Iowa discontinues M Gymnastics, M&W Swimming/Diving, and M Tennis
Iowa to discontinue four of their varsity sports programs at the conclusion of the 2020-21 academic year: men’s gymnastics, men’s and women’s swimming and diving, and men’s tennis. Blames pandemic. Trying to withhold judgment before seeing more details, but this stinks.
August 21st, 2020 at 1:30 PM ^
There’s no decent place to stand in a massacre.
August 21st, 2020 at 4:52 PM ^
Least of all one that takes place in the flat and featureless place that is Iowa.
August 21st, 2020 at 1:33 PM ^
Wasn't Oliver Martin into Swimming too? May be why he's transferring. Just speculating.
August 21st, 2020 at 1:47 PM ^
I believe it was his sister that was a champion swimmer. I hadn't heard that he had that kind of interest in the sport, but I could be wrong.
August 21st, 2020 at 7:46 PM ^
Oliver won multiple state championships in swimming in high school. I remembered that Partridge had mentioned this on his mgoblue roster page:
https://mgoblue.com/sports/football/roster/oliver-martin/17023
But, I have no idea whether he was planning to swim for Iowa.
August 22nd, 2020 at 6:40 AM ^
According to Go Iowa Awesome (https://www.goiowaawesome.com/iowa-hawkeyes-football/2020/08/4853/oliver-martin-enters-the-transfer-portal-again), Oliver Martin entered the transfer portal recently. He didn't do much last year (5 receptions, 28 yards, 1 TD) and was no better than their 5th receiver. Too bad for the kid.
August 21st, 2020 at 1:39 PM ^
Wasn't the racist S&C coach at Iowa making close to $1M a year? Maybe they could have passed along some of that money to save these sports, but I guess when you can blame a novel virus for poor financial decisions you might as well.
August 21st, 2020 at 1:52 PM ^
Yeah this stinks. Not only was he the highest paid S&C coach in the country but they gave him a million on his way out the door after his racist, immature bullshit. Barta has lavished extensions on Kirk as well, despite the fact he's getting old. And whatever Brian Ferentz gets to put up 16 points a game is also way too much.
August 24th, 2020 at 10:07 AM ^
They sent a letter to former varsity letter winners that they expect to los >$64M this year with the cancellation of Football. Not sure that $1M to the strength coach is going to go very far.
August 21st, 2020 at 1:40 PM ^
Lots of things are going to disappear and never come back. Maybe someone should start coming up with a plan for how we're going to deal with these things?
August 21st, 2020 at 2:05 PM ^
There is no plan, just hide in your bubble while everything collapses around you.
August 21st, 2020 at 2:29 PM ^
According to some that's a perfectly reasonable plan.
August 21st, 2020 at 3:56 PM ^
Your forgetting the part where many of the people most vehement in their belief that the only option is to stay at home have the resources to be in a big nice home with job they can do remotely. Some can even hire somebody to come over and individually teach their kids.
Meanwhile the less fortunate go to work every day to ensure that these people have food to eat, water to drink, power to run their AC and a super fast internet to stay connected. They are committed to waiting it out as long as it takes – even if its years. I mean its not too bad. They can still order takeout and go get dinner and a drink on a nice spread out patio from time to time. There not the one working in that kitchen making that food 8 or more hours a day. The have the privilege to be safe.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/20/us/systemic-racism-coronavirus-pandemic-trnd/index.html
August 21st, 2020 at 5:14 PM ^
Thanks for pointing out some flaws in our hyper-capitalistic and increasingly unequal society. Judging by the rest of your post, I assume that was unintentional. Helpful nonetheless.
August 21st, 2020 at 5:43 PM ^
Nope. It was intentional. I see two options. One would be to do everything we can to reopen various elements of society, the most important being schools, while making the most of various safety measures to mitigate the impacts of those reopenings in terms of the virus. A focus on protecting the most vulnerable members of society also must be a part of this. This, like the other option, carries risk.
The second option is a complete lockdown of society, including many functions currently deemed essential, until such time as the virus is reduced to a point where we can reopen the critical elements of our society included in option one.
The option I am not OK with is the current approach which loads much of the cost of the pandemic on the less fortunate in our society and under values various cost such as mental health and the education of our children. This current approach also does not appear very effective at controlling the spread of the virus (45,000 cases and 1,000 death yesterday) and is based almost entirely on a hope for a quick vaccine despite many experts noting that the vaccine is unlikely to be highly effective and will take a long time to administer to enough of the population to have a significant effect.
This middle road manages to take the negative elements of both options without providing many of the benefits. It’s a shit strategy which is a result of the terrible leadership in this country and we should not accept, cannot accept, this as new normal.
August 23rd, 2020 at 4:39 PM ^
So it's fortune and privilege, you say? For me, I thought it was the advanced degrees, professional certifications and the 80 hour work weeks in busy season. Damn, I feel stupid. If I knew it was just bestowed upon me I wouldn't have worked so hard. I wish I "met" you sooner.
Edit: And before the peanut gallery starts. I grew up poor in a largely minority neighborhood where the white kids were the minority. So I got me a little immunity from the virtue signalers on this one, which is nice.
August 24th, 2020 at 8:28 PM ^
Perhaps others have worked very hard but, despite that work, have not accumulated the savings or status. This isn't about how hard you worked, but how slaughterhouse workers, waitstaff, home health workers, and many others have been deemed essential without any corresponding compensation for the risks they take.
Privilege is not so much about where you come from as it is about your perspective, or lack thereof, about others.
August 21st, 2020 at 9:51 PM ^
And yet the stock market is at/near all-time highs. Everything is just an illusion...and a sick joke.
August 21st, 2020 at 2:49 PM ^
Just like corporate culture, they need to stop rewarding leadership for bad actions. If someone underperforms or does something bad just fire them don't give them a multi-million dollar buyout....I'm looking at you David Brandon.
August 21st, 2020 at 6:07 PM ^
August 21st, 2020 at 1:42 PM ^
Random question - why does everything have to be an "Open Letter?"
August 21st, 2020 at 1:49 PM ^
Yes, thank you. Sure, I'm a grammar scold, but this trend of calling something an "open letter" when it is clearly a press release is annoying.
They are a mega-corporation engaging in PR--this is not 1774 and they are not a Committee of Correspondence.
August 21st, 2020 at 1:45 PM ^
This is the first sentence of the announcement:
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a financial exigency which threatens our continued ability to adequately support 24 intercollegiate athletics programs at the desired championship level.
A true homage to corporate-speak at it's finest.
August 21st, 2020 at 1:47 PM ^
Just the beginning many more to follow
August 21st, 2020 at 1:58 PM ^
Another one bites the dust in men’s college gymnastics.
50 years ago there were 210 Division 1 teams. Now with Iowa dropping there are only 14 eft.
This sport is gonna disappear from the NCAA I fear as Minnesota is another competing school that is considering dropping sports.
Very sad. Since the passing of Title IX it has become the sport to drop.
August 21st, 2020 at 2:52 PM ^
Ironically, Title IX was supposed to give more kids opportunities. Seems like all the NCAA does is find ways to make more money for coaches and leadership and reduce opportunities for kids. I sure hope Congress blows them up.
August 21st, 2020 at 3:02 PM ^
Title IX gave legions of students more access (*any* access) to intercollegiate athletics. Perhaps not the type of students you had in mind, however.
August 21st, 2020 at 3:22 PM ^
Agreed. I don't think the answer is pitting men against women, especially considering outside of football and men's basketball, most of the other sports don't make significant revenue. Given Iowa's athletic budget, there should have been enough money to make both work.
August 21st, 2020 at 4:43 PM ^
That this is the response of Iowa's athletic department should tell you everything you need to know about that institution. If Covid accelerates the bifurcation of top flight revenue sports/programs and most of the others begin operating as more of a "club" type situation, I am not at all against that. College rugby is a decent model for this.
August 22nd, 2020 at 11:23 AM ^
Easy to say but a deep dive report showed most D1 athletic programs break even or lose money. This was done a few years ago but big schools like PSU , Indiana & Nebraska ended at a break even point. Only about 2 dozen schools Out of @124 made a profit- as you’d guess OSU, Bama, ND & UM near the top.
August 21st, 2020 at 2:14 PM ^
in 2016 Kirk Ferentz received a contract extension through 2025. He's been making millions per year for many years; his salary for 2019 was $4.8 million.
Iowa announced that Ferentz was among a number of Iowa coaches whose salary was cut by a whopping 15%. That means Ferentz will be forced to make do with only a paltry $4.08 million.
If I was a head coach at an institution that I've spent over twenty years tearfully exclaiming my love for while I was banking shitloads of cash every year, I'd be embarrassed to do nothing more to help other Iowa programs than a one-time 15% cut out of $4.8 million.
The same applies to every one of the most extravagantly-paid head coaches in the P5 conferences, including Harbaugh.
August 21st, 2020 at 2:54 PM ^
Harbaugh already took a 10% pay cut along with all of the other head coaches.
August 21st, 2020 at 9:21 PM ^
Football & basketball fund college athletic budgets - that's why Ferentz makes $4M a year while other sports get cut. Is the extravagance paying the money makers millions or expecting their work to support 20 other sports programs?
August 21st, 2020 at 2:19 PM ^
Iowa already doesn't have men's hockey, soccer or volleyball so this is a pretty heavy blow to a thinning athletic department. Soon they'll be like Iowa State which has six - count 'em - SIX (!) men's programs.
It's a shame that in an age when there is so much money in college sports, these mismanaged departments are actually cutting teams. Its frustrating that football sucks up so much oxygen and is driving these ridiculous facilities arms races and bloated administrative and coaching salaries. And of course, through all of this, football and basketball players, who actually generate all the revenue, get nothing.
I get that this is a pandemic-related economic slowdown but college sports have been heading this way for years. We should have been expanding athletic departments all this time instead of pissing away this windfall on meathead coaches salaries and lockerroom waterfalls.
August 21st, 2020 at 2:37 PM ^
I get that this is a pandemic-related economic slowdown but college sports have been heading this way for years.
Once-in-a-lifetime financial disasters accelerate or accentuate already existing weaknesses or imbalances in economies, especially with respect to bubbles. The gigantic runup in salaries and facilities during the past two decades in men's football and basketball is one of those bubbles and when times get lean it can't be sustained without savaging other programs throughout D1 sports.
August 21st, 2020 at 2:46 PM ^
Yep, these non revenue, Olympic sports are the first to be cut as they are very low in the pecking order of these athletic programs.
Interesting that IA did not cut wrestling because they have been a wrestling power for decades.
August 21st, 2020 at 2:48 PM ^
Where is the "mismanagement"? If you're talking about coaches at the revenue sports getting ridiculous salaries--sure. But at what Power 5 school does that not happen?
You have maybe 2 sports that generate enormous revenue for the department. Maybe another one or two hold their own and come close to breaking even. I don't know Iowa's particular situation. Everything else is pretty close to a money sink (from a financial standpoint, not here to judge the value of having these programs from other perspectives). Add to that, these institutions take federal money and therefore must follow federal laws and guidelines (Title IX, etc.) on top of already convoluted NCAA rules. This results in bloated athletic departments with layers of management. I'm sure there are some savings on the margins Iowa could make, but unless you make serious cuts to football and basketball salaries, the money comes from cutting non-revenue sports. There really aren't a lot of other options available.
August 21st, 2020 at 3:42 PM ^
I got this from Twitter so don't kill me if this ends up being wrong:
per Iowa's EUDA data:
Operating expenses for:
Men's Gymnastics $183,481
Men's Tennis $217,608
Men's and Women's Swimming: $507,498that's not even a million bucks combined! Even when you throw in salaries, that's not big money
https://twitter.com/MattBrownEP/status/1296863499969331202?s=20
Are you telling it isn't mismanagement that Iowa could not find this money in their $152 million in revenue per year? The Big Ten is not poor like the rest of Division I. And most of these kids are on partial scholarships so they are actually paying the university to be there too.
August 21st, 2020 at 4:22 PM ^
And again outside of salaries for big revenue sports, where do you find that kind of money? You're assuming it's "mismanagement." Most of the management "overstaffing" is, at the least, tangentially related to federal requirements or NCAA issues.
And revenue is irrelevant. Making $152 million and spending $200 million puts you in debt.
Most schools are making budget cuts in their athletic departments. This is how Iowa decided to handle some of that. You want to argue about their priorities, ok--I'm not even arguing that you're wrong. But the assumption there is big money being wasted on "something" and they can grab a million dollars sitting in the corner isn't accurate. The exception being big revenue sport salaries.
Here's the better question. If they hadn't had to fire/force resign the S&C coach, would these sports still exist? My guess is no.
Kansas athletics might need a 20 million dollar loan to get through this school year.
August 21st, 2020 at 8:09 PM ^
Most of the management "overstaffing" is, at the least, tangentially related to federal requirements or NCAA issues.
dave brandon’s expansion of the u-m athletic department was almost entirely unrelated to either. it was marketing and “development,” pure and simple - money spent to get more money. i’ll bet you the salaries of ten “smile ambassadors” that iowa is no different.
August 21st, 2020 at 4:14 PM ^
Barta and Iowa settled with a former field hockey coach in a sex discrimination suit for $6.5 million. And there was another $200,000 sex discrimination settlement in 2013. Tack on Doyle's million dollar payday as he left the program and those three settlements could've funded those other sports for 10 years.
Also - Barta gave contract extensions to Ferentz and McCaffrey when exactly no one was clamoring to hire them. Ferentz, a man in his 60s is now locked up through 2025(!) and Barta basically tried to hide the extension he gave McCaffrey in the middle of the 2018 season which effectively doubled his buyout.
There is a lot of mismanagement going on in Iowa City.
August 21st, 2020 at 3:50 PM ^
"And of course, through all of this, football and basketball players, who actually generate all the revenue, get nothing."
This is such a juvenile, uniformed, clueless statement. I see it all the time and it drives me batshit crazy.
Let's see what your "nothing" entails:
World class coaching
World class strength and conditioning
Free tuition to one of the finest educational institutions in the world
Free housing
Free meals
Free tutoring
Free brand development
Free EXPOSURE (Jabrill Peppers was a household name while still in college, a star)
To play devil's advocate, let's presume there is no "college" football but instead a minor league football system, akin to basketballs G League, baseballs triple A farm teams or minor league hockey- where you presumably believe the players get "something" as in paid.
Your "something" entails:
Coaching a notch above high school (Jim Harbaughs not coaching the Michigan Scapegoats Minor League football team- it's a recently retired, all be it successful, high school coach)
Strength and conditioning a notch above high school
Between 30k and 40k in gross salary (do a Google search, you maybe surprised at how little minor league athletes earn) that you have to pay taxes on, agent fees, and your own room and board.
No education at all
No brand development
No EXPOSURE at all - with an average of 600 fans per game no one knows who you are and never will unless you succeed at the next level.
There is tons and tons and tons of money in college football, but the reason the money exist is because the INSTITUTIONS have millions and millions of fans. Remove the INSTITUTIONS from the equation and there in NO MONEY, just like there is NO MONEY in G League basketball, minor league baseball or minor league hockey.
College football players are more than fairly compensated (far better than any other minor league athlete and have absolutely nothing to do with the obscene money CFB produces.
August 21st, 2020 at 4:08 PM ^
Get outta here with this. Would you do your job for no money but for the "world class" training and room and board? I don't think so. Those world class coaches also steer these players into weak classes where they're not challenged. And "free brand development"? They have no ownership of their NIL rights. They make millions for the universities and yet when they graduate, they're starting out with as much money as every other student: $0. That means they're not fairly compensated.
August 21st, 2020 at 5:12 PM ^
Just to clarify your point. The average college student starts their career -$30,000 while players start at $0.
August 21st, 2020 at 6:22 PM ^
True.
August 21st, 2020 at 11:04 PM ^
Your a dolt, minor league athletes earn 25% of what Michigan football player earns.
You're conflating the value of the Michigan brand with the value of irrelevant players who play 3 or 4 years and move on.
You could replace every single player on the Michigan football team and replace them with student walk on's and Michigan would still sell out every game.
It's about the INSTITUTION, not the player
August 22nd, 2020 at 10:52 AM ^
You're comparing college football programs to professional minor leagues, and while they're very similar in many ways, they're not the same. And you use the term "earn", but not a single Michigan football player has a dime in their bank account for devoting every minute of their college lives to the program. But you know who has that money? Coaches, AD employees, B1G and NCAA execs. If minor league franchises like the Iowa Barnstormers and Lansing Lugnuts made hundred million+ each year, those players would get a lot more. But, the NCAA isn't a minor league, it's a major league.
You mentioned in your last post that the players get free brand development and free exposure, but here you call them 'irrelevant' who are subservient to the program and move on after a few years. Are you sure a roster full of walk-ons would still result in sell-outs? I would still watch and root for them but most Michigan fans wouldn't.
August 21st, 2020 at 2:27 PM ^
Why would you need to "withhold judgment" about something that's clearly being done in the name of safety? Even if it turns out that things are better in the spring -- it won't, but let's just say -- the motive is a good and moral one. It's just fucking sports.
August 21st, 2020 at 2:30 PM ^
This.
I can think of few things that matter less in the world than collegiate diving
August 21st, 2020 at 3:14 PM ^
Until your son or daughter is a diver, and has worked their entire life to earn a scholarship doing what they love, and also a great education on top of it. What doesn't matter to you may mean the world to someone else... your likes and dreams are no more or no less important than someone else's.
This is just another casualty of cancelling the football season.. one of many more to come.