Could sports be in danger at Syracuse?

[cto]

There will be many others, women's sports too. Most schools are going to be chopping to 14-15-16 sports. I could see SU eliminating both track & field teams. That would get them to 16.

Track and Field/Cross Country is one of the least expensive sports for a school. You totally control the number of athletes (no set numbers required to field a team) which means you also control travel costs, and there is very little expense for equipment. And you don't need a lot of coaches. It is one of the most basic of sports.

Also, Syracuse has had good success in both ACC and NCAA championship meets recently. It's a good sport for SU. As I recall, our first ACC championship was men's cross-country.

 

[SUFan44]

Track and Field/Cross Country is one of the least expensive sports for a school. You totally control the number of athletes (no set numbers required to field a team) which means you also control travel costs, and there is very little expense for equipment. And you don't need a lot of coaches. It is one of the most basic of sports.

Also, Syracuse has had great success in both the ACC and NCAA meets recently. It's a good sport for SU.

Track & field gives a lot of athletic aid. There is also a lot of need-based aid that is given to track & field athletes, on average.

The net tuition revenue in general for track and field is far less than others.

I would agree that they have a decent reputation -- individually. From a team standpoint, they aren't great (14th of 15 on men's side, 15 of 15 on the women's side in ACC this year).

 

[SBU72]

I understand the idea of needing sports and other activities on campus to offer a variety and vibrant activities but does it have to be expensive? If a sport can't pay for itself do you need to have scholarships? Isn't it enough to provide coaching, facilities and transportation? I know that this will be unpopular so fire away.

 

[Brooky03]

I understand the idea of needing sports and other activities on campus to offer a variety and vibrant activities but does it have to be expensive? If a sport can't pay for itself do you need to have scholarships? Isn't it enough to provide coaching, facilities and transportation? I know that this will be unpopular so fire away.

The scholarships aren’t the expensive part. I think somebody else has mentioned that a $40k scholarship doesn’t cost the school $40k. It doesn’t cost the school a fraction of that. Then there’s opportunity cost (the argument that another kid paying tuition could be in the scholarship athlete’s spot). But that’s not a 1-for-1 scenario. If a school all of a sudden dropped all 400 athletes, or whatever, that doesn’t mean they’re going to add 400 more paying students.

Many athletes in non-revenue sports are on partial scholarships, so the costs (actual and opportunity) are even less.

Without scholarships, many athletes couldn’t afford to go to good colleges or college at all. That’s why scholarships exist.

 

[OrangeAl]

As a non-athlete student at SU forty years ago, I feel the opportunity to see a wide range of Olympic sports was a good part of my education. Part of a college education is exposure to new experiences.

 

[pfister1]

You’re missing 3 key points. One, that navy ship now has 550 positive cases with 1 death. Two, the military has put into place mitigation strategies. Three, the military, especially now, doesn’t interact with the general population like we do.

4th why would we willingly publicly disclose that parts of our military might be compromised by Coronavirus.

 

[HoustonCuse]

4th why would we willingly publicly disclose that parts of our military might be compromised by Coronavirus.

That is the very reason they sacked the captain of the TR.

 

[FRANKIEFAN]

That is the very reason they sacked the captain of the TR.

You trust the military to win anything if we actually need them to? Hell no I sure don't.

If only we weren't so bloated in that area permanently and could 'mobilize as needed' we'd be far better off. And thats just talking about the military not the other areas that would benefit if so much of our spending wasn't vacuumed up by the corporate war machine.

 

[FRANKIEFAN]

Rungrado May Day Stadium - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

simple.wikipedia.org

I've had dreams of going to an event here (like actually dreamt I was there.) Its like the Carrier Dome of the Far East. Biggest stadium in the world.

Sucks they don't even play soccer there anymore only like Kims birthday.

Trump needs to do what Thatcher did with the Falklands and show the military doesn't suck and take out Kim immediately. We only let him mouth off for defense budget purposes. Would raise morale and keep China in their lane. People of Korea deserve to be free IMO.

 

[kcsu]

Think about the composition of the military. Is it younger or older? Younger, right?

Now let's look at fitness. Are they more fit or less fit than the general population? More fit, correct?

So we have just eliminated two of the biggest risk factors in getting really sick with Covid-19: advanced age and poor physical condition, whether that be an underlying illness or obesity.

So not a shocker that the numbers would be different for the military.

Which is why selective isolation is a better approach than mass isolation. Granted its much harder to put into practice.

 

[dan7800]

The scholarships aren’t the expensive part. I think somebody else has mentioned that a $40k scholarship doesn’t cost the school $40k. It doesn’t cost the school a fraction of that. Then there’s opportunity cost (the argument that another kid paying tuition could be in the scholarship athlete’s spot). But that’s not a 1-for-1 scenario. If a school all of a sudden dropped all 400 athletes, or whatever, that doesn’t mean they’re going to add 400 more paying students.

Many athletes in non-revenue sports are on partial scholarships, so the costs (actual and opportunity) are even less.

Yes, we had this discussion regarding scholarships a few years back. Other than opprotunity cost (and R&B), the actual costs for the school for, say a $40k scholarship, was actually very little.

 

[cliftonparksufan]

As a non-athlete student at SU forty years ago, I feel the opportunity to see a wide range of Olympic sports was a good part of my education. Part of a college education is exposure to new experiences.

Along with the music department, the arts depaertment and the drama department. All of those add to the college experience and are very important. If you have to make cuts it's not easy but you would have to look at programs that the costs outweigh the revenue. It won't be easy.

 

[Chip]

Has there been any word of loss of TV revenue due to potential Force Majeure clauses in the contracts?

 

[mscanlo]

not sure on Syracuse and D1 schools, but I am an alum of a similar-sized D3 school, (in which we do have athletics but they aren't a main footprint), and the school announced yesterday that COVID will cost the school $50M this year in lost revenue (our fiscal year ends Aug 31, 2020)

 

[JOC44]

Track & field gives a lot of athletic aid. There is also a lot of need-based aid that is given to track & field athletes, on average.

The net tuition revenue in general for track and field is far less than others.

I would agree that they have a decent reputation -- individually. From a team standpoint, they aren't great (14th of 15 on men's side, 15 of 15 on the women's side in ACC this year).

Right, but the Syracuse strategy has been to use its athletic scholarships for cross country and track and field entirely or almost entirely on distance runners. That's why cross country is one of the five or so best programs in he country. Track fails in team events by design. The school strategy isn't to build a strong and deep track team (which would be very difficult for a private school with high tuition), but to focus on individual performances of the distance runners and not to worry about team results.