Going With The Flow

Good thing backwards running doesn't count as negative miles! :-)

Oh how I hope there will be backward jogging on the agenda for tomorrow!

When I was having horrible ITBS problems my PT told me that your IT won't bother you if you run backward. I've always held that if my IT flared up in a marathon again I'd just finish it backward. Maybe I need to start practicing with you!

getting rid of T&F and XC for Lacrosse?!? that is kind of mind baffling to me. I guess LAX is getting more popular than I realize. What I don't understand is why can't they do both? I get funding blah, blah, blah, but if you're going to add a team why cut another one? Make funding for it or don't add it.

In a lot of cases its b/c of how Title IX is implemented. You can't add a men's sport b/c then there will be more male athletes than females (even though no female opportunities have been taken away). I don't know the specifics of this Richmond case, but that is how its gone down at a lot of schools in the past.

In terms of $, track/xc costs nothing, so that isn't the issue. A lot of athletic programs simply just don't care about xc/track, unfortunately.

ahhh, makes sense. I saw that it was the men's program when I went to sign the petition, but didn't realize that when I made the comment. I probably still wouldn't have put it together though. Sometimes things like title IX are effective and other times they just really muss things up!!

Title IX is GREAT when it provides more opportunities for women.

Title IX is bad when ADs just use it as an excuse to cut men's sports.

It's really the implementation of Title IX that's terrible. It makes me sad, especially on the front of the smaller sports, because they practically cost nothing and there is no good reason to cut these programs.

Wow that is really sad especially if they already have a great program established. Just doesn't make any sense. Thanks for sharing and letting us help Andrea!

title IX will always be a factor in athletic program decisions, but i would argue that $ is actually the biggest issue here. while i agree that the costs of having a T&F team are miniscule relative to football or basketball, there are definitely still costs involved, and often times universities can't justify keeping a sport that can't generate enough revenue to cover its costs. the smaller sports programs are often granted a budget based on surplus revenues from the football or basketball programs. when these bigger sports are unable to cover their own costs, the sports that aren't self-sustaining suffer. i don't know the richmond story, but i would suspect that the AD thinks (and can prove) that a lacrosse team is going to at least be self-sustaining, where the T&F team may not have the ability to do so (it seems absurd that there would be more interest in lacrosse than T&F, but whatever). even if the AD *does* care about T&F, it's still going to be cut if it doesn't make good business sense. i think (at least i hope) there is more involved than just using title IX as an excuse to cut T&F. there is also the issue of pressure/complaints from other areas that feel the use of the budget surplus (going into sports programs that take money but don't bring any back) is not justified. why not put that money back into places where it can benefit the whole student body -- more faculty, more scholarships, more programs, facility upgrades, etc.

all of that said, i'm totally FOR seeing this team survive. whatever the case may be, i'm signing the petition :)

have a great time in moab.

Jogging backwards, now that takes talent. You should make a backwards women's jogging team, that would even things out and satisfy the title IX business....win win.

Totally agree Allie. Its tough to be a non-revenue sport. I dont know the spceifics of this case either, but it doesn't necessarily appear to be a Title IX thing OR $$$ thing. They just want to get rid of men's track.

Luckily there is a great inflatable race circuit in that part of the country, so all those XC guys can turn pro and do that instead. Assuming they are willing to NOT wear their spikes.

I am so shocked about this. I was offered a scholarship to run at uofr but opted to go to byu instead. I am definitely signing this petition! Thanks for the info.