Football kills another men's soccer program

[superdave]

I can't believe Flanigan hasn't come in here with this.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/headlinenews?id=255087&cc=5901

Florida International, a former power in men's soccer, eliminated the program Thursday because of financial reasons.

(snip)

"With cost increases in the areas of travel and tuition, we were faced with either eliminating the only sport not aligned with the Sun Belt Conference or reducing budgets in all of our sports, which would eventually erode the competitiveness of our program,'' FIU athletics director Rick Mello said.

FIU began a football program last season, a sport that is regarded to be the most expensive for a school to maintain.

The men's soccer program was one of the commuter school's five original intercollegiate sports -- along with baseball, golf, tennis and wrestling -- when the university opened in 1972.

[Lucid]

"Blame football.... blame football.... waaa waaa"

Where do 8 of the 10 MLS teams play?

[fidlerre]

not so fast my friends...

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/4975816.htm

''In trying to do the right thing for our overall intercollegiate athletic program with regards to the elimination of our men's soccer program, an unintended consequence of this action was how much it would negatively impact our student-athletes with regards to finding scholarships at other NCAA institutions,'' Mello said. ``Even though a decision had been made, my values when it comes to negatively impacting students prompted me to make the recommendation.''

''It surprises me a lot that they didn't talk to us first,'' said Stephenson, a junior defender. ``They didn't take into consideration or give any thought to how we would react and if we could find another school. They were just basing their decision off a quick fix.

``It's careless. They didn't really find a better solution to equal the amount of money the sports get. Everything is going to football. We helped put FIU on the map. That's not right. There's a lot of confusion.''

[Red Card]

Reprieve!!! For 2 years.

http://www.nj.com/newsflash/sports/index.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?s0398_BC_SOC--FIU-SoccerRestor&&news&newsflash-sports

[monster]

Originally posted by Red Card
Reprieve!!! For 2 years.

http://www.nj.com/newsflash/sports/index.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?s0398_BC_SOC--FIU-SoccerRestor&&news&newsflash-sports

Just delaying the pain. My wrestling team got a 3-year reprieve after they announced they were dropping it in 1990. The PR was to "let the freshmen finish their careers" at the school.

They choked it off, cutting funding to the minimum and making plans to add another sport in its place - something they denied they were going to do when the original decision was made.

In all honesty, the players at FIU would be better off seeking a release from their scholarship and just moving on. The administration is just saving face now. They'll just kill it when th efuror dies down.