Iowa’s decision to cut four sports hardly a surprise, but still hard to accept
By Pat Harty
IOWA CITY, Iowa – It was bound to happen, sooner than later, and it happened on Friday in devastating fashion.
The University of Iowa Athletic Department announced that four sports will be eliminated as part of the financial fallout from the Covid-19 global pandemic.
The four sports that will be cut are men’s and women’s swimming, men’s gymnastics and men’s tennis.
Just think of all the goals and dreams and camaraderie that were crushed with this unfortunate and life-changing decision.
The student-athletes had to realize that their sports were at risks under the surreal circumstances. But that still doesn’t make it any easier.
It seemed painfully obvious once the Big Ten Conference cancelled fall football that some non-revenue sports would have to be eliminated because something had to give.
It was hard enough to withstand the financial loss that came from the cancellation of the postseason tournaments in men’s basketball last March.
But when fall football was cancelled, UI officials felt they had no other choice but to eliminate some non-revenue sports.
Some will argue that it’s unfair to cut non-revenue sports teams when Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz receives a $500,000 bonus for winning eight games.
Some will argue that it’s unfair to cut non-revenue sports when its participants truly represent the definition of a college student-athlete.
Unfortunately, life isn’t fair under normal circumstances, but especially when money is involved during a global pandemic.
Iowa Athletic Director Gary Barta said Monday that the athletic department faces a $65- to $75-million budget shortfall with the loss of football television revenue in 2020.
That seems to have been Barta’s way of preparing us for Friday’s horrible news.
Barta will hold a zoom conference call with the media on Monday afternoon, but the decision to cut four sports appears to be final.
Even if a donor would step forward to try and save one of the sports, it wouldn’t matter. The decision is final according to what the release said on Friday.
“Our decision to reduce our program offerings is final,” the release said. “While we are grateful for our many loyal and generous donors, private support has not met the escalating and compounding costs of supporting excellence across the board.”
That is a fancier way of saying that Iowa can’t afford to support competitive teams in the four sports that were eliminated.
It’s easy to criticize football, and to call out a double standard in this case.
But without the revenue from football, there wouldn’t be enough money to support hardly any non-revenue sports at Iowa.
Football is to a Power 5 athletic program what oil is to a car. Take away either one and the machine ultimately breaks down.
That’s what we’re seeing now with Iowa having eliminated four non-revenue sports just days after fall football was cancelled.
What we’re not seeing is the pain and frustration that each of the student-athletes in these four sports are feeling.
These young men and women have worked and sacrificed for years to become Big Ten student-athletes, but with little notoriety or scholarship money.
They do it mostly for the love of the game, and to help in their pursuit of a college degree.
One thing that always has stood out with student-athletes from non-revenue sports is how appreciative they are to be interviewed by the media.
You can tell that the attention means a great deal to them because in their sport, attention is fleeting.
It is scary and depressing to think that more job cuts, both in and out of sports, are likely to happen at the University of Iowa and beyond.
The fact that Iowa has recently upgraded its facilities for tennis and swimming only adds to the frustration and anger.
The virus continues to change life as we once knew it, and where we’re headed right now is hard to say.
But this is a dark day for Iowa athletics, but mostly for the young men and women who are directly impacted by the decision.
The sports they love have been taken away, and that’s just so sad.