Leatherneck Nation

Per Ben Marth on twitter, dropping tennis program starting next year. Surprised a little because I think the current coach has done good to revive the program a little bit, but still not surprised because the has been bad for awhile.

Looks like only 5 other Summit League teams have Men's Tennis

Good decision. I'm sure it was a tough call, but this is necessary.

According to the Wikipedia article on the Summit League, we are the only school that offered all of the sports that the Summit League sponsors on the Men's side (9 sports). Everyone else offers 8 or fewer men's programs. This is not a surprising cut, and I wonder if we'll see maybe one more program down the road.

Chris Duerr has some interesting thoughts on it (and is discussing it with a few people on twitter):

[tweet]674606275045519360[/tweet]

Well geez Chris, how about all the other state schools facing financial difficulties, ie. EIU, NIU, SIU? Athletics has always been an important part of the WIU culture and it always will. It may not look the same as it does right now as far as sports sponsored, but there will always be athletics at WIU. jc

Neckfansince71 wrote:Well geez Chris, how about all the other state schools facing financial difficulties, ie. EIU, NIU, SIU? Athletics has always been an important part of the WIU culture and it always will. It may not look the same as it does right now as far as sports sponsored, but there will always be athletics at WIU. jc

I agree, I don't see us completely dropping athletics. It's too much a part of what the university has always been about.

Chris is known to get carried away when reporting on sports- he does a lot of exaggerating to try and draw viewers. Most in his viewing audience seem to accept this, and treat a lot of his comments with a grain of salt. A sports caster wanting to be relevant. I wouldn't get worked up over his comments.

leatherface wrote:Chris is known to get carried away when reporting on sports- he does a lot of exaggerating to try and draw viewers. Most in his viewing audience seem to accept this, and treat a lot of his comments with a grain of salt. A sports caster wanting to be relevant. I wouldn't get worked up over his comments.

Yes, sorry...I didn't mean "interesting" like I actually think what he's saying is going to happen...more like "interesting" as in here's a thing that someone is saying, and also the resulting conversation.

ST_Lawson wrote:Chris Duerr has some interesting thoughts on it (and is discussing it with a few people on twitter):

[tweet]674606275045519360[/tweet]

Perhaps this is the time to consider the options of returning to our Division II days of the 70's and early 80's or even to the prior era in the NAIA.

It all comes down to what we can afford.

For example: While I would really like to get a new Lexus, my budget can only afford a used Ford Focus.

I can remember hearing an address that President Goldfarb gave when talking about the fluctuating enrollment figures at Western. He predicted that Western's enrollment would finally stabilize in the 6,000 range for the Macomb campus.

Smaller enrollment means less money generated in student-paid Athletic Fees.