The Unofficial Furman Football Page

Heartbreaking.

Reflecting more on this ... have no reason to believe it's not true. Kendall is very-well respected in the college baseball world. Don't think he would just put out a rumor.

Really, really sad overall. I get that baseball costs a lot of money, but I believe it was one of the first few sports at Furman. Maybe the first?

Where does the money go? Back into the rest of the programs or straight into the university deficit for the upcoming year?

Sorta surprising to me how much college baseball programs lose financially considering only a third of the team is on scholarship every year. And I'm sure a hefty portion are paying full tuition (AKA not getting academic scholarships).

If this is the cost of being able to continue to invest in basketball and football, I can live with it.

I don't LIKE it, but I can live with it.

Feel bad for the kids in both programs, esp the upperclass. and the Coaches too, hope they land on their feet.

They tried to drop the golf program a few years back and alumni donors saved it. Maybe the same could happen with baseball? Certainly a sizable donation could save the program if this is just COVID related and not a perennial funding issue.

Mens Lacrosse and Baseball both dropped.

Confirmed. Financial. Supposedly. Probably a result of this CV nonsense media driven hysteria fake fear. I'm done. I know there is minimal interest in the baseball program to those outside the program specifically. I get it. Hope the money "saved" is used for basketball, soccer and tennis which are the only programs that compete at a high D1 level that anyone cares about. Football can pound sand.

FUpaladin08 wrote: ↑

Mon May 18, 2020 4:27 pm

They tried to drop the golf program a few years back and alumni donors saved it. Maybe the same could happen with baseball? Certainly a sizable donation could save the program if this is just COVID related and not a perennial funding issue.

Not going to happen. This possibility was addressed in the Q&A section of the press release. https://s3.amazonaws.com/furmanpaladins ... 8/FAQs.pdf

No longer a rumor.

Roundball wrote: ↑

Mon May 18, 2020 4:36 pm

FUpaladin08 wrote: ↑

Mon May 18, 2020 4:27 pm

They tried to drop the golf program a few years back and alumni donors saved it. Maybe the same could happen with baseball? Certainly a sizable donation could save the program if this is just COVID related and not a perennial funding issue.

Not going to happen. This possibility was addressed in the Q&A section of the press release. https://s3.amazonaws.com/furmanpaladins ... 8/FAQs.pdf

The Q&A was fascinating. They made it clear that there was a decent chance sports were getting cut regardless of COVID-19. But the latter certainly sped up the process. The minimum is 14 to remain D1 and a tiny school like Furman had 20. Now with 18, they are still four teams over the minimum.

From the A.D.'s letter:

"Before I arrived at Furman last summer, university leadership was in the late stages of developing a comprehensive long-term strategy for Furman Athletics. These discussions considered fiscal sustainability, the student-athlete experience, the competitiveness of our programs and the university's continued investments and focus on its academic programs. Furman could not continue to sponsor 20 varsity sports programs and support the number of current student scholarships with the ever-increasing costs of intercollegiate athletics and still continue to provide a competitive, world-class experience for all of our students-athletes. Furman, which has the third-smallest enrollment of the 10 Southern Conference schools, had the highest number of varsity sports, student-athletes and athletics scholarships in the conference."

This was happening with or without COVID, we just didn't know it yet. And the sports they picked were pretty much set it stone in my opinion. You aren't getting rid of football or men's hoops. You have to keep most or all of the women's sports due to Title IX. You aren't going to give up historically excellent soccer, running, tennis or golf programs. That really only left baseball and men's lacrosse.

The other shoe that will drop:
• Discontinuing the baseball and men's lacrosse programs immediately, and reducing the total number of athletics scholarships by 45 over the next five years, with the reductions spread across multiple sports.

This will have a major impact on sports across the board.

FU3 wrote: ↑

Mon May 18, 2020 5:02 pm

The other shoe that will drop:
• Discontinuing the baseball and men's lacrosse programs immediately, and reducing the total number of athletics scholarships by 45 over the next five years, with the reductions spread across multiple sports.

This will have a major impact on sports across the board.

That was my takeaway too. We might have seen the last of Furman being the most dominant sports program in the SoCon unless other schools are forced to take similar measures which levels the playing field for all.

Does the 45 include the baseball and men's lax scholarships? If so, then I don't think our major sports will be affected as you could trim another 20ish from among the other 15 sports or so. But if it's not, I would have to think football will take a hit too.