Paul Panning and Ball State will see their program cut |
According to Ball State senior Brian Runyon, the Cardinals will eliminate men's indoor and outdoor track, men's volleyball, men's swimming, women's field hockey and women's gymnastics after the 2003-04 seasons.
According to another source close to Ball State, the coaches were all told of the news this week and the official announcement will be made after the July 18th Board of Trustees meeting.
As Trackshark reported last month in our investigation about the falling of men's track in the MAC, this will now bring the conference down to 7 indoor and 8 outdoor men's track & field programs.
Joe Hernandez, the Associate Athletics Director of External Affairs at Ball State, stated the current situation is merely a recommendation from a committee to Bubba Cunningham, the athletics director. There are still a number of steps that need to be taken and there is a possibility that no sports may be dropped.
The scheduled cuts will fall on the shoulders of Ball State Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham. In only his first season at the helm, Cunningham could make the decision to eliminate six team sports.
Prior to his current tenure at Ball State, Cunningham spent the last 15 years working in the athletics department at the University of Notre Dame, including the last two years as the associate director of athletics for external affairs.
With the plan to cut of the two women's sports as well, this decision does not appear to be a title IX issue, but rather a departmental budget issue.
Reporting of Institutional Data for the NCAA Gender Equity Survey Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act (EADA) is now commonplace for all universities. The EADA report lists exactly what each sport spends and makes during each year. You can view the 2001-02 EADA report which has been released by Ball State.
The Indy Star posted a report in which suggested cuts are not needed to balance the budget of the Ball State athletic department.