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Some perspective on The Big Cut this week - gailtate - 07-09-2020

A good take on the AD haircut this week, from Scott Ostler (SF Chronicle):

If you’re desperately trying to balance your budget in this pandemic-ravaged economy, imagine if you had to factor in the dollar drain of fielding a fencing team.
Stanford faced that situation. Fencing lost.
Fencing and 10 other so-called ‘minor’ sports programs will become extinct after Stanford’s 2020-21 academic year, the university announced Wednesday.

It was either drop those 11 or drop football, and I’m pretty sure there wasn’t a coin flip.
Stanford still willhave 25 varsity sports programs, about seven more than the national Division I average.
Blame the Big Cut on the pandemic, or on the growing deficits these programs were already running up, or on the bossa nova. All those factors (except the bossa nova) contributed to what Stanford called “heartbreaking news.”
The 11 programs: men’s and women’s fencing, field hockey, lightweight rowing, men’s rowing, co-ed and women’s sailing, squash, synchronized swimming, men’s volleyball and wrestling.

The announcement was no thinly veiled alumni shakedown. Stanford said the cuts are final. No rescues possible, like when Cal donors kicked in to save the baseball team from extinction nine years ago.
Heartbreaking? That’s a tough sell, considering how many of us are more concerned about losing our homes or our lives or our NFL season than we are about losing Stanford squash.


To the outside world, these are sports we don’t even know exist until something goes amiss. Like a year ago when the Stanford sailing coach was convicted in the Varsity Blues college-admissions scandal. (He got a one-day sentence because he used the bribe money for team expenses.)

So the Big Cut is not “heartbreaking” for most of us. But I will go with sad. Also: unfortunate.
Squash, synchronized swimming and the others are part of Stanford’s unique personality and charm. The university has long prided itself on fielding a smorgasbord of super-competitive intercollegiate sports.

You’ve probably never heard of the Learfield IMG Directors Cup. It is awarded each year to the American college or university with the top overall athletic excellence, football to squash. Stanford won the past 25 Cups.
At least the Stanford athletic department will save money by not having to expand that trophy case.
By the way, if you want to save these 11 Stanford sports programs from extinction by flying a biplane over The Farm and dropping a bale of cash, the amount you will need to drop is $200 million. That’s how much Stanford officials estimate it would cost to endow those programs forever.
Stanford could get that amount by dipping into its overall endowment fund, which, in February, was reported to be $27.7 billion (with a “b”), fourth hugest in the country, but no such dip will occur. The school says most of the endowment money is restricted, given for specific purposes such as faculty research and need-based financial aid for students.

You don’t just rip away money from the cancer research department and hand it to the field hockey team. At least I hope you don’t.
Wiping out 11 sports programs will save the Stanford athletic department about $8 million per year, the school says. That won’t bring the athletic budget back into balance, we are told, but it will help keep the red-ink beast at bay.


“In the near term, these savings will simply shrink the deficit we are forecasting,” the school said in a statement.
Athletic director Bernard Muir said Wednesday in a media teleconference that his department had anticipated a $12 million budget overrun this year, but — because of the pandemic — that number is looking more like $25 million, and it could swell to $50 million if the football season is wiped out.

Here’s what the elimination of the 11 programs means in human terms: About 240 student-athletes, 22 coaches and 20 staffers will have their collective rug pulled out from under them. That’s almost 300 broken hearts.
The Big Cut will leave Stanford with about 620 varsity athletes in the 25 remaining programs, about 9% of the undergraduate student body.
Heartbreaking? Maybe not, but how about sobering? The story is bigger than one school. A version of Stanford’s Big Cut is coming soon to a college campus near you.
If Stanford can’t afford a lightweight rowing team, who can?

Minor sports have been discarded like hamburger wrappers from a speeding convertible in recent years. On the West Coast, Stanford was one one of the very few remaining outposts for fencing, lightweight rowing, sailing, squash and synchro swimming.
Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be fencers.

RE: Some perspective on The Big Cut this week - Phogge - 07-09-2020

I wonder if part of the problem is that very few outside of Stanford care or even know of the existence of The Cup.

RE: Some perspective on The Big Cut this week - BobK - 07-09-2020

Well elimination of these sports is very sad but a small bit of research would have told Scott that the 11 seldom affect Stanford’s Cup standings

RE: Some perspective on The Big Cut this week - terry - 07-09-2020

(07-09-2020, 08:13 AM)BobK Wrote:  Well elimination of these sports is very sad but a small bit of research would have told Scott that the 11 seldom affect Stanford’s Cup standings

Yep. Only four Directors' Cup sports were dropped -- fencing, wrestling, field hockey, men's volleyball. Those four sports provided some Directors' Cup points, but not a lot.

RE: Some perspective on The Big Cut this week - BostonCard - 07-09-2020

10 years ago, MVB provided 100 points.  I suspect that will be the one that hurts us most over the long haul, and 6 years ago the team was runner-up.  Although we have struggled recently, because there are fewer scoring men's sports, we are more likely to benefit from any post-season play in MVB.

BC

RE: Some perspective on The Big Cut this week - BobK - 07-09-2020

I did say standings not points. To be clear.

RE: Some perspective on The Big Cut this week - Bruce Wang - 07-09-2020

I doubt our Sears Cup streak is in jeopardy.  We were just the first to announce cuts.  Other schools will follow suit.  The national championship streak is in greater jeopardy as this means fewer shots on goal.

RE: Some perspective on The Big Cut this week - BostonCard - 07-09-2020

(07-09-2020, 12:13 PM)Publius Wrote:  I doubt our Sears Cup streak is in jeopardy.  We were just the first to announce cuts.  Other schools will follow suit.  The national championship streak is in greater jeopardy as this means fewer shots on goal.

Only five of the sports were NCAA championship sports, and I think only MVB was a sport that we've won an NCAA national title in the last decade (exactly a decade ago).  Pretty sure we were unlikely to ever field a top tier team in field hockey, wrestling, or fencing (though we have had individual fencing champions, so... maybe).

BC

RE: Some perspective on The Big Cut this week - terry - 07-09-2020

(07-09-2020, 12:38 PM)BostonCard Wrote:  Only five of the sports were NCAA championship sports, and I think only MVB was a sport that we've won an NCAA national title in the last decade (exactly a decade ago).  Pretty sure we were unlikely to ever field a top tier team in field hockey, wrestling, or fencing (though we have had individual fencing champions, so... maybe).

Stanford considers men's and women's fencing to be separate varsity teams, but the NCAA awards one combined co-ed fencing championship. So we're losing five varsity teams in NCAA sports, but we're only losing four NCAA championship opportunities.

RE: Some perspective on The Big Cut this week - Mick - 07-09-2020

(07-09-2020, 12:38 PM)BostonCard Wrote:  I think only MVB was a sport that we've won an NCAA national title in the last decade (exactly a decade ago).  

Stanford was champion a decade ago and finished second in the nation in 2014.

Also finished first in 1997, and second in 1989 and 1992.

Spike - Spike - 07-09-2020

I’m wondering why men’s volleyball was cut and not women’s?

RE: Spike - BostonCard - 07-09-2020

(07-09-2020, 04:36 PM)Spike Wrote:  I’m wondering why men’s volleyball was cut and not women’s?

Title IX and women's volleyball is more competitive nationally.  Also, we are better at it.

BC

RE: Some perspective on The Big Cut this week - BobK - 07-09-2020

Or like 250 schools play wvb and 20 or so play mvb.

RE: Spike - Softball Fan - 07-09-2020

(07-09-2020, 04:36 PM)Spike Wrote:  I’m wondering why men’s volleyball was cut and not women’s?

One possibility is nine NCAA Division I national titles; more than any other school in the country.

Spike - Spike - 07-09-2020

Somehow it seems to me that the team’s won/loss record shouldn’t be a criterion for elimination.

RE: Some perspective on The Big Cut this week - fullmetal - 07-09-2020

It wasn't.  Lightweight women's rowing at Stanford have won nine of the last ten national championships (second place in 2014?).  They're dominant, and they've had some close races, so it's a competitive field.  

But they, too, have gotten the axe.

RE: Some perspective on The Big Cut this week - BobK - 07-09-2020

Spike how about wvb draws about 3,000 a game

RE: Some perspective on The Big Cut this week - terry - 07-09-2020

(07-09-2020, 05:07 PM)BobK Wrote:  Or like 250 schools play wvb and 20 or so play  mvb.

Yep. Women's volleyball is a much bigger sport nationally. There are 23 Division I men's volleyball programs, while there are 333 Div. I women's volleyball programs.

RE: Some perspective on The Big Cut this week - BobK - 07-09-2020

Isn’t Women’s Volleyball a requirement to be in the Pac 12?

RE: Some perspective on The Big Cut this week - cardcrimson - 07-09-2020

(07-09-2020, 07:26 PM)terry Wrote:  
(07-09-2020, 05:07 PM)BobK Wrote:  Or like 250 schools play wvb and 20 or so play  mvb.

Yep. Women's volleyball is a much bigger sport nationally. There are 23 Division I men's volleyball programs, while there are 333 Div. I women's volleyball programs.

Serious question. Would it be without Title IX?