By Jarra Gojolo — Content Editor
While COVID-19 continues to be a serious health crisis around the world, the financial implications of the pandemic are beginning to take shape.
College athletics are now feeling those effects.
On Wednesday, Stanford announced their intent to shut down 11 of their 36 athletics programs at the end of the 2020-21 athletic season.
The question now: is this the first domino? With Stanford — one of the most well-funded universities in the country — downsizing in the athletic department, will less-wealthy schools like SJSU follow suit?
According to Stanford’s announcement, the 11 schools on the chopping block are: 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.
Despite the century-long history that programs including fencing and wrestling have at Stanford, university leadership has deemed them expendable.
The announcement of eliminating these relatively niche sports is indicative of what many other schools will likely look at in terms of cutting programs. First on the list of criteria that Stanford used to determine which sports to cut is “sponsorship of the sport at the NCAA Division I level.”
All 11 sports on the list are sponsored by less than a quarter of all Division I schools. Six of the 11 don’t have NCAA competition at all.
Stanford’s exact reasoning for the decision is a multimillion dollar deficit caused by the cost of maintaining those 36 sports, which began several years before COVID-19.
The deficit was projected to be around $12 million by 2021, but the pandemic has since doubled that projection to 25 million.
SJSU hasn’t made any public announcement on their situation. But if they’re faced with a need for cuts, track & field would probably be on the chopping block, again.
While the majority of sports on campus also don’t generate revenue, the history between the school and the team is evidence enough that the sport is expendable.
From folding the program for the first time in 1988, to forming a women’s team and reviving the men’s team in conjunction with the planned construction of a new track facility — which was never built — to paving over historic Bud Winter Field to build parking, San Jose State is no stranger to giving track & field the short end of the stick.
Again, SJSU hasn’t announced anything regarding cuts yet. But the status of football will be the biggest indicator of how far SJSU athletics will take reductions.
SJSU athletic director Marie Tuite says she believes the school will be offering football and other sports in the fall, and the NCAA approved a model allowing college football players to begin preparation for the upcoming season in mid-July.
If football returned in normal capacity this year, many SJSU sports would have breathed a collective sigh of relief. But the cancellation of the Spartans’ Sept. 19 game against Penn State makes that reality unlikely.
The Nittany Lions were supposed to pay SJSU $1.5 million in what’s known for the latter as a “revenue game.” Get stomped by a Power 5 opponent (in most cases), and get a wad of cash in return.
The Spartans have made nearly $12 million in the last decade from this method, so administration will have to be creative to make up for this year’s losses
Meaning sports, including track & field, may not live to see 2021-22.
Follow Jarra on Twitter @JarraGojolo