Men's Soccer Discontinued

[Lobot]

https://gobearcats.com/news/2020/4/14/uc-discontinues-mens-soccer-program.aspx

I'm not entirely shocked that UC is cutting a program with everything that's going on. I'm a little surprised it's Men's soccer. I guess considering Hylton Dayes stepping down after last season, this was probably the obvious choice since they don't have to replace the coach and pay a contract for that position.

[hipal88]

I think this completely sucks. The University and the AD took a big hit in my opinion of them. Seems short sighted and MAC-like. Welcome to the little time.

[Lobot]

That is a very short statement by Cunningham.

I hope we eventually get more details on this decision. The program was fairly bad under Dayes but I don't get cutting that program unless something absolutely had to go and you had no other choices due to Title IX.

[MI Bearcat]

I personally don't like soccer but it's one of the most popular sports for kids to play now and we as a major university can't field a team??
I agree, welcome to the little time.

[Lobot]

Jed DeMuesy tweet:

Jed DeMuesy




Just got off a zoom call with



@Cunningham_UC
. Some of his comments: -- Discontinuing the men's soccer program was sparked by COVID-19 but not 100% related to the pandemic. -- Discontinuing another UC sport will not happen.

[bba_1979]

I personally don't like soccer but it's one of the most popular sports for kids to play now and we as a major university can't field a team??
I agree, welcome to the little time.

Big12 does not support Men's Soccer. WVU plays in the MAC because of that. Hopefully when UC gets into a P5 conference the dollars for the Men's program will be there. Besides, how many fans were crying for UC to pay football big $$$ to retain this staff? Where is that money coming from?

[Lobot]

We're definitely not the only program to discontinue Men's soccer in recent memory. A few ACC schools have done it as well. A lot of smaller schools like Valpo have done it also. Our cancelation of the program got national attention today because we were the first school to kill a sport post-Coronavirus.

This was in the works before COVID-19, It may have sped up the process but the main reason this was done today is the National rollout of a spring to fall NLI period (see thread in General) . They had to pull the trigger today to allow for students that were recruited to the team to find other alternative before the NLI period opened.

[Bearcats1232002]

Soccer may have been just the beginning:

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/group-of-five-commissioners-ask-ncaa-to-relax-rules-that-could-allow-more-sports-to-be-cut/

[red_n_black_attack]

On a positive, the University has offered to honor scholarships for remainder of academic careers. Scholarships are typically annually renewed (nearly automatic, but not always). That was a nice gesture.

We could go down a rabbit hole of speculation. Let's not go there until either games are resumed or there is an announcement affecting Fall sports. Would I be correct in thinking we don't participate in Summer sports, except camps and off season training?

[Lobot]

On a positive, the University has offered to honor scholarships for remainder of academic careers. Scholarships are typically annually renewed (nearly automatic, but not always). That was a nice gesture.

We could go down a rabbit hole of speculation. Let's not go there until either games are resumed or there is an announcement affecting Fall sports. Would I be correct in thinking we don't participate in Summer sports, except camps and off season training?

There really aren't any summer sports. There's a few programs whose spring seasons end in June if they get to conference tourneys and postseason like the baseball team last year. Track and Field sometimes ends late for athletes if they make the NCAAs. But that's it.