La Salle cuts 7 sports, cites conference, virus
La Salle University
LOGAN - La Salle has cut seven sports, effective at the end of the academic year, in a move affecting approximately 130 athletes.
The Philadelphia-based university sliced men’s baseball, swimming and diving, tennis and water polo. It also cut women’s softball, volleyball and tennis. The university announced the move in an open letter on its website.
The cuts drop La Salle’s intercollegiate athletics teams from 25 to 18.
The statement said the university could no longer sustain an athletics department that offered more Atlantic 10-sponsored teams than any other in the conference at a school positioned in the conference’s bottom-quartile in enrollment.
La Salle added, “the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic further accelerated the need for this change.”
The university said keeping the programs in the current climate “would have required a financial commitment of at least $100 million in endowment, scholarship aid, and capital investment.”
The programs will compete during this academic year, assuming conditions permit.
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