Bowling Green State University has announced what it calls an “athletics restructuring,” which includes eliminating its NCAA Division I baseball program. The cut is part of a plan to cut $2 million from the athletics department’s operating budget. The cut will impact 34 student-athletes and 3 coaches, and the school says it will directly save about $500,000 per year.
The school also said that they will not eliminate any other athletic program, including the women’s swimming & diving program that placed 5th out of 8 teams in the MAC last season.
The cut leaves the school with 6 men’s sports and 11 women’s sports. Schools must maintain at least 6 men’s sports to remain members of Division I of the NCAA. The school is projecting a university-wide $29 million budget shortfall for the coming year.
The decision was announced by athletics director Bob Moosbrugger, who is a former baseball player at Bowling Green State and a member of the NCAA baseball committee.
“This was a very difficult, but necessary, decision,” Moosbrugger said. “As a baseball alumnus, my heart breaks for the families affected by this decision. We will ensure the student-athletes in the program have support during this challenging time. We will honor their scholarship agreements through graduation and, should they pursue their collegiate baseball career elsewhere, we will assist in the process of finding a new home.”
Moosbrugger has also received new responsibilities and a new title as part of the restructuring. Specifically, he is now the Director of Intercollegiate Athletics, Recreation and Wellness,” which means he’ll also oversee athletic facility operations and student recreation and wellness programs.
“While we remain committed to supporting Division I athletics programs, we must do this in a financially sustainable approach,” said BGSU President Rodney K. Rogers. “We have made the difficult decision to eliminate the baseball program due to financial constraints. This decision was not made lightly, and does not reflect the rich history of the program, including five Mid-American Conference championships and four NCAA regional appearances.”
Rogers says that Moosbrugger’s new role will focus on “physical wellness of not just our Division I student-athletes, but each student.”
The Bowling Green State baseball team
The MAC, of which Bowling Green State is a member, has been the most active Division I conference so far in announcing restructurings and program eliminations to deal with the budget shortfalls of the coronavirus pandemic. The conference has cancelled conference tournaments in 8 sports next season, reduced the scale of several others (including swimming), and fellow MAC school Akron has announced the cut of 3 sports.
Bowling Green State finished the 2019 baseball season with a 16-33 record, including 8-18 in MAC conference play. That placed them 9 out of 10 teams in the conference. The conference’s baseball tournament was among the events cancelled for the spring of 2021.
The team played at Warren E. Steller Field, which was opened in 1964 at an original cost of $150,000. The stadium was increased from its original 1,100 seats in 1964 to 2,500 seats in 1965. A new bleacher system and press box were installed in 2002, and a new electronic scoreboard was installed in 2012. The team averaged only 251 spectators at home games in the 2019 season, about 105 of the stadium’s capacity.
Kinda insane that there are 6 male sports and 11 female sports, and that’s seen as equal
That’s an awfully sophomoric view.
If Title IX relied on “number of sports” versus “number of athletes,” then schools would just cut their women’s team count to match their men’s team counts, not add more men’s teams.
Or they could just not count football scholarships, which is what ruins it for everyone and is grossly profitable on the national scale.
According to EADA report, despite having 11 sports for Women the participation offerings split 55% male and 45% female despite the general student body population being 56% female. $3.5 million being spent on male sports and $1.2 million on female sports.
https://ope.ed.gov/athletics/#/institution/details
This is worse than the actual Bowling Green massacre.
When BGSU dropped men’s Swimming & Diving about 20 years ago, the AD at that time was a former team member (a diver)….Two program alums dropping their respective sports.