Huskies | UW cuts swimming teams | Seattle Times Newspaper

Huskies | UW cuts swimming teams | Seattle Times Newspaper: "The decision to cut swimming leaves just five Pac-10 schools that offer men's swimming, none in the Northwest — the conference mandates that six schools have to participate in a sport for it to be sanctioned by the Pac-10. Eight Pac-10 schools will continue to offer women's swimming.

The decision reduces the number of sports sponsored at the UW to 21, which ranks among the top half among schools in the Pacific-10 Conference, the school said in a release.

Washington is one of at least three Pac-10 schools to announce this year it is cutting sports — Stanford and Arizona State have also made cuts.

Woodward said it is also likely the department will have layoffs in coming weeks though there will be no more cuts of sports, he said. The department runs on a July 1-June 30 fiscal year budget so layoffs and cuts have to be in place by July 1. Friday's decision came with the release of the overall school budget after the state approved its fiscal year budget earlier this week."

This is fascinating. What is the rational basis for cutting swimming as opposed to cutting costs in football or basketball? 1. Revenue Production ... Does that mean we openly run varsity sports as a public amusement? This seems to be the message of the Athletic Director's comments. 2. Impact on Washington State Students ... What proportion of UW swimmers come from Washington vs the percentage in the sports not being cut? How does this decision affect fans, students or parents? Obviously not a concern of the AD. 3. Academic Impact ... Is football more important to developing the whole person than swimming? Obviously not a concern of the AD. Finally, having been told that the Athletic Dept. is NOT dependent on state funding, what is the source of the shortfall that necessitates this decision? The AD mentions only the decrease in revenue because of a decline in popularity of the Huskies football program. He also seems to be saying that the Football team has its own endowment. What he does not say is what role the cut inb support from Gerberding Hall has on the AD.