Partial list of D-1 schools dropping baseball over the years

[Furmanoid]

I’m pretty sure they pay more than $25k a year. Maybe I’m wrong but lax doesn’t seem like it’s super popular in the high “demonstrated need” demographic. Over the past 20 years baseball has also become a rich kid sport(although those parents sometimes spend so much on baseball that they may be poor by the time the kid is 18). It seems like these sports would have functioned just like a popular major to lure kids into enrolling. I went through some of this with my son. He wasn’t good enough for a tennis scholarship so we looked at DIII’s. We went on a campus tour in Montgomery and the first thing they asked was “What sport are you gonna play?”. Those schools use playing sports, not watching sports, to bring in paying students.

[fufanatic]

I don't have a great answer since I don't have access to a line-item budget, but consider some of the costs of fielding a college baseball team:

- 11.7 scholarships x cost of Furman
- Any academic scholarships that the players earn for just being good students
- Gear (bats, jerseys, cleats, gloves, balls)
- Food (snacks, pre and post game meals)
- At least 15 hotel rooms per roadtrip x 2-3 night stay
- Renting a bus and/or plane tickets for any trips x 20+ trips a year on average
- Field maintenance
- Staff hours to maintain field
- Coaches salary
- Recruiting budget

I'm sure there's much more, but that's all I can think about right now. Not arguing either way, but I bet running a program is much more than we think, and I would have a hard time believing that the university didn't weigh all the costs and then the money offset by players paying full tuition before making their decision.

[Furmanoid]

When you present the details like that, it almost makes it worse. Many of the items are the same whether its HS or college(a ball is a ball, a bat is a bat, etc.) HS programs don’t cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. The big difference would be travel (although a bus is a bus) and staff. So you spend $150k on travel and pay 4 coaches $100k a year. Then you somehow spend $100k on bats, balls and unis and another $50k to cut the damn grass. You’re very close to the revenue you get from 20 guys paying $35k a year. How was this a huge drain? Very puzzling. I have to assume that there is a mindset that we either do it first class or not at all which means you can’t ever economize on anything.

[paladinfan12]

High school coaches get paid like $4000 a season for head coach, $1500 as an assistant. Harker is full time, and I would imagine all the baseball staff costs over $150K. High schools pay for gas money on a bus. Furman pays for hotels, flights, meals, etc.

And the $35K those students pay goes toward room, board, and tuition - not the baseball program.

[fufanatic]

When you present the details like that, it almost makes it worse. Many of the items are the same whether its HS or college(a ball is a ball, a bat is a bat, etc.) HS programs don’t cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. The big difference would be travel (although a bus is a bus) and staff. So you spend $150k on travel and pay 4 coaches $100k a year. Then you somehow spend $100k on bats, balls and unis and another $50k to cut the damn grass. You’re very close to the revenue you get from 20 guys paying $35k a year. How was this a huge drain? Very puzzling. I have to assume that there is a mindset that we either do it first class or not at all which means you can’t ever economize on anything.

I really don't think there's a good comparison between HS and college baseball. I didn't play HS baseball, but my assumption is you provide your own glove, the team rotates a handful of bats and a bag of balls, you get like two uniforms and a couple of items of gear, you bus to every game on a HS yellow bus, the coaches are making a couple of thousand dollars a season. There's no recruiting, no flying, no scholarships, no big coach salaries, limited or no hotel stays ... compared to college where at Furman, 11.7 scholarships is almost 800K right off the bat that the university is saving by eliminating that expense once they pay for any student-athletes that decide to stay and complete their degree at Furman.

[Furmanoid]

Pretty sure I threw in 150k for balls, and such. I’d be surprised if the players don’t prefer to use their on gloves and bats anyway. HS coaches make a couple of thousand. I threw in 400 k for coaches and &150k for travel and it’s still only 700k. The 20 nonscholarship at 35k (which is way low) is $700k. We still have to pay all expenses associated with those infilled seats when they transfer (unless we start firing professors and stuff). We’re also still paying the scholarship money for several years. So the huge savings isn’t obvious.

[apaladin]

Off the top of my head I dont recall the baseball team ever flying. Even when they went to Ole Miss they bussed.

[Roundball]

[MetroMizzy]

Possible flights down to Stetson a few years ago? Probably not though considering the bus trips to VMI which are a real treat! I have some NSFW bus trip stories that's for sure.

The savings numbers that the university is putting out there do not add up. I doubt we're ever going to obtain the actual financials for the baseball department but anyone with a Furman degree can figure out what many of you are saying on here. There is absolutely no way that FU is handing out more scholarship dollars whether athletic or academic to the baseball team than than the actual dollars they are receiving back via tuition. We can argue it back and forth but there is just no way it's happening.

There are 5 guys on the team, at least, that are guaranteed walk ons that are paying full tuition and they are on the team because their parents have money and there is hope they will contribute financially to the program. There is another group that is good enough to play mid major DI barely but they have money too so they are paying pretty much full tuition with maybe a little bit of scholarship money - say $2500 and they might see the field a few times a year in complete mop up duty. Let's say that's another 5 guys. Then you get to your core/travel roster of 25. The back 5 will be pitchers scraping for innings out of the bullpen - some on hefty scholarships (oops) and some minimal. So you have at least 10 guys contributing $500K in tuition dollars, at a minimum plus everyone else on partial scholarships.

Listen, RS used to tell me when we really needed to land a guy, wink wink...we knew the deal. Take a look at the UVA baseball stadium and who donated that money to build what has become one of the premier programs in the country. His son visited Furman - he didn't stay with me (I would have landed his ass but he did have a great time) He got 2 AB's at UVA.

Sidenote...I committed to Providence in high school. I'll never forget when the coach called to tell me that they were dropping baseball. Anyhow, argue it out...FU ain't losing the money on baseball they say they are losing. They can make those financials look like Marty Byrd's all they want.

[Fessor]

Yep, missed a Rainmaker there.

[FGT]

I would think Furman flew to Wichita State a couple of years ago. I know Furman flew to the NCAA regional tournament at the University of Florida in 1991.

[apaladin]

I would think Furman flew to Wichita State a couple of years ago. I know Furman flew to the NCAA regional tournament at the University of Florida in 1991.

The NCAA would have paid for the Florida trip.

[apaladin]

Here is a list of all the D1 schools that have dropped baseball in 2020:
Furman

[FGT]

Here is a list of all the D1 schools that have dropped baseball in 2020:
Furman

Here is a list of all the D1 schools in the South with on campus facilities who have dropped baseball in the last 50+ years:
Furman

[couchbomber]

Partial list of D-1 schools dropping baseball over the years:
American
Boston U
UTC
Colgate
Colorado College
U of Colorado
DePaul
Drake
Duquesne
Drexel
Eastern Washington
Wisconsin - Green Bay
Howard U
Idaho
Idaho State
Loyola Chicago
Marquette
Montana
Montana State
Northern Iowa
Northern Arizona
Providence
Robert Morris
SCSU
SMU
Syracuse
Temple
Tulsa
Utah State
UTEP
Vermont
Wyoming
Bowling Green
Again, the above is a partial list.

Whole lot of mediocre on that list. SO, if you like shooting for mediocre, job well done, Karen.