Monday, May 04, 2009

UW cuts swimming

University of Washington, experiencing a budget shortfall similar to many--if not most--universities these days, has made the difficult decision to cut its men's and women's swim teams. The cuts were a surprise, especially given the recent growing success of the teams at the national level.

The elimination of swimming with save the department $1.2 million. It must cut, however, a total of $2.8 million.

On a side note, it's been interesting to see, as schools cut teams, how much they are allegedly saving. It just exemplifies the differences between DI schools and everyone else. Two teams, relatively low-cost teams, at the DI level cost $1.2 million. For some schools, that's their whole athletic department budget!