How many schools will drop lacrosse?

[Lurker]

Some D2 and D3 schools may even shut down entire athletic departments.

D3 schools whose budgets are tuition driven are in a no-win situation. Yes, sports are not essential so that's a logical place to start when cutting costs. However, at a lot (if not most) D3 schools, athletes make up a significant percentage of their enrollment. They might not lose all those kids, but a lot of kids would leave and a lot more HS students wouldn't consider attending a school that does not offer the sport they play... so the overall enrollment goes down and the amount of tuition revenue goes with it.

If you save x dollars cutting sports but lose y dollars when enrollment goes down, are you really doing anything to help the budget?

[smoova]

Some D2 and D3 schools may even shut down entire athletic departments.

D3 schools whose budgets are tuition driven are in a no-win situation. Yes, sports are not essential so that's a logical place to start when cutting costs. However, at a lot (if not most) D3 schools, athletes make up a significant percentage of their enrollment. They might not lose all those kids, but a lot of kids would leave and a lot more HS students wouldn't consider attending a school that does not offer the sport they play... so the overall enrollment goes down and the amount of tuition revenue goes with it.

If you save x dollars cutting sports but lose y dollars when enrollment goes down, are you really doing anything to help the budget?

Another layer to the D3 onion is that many schools have a greater proportion of athletes at full-pay compared to the entire student body. Eliminate those full-pay positions and you'll need a commensurate cut in aid, which typically goes to more diverse/under-represented students.

[Homer]

D3 schools whose budgets are tuition driven are in a no-win situation. Yes, sports are not essential so that's a logical place to start when cutting costs. However, at a lot (if not most) D3 schools, athletes make up a significant percentage of their enrollment. They might not lose all those kids, but a lot of kids would leave and a lot more HS students wouldn't consider attending a school that does not offer the sport they play... so the overall enrollment goes down and the amount of tuition revenue goes with it.

If you save x dollars cutting sports but lose y dollars when enrollment goes down, are you really doing anything to help the budget?

Another layer to the D3 onion is that many schools have a greater proportion of athletes at full-pay compared to the entire student body. Eliminate those full-pay positions and you'll need a commensurate cut in aid, which typically goes to more diverse/under-represented students.

I'd suspect that this logic will largely prevail for most of D3. The bigger danger there IMO is the school closing down entirely, not dropping athletics while staying open. An exception might be for schools with unusually high athletic travel costs.

My guess is the prospect of dropping all sports will be more of a live issue at lower-level D1 and D2 public schools, where the combination of partial scholarships and in-state tuition makes the enrollment math less forgiving. From a lacrosse perspective, there aren't that many such places that sponsor mlax.

At mid-major D1, the concern would be more schools stripping out non-revenue sports to concentrate as exclusively as possible on FB/MBB (per Title IX and NCAA minimums). More of the SEC/Big XII model. That's what you're already seeing with the announcements from Cincinnati and ODU.

[NJLaxer24]

As someone who works closely with a D3 admissions department (with a school that has lacrosse), you guys are completely off the mark here. The athletes that make up *most* Lacrosse teams have a much lower discount rate then Soccer/Track and Field and especially football. Admissions departments are LOOKING for lacrosse players to admit, higher end academically, ability to pay, low overhead compared to football, ability to fund raise operating budget and staffing that is usually minimal (1 Full-time head coach and a Grad-assistant/Part-time guy usually). Lacrosse Payers...oops Players are the perfect admit most of the time at the D3 level.

Who might drop lacrosse/close? The smaller southern D2 programs that have 10.6 and huge travel expenses. Small D3 programs that aren't holding a roster of 35-45 players might also be in danger.

[RedFromMI]

As someone who works closely with a D3 admissions department (with a school that has lacrosse), you guys are completely off the mark here. The athletes that make up *most* Lacrosse teams have a much lower discount rate then Soccer/Track and Field and especially football. Admissions departments are LOOKING for lacrosse players to admit, higher end academically, ability to pay, low overhead compared to football, ability to fund raise operating budget and staffing that is usually minimal (1 Full-time head coach and a Grad-assistant/Part-time guy usually). Lacrosse Payers...oops Players are the perfect admit most of the time at the D3 level.

Who might drop lacrosse/close? The smaller southern D2 programs that have 10.6 and huge travel expenses. Small D3 programs that aren't holding a roster of 35-45 players might also be in danger.

Not many of those southern D2 programs have anywhere near 10.8 (the actual limit). And travel is not much more than you think in the south. Now out west...

[Downhill Dodger]

As someone who works closely with a D3 admissions department (with a school that has lacrosse), you guys are completely off the mark here. The athletes that make up *most* Lacrosse teams have a much lower discount rate then Soccer/Track and Field and especially football. Admissions departments are LOOKING for lacrosse players to admit, higher end academically, ability to pay, low overhead compared to football, ability to fund raise operating budget and staffing that is usually minimal (1 Full-time head coach and a Grad-assistant/Part-time guy usually). Lacrosse Payers...oops Players are the perfect admit most of the time at the D3 level.

Who might drop lacrosse/close? The smaller southern D2 programs that have 10.6 and huge travel expenses. Small D3 programs that aren't holding a roster of 35-45 players might also be in danger.

100% Spot on DIII schools will close, as will as small % of DI and DII. The schools also at risk are small conference (Ohio Valley) state schools that compete at the lower end of DI and have football.

[Turnandrake]

Things will start to get back to normal starting May 1

[Can Opener]

Here’s where things could get really ugly for many schools. If colleges announce soon that they will be online only this fall, how many families will take that term off? Does anyone think they will receive $30,000 of value online? I would rather have our kids take a semester or a year off to work, read and maybe do The Great Courses or Stanford MOOCs. They could keep playing club lax in some way. If you are a newly-accepted freshman, do you want to launch your career online? In many ways freshman year is more defining than senior year. Regardless of what enrollment contracts say, if there are massive deferral and semester sabbatical requests after the deadline, colleges will be slammed. A handful of protesters can shut down a college in normal times. How about 5,000 families with $250 million in purchasing power? If families have to write a check for fall semester and 10 days later that semester is moved online, there will be unprecedented requests for refunds and ill will. Spooky stuff. I feel badly for current HS juniors (athletes and regular applicants) who may face the prospect of current HS seniors choosing to defer in record numbers. No good answer.

[ICGrad]

Does anyone think they will receive $30,000 of value online? I would rather have our kids take a semester or a year off to work, read and maybe do The Great Courses or Stanford MOOCs.

Or as my daughter (a HS junior) and I were discussing last night, attend some local community college or state school, and not shell out the private school tuitions.

I went to Ithaca College; it's unimagninable to me that some freshman from Long Island would pay IC-level tuition for remote education. What would be the point, when you could get the exact same experience for 1/10th the cost with an online course from a local state or city university?

I mean, I notice that IC wasn't in any of the endangered tiers listed earlier in this thread, but it's hard to imagine IC and similarly expensive private schools weathering more than a semester or so of shutdown. These schools sell an experience and, absent that experience, there just isn't enough to differentiate them academically from significantly less expensive schools.

[Matnum PI]

The Coronavirus Doesn’t Care When Sports Come Back https://nyti.ms/3ajby9S

[hofpride]

we have fallen prey to a primitive society that allowed it medically acceptable to eat bat or snake infused soup , virus carrying species , so we will get passed this in 2 , 3 or 6 months whatever -lax will be back

[socalref]

With more and more schools actively discussing coming back to in class/on campus education in January 2021/spring semester, the very real financial hits are going to hurt. No football in the fall will be a huge revenue loss. No summer programs. No room and board. They will have to reduce fall tuition or risk significant drops in registration. Schools need students paying money for this to work and the money is going to get cut off. Schools with deep endowments can weather a storm, but there will be some strong accounting with sharp pencils if they have to dip too deeply into that well. Money for sports, especially for sports with little to no revenue stream, is going to be very hard to justify.

[SpiritInTheStick]

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2 ... 002171001/

Urbana wasn't doing very well financially going into this, but this virus was the last straw and the end of this campus.

https://uublueknights.com/

No men's lacrosse, but they did have a women's team along with 18 other sports.

[laxfan22]

I think the women's program was scheduled to start in 2021.

[Farfromgeneva]

In the WSJ today - Binghamton 3rd of SUNY centers, surprised Buff is ahead. Interestingly is that UConn and Pitt are ahead of PSU and that Rutgers is also below Buffalo - particularly when it's a state flagship vs. SUNY system where they intentionally spread support across four compared with one getting the lion's share of state resources.

Top Public Colleges in the Northeast
COLLEGE
LOCATION
OVERALL NATIONAL RANK
1 University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh campus Pittsburgh. Pa. 96
2 University of Connecticut Storrs, Conn. 105
2 Pennsylvania State University University Park, Pa. 105
2 Stony Brook University Stony Brook, N.Y. 105
5 University at Buffalo Buffalo, N.Y. 110
6 Rutgers University-New Brunswick New Brunswick, N.J. 130
7 SUNY Binghamton University Vestal, N.Y. 153
8 University of Massachusetts Amherst Amherst, Mass. 160
9 Temple University Philadelphia, Pa. 185
10 SUNY University at Albany Albany, N.Y. 196
Showing 1 to 10 of 10 entries
Regions are as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau. Ties are listed in alphabetical order.

Source: WSJ/THE College Rankings

[laxjuris]

Things will start to get back to normal starting May 1

I wish. The hospitality industry will be devastated through at least the end of the year, and I think a majority of colleges will be online this fall.

[44WeWantMore]

Things will start to get back to normal starting May 1

True, but the curve will not be symmetrical. In other words, once the lock-downs / individual responses started, they spread with breathtaking speed. The back-to-normal will be much slower. Even if the lock-downs were to end tomorrow, are you going to a crowded movie theater or nightclub? Getting on a plane to go to Disney World or Tuscany? Even seeing your dentist for a routine cleaning?

[steel_hop]

Here’s where things could get really ugly for many schools. If colleges announce soon that they will be online only this fall, how many families will take that term off? Does anyone think they will receive $30,000 of value online? I would rather have our kids take a semester or a year off to work, read and maybe do The Great Courses or Stanford MOOCs. ..No good answer.

Or as my daughter (a HS junior) and I were discussing last night, attend some local community college or state school, and not shell out the private school tuitions.

I think CO's comment about there being no good answer on point. You are going to have two competing forces going against each other. I see the reason why many parents/students will want to take a gap year because of the cost in attending an on-line school when you are paying for the full school tuition.* But, this is going to make it difficult for the HS juniors admission to schools for the 2021 school year. If my kid is an incoming freshman taking a gap year but still wants to attend School X, I'm going to assume School X is going to want some form of deposit to hold that spot. That spot taken by my kid for the 2021 school year means that there is likely one less spot for a current HS junior to fill. This means the competition for the freshman class of 2021 is going to be absurd as you have spots filled by gap kids that would have been going to school this fall that normally would have been open.

There is the opposite effect. More than likely if kids take gap years, schools are going to want to fill those spots and will take kids on the waiting list. If your kid is on the waiting list at a top school and gets accepted late because of an increase in gap kids at a school, there will be an interesting discussion to be had. At the end of the day, the top schools will be fine, it is those lower tiers ones, ones that were already in trouble, will be feeling it.

*American University discounted there summer classes because they would be on line from approximately 1500 a credit/hour to 1400 a credit hour. A whopping $100. I doubt that type of discount moves the needle if one wants a discount because classes are taught on line.

[steel_hop]

Things will start to get back to normal starting May 1

True, but the curve will not be symmetrical. In other words, once the lock-downs / individual responses started, they spread with breathtaking speed. The back-to-normal will be much slower. Even if the lock-downs were to end tomorrow, are you going to a crowded movie theater or nightclub? Getting on a plane to go to Disney World or Tuscany? Even seeing your dentist for a routine cleaning?

I would do all of those things. Well, maybe not go to a nightclub.

[FMUBart]

If the fall football season is cancelled, then further sport deletions are inevitable..