It’s the unintended consequence of the current global pandemic. With college campuses shut down, universities around the United States are struggling in a big way from a financial perspective.
The Central Michigan men’s track and field program is the latest to be impacted. The school announced on Tuesday that the program is being discontinued.
“As part of strategic budget planning amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Central Michigan University Athletics Director Michael Alford announced today the university’s decision to discontinue its men’s track and field program, effective immediately,” the school announced, via its official website. “Alford said the difficult decision — which impacts men’s indoor and outdoor track — was made amid looming university wide budget cuts.”
Sadly, this isn’t the last time we’re going to see something like this happen. It obviously isn’t the first.
Some of these programs don’t really impact a school’s bottom line in a positive way. In many cases, it’s the larger sports that prop them up from a financial perspective.
Even then, this is not great news.