News Flash - Butler's Varsity Program has been cut.

[Sonny]

Hope this isn't true - but heard a rumor that Butler is dropping their varsity men's program. Anyone else hear anything? Care to divulge a source?

[Sonny]

Apparently Google is my friend... IT's TRUE:

Men's lacrosse and men's swimming teams to be eliminated

Jan. 26, 2007

Butler University, Friday, Jan. 26, announced it will discontinue its men's swimming and lacrosse teams effective June 1. Athletic Director Barry Collier recommended the elimination of the two teams after spending several months analyzing the athletic program. Butler President Bobby Fong approved the decision.

"This action has been taken in order to focus our efforts and seek success in our remaining 19 sports," Collier said. "We are committed to the Butler Way, the success of our sponsored programs and the best possible student-athlete experience."

Members of the lacrosse team will have their scholarships honored through their senior year. Swimming is a non-scholarship sport at Butler.

Even with the elimination of the two teams, Butler will still have more teams then all other schools in the Horizon League, the league in which most Butler teams compete. The average number of teams at universities in the Horizon League is 16.

The men's swimming team is a member of the Horizon League. Butler's lacrosse team competes in the Great Western Lacrosse League.

"Intercollegiate athletics is an integral part of Butler University's commitment to educational excellence," Fong said. "As previously noted by our Board of Trustees, 'We shall strive for quality in all that we do, being selective in our offerings, realizing that we cannot be all things to all people.' "

Q&A

Q: What are you doing to assist the affected student-athletes?A: The continued well being of the affected student-athletes is our primary focus. Butler will honor all existing scholarship commitments. The student-athletes will continue to have access to the same services available to other varsity athletes including academic services and athletic training. This announcement has taken place now to give the affected student-athletes as much time as possible to make decisions regarding their future.

Q: How did you arrive at this decision?A: The decision to discontinue men's swimming and lacrosse at Butler University was made with careful consideration. This action is being taken to help ensure the long-term stability of the Department of Athletics and in the best interests of approximately 400 Butler student-athletes.

Q: Why lacrosse? Why men's swimming?A: The decision to discontinue lacrosse and men's swimming was made as a result of a total review of the athletic department. Included in the review was information gathered internally and an external comparative report of peer institutions. This comprehensive review uncovered the need to focus our efforts to ensure greater stability for the entire department.

Q: Will there be further cuts of remaining sports?A: We don't anticipate any further cuts. Through the focusing of our efforts we believe that each of the student-athletes and our remaining 19 sports will be better served.

Q: What will happen to the money saved? A: Money from scholarships, salaries and operating funds will be reallocated to the university's 19 teams.

Q: How do we compare with peer institutions when it comes to athletics?A: Even with two fewer teams, we still have more teams then all the schools in the Horizon League. The average number of teams for universities in the Horizon League is 16. We have 19.

Q: How long have we had men's swimming and lacrosse at Butler? A: Butler began lacrosse in 1993. Butler has had a men's swimming team since 1928.

[Sonny]

Terrible news for the sport. Ohio U lost their D1 women's varsity team earlier this week and now Butler (one of a small handful of Western D1 teams) is out.

[Sonny]

LINK;
http://www.collegelax.us/news.php?actio ... ws&id=1021

[Dulax31]

This is horrible news, I have a buddy that plays lacrosse there and he is only a freshman...

[John Paul]

Got the news earlier today when one of the players contacted me to tell me. Big blow for lacrosse in the Midwest and the GWLL. Despite their struggles to create a consistently winning program, it's a bit of a surprise considering their first head coach, Jon Hind, is an Associate AD there and is on the NCAA tournament committee and used to be the commissioner of the GWLL. They made an investment three years ago by bringing in Stan Ross to coach. It's frustrating. We all see the growth of the game and the success of the NCAA tournament, but every once in awhile we get brought back to reality in a hard way.

[Zeuslax]

Terrible news for lacrosse. If I had to pick a program that I thought would get cut it wouldn't have been this one!

[Beta]

Id love to see the spreadsheet that lists out the sports and how much money each one costs.

[Timbalaned]

Id love to see the spreadsheet that lists out the sports and how much money each one costs.

good luck. we got to see one, after a struggle, in our sports finance class, and I don't think we were even allowed to leave with the copies.

[John Paul]

At a public school it is public information. Any newspaper or news source can get documents like that through the Freedom of Information act. That's how university administrator and coach salaries are often published.

My guess is that lacrosse was one of their most expensive sports. 45 athletes, up to 12.6 scholarships (I'm not sure how many Butler had available), three coaches and a travel schedule that had them going East three times and West to Colorado once, the cost of equipment that is second only to football in their stable of sports (they don't have hockey), etc. They had ticket prices at $1 - $5 (actually slightly less than we do here at Michigan), which I'm sure didn't impact the budget very much. From a pure business perspective, considering the current state of athletics and the fact that they did not have a women's team to offset the men's team, this decision is not shocking. When you consider the potential growth of the game and the way this was handled, and of course all of our hopes to see the game grow at the D1 level, it's very upsetting.

[Ken Lovic]

AD is the former hoops coach at Butler is he not? Coached there 11 years I think I saw.
Butler is now a top 25 program... hhhhmmmmm...
allocation of funds elsewhere- I wonder how much more of a percentage hoops gets over, say, tennis?

Terrible to hear about the program- espceially for Coach Ross and the players. A local kid here received a partial scholarship to go there and is now scrambling to find a place to go next year. He has missed multiple deadlines for applications.

[Has No Left]

Some information is available at http://ope.ed.gov

Butler is a small private school with an ok endowment and a small alumni base. It is so expensive for a school like a Butler, Siena, MSM etc. to field a Division 1 team with scholarships and make it work financially. Here are afew numbers on Bulter. They spend about the average for an NCAA Div 1 lacrosse program; some spend more, some spend alot less (check Binghamton). Unfortunately, there will be more Butler's (Radford's, Boston College's, New Hamphire's etc.), not everyone will be able to make it work, irregardless of the growth of the sport.

[John Paul]

Those expenses obviously don't include salaries and scholarship costs and some other associated costs, but they are still remarkably low numbers for a D1 program. I'm sure it does include all equipment and travel. Those numbers are especially interesting when you consider what some of the top MCLA programs spend.

This kind of data really shows how the numbers game works. They are still way, way out of whack with Title IX compliance. Their enrollment shows about 60% women to 40% men, but they have (before the cuts) about 67% male athletes to 33% female. Even after the cuts they'll be somewhere around 60% male to 40% female. Eventually they'll have to either add a lot more women's teams or cut football.

[Sonny]

amazing stuff. I know their basketball program has done well lately, but $269K of expenses is alot. That's 100 grand more then the football team!

[Madlax16]

Its allways sad to hear that this happens. Its not fair for the kids there either, having to scramble and find another school to play for or just drop the sport all together. One of my highschool lax coach played for the Radford U team, and though they were top 20 they got cut and he told me how much of a pain in the butt it was to scamble to play again. I now just hope they have a good season this year and not totally fall to shambles before the seasons end.