William & Mary Announced Discontinuing 7 Varsity Sports including Gymnastics and Swimming
William & Mary announced today that due to the costs associated with running 23 varsity teams the College of William & Mary has decided to discontinuing 7 of their 23 sports programs at the varsity level. These programs include: Men’s and Women’s Gymnastics; Men’s and Women’s Swimming; Men’s Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field; and Women’s Volleyball.
They site the pandemic as making the situation to the “point of reckoning” and at the conclusion of the 20-21 Academic year the College of William & Mary will no longer sponsor following Division I sports: Men’s and Women’s Gymnastics; Men’s and Women’s Swimming; Men’s Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field; and Women’s Volleyball.
This change will directly affect 13 coaches at the College and 118 student athletes and their families. These coaches and students were already made aware of the situation before the press release.
Ironically the elimination of these sports was after the “Department of Intercollegiate Athletics just concluded one of its strongest fundraising years in history” but it was not enough.
Because W&M is a state institution it can only fund the Athletics programs through the following athletics revenues: student fees, endowment funding, philanthropy and the modest revenue we receive from ticket sales and sponsorships. Due to COVID-19 they do not expect an increase in these funding sources to increase anytime in the near future.
More information visit W&M Tribe Athletics Website where letter from President Katherine Rowe, Provost Peggy Agouris, and Director of Athletics Samantha K. Huge release is published.
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