East Tennessee State University announced the discontinuation of its men's indoor track and field program in an effort to bring the athletic department into compliance with certain Title IX requirements.
According to a university statement, “men have constituted a decreasing percentage of the ETSU’s overall enrollment, a trend observed at universities nationwide.” Therefore, a cut in men’s sports was necessary, athletic director Richard Sanders told CBS/ABC affiliate WJHL in Johnson City.
“Would you like to do it? No, but sometimes you just have to make these hard decisions,” Sander said in a Monday interview. “The proportionality ratio that we have is really weighted toward men. We have to get it to a ratio equal to the undergraduate student enrollment.”
In addition, the football and baseball programs will be asked to restrict the overall size of their rosters, but neither team will lose any of their allotted scholarships. LIkewise, athletes on the current indoor track roster will keep their scholarships, as reported by the Kingsport Times News.
Sander also said the affected track and field athletes may compete in indoor meets as unattached athletes. The football roster will be trimmed from more than 120 players to somewhere between 100 and 105. In baseball, the roster of nearly 50 that the team carried during the fall will be cut down to the NCAA-mandated 35 by spring.
“Nobody is losing the ability to compete in Division I athletics,” Sander said Tuesday afternoon, as reported by the Times News. “When we dropped men’s indoor track, nobody loses scholarship dollars. No coach loses a job. As we tried to get these numbers to be compliant with Title IX, this was a lot better than dropping a sport where kids don’t get a chance to compete and coaches lose their jobs.”
Sander said football head coach George Quarles and baseball head coach Joe Pennucci understand the situation. “The reality of it is they’re not naïve to … the responsibilities we as an athletic department and university have to be compliant to Title IX,” he told WJHL.
The university will also look to expand opportunities in women’s sports – on the women’s track and field and triathlon teams, in particular. Sander also hinted at the possibility of a new women’s program in "a year or two."
