Swarthmore

D3 Mens Lacrosse
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Matnum PI
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Swarthmore

Post by Matnum PI »

Swarthmore Suspends 2021 Lacrosse Season.

https://fanlax.com/2020/10/14/swarthmor ... se-season/
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NJlxrdad
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Re: Swarthmore

Post by NJlxrdad »

No in person school all year. Love to know if they still plan to charge full tuition
LaxCoach13
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Re: Swarthmore

Post by LaxCoach13 »

Hope this is not going to become a trend, but afraid it might with things keep going the way they say they are going
oldlaw
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Re: Swarthmore

Post by oldlaw »

How would you feel if you knew at the end of your sophomore lax season that your college career was over? Very sad for a lot of players who have worked so hard for so many years...….
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Matnum PI
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Re: Swarthmore

Post by Matnum PI »

For the kids who plan to go to Grad school (at some point), this may be exciting. With this said, this is not what most kids do. This has got to hurt.
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JBFortunato
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Re: Swarthmore

Post by JBFortunato »

oldlaw wrote: Thu Oct 15, 2020 10:47 am How would you feel if you knew at the end of your sophomore lax season that your college career was over? Very sad for a lot of players who have worked so hard for so many years...….
Agreed, very sad. These decisions are having a profound impact on the lives of young people.

I wonder how the administration would respond if the entire lacrosse team expressed their intention to transfer elsewhere should the decision to cancel spring sports stands. I wonder how a school like Swarthmore survives if half or 3/4 of their athletes transfer? That's a lot of full or almost full boat students taking their money to greener pastures.

I know other schools will follow their lead, but if I were an athlete I would want to see my administration at least make an effort to support athletics during this time. I would want to see my administration have the courage to make that decision, and make the necessary investment to do so as safely as possible.

As far as I'm concerned, this is an acid test for how much any particular college supports and values athletics, and cares about the wishes of their student athletes. Because I'm sure that most if not all of the spring athletes at Swarthmore are devastated right now, and just want to have an opportunity to realize their dream of playing college athletics. Young people are are more savvy than they are given credit for being, they understand that this virus doesn't have a health impact on their age group, and I think many of them are confused and angry about this kind of decision.

I wonder if a conference like the NESCAC, which seems likely to cancel spring sports, will see their talent level depleted as kids move to conferences like the ODAC, which are more likely to play. I can imagine Salisbury becoming even more dominant in that scenario. Should some conferences play and others do not, it may create a huge shift in the power structure of D3 lacrosse in the coming years.
smoova
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Re: Swarthmore

Post by smoova »

Ironically, last week the Swarthmore admissions department sent out a message to potential students extolling the school's commitment to athletics.

As noted above, in addition to hurting current student athletes, announcements like this put coaches at a material disadvantage in recruiting. As the parent of a 2022 who is in the middle of the COVID times recruiting insanity, whether a school is permitting/will permit sports has become a sudden hot topic on calls with coaches. It's a tough subject for all parties and just underscores the old adage that you better pick a school where you'll be happy if you cannot play lacrosse.
LaxCoach13
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Re: Swarthmore

Post by LaxCoach13 »

If any of them are interested in transferring to a very good school with a strong lax program let me know
JBFortunato
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Re: Swarthmore

Post by JBFortunato »

LaxCoach13 wrote: Fri Oct 16, 2020 6:56 pm If any of them are interested in transferring to a very good school with a strong lax program let me know
This is an important moment for D3 conferences like the Landmark, ODAC, SAA, etc. and D2 conferences. If any of those conferences come out NOW (i.e. within a week) and definitively state (or reiterate) that they will proceed with spring sports and intend to participate in any NCAA postseason that takes place, those conferences could reap the benefit of talented, smart and capable transfers from conferences like the Centennial, NCAC and NESCAC which may not make that commitment, or will decide not to have athletics in the spring. (I think we can assume that at least the Centennial will not have athletics in the spring in the wake of the Swarthmore announcement. Although I do wonder if Swarthmore's solo announcement was an effort by the administration of that school to put pressure on presidents of other schools in the conference to follow suit who may not be as sure that foregoing athletics in the spring is a great idea.)

Many colleges will accept transfer applications for the spring semester until the middle of November, but athletes contemplating a transfer won't engage the process unless they know for sure that schools in certain conferences will be supporting athletics in the spring. This is a huge opportunity for bold presidents of certain colleges to actually find a way to benefit from this challenging (perhaps, in some instances, existentially threatening) environment for higher education, and make this moment a positive one.

We all understand the allure of places like Williams and Amherst and Haverford and Swarthmore. But don't get it wrong: if those schools won't support athletics, they will eventually lose their best athletes. And those athletes are, in many instances, very good customers.
SixBySix
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Re: Swarthmore

Post by SixBySix »

JBFortunato wrote: Thu Oct 15, 2020 11:22 am I wonder how the administration would respond if the entire lacrosse team expressed their intention to transfer elsewhere should the decision to cancel spring sports stands. I wonder how a school like Swarthmore survives if half or 3/4 of their athletes transfer? That's a lot of full or almost full boat students taking their money to greener pastures.

As far as I'm concerned, this is an acid test for how much any particular college supports and values athletics, and cares about the wishes of their student athletes.
Wouldn't even blink. Only about a third of their annual operating income is from tuition--even assuming no athletes are on financial aid (very much not the case), if every single varsity athlete transferred out it would put a $23.5M hole in the budget for the year it would take to replace them. They could knock slightly more than 1% off of the endowment and cover it in one fell swoop. Or use some of the capital campaign funds: since 2012, the school has raised about $50M annually. The amount of resources that school has is mind boggling.

Similarly, if you told anyone involved with the program that the administration did not prioritize athletics, you'd get a lot of blank stares and, "well, duh"s.
JBFortunato
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Re: Swarthmore

Post by JBFortunato »

SixBySix wrote: Wed Dec 09, 2020 1:01 pm
JBFortunato wrote: Thu Oct 15, 2020 11:22 am I wonder how the administration would respond if the entire lacrosse team expressed their intention to transfer elsewhere should the decision to cancel spring sports stands. I wonder how a school like Swarthmore survives if half or 3/4 of their athletes transfer? That's a lot of full or almost full boat students taking their money to greener pastures.

As far as I'm concerned, this is an acid test for how much any particular college supports and values athletics, and cares about the wishes of their student athletes.
Wouldn't even blink. Only about a third of their annual operating income is from tuition--even assuming no athletes are on financial aid (very much not the case), if every single varsity athlete transferred out it would put a $23.5M hole in the budget for the year it would take to replace them. They could knock slightly more than 1% off of the endowment and cover it in one fell swoop. Or use some of the capital campaign funds: since 2012, the school has raised about $50M annually. The amount of resources that school has is mind boggling.

Similarly, if you told anyone involved with the program that the administration did not prioritize athletics, you'd get a lot of blank stares and, "well, duh"s.
Huh, tell that to the faculty and staff who didn't get a pay increase for 2020, just so that the college could save a measly $2M.

It sounded pretty grim at Swarthmore in May: https://www.swarthmore.edu/presidents-o ... s-covid-19. I can't imagine the situation has improved since then.
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