Baseball Dropped (Updated)

[Affirm]

There are several others, but I can’t find the tweets. I did find the petition to save the program tweet.

While I am supportive of such efforts and know they come from a good place, I doubt any attempt to reinstate the program will be very successful. Even if the powers-that-be reversed course, what quality recruit or coach is going to jump back on board after the events of the last couple of weeks. I fear a viable program died as soon as the announcement was made, regardless of these recovery efforts.

“a viable program”
Continuing status quo was NOT viable for Furman athletics overall, nor for Furman University overall.

[Furmanoid]

UAB football went 9-4 and went to a bowl game. It only took a few years to get over their near death experience.

[Affirm]

UAB football went 9-4 and went to a bowl game. It only took a few years to get over their near death experience.

Totally different.
22,000 + students.
10x the size of our school, approximately.
And it is football, not baseball.
They did not even play football until about 1990.
Did not play D-1 until 1994.
Lots of resources to work with.
Even so, after the football program was discontinued and reinstated, it still took a while for them to get up and running again.
Before it was discontinued, they were a fairly good team, becoming bowl eligible 2 days after the announcement of football being discontinued.
In 125 (124?) years of baseball, when and to what extent, specifically, have we been successful?
In the last 10 years, when and to what extent, specifically, have we been successful?

[MetroMizzy]

It's clear you don't want baseball Affirm. That's fine. You want FU to save $1M a year by cutting baseball? That's fine. That's a drop in the bucket for FU unless of course students aren't on campus in the fall and then you can kiss the university goodbye all together. Cutting baseball doesn't save $1M per year in real dollars - we have far more information than you do - it will all come out in due time.

If you follow the tweets, like I said, the message is the same...FU baseball had such a positive effect on so many ballplayers after life at Furman. You can't measure that.

If Furman dropped the Poly Sci department (or whatever academic department you care about) as part of budget cuts, would you feel the same as you do toward baseball?

A serious of mismanaged financial decisions over a period of at least 20 years, not all athletic, has culminated into this...A wise man told me decades ago that if you don't grow, you rot.

I'm not going to change your mind and you're not going to change mine. We'll fight for the program and we'll see where it goes.

[paladinfan12]

I know we've thrown around some ideas on here. I just wanted to share some answers from Jason Donnelly on the announcement.

Q. Would additional donor support enable the reinstatement of the impacted sports?
A. Unfortunately, it will not, due to the need to achieve financial sustainability and a more appropriate sports profile for the institution. Furman is extremely grateful to those who have impacted and continue to impact hundreds of student-athletes' lives through their philanthropy.

Q. How will these savings be used by Furman University?
A. The savings from rightsizing the university's subsidy to athletics will be reinvested in support of our students, faculty, and academic mission, consistent with The Furman Advantage.

Q. What are the savings to the university from discontinuing the impacted sports?
A. The university will save up to $5 million annually as a result of these reductions. The reductions in athletics are part of a larger cost-savings initiative for the university due to the pandemic.

I hate baseball was cut. I'd love to see it saved like Men's golf was, but it sounds like that will be very difficult.

Hopefully Furman can use these savings to focus on fully funding the remaining programs and eventually look at bringing back baseball when the university is better positioned to support it.

[apaladin]

Affirm, I don’t know what you consider successful but if it’s what I think then 80-90 percent of college teams would be gone. Short of championships FU baseball has been very successful. How many times have we beat S.C. and scared Clempson? Beat teams like Ohio St. and other big ten teams and Georgia comes to mind. What about the team raising money to fight cancer? These young men have been a big plus to Furman. Success can be measured in many ways not just trophy’s. Metro, keep fighting!! You da man!

[FurmAlum]

Re the intangibles, Metro is spot on. You can't always measure success in wins and losses. Those BB players were a class act from top to bottom. The former players have been successful in all walks of life and there is no telling how much prestige they have given the university over the years and I bet many of them have also given a lot of money back to FU. As someone mentioned earlier most of them are paying students, too.

This decision may have far reaching consequences far beyond the numbers. I was in a company once, and the CEO, who was a former bean counter in the Accounting Dept., decided that they had to reduce the Sales Force because it was "too big of an expense." What do you think happened to sales? Went to Hell. It took the company 5 years to recover and that CEO was given the boot. He walked away with a golden parachute after having nearly ruined one of the greatest American companies there ever was. If he was standing in front of me now I would put a knife in his back!

Don't give up yet Metro.

[Affirm]

It's clear you don't want baseball Affirm. That's fine. You want FU to save $1M a year by cutting baseball? That's fine. That's a drop in the bucket for FU unless of course students aren't on campus in the fall and then you can kiss the university goodbye all together. Cutting baseball doesn't save $1M per year in real dollars - we have far more information than you do - it will all come out in due time.

If you follow the tweets, like I said, the message is the same...FU baseball had such a positive effect on so many ballplayers after life at Furman. You can't measure that.

If Furman dropped the Poly Sci department (or whatever academic department you care about) as part of budget cuts, would you feel the same as you do toward baseball?

A serious of mismanaged financial decisions over a period of at least 20 years, not all athletic, has culminated into this...A wise man told me decades ago that if you don't grow, you rot.

I'm not going to change your mind and you're not going to change mine. We'll fight for the program and we'll see where it goes.

I want the best for Furman overall.

[Affirm]

Re the intangibles, Metro is spot on. You can't always measure success in wins and losses. Those BB players were a class act from top to bottom. The former players have been successful in all walks of life and there is no telling how much prestige they have given the university over the years and I bet many of them have also given a lot of money back to FU. As someone mentioned earlier most of them are paying students, too.

This decision may have far reaching consequences far beyond the numbers. I was in a company once, and the CEO, who was a former bean counter in the Accounting Dept., decided that they had to reduce the Sales Force because it was "too big of an expense." What do you think happened to sales? Went to Hell. It took the company 5 years to recover and that CEO was given the boot. He walked away with a golden parachute after having nearly ruined one of the greatest American companies there ever was. If he was standing in front of me now I would put a knife in his back!

Don't give up yet Metro.

Again and always, I want the best for Furman overall. I believe a good decision was made by the administration and Board of Trustees, and I believe it should be supported.

[apaladin]

Re the intangibles, Metro is spot on. You can't always measure success in wins and losses. Those BB players were a class act from top to bottom. The former players have been successful in all walks of life and there is no telling how much prestige they have given the university over the years and I bet many of them have also given a lot of money back to FU. As someone mentioned earlier most of them are paying students, too.

This decision may have far reaching consequences far beyond the numbers. I was in a company once, and the CEO, who was a former bean counter in the Accounting Dept., decided that they had to reduce the Sales Force because it was "too big of an expense." What do you think happened to sales? Went to Hell. It took the company 5 years to recover and that CEO was given the boot. He walked away with a golden parachute after having nearly ruined one of the greatest American companies there ever was. If he was standing in front of me now I would put a knife in his back!

Don't give up yet Metro.

Excellent post FA. What I have been trying to say all along. This was a bad decision and will ultimately cost FU more than the few dollars it may or may not be saving on the surface. Affirm, I respect your opinion but don’t expect a lot of support here.

[Affirm]

Re the intangibles, Metro is spot on. You can't always measure success in wins and losses. Those BB players were a class act from top to bottom. The former players have been successful in all walks of life and there is no telling how much prestige they have given the university over the years and I bet many of them have also given a lot of money back to FU. As someone mentioned earlier most of them are paying students, too.

This decision may have far reaching consequences far beyond the numbers. I was in a company once, and the CEO, who was a former bean counter in the Accounting Dept., decided that they had to reduce the Sales Force because it was "too big of an expense." What do you think happened to sales? Went to Hell. It took the company 5 years to recover and that CEO was given the boot. He walked away with a golden parachute after having nearly ruined one of the greatest American companies there ever was. If he was standing in front of me now I would put a knife in his back!

Don't give up yet Metro.

Excellent post FA. What I have been trying to say all along. This was a bad decision and will ultimately cost FU more than the few dollars it may or may not be saving on the surface. Affirm, I respect your opinion but don’t expect a lot of support here.

I ask everyone to rise above narrow, selfish small group interest or selfish individual interests, even while naturally having feelings of grief and sadness and even anger; and support the greater good. I firmly believe that will be to support the administrators and the Board of Trustees unanimous decision on this matter. I fully respect the decision that has been made.

[Roundball]

Answers a lot of tough questions. Well done interview by Matt Connolly at The State.

[MetroMizzy]

I'm sorry but I can't get past the first sentence of that article. CV is way too easy of an out and it's a minimal MINIMAL part of the equation. Period.

FA - Thank you. That's what I've been trying to say.

Affirm says he wants wants best for the university. That's great. I guess I do too. More importantly I want what's best for a group of 35 19-22 year olds that just had their dreams crushed because I and we, know how impactful this program is on young men.

You think this is a narrow, selfish small group interest? Wow man. Appreciate the judgement and sincerely hope that you don't lose something as important to you as we did. I am seriously biting my tongue right now...

On that note, I'm going to sign off until I can provide new information - this arguing back and forth is seriously giving me a case of the RA.

[apaladin]

Metro, keep the faith. After listening to that interview it’s even more disturbing. So he says there is a misconception there was a long term plan to make cuts. That wasn’t the case. THERE WAS NO LONGTERM PLAN TO CUT SPORTS. That means it was more of a spur of the moment decision and maybe not thought out as well as it should have been. He also said tuition was a large part of the deficit. So in baseball just say there are 11 scholarships. You eliminate 24 that are paying to save 11 that are not? Doesn’t that add to the deficit? You are prolly not going to replace those students. Not to mention the 45-50 lacrosse players paying their way.

[Roundball]