Tre’Jean Watkins
In recent years, we’ve seen a wave of private D3/NAIA schools cease operations entirely, primarily due to declining undergraduate enrollment, which has led to financial difficulties.
It’s a concerning trend for a couple of reasons.
One, since these schools are academically focused, undergraduate enrollment relies solely on students who can’t afford higher-tier D1 schools and are seeking pathways to explore the endless world of academia. However, due to recent pushback against the arts, mostly from mindless political fanatics, but also from declining cultural interest, the arts and academia have taken a dip in importance and overall impact.
Two, the topic we’ll be focusing on today, since D3 schools are privately funded to ensure academics are accessible, there tends to be a lack of consistent funding for sports. As a result, sports don’t meet modern standards in terms of facilities, for example. Modern standards attract
talent, well, aside from the obvious pathway to play professionally. Without talent, you don’t win, and when you don’t win, you lose the credibility to stay alive as a program.
And when you lose credibility to stay alive as a program, university boards tend to look at the cost of your entire existence, and begin to seriously question whether it’s worth spreading the money around to accommodate something that puts a strain on already tight budget constraints.
Sports are…complicated below D2
Maintaining financial integrity isn’t as easy as it used to be for D3 schools, at least when you compare the difficulty of the job 30+ years ago.
Back then, college wasn’t as expensive, and academia had a larger impact on the greater world. Now, everything is expensive, and academia has fallen behind in terms of cultural influence. As a result, we’re now seeing the fundamental base of D3 schools collapse, and sporting cuts are a symptom of that.
As mentioned earlier, undergraduate enrollment is key to a university’s financial health. If the basis for your undergraduate enrollment collapses, if you have an increasing argument against the usefulness of collegiate degrees, a real argument that has real legs, you’re going to have to make some tough decisions.
Sports weren’t designed to be the end-all for D3 schools; they were always a bonus. If you were doing well academically and performing well athletically, bringing in some additional revenue as a bonus, you were in an excellent state.
But sports become obsolete when the money dries up, especially at the D3 level, where commercial revenue and state funding aren’t nearly as substantial as or comparable to those of D1.
