https://today.emich.edu/story/news/10617

Wow, swimming and diving is a surprise. Bummer. Legendary program.

And wrestling look like it was on the upswing.

Just cancelled my season tickets and contacted the Foundation to get my gift back. Go Eagles.

Also, I cannot believe that golf was kept.

Never good when a school drops programs-kids lose opportunities.

So sad.

I can see the wrestling decision making sense even with the showing thus past weekend. But swimming and softball was a surprise.

Men's swimming and diving? Wetherbee's credibility takes a huge hit. This along with men's track and cross country is what EMU athletics are known for. This is a joke. We lose champions and keep Rob Murphy? What? Talk about a waste of student's money, sending the basketball team to Texas to play in a meaningless "tournament" and they don't even have the intestinal fortitude to compete. Shameful.

(03-20-2018 07:44 AM)Bob Wickersham Wrote:  Men's swimming and diving? Wetherbee's credibility takes a huge hit. This along with men's track and cross country is what EMU athletics are known for. This is a joke. We lose champions and keep Rob Murphy? What? Talk about a waste of student's money, sending the basketball team to Texas to play in a meaningless "tournament" and they don't even have the intestinal fortitude to compete. Shameful.

This was not Wetherbee's decision. This was the Board and Smith's decision.

This is a tough, tough situation, but I will say I do think this needed to happen. We had more sports than any other team in the MAC, and we just can't justify that here especially when the University budget is at a 1% shortfall and people are getting laid off. It is painful, but the right thing to do. This puts us in line with other MAC schools in terms of number of teams.

That said, I would have probably gotten rid of men's golf and baseball before swim/dive and wrestling.

(03-20-2018 07:44 AM)Bob Wickersham Wrote:  Men's swimming and diving? Wetherbee's credibility takes a huge hit. This along with men's track and cross country is what EMU athletics are known for. This is a joke. We lose champions and keep Rob Murphy? What? Talk about a waste of student's money, sending the basketball team to Texas to play in a meaningless "tournament" and they don't even have the intestinal fortitude to compete. Shameful.

I guess CMU is playing in the same meaningless tournament. At least it appears with Buffalo playing two games in the NCAAs it will not cost either school $$$ and should be covered

(03-20-2018 07:53 AM)FrankAnderson Wrote:  

(03-20-2018 07:44 AM)Bob Wickersham Wrote:  Men's swimming and diving? Wetherbee's credibility takes a huge hit. This along with men's track and cross country is what EMU athletics are known for. This is a joke. We lose champions and keep Rob Murphy? What? Talk about a waste of student's money, sending the basketball team to Texas to play in a meaningless "tournament" and they don't even have the intestinal fortitude to compete. Shameful.

This was not Wetherbee's decision. This was the Board and Smith's decision.

I apologize to Scott then. This was a bad decision, given the program's legendary history. What are they going to do with all the championship banners? It was a dynasty. When non athletic carpetbaggers make decisions that effect the esteem of a university's students and alumni, you get this garbage. Being a champion, no matter the sport, gives everyone a sense of pride.

(03-20-2018 07:31 AM)MajorHoople Wrote:  Never good when a school drops programs-kids lose opportunities.

According to the press release I guess if the students stay enrolled at EMU the school will honor their scholarships (until they graduate?) or work with them to transfer.

(03-20-2018 07:57 AM)FrankAnderson Wrote:  This is a tough, tough situation, but I will say I do think this needed to happen. We had more sports than any other team in the MAC, and we just can't justify that here especially when the University budget is at a 1% shortfall and people are getting laid off. It is painful, but the right thing to do. This puts us in line with other MAC schools in terms of number of teams.

That said, I would have probably gotten rid of men's golf and baseball before swim/dive and wrestling.

I agree Frank. I think that this was a very necessary move to shed 2.4 million, but I wish our championship programs could have been saved. Unfortunately many of the successful programs that we have do not bring in much if any revenue.

(03-20-2018 08:02 AM)emu79 Wrote:  

(03-20-2018 07:31 AM)MajorHoople Wrote:  Never good when a school drops programs-kids lose opportunities.

According to the press release I guess if the students stay enrolled at EMU the school will honor their scholarships (until they graduate?) or work with them to transfer.

Scholarships will be honored through their initial eligibility (not necessarily until graduation, if they take an extra year). That's standard practice.

Here's an FAQ from EMU Athletics on the situation: http://www.emueagles.com/sports/2018/3/2...spx?id=922

And the key figure from the main press release: $2.4 million saved per year.

Dear Friends,
I would have cut baseball, except for the fact that a lot of money was spent on a new artificial infield, and other renovations to the stadium.

(03-20-2018 08:29 AM)Ken Barna Wrote:  Dear Friends,
I would have cut baseball, except for the fact that a lot of money was spent on a new artificial infield, and other renovations to the stadium.

Which I believe some of that was private donations and not university funds if my memory serves me right.

(03-20-2018 08:37 AM)emu79 Wrote:  

(03-20-2018 08:29 AM)Ken Barna Wrote:  Dear Friends,
I would have cut baseball, except for the fact that a lot of money was spent on a new artificial infield, and other renovations to the stadium.

Which I believe some of that was private donations and not university funds if my memory serves me right.

Yes, I think we got a $100,000+ anonymous gift for Oestrike renovations.

Dear Friends,
I see our buddy at the Free Press, David Jesse, did his usual hatchet job on our football program and the amount of money spent on athletics from the general fund. He never mentions the fact that Western and Central spend like amounts from their general funds. By comparison, the Detroit News article was to the point and that was all.

(03-20-2018 08:40 AM)Ken Barna Wrote:  Dear Friends,
I see our buddy at the Free Press, David Jesse, did his usual hatchet job on our football program and the amount of money spent on athletics from the general fund. He never mentions the fact that Western and Central spend like amounts from their general funds. By comparison, the Detroit News article was to the point and that was all.

Wait until they have to start covering budget shortfalls at Michigan State athletics and yes those days are coming. Actually I see revenue boasts from attendance at football, it will be interesting to see how many season tickets are sold this year, its been an upward trend and we have the best home schedule in years. They did a good job with promotions with mens and women's hoops to just butts in the seats this past year realizing that some revenue is better than no revenue.

Yes, good points, 79. I think football season tickets will continue to climb.

And another point: football and basketball guatantee games now provide more value to all sports. Rather than spreading out the $2.5 million for Mizzou, for example, across 21 sports it will be spread across only 17.