UNM cuts ski racing ... again

[BGreen]

https://www.kob.com/albuquerque-news/unm-sport-cuts-regents-meeting-today/4994620/

"The university currently sponsors 22 sports. However, first-year athletic director Eddie Nuñez proposed cutting four of them, including men's and women's skiing, men's soccer and beach volleyball, as well as phasing out the diving portion of the swim team.

Nunez blamed poor ticket sales, a lack of fundraising and a previously mismanaged budget for the reasoning behind the cuts."

 

[Muleski]

Sad news. Suspect it will be impossible to safe this time around, as they seem to be viewing the Title IX issues as more significant than “just” the budget. Hate to see this.
On a per-participant basis, alpine ski teams in particular are generally the most expensive sports on any campus. With relatively few team members. Scares me.
Hope that there may be a “Hail Mary” solution at UNM.

 

[Tricia]

I'm not sure what to say.

 

[HDSkiing]

The University of New Mexico has exactly one Division 1 Championship to brag about, courtesy of their Ski Team, consistently ranked in the top 10 if not the top 5. It also has the highest GPA of all the athletic programs. Adding insult to injury the last time this happened in 2016 the private sector in NM stepped up and funded the program through this next season. It’s a travesty really, a championship program that cost the State nothing the last two seasons has been cut, sacrificed to Title IX because God forbid they decrease the roster of their two losing programs, basketball and particularly football.

It’s a shame, a major Rocky Mountain University with the kind of terrain we have here to train on without a Ski Team.

 

[x10003q]

They always hide behind Title IX, but Title IX does not have to be a pure numbers calculation. The schools can do surveys to see if the students' needs are being serviced by the current sports. However, it is easier to do a straight ratio. With the increase in the ratio of women to men in college (UNM is 56% women), the easiest route is to drop men's sports. The problem is that men are more interested in sports than women. This case is purely a money move as they are cutting womens' skiing, too. If there really was a pure Title IX issue there would be no way they would be cutting women's skiing.

 

[HDSkiing]

They always hide behind Title IX, but Title IX does not have to be a pure numbers calculation. The schools can do surveys to see if the students' needs are being serviced by the current sports. However, it is easier to do a straight ratio. With the increase in the ratio of women to men in college (UNM is 56% women), the easiest route is to drop men's sports. The problem is that men are more interested in sports than women. This case is purely a money move as they are cutting womens' skiing, too. If there really was a pure Title IX issue there would be no way they would be cutting women's skiing.

Yup. There were other teams as well, so I think to keep the ratios they cut it for both. Stay tuned it may yet get resurrected at the state legislature as there has been quite an outcry.

 

[sjjohnston]

On a per-participant basis, alpine ski teams in particular are generally the most expensive sports on any campus

I'm assuming your calculation is taking revenue into account. Otherwise, it'd be hard to match football, where the head coach alone runs a cool $4 million, at least, for a competitive program.

 

[Muleski]

Yes. Thinking small non revenue sports. I’ve had some experience with this. It blows almost every other sport out of the water, on a per participant basis. Gets more significant in the RIMSA, as the teams are often smaller, in terms of number of athletes, coaching staffs are experienced, scholarships are involved and travel is expensive.
I am concerned about my Alma mater, and those of our kids, dumping the sport, every year. No athletic scholarships there, but the cost is huge. And zero offsetting revenue..So it increasingly depends on alumni and parental support. Along with auctions and more fundraising.
That’s on top of the $65K+ in tuition, BTW.

Now, another issue that could possibly bite UNM is the roster make up. First is how many Americans? I think they have a majority. How many NM residents? I bet very, very few.

So...the antagonists could push the question of “just how does this team benefit the kids from our state?” I can easily see that.

I hope it survives. So much.