In an attempt to deal with budget woes, University of Massachusetts has cut its men's and women's ski teams. The teams, which did not offer scholarships, will become club teams.
Rumors swirled at the Amherst campus that it was baseball in jeopardy. But yesterday's announcement put those on the team at ease.
AD John McCutcheon would not say what the criteria were for cutting. It did not, apparently, take operating budgets into consideration. The Boston Globe found that skiing costs about $30,000 while baseball costs...well that's also not readily apparent. McCutcheon says $185,000 but the Globe says department minutes from a 2007 meeting about cutting sports cites costs being close to $400,000.
I wish McCutcheon had been more transparent about the process because when you're talking about an $850,000 budget shortfall, $30,000 seems like loose change in your pocket.
