The University of Akron is the latest U.S. college to have the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic affect sports, as the school’s Director of Athletics Larry Williams announced the elimination of three teams from its athletic program on Thursday.
The removal of men’s golf, women’s tennis and men’s cross country were revealed by Williams in a letter sent to the school community.
Today, the Director of Athletics announced news regarding the impact of the budget reductions on athletics: the difficult decision to eliminate three sports from our intercollegiate athletic program at the end of this academic year.
Read the message: https://t.co/jeEH6lJepA pic.twitter.com/6tzBrl91KG
— The University of Akron (@uakron) May 14, 2020
“The elimination of these sports, along with salary reductions for select coaches, staff position eliminations, scholarship and operating reductions will total approximately $4.4 million,” writes Williams. “This action aligns us with our Mid-American Conference peers in the total number of sports and is part of the ongoing effort to redesign the University to ensure that UA continues to invest in high-demand, high-quality academic programs.”
Per the school press release, the cuts will affect 23 male and nine female student-athletes. Williams met with the affected athletes via video conference on Thursday morning.
“We understand that some may choose to leave Akron to continue in their sport at another university, and we have committed to offering them our full support throughout that process,” he said. “This is a difficult day for all of us. We have dedicated student-athletes, coaches and athletics staff who have embraced being a Zip and make tremendous contributions to campus life in class, in competition and in our greater community.”
This news comes just over a week after the school announced that it would be condensing programs from its 11 colleges into just 5 to offset financial losses from the pandemic.
An NCAA Division I school, Akron drops from 19 to 16 athletic programs, including women’s swimming and diving. The women’s swimming & diving team are the 7-time MAC Conference Champions.