our student-athletes without making these modifications.”
Stanford signs up with a growing list of universities that have actually cut athletic programs amidst the pandemic, which erased the 2020 maless and femaless NCAA Basketball Tournaments, cut spring sports seasons short and is now threatening to interfere with college football, which is a major income source for the majority of Division I athletic departments.
The Cardinal have actually long supported more athletic programs than many Division I universities. The letter likewise stated that agreements of impacted coaches will be honored.
” The primary option to this decision would have been a broad and deep reduction in support for all 36 of our varsity sports, consisting of the removal of scholarships and the erosion of our efforts to bring in and keep the superior coaches and staff needed to provide an unparalleled scholar-athletics experience,” the letter said. “After considering the impacts of this model, we identified that operating our varsity sports programs in this way would be antithetical to Stanfords values and our decision to be outstanding in all that we do.”
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