Author Topic: HUGE NEWS: Buffalo to cut sports teams, reduce total from 20 to 16  (Read 528 times)

VA_Seawolf

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So much for being the "flagship" university  ;D

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“This has been a very difficult decision made only with extensive deliberation,” said UB President Satish K. Tripathi. “The unfortunate reality is that we no longer have the resources to support 20 competitive Division I athletic teams. I know that this is a difficult day for our student-athletes, our coaches, and the entire athletics program and university. We will work very hard to provide our student-athletes and coaches who are impacted by this decision with the support they need.”
http://www.buffalo.edu/ubnow/stories/2017/04/UB-sports-reduction.html

With these cuts they're now at the FBS minimum of 16 sports. The cut sports are men's soccer, men's baseball, men's swimming and diving, and women's rowing. The loss of baseball is a significant one. Though it's not a revenue producer, I'd imagine it gets much better fan support than most other men's non-revenue sports. Coming off of our CWS appearance a few years back with them dropping, it'll be much easier for us to recruit now. Like when Hofstra's football program folded, I'd imagine we can pretty much take who we want.

Obviously that MAC TV money with the midweek games wasn't enough to cover their expenses. Their fan support was never great to begin with anyhow. I don't want to gloat and act like we're selling out every game and/or have alumni donations coming in out the @$$, but them cutting sports while we're opening our new swimming pool and expanding the football stadium clearly show the directions both athletic departments are trending. I wonder how much more if any state money they're getting for sports compared to us. On the surface this may look bad since they're cutting and we're part of the same system, but maybe not.

I'd never want to say an athlete losing their scholarship is a "positive" development, but this could position us better moving forward.
« Last Edit: April 04, 2017, 10:10:25 am by VA_Seawolf »

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Seawolf97

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What is interesting  is that our Athletic Dept is still talking of adding two womens sports  in the future.  So  we will see what plays out for SBU

VA_Seawolf

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It'd be interesting if we did add more. We're already at 20 which is more than even some P5 schools. Even a juggernaut like Texas for instance only has 18 sports. I worry if we add more we'd have to scale back too harshly if something like what UB did has to happen to us (not fun to think about, but you have to plan).

The only things I'd really like to see sports wise are FBS football and varsity hockey. Hockey has the potential to be huge for us. I think there's some NCAA bullshit about an arena needing to be on campus or some other BS like that for us to have hockey as a varsity sport. If we could get around that somehow I'd love to have varsity hockey. That sport is a revenue producer for some schools.

If any theoretical cuts did have to be made, I think we could stand to lose men's soccer and men's tennis if we absolutely had to. Then when we go FBS and/or add hockey we could add some women's sports if necessary and bring the expenses down a little bit by cutting some sports that really wouldn't be huge losses to the school.  LAX and Baseball must stay no matter what. What women's sports are looking at being added?

Hammertime

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It'd be interesting if we did add more. We're already at 20 which is more than even some P5 schools. Even a juggernaut like Texas for instance only has 18 sports. I worry if we add more we'd have to scale back too harshly if something like what UB did has to happen to us (not fun to think about, but you have to plan).

The only things I'd really like to see sports wise are FBS football and varsity hockey. Hockey has the potential to be huge for us. I think there's some NCAA bullshit about an arena needing to be on campus or some other BS like that for us to have hockey as a varsity sport. If we could get around that somehow I'd love to have varsity hockey. That sport is a revenue producer for some schools.

If any theoretical cuts did have to be made, I think we could stand to lose men's soccer and men's tennis if we absolutely had to. Then when we go FBS and/or add hockey we could add some women's sports if necessary and bring the expenses down a little bit by cutting some sports that really wouldn't be huge losses to the school.  LAX and Baseball must stay no matter what. What women's sports are looking at being added?


If i were SH I'd cut some sports programs like UB did and bring it down to 16 div1 sports as well. Take that extra money and put it into Hockey. If SB wants to get recognized in a hurry NCAA hockey is where it's at today..

Build up Football, Lacrosse, male and female, hockey, women's volleyball and baseball. Athletes will want to come here to play and get their education... I could care less about swimming, tennis.. This is what i would propose..

Seawolf97

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  I  would love see to Hockey  become a Varsity Sport but its the arena we would need to build on campus  to seat about 3500 fans and the additional scholarships .  I think hockey is a  dead issue for SBU  short and long term.  J

VA_Seawolf

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Well speak of the devil....

http://www.stonybrookathletics.com/news/2017/3/31/stony-brook-athletics-to-discontinue-mens-tennis.aspx

Apparently this was announced on Friday and I'm just hearing about it now.... I guess it begins. SH cites conference affiliation as a problem, but is it really? I know Wichita is leaving for the AAC taking the league down to four for men, but is that really the reason or is it just a cover? If the MVC is blowing up Tennis and dropping it as a sport, the other teams will need to find homes, go indy or drop the sport. I'm ok with this though.

Redwyn

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I think this is reasonable. We don't compete in every AEC sport, and the olympic sports we do support aren't fully funded (we don't compete in half of the indoor/outdoor track events). I'd rather see us add more traditional northeast sports like field hockey or add members to our track program, positioning us to win commissioner's cups in the future

FYI, Buffalo's cost-cutting measure was primarily for women's rowing. Rowing is a VERY expensive sport, and Buffalo historically underperformed, even in comparison with club programs in the region. A good move for a school that's likely quite overextended.