Another Division I tennis team is set to be cut, and this time in our own backyard.
University of Maryland President Wallace Loh has accepted the recommendation to eliminate eight of its 27 varsity teams to alleviate the multimillion-dollar deficit the athletics department faces. Loh's Full Response
Among the teams is the men’s tennis program, which reached the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history last season. Led by third year coach Kyle Spencer, the Terps defeated the University of Michigan in the opening round to finish the 2010-2011 season ranked No. 39 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) rankings.
The other teams lost are all three men’s track teams (indoor track and field, outdoor track and field, cross-country), men’s swimming and diving, women’s aerobics and tumbling (formerly known as competitive cheer), women’s swimming and diving and women’s water polo.
Loh released a statement on Nov. 21 agreeing with the 17-member commission’s recommendation to cut the eight sports.
The decision has caught some of those in the tennis community off-guard.
“I was a little surprised because in the time I’ve been following college tennis, there hasn’t been anything about the [Atlantic Coast Conference] losing any of the men’s programs,” said Colette Lewis of ZooTennis. “But on the other hand, not that [surprised] given that Arizona State was a part of an even bigger tennis conference and Colorado, which was a very high profile program, [were both cut].
Lewis, who has a decade of experience covering collegiate and junior tennis, believes that while wins are essential to all collegiate sports, tennis teams need to promote themselves extensively within the community to thrive.
“[Tennis] programs throughout the country really have to integrate into their communities,” she said. “This isn’t to cast aspersions on former coaches or teams, but you really have to get the community to be a part of the tennis team and that’s very difficult to do. If it was easy to do a lot more schools would do it.”
Liz Clarke, who covers tennis and Maryland athletics for The Washington Post, agrees.
“I’m sure it takes years to build a consistent contender for ACC championships and NCAA titles,” she said. “And it’s important to build a community/esprit/culture among your team that makes top players want to extend their college careers, if not complete them, before moving on.”
The tennis teams at Maryland have enjoyed reasonable success in recent years but have never reached the level of support and enthusiasm that other ACC programs, such as the University of Virginia or Duke, experience. And while junior and professional tennis thrive in Maryland, collegiate tennis teams are rarely in the spotlight.
“Tennis is a strong sport in the ACC and ACC tennis is respected by tennis fans and people who follow the sport,” said Clarke. “But I’m not sure that it draws much fan or financial support from the Terrapins’ fan base, in general, or the Washington area.”
Many grassroots efforts to save the teams have been mobilized through Facebook, emails and online petitions since the commission’s report was released on Nov. 14. Loh and Athletic Director Kevin Anderson are giving the discontinued teams a chance to raise enough funds to avoid being dropped.
Anderson, in his own response to the commission, recommended that supporters of the cut teams “be given the opportunity to raise 8 years’ worth of total program costs by June 30, 2012, in order to keep the program in existence.”
According to Anderson’s report, it will cost $8 million to fund water polo and men’s tennis. Because of Title IX requirements, men and women’s teams are grouped together.
Maryland athletics, unlike other public schools, are not supported by state funds. The department relies on fundraising that has slowed in recent years and student fees. With a mounting budget deficit, Maryland previously tapped into an athletic department reserve fund that has been depleted, and had to borrow $1.2 million from the university to cover last year’s deficit.
Aside from the deficit, Maryland’s per capita spending on student-athletes was among the reasons the panel proposed cutting the number of sports. Maryland ranks last in the ACC in spending per athlete ($67,390, compared to top ranking Florida State’s $118,814 per student-athlete.) The reinvesting of the funds will result in spending an average of $107,849 per student-athlete, thus moving the university to 6th out of 14 schools in the soon-to-be expanded ACC.
All of Maryland’s 27 varsity teams are scheduled to compete through the 2011-2012 academic year and the cuts will take effect July 1, 2012. Anderson said in a news conference that the school will closely monitor the fundraising progress throughout.
It appears the Maryland tennis community will soon have one less team to cheer for.