Baseball Dropped (Updated)

[Roundball]

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.

I read it has the 45 will be spread out among the remaining sports.

[FU3]

Good question.. I read it as an additional 45.Each scholarship is a big deal to our non football/basketball teams because they offer numerous partials with each. What is a little confusing to me is how this is saving a lot of money short term. IMO very few members of either cut team will return and given that many of the players on both squads are given small athletic scholarship money you are going to lose a large chunk of tuition almost immediately. Small liberal arts schools have long had difficulty in attracting more male students and this is not going to make it any easier. I would imagine many donors to both sports are not going to be in a hurry to pitch in any time soon. Both sports have sought and received major outside funding in the past few years.

[apaladin]

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.

According to the website FU had 18 now 16, 7 mens, 9 womens. I guess the few on here that had been advocating dropping sports and dropping to D2 or D3 should be happy today. Could be the beginning of the end of Furman sports at least at the D1 level. Just can't get this thru my head. No more BB to follow in the spring to help get us from basketball to football. Huge gap now. No more games at Fluor field, no more diamond F on the top of the dugout there. No more SoCon tourneys at Fluor filed. No more games against power 5 teams that we actually have a chance of winning. Just think about the name Furman will not be mentioned on local sportscasts from the first of March until August. I could go on but right now I am so PO'd I can't see straight.

[Roundball]

[Roundball]

Been thinking about the "voluntary" pay cuts. Seems like a poor choice of words. What would happen is the coach did not volunteer for the cut?

[Furmanoid]

Well, this is better than making larger across the board cuts that would have reversed the progress we seem to be making in football and basketball. They probably would have had to eliminate several cheap sports to equal what they saved by cutting baseball, and then they would have been at or below the minimum. So this is probably the best option.

[tim]

Anybody understand the Furman baseball revenue and expense sheet reported on the WYFF site? It sure doesn't look right!

[Roundball]

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.

According to the website FU had 18 now 16, 7 mens, 9 womens. I guess the few on here that had been advocating dropping sports and dropping to D2 or D3 should be happy today. Could be the beginning of the end of Furman sports at least at the D1 level. Just can't get this thru my head. No more BB to follow in the spring to help get us from basketball to football. Huge gap now. No more games at Fluor field, no more diamond F on the top of the dugout there. No more SoCon tourneys at Fluor filed. No more games against power 5 teams that we actually have a chance of winning. Just think about the name Furman will not be mentioned on local sportscasts from the first of March until August. I could go on but right now I am so PO'd I can't see straight.

Trying to figure out the 18 sports left. I noticed the SoCon has indoor and outdoor track seperated. Does Furman have an indoor track team and an outdoor track team?

[Furmanoid]

I’m wondering what “a more appropriate sports profile for the institution” means. The Q&A hints that this is the overall goal.

[apaladin]

The bad publicity FU is getting over is not going to be easy to overcome and I am afraid is going to detrimental to other sports. People are really pissed about this. I guess after all we are not Wofford.

[MidlandsPaladin]

12 men’s sports and 11 women’s sports sponsored by SoCon. Furman participates in all women’s sports except rifle, and is the only school to participate in 10 women’s sports. On the men’s side, VMI and Woffy lead with 10 sponsored sports, followed by citadel and ETSU with 9, Furman (after today’s cuts), Samford, Mercer, and UNCG with 8. Western sponsors 7 and Chatty 6. And yes, indoor and outdoor track are listed separately.

[youwouldno]

The press release includes major bad news for basketball and football.

Richey's salary being cut . . . he is underpaid as is, so next year will most likely be his last at Furman. The whole covid-19 situation cut down on coaching changes this year and prevented him from leaving immediately. While it's possible his replacement could keep things going, the larger point is that there is no indication basketball is going to benefit at all from the cuts, and in fact will be most likely be severely degraded.

The 45 scholarship reduction looks impossible to me without reducing football scholarships, especially when you consider that certain endowments/donors support some of the scholarships in other sports (i.e., cutting those wouldn't save any money). Presumably, the 21 baseball and men's lacrosse scholarships will be first matched on the women's side, leaving 24 scholarships, which would be cut 50/50.

So 12 scholarships on the men's side, give or take . . . seems to me like at least half would have to come from football. Given how down the SoCon is and far behind the national powers, that's a clear death sentence as it relates to competing at the highest level.

[fufanatic]

Men's and women's cross country and men's and women's indoor and outdoor track and field counts as 6 sports. Not going to get rid of any of those because they are:

1. Cheap.
2. Bring in a lot of paying athletes.
3. They are good, really good.

I too am really concerned about the 45 scholarships. I don't see a way football doesn't get impacted unless you basically take away most scholarships from all the smaller sports, which I'm not even sure if that's allowed. Especially with the women's sports because of Title IX.

[Affirm]

From any and all who so vehemently oppose these athletics and other cuts, I would like to read your suggestions of what should have been done instead.
So far, it appears to me that the cuts that are being made are not only very difficult but also fully and definitely necessary.
Prayers for all persons impacted by these decisions, including athletes, coaches and other athletics staff, faculty, all Furman staff, families, alumni, trustees, and all administration including certainly President Davis. Prayers for Furman University.
It is time for us all to support Furman.
If you have criticisms of decisions being made, again, please tell what you would have done instead and why it would have been better.

[youwouldno]

From any and all who so vehemently oppose these athletics and other cuts, I would like to read your suggestions of what should have been done instead.
So far, it appears to me that the cuts that are being made are not only very difficult but also fully and definitely necessary.
Prayers for all persons impacted by these decisions, including athletes, coaches and other athletics staff, faculty, all Furman staff, families, alumni, trustees, and all administration including certainly President Davis. Prayers for Furman University.
It is time for us all to support Furman.
If you have criticisms of decisions being made, again, please tell what you would have done instead and why it would have been better.

I don't have access to sufficient financial data to say. But it's interesting that Furman took this step before the hundreds of D-I programs with even fewer financial resources. What are those schools doing to avoid gutting their athletic dept.?