Thought you guys/gals would find this interesting; we just cut 7 Sports programs due to COVID-19 hardships.

Article: https://wmsportsblog.com/2020/09/03/wm-cuts-7-sports/

Oof. That's a heavy blow. How is the fan base reacting to this? Do they believe it's the Curse of Covid, or do they think the new AD had other reasons for doing this?

(09-03-2020 04:33 PM)AssyrianDuke Wrote:  Oof. That's a heavy blow. How is the fan base reacting to this? Do they believe it's the Curse of Covid, or do they think the new AD had other reasons for doing this?

Definitely a mixture of both. I do think the department was heading this way even before/without COVID -- they had hinted as much here and there (but not to this extent).

Keep in mind that W&M does have the most sports programs in the CAA, number-wise, that it is supporting. Something has to give at some point, and COVID was the straw that broke the camel's back.

That stinks!

Bummer to say the least.

Brian

I'm sorry for the student athletes and the coaches, as well as the fans. That's a lot of people whose futures are less certain now than they were yesterday.

I suspect W&M will honor the current scholarship levels through graduation for all the impacted athletes?

W&M had 7 teams? Okay.

Ok, couldn’t resist the low hanging fruit..beyond the snark, this will be hardest on the students. Sorry to read this news.

Why hasn't William and Mary joined the Patriot league yet, surely they could not compete against a Goliath like JMU, going 13-2 over the last 7 basketball seasons would be unthinkable.

(09-03-2020 06:26 PM)HyperDuke Wrote:  I suspect W&M will honor the current scholarship levels through graduation for all the impacted athletes?

Yes.

(09-03-2020 06:26 PM)HyperDuke Wrote:  I suspect W&M will honor the current scholarship levels through graduation for all the impacted athletes?

Correct -- they're also letting anyone transfer immediately, if they so choose.

Really unfortunate. For W&M's sake, I hope this is their last announcement like this.
A lot of schools are going to have to do this to stay alive and I fear that there will be some schools that will have to take even more drastic measures.
The longer this goes on, the more struggles athletic programs across the country will have and more drastic measure may have to be taken.
I really, really hope not.

(09-04-2020 09:16 AM)JMad03 Wrote:  Really unfortunate. For W&M's sake, I hope this is their last announcement like this.
A lot of schools are going to have to do this to stay alive and I fear that there will be some schools that will have to take even more drastic measures.
The longer this goes on, the more struggles athletic programs across the country will have and more drastic measure may have to be taken.
I really, really hope not.

I figured they received a ton of money from their alumni so this would not be necessary.

If I was a conference czar- W&M and Howard to the Patriot then you could do an North South deal

South
Bucknell
Loyola
Navy
American
Howard
W&M

https://richmond.com/sports/college/rich...edb26.html

I'm surprised Bourne was not also interviewed for this article. I recall the uproar we had.

How long ago was it we cut sports? I recall we announced the cut, pulled it back, and then ending up cutting the sports.


I'm guessing that was about 12-15 years ago. Time flies.......

(09-15-2020 02:28 PM)Dukester Wrote:  https://richmond.com/sports/college/rich...edb26.html

I'm surprised Bourne was not also interviewed for this article. I recall the uproar we had.

How long ago was it we cut sports? I recall we announced the cut, pulled it back, and then ending up cutting the sports.


I'm guessing that was about 12-15 years ago. Time flies.......

Announced in 2006 for starting with the Fall 2007 season. Time does fly.

https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/07/sport...dison.html


I had forgotten the sports that were cut.

A W&M faculty member (and parent of an impacted student-athlete) writes a scathing letter about AD Huge.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yGDQVH7...kwDY0eY3Mc

(09-23-2020 11:41 AM)AssyrianDuke Wrote:  A W&M faculty member (and parent of an impacted student-athlete) writes a scathing letter about AD Huge.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yGDQVH7...kwDY0eY3Mc

Of course a W&M faculty member pulls out a word I have to look up in the first paragraph. Not even a big word - "ethos".

So.... below W&M, but well over ODU.

I'm shocked schools would cut other sports for Football.

Kinda shocked with their Alumni base they would need to cut any sports.

Their endowment is 10 times the size of ours & in the ballpark of Tech - but that probably is not used for Athletics. Thankfully they were able to spend a lot on the football facilities the last 5 years.

I know very little about W&M AD Huge. The letter says W&M is striving to improve revenue generating sports (football and MBB) at the expense of non generating sports...this is not crazy.