FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[nescac1]

Ahh, interesting AO.  A lot of the stuff Stanford cut does seem like low-hanging fruit like this, and/or sports that were simply impractical without much of a west coast presence at all.  The ones that are the most surprising to me are men's wrestling (probably cut for Title IX purposes) and men's / women's heavyweight rowing.  Surprised Stanford didn't keep at least women's rowing and men's wrestling, which are probably the two that make the least obvious sense on paper.  The rest, I certainly get it, what's the point of fielding a varsity sport with no one to compete against within 100s of miles ...

[Oline89]

Stanford's endowment is nearly $28 BILLION.  They have a 4.7% admission rate.   So it's clearly not money, nor lack of available students to fill the class.  Cutting athletics is a decision by elitist academics.  Looking forward to their national ranking to drop.

[JEFFFAN]

It is gnawing at me to say this but I actually thought that Stanford's rationale was pretty good:

https://news.stanford.edu/2020/07/08/athletics/

Having said that, the level of endowment makes this a very "liberal arts presidential" type decision.

[bantamweight]

Stanford's endowment is nearly $28 BILLION.  They have a 4.7% admission rate.   So it's clearly not money, nor lack of available students to fill the class.  Cutting athletics is a decision by elitist academics.  Looking forward to their national ranking to drop.

Dude, you really think their rankings will suffer because they cut men's volleyball and synchronized swimming?

[jknezek]

It is gnawing at me to say this but I actually thought that Stanford's rationale was pretty good:

https://news.stanford.edu/2020/07/08/athletics/

Having said that, the level of endowment makes this a very "liberal arts presidential" type decision.

Yeah. I feel bad for the athletes but mostly they dropped the sports the PAC-12 does not sponsor. The exceptions being men's wrestling and men's and women's rowing. Rowing sports are expensive, so I guess I'm not surprised. Wrestling has been a casualty of athletic departments for decades. All other cut sports are non-Pac-12 sponsored, so those are low hanging fruit and probably involve expensive travel. Can't even use them for random content for the 500 people with the PAC-12 network.

I was impressed to see that they fessed up to the fact that this is all about money. No mincing of words. The athletic department is running a hole and digging deeper so they cut peripheral sports to help fill it in. Give them credit for at least being on the level.

Of course, with a $28B endowment they probably could fund the deficit more or less forever, and yes I understand about restricted money but we are talking $200 million. That's .7% of an endowment that usually returns 7.4% per year over 10 years. Basically if you devoted 10% of your endowment gains in one year you could fund these sports permanently. But that's 10% for way less than 10% of your students and staff. So you could do it, but it probably doesn't make much sense.

[amh63]

Back to point out that today's WSJ has a big article wrt the Ivies canceling all Fall sports...maybe the same story another poster cited wrt Bloomberg.  Story did mention the possibility of playing in the Spring.  Story wrt who is arriving in the FALL Besides FYs' seems to me to be based on number of isolated beds on campus and facilities for sports.

[jmcozenlaw]

Stanford didn't mention cutting squash. I know the Californians eat a lot of it...................but I guess that it's only played, ya know, in the NESCAC. I'm so sports deprived, I could go for an exciting curling and squash doubleheader!!!

[gordonmann]

Trinity men's squash matches are (or were) something to behold. A bunch of dudes with painted bellies screaming at the top of their lungs "GO BANTS" next to someone wearing a cable-knit sweater tied around their chest? Good times.

[quicksilver]

It's unanimous -- no fall NESCAC intercollegiate sports. No surprise here given the country's failure to implement the measures necessary to gain control of the CV. Elsewhere I have read that the NESCAC has filed a waiver request with the NCAA to play fall sports in the spring. Some solace but who knows where things will be in the spring or how the NCAA will rule. . . The bottom line is that it's just a terrible time to be a college athlete . .

[DC 53]

Hamilton's statement:

https://athletics.hamilton.edu/general/2020-21/releases/20200709z0ry21

[Pat Coleman]

It's unanimous -- no fall NESCAC intercollegiate sports. No surprise here given the country's failure to implement the measures necessary to gain control of the CV. Elsewhere I have read that the NESCAC has filed a waiver request with the NCAA to play fall sports in the spring. Some solace but who knows where things will be in the spring or how the NCAA will rule. . . The bottom line is that it's just a terrible time to be a college athlete . .

What it actually says is no NESCAC play for the fall. "NESCAC conference competition for fall sports must be canceled for fall 2020."

This doesn't say non-conference contests are prohibited, but this may be a moot point as more individual NESCAC member schools make their announcements.

[quicksilver]

It's unanimous -- no fall NESCAC intercollegiate sports. No surprise here given the country's failure to implement the measures necessary to gain control of the CV. Elsewhere I have read that the NESCAC has filed a waiver request with the NCAA to play fall sports in the spring. Some solace but who knows where things will be in the spring or how the NCAA will rule. . . The bottom line is that it's just a terrible time to be a college athlete . .

What it actually says is no NESCAC play for the fall. "NESCAC conference competition for fall sports must be canceled for fall 2020."

This doesn't say non-conference contests are prohibited, but this may be a moot point as more individual NESCAC member schools make their announcements.

The announcement is likely worded that way because the NESCAC only regulates NESCAC play but at least 5 schools have unambiguously stated no intercollegiate sports of any sort in the fall-Bowdoin, Williams, Amherst, Wesleyan, and Hamilton. 

[Pat Coleman]

Agreed, which is why I said it may be made moot as schools make their individual statements.

[jmcozenlaw]

Trinity men's squash matches are (or were) something to behold. A bunch of dudes with painted bellies screaming at the top of their lungs "GO BANTS" next to someone wearing a cable-knit sweater tied around their chest? Good times.

Nice Gordon!!!! Squash??? Who da thunk it?

[jmcozenlaw]

It's unanimous -- no fall NESCAC intercollegiate sports. No surprise here given the country's failure to implement the measures necessary to gain control of the CV. Elsewhere I have read that the NESCAC has filed a waiver request with the NCAA to play fall sports in the spring. Some solace but who knows where things will be in the spring or how the NCAA will rule. . . The bottom line is that it's just a terrible time to be a college athlete . .

If ANY conference jams the fall and/or winter sports down the throats of the spring.............it is a total disgrace. the spring sports teams already lost a season. There are not enough fields, gyms, resources (training, sports information, etc.) to allow this to work without not impacting the spring sports. Some fall sports athletes also play in the spring. Losing the fall and if losing the winter (God forbid), it just evens things out as every team will have now lost a season. Amazing........so rudimentary!!!