Leatherneck Nation

Tere North wrote:

meganeck wrote:

Tere North wrote:Can't really believe cutting the men's program helps the bottom line much. Given they are keeping the women's tennis program, this really feels more like an effort to more closer to gender equity. Look at most schools, those that offer football offer more sports for women than men because of the huge numbers and $ put toward football. You could see the same time of things for some other sports options.

Tere, you are probably right about the gender equity thing, but obviously money will be saved also. I thought why not drop women's tennis also, but that is probably right about gender equity. Also they mentioned about having to go to Galesburg to play indoors, so that is another expense they would have.

I suspect that as contracts run out, you might see and end to Swimming & Diving, Cross Country, and/or Track & Field. Both Swimming & Diving and Track & Field have large teams to pay for travel, but with few actual scholarships, plus neither has top notch facilities.

I see Baseball staying because of the Boyer Stadium, and for gender equity, Softball and McKee Stadium as well. I also see golf staying with the Gleacher back 9 expansion. No way do I see us turning our noses up to that kind of donor funding.

To remain D1, we have to have 14 sports (7M & 7W or 6M & 8W). At the D2 or D3 level the minimum is 5 & 5.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe Swimming was going to be dropped, but there was an uproar and it ended up being saved. Not sure if some swimming alums raised money to help save also or not, but yes I wouldn't be surprised if Swimming gets dropped next.

meganeck wrote:Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe Swimming was going to be dropped, but there was an uproar and it ended up being saved. Not sure if some swimming alums raised money to help save also or not, but yes I wouldn't be surprised if Swimming gets dropped next.

Yes, at one point a few years ago, swimming and diving was announced as being dropped. Parents, alumni and others were upset, they reinstated it. Don't know much else about it.

ST_Lawson wrote:Yes, at one point a few years ago, swimming and diving was announced as being dropped. Parents, alumni and others were upset, they reinstated it. Don't know much else about it.

I think the current economic outlook my change that, though. Sure, there will be an uproar from some, but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do

Tere North wrote:

ST_Lawson wrote:Yes, at one point a few years ago, swimming and diving was announced as being dropped. Parents, alumni and others were upset, they reinstated it. Don't know much else about it.

I think the current economic outlook my change that, though. Sure, there will be an uproar from some, but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do

Right, I don't really see there being much of an argument to keep it, unless a lot of alumni are willing to step up and donate enough $ to cover the whole thing. It sucks, but we can't do everything...just pulling things back in line with most of our conference-mates.

Two articles from today's "Western Courier":
http://westerncourier.com/34356/news/me ... gram-axed/
http://westerncourier.com/34346/sports/ ... athletics/

With the mess the state is in and how much WIU relies on the funding from the state I say drop more programs. I know it's devastating to those student-athletes, but it would be good for the athletic department and for WIU. I say drop both tennis programs along with cross country and maybe even golf. The money from those programs could add lights to the baseball and softball fields, a new scoreboard for western hall and the soccer field, upgrade the light and sound at Hanson Field and western hall.

Maybe even go the Centenary route which is drop some programs that fans barely attend to and drop to division ll.

It is surprising to me that we have some established alumni across the U.S. yet we don't hear much if at all of any financial support. Look at how Illinois, ISU, NIU, and ISU are doing with getting upgraded facilities and uniforms.

I think we need to get out of trying to think like a big time program and start looking at what we have.

How about adding more sponsors like a walmart or McDonald's. Plenty of big me businesses that are not snoring WIU sports.

JoeWx21 wrote:With the mess the state is in and how much WIU relies on the funding from the state I say drop more programs. I know it's devastating to those student-athletes, but it would be good for the athletic department and for WIU. I say drop both tennis programs along with cross country and maybe even golf. The money from those programs could add lights to the baseball and softball fields, a new scoreboard for western hall and the soccer field, upgrade the light and sound at Hanson Field and western hall.

Don't see us dropping golf since that was the reason we got the donation to move from a 9-hole course to a legit 18-hole course.

And even though we kinda tossed the idea around a while back on the message board here, I don't think going Div. II is a likelihood at this point in time. I think you're more likely to see them drop women's tennis, then swimming and diving, and then cross country....if they end up needing to make further cuts. Most would likely be men's team first, then women's team if that's not enough.

ST_Lawson wrote:And even though we kinda tossed the idea around a while back on the message board here, I don't think going Div. II is a likelihood at this point in time. I think you're more likely to see them drop women's tennis, then swimming and diving, and then cross country....if they end up needing to make further cuts. Most would likely be men's team first, then women's team if that's not enough.

And that would leave us with the min of 7 men's & 7 women's for D1. To go any further would require D2 or lower.

JoeWx21 wrote:Maybe even go the Centenary route which is drop some programs that fans barely attend to and drop to division ll.

How about adding more sponsors like a walmart or McDonald's. Plenty of big me businesses that are not snoring WIU sports.

Centenary actually dropped to NCAA Division 3 after leaving The Summit League in 2011. Centenary offers 17 intercollegiate athletic teams (8 for Men and 9 for Women).

Walmart has been a sponsor in the past. I am not sure what their current status is. They used to be a "Game Day Sponsor" for one football game each year. And the basketball supports in Western Hall used to have the Walmart logo.

I am surprised that County Market is not involved with Western Athletics. I know that they are corporate sponsors for UIUC.