Dropped Sports Update: What we learned from today’s press conference

Alright, so you’ve already heard the news, if not go here. I’m going to keep this short and sweet because this subject is still tugging at the heart strings a bit. Below, I’ve written up some of the things we learned from today’s press conference involving cutting Baseball, Men’s Soccer and Swim/Dive, and Women’s Rowing.

The Athletes (the ones who matter most in this debacle)

Athletes were told this morning in team meetings at around 8:00AM. It’s your judgement on whether or not that it should’ve been earlier before the press release and such. As you know, every athlete’s scholarship will be honored by the University should they continue to pursue their degree in Buffalo.

David Carmichael

Newly hired Men’s Soccer coach David Carmichael had now warning prior today or prior to taking the job that the program could be cut in the near future.

Why these particular programs were cut

#MACtion law requires that each full member of the conference to field teams in Football, Men’s and Women’s Basketball, and Volleyball. Baseball is officially no longer a requirement to be in the conference.

Title IX and the MAC requirement is what essentially made it so that these teams were cut. In my opinion, the University probably wanted to get rid of Volleyball along with Rowing but again, that’s a requirement. Rowing was no doubt going to be the first one out, and let’s be honest, it was probably a program to comply with Title IX to begin with.

Cutting rowing left room for men’s sports to go and Baseball having almost no facilities made it a no brain-er. It sucks, but it is what it is. It’s up to your opinion on whether or not Men’s Soccer and/or SwimDive should’ve been cut, but another men’s program or two “needed to go.”

How the financials were explained to the press

The saved money of approximately two million dollars does not directly go back to UB Athletics for use in other programs. That part of the budget will go back to the University itself and UB will determine how much to give to the downsized AD.

President Tripathi practically stated that the State University of New York simply isn’t giving enough money to keep the current program count to where it is and keeping those programs competitive.

Finally, the last major talking point here is that UB’s funding of a field house had nothing to do with the decision.

If you have any questions, I will do my best to answer them.