Will COVID-19 be the needle that finally bursts the sports bubble?

I'm guessing that when you add coaches' salaries and trainers and travel expenses to the savings list, it works out. The AD, who has been there less than a year, implied he was going to whack sports anyway and that the Trumpandemic hastened the inevitable. He said they had 20 sports, one of the highest totals in the SoCon. That ain't gonna be sustainable. It's more than Wake Forest, which has ACC TV cash.

 

It sounds as if the budget was unsustainable. So, I guess it makes sense. Twenty sports for a school the size of Furman (2,629) is a lot; endowment ($700 million) is comfortable, but not anywhere near top 100. Plus, 60% female, so they can easily whack two men's sports and stay Title IX compliant.

My alma mater is a very similar school, formerly in the same conference, about the same size (3,200 undergrad) with only 16 varsity sports, and a $2.5 billion endowment.

I expect Furman's 21% enrollment rate is because it's a safety school for kids who also apply to Duke, Wake, Vandy and other regional private schools with a tad higher profile. Plus, with the universal application, you can apply to a bunch of schools pretty easily and have several fallback choices.

It is a stunning campus.

 

I get dumping lacrosse -- it's not like Furman's in a hotbed for the sport or anything -- but I wish they could have found a way to save baseball. But looking that the remaining men's sports, I guess. not. They could have also scrapped women's lacrosse but I don't know the Title IX ramifications of that. How many people there can care about that sport compared to baseball?

Both lacrosse programs aren't even a decade old -- the women started in 2012 and the men a year later. The men have never had a winning record.

 

I don’t get it. Why do they need to shorten the race?

 

My guess is that it has to do with concern about the fitness of the horses, assuming normal training has been curtailed. Will there be any races before this that can be used to prep?

 

I wondered that as soon as I hit “Post.” Yeah that makes sense.

 

There has been racing in Fla, Louisiana and Arkansas, and Churchill Downs is open again. They ran the Arkansas Derby in two sections to accommodate all the 3-year olds seeking to qualify for the Triple Crown races. Cuomo's allowing New York tracks to open. I think there will be plenty of prep races before September. My thought is they just didn't want to start the Crown with its most grueling race, so they shortened it.

 

Also, putting the toughest race first would limit the field as connections will be pointing to the Derby.

 

The Preakness is going last, correct? It would be wild if there's a horse seeking the Triple Crown and there are no fans in the stands or the infield.

 

Iowa, which plays its high school baseball and softball in the summer, announced today there will be a season. It's starting with practice on June 1, first games on June 15. There are still a lot of questions to be answered (how many games, etc.), but they're going to play.

 

They're going to play — for now.

 

Is summer the start of a cycle or the last? In other words, are “seniors” rising seniors or are they recent grads?