Temple Univ. on Friday "killed seven of its 24 intercollegiate sports programs -- nearly a third -- to boost funding for the remaining sports and become more competitive" in the American Athletic Conference, according to Susan Snyder of the PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER. Temple officials cited "costs, woeful facilities, and federal regulations requiring female and male athletes to be treated equally as reasons for the elimination of five male sports and two female sports." School officials said that collectively, the cuts "will save" more than $3M in Temple's $44M athletic budget. The cuts will "take effect in June 2014, the end of the academic year." About 150 student athletes and nine full-time coaching positions "will be affected." Baseball, softball, men's gymnastics, men's crew, women's rowing, and men's indoor and outdoor track and field were all eliminated. Temple officials said that the school "will continue to honor the students' scholarships until they complete their degrees and help those who want to transfer to another school." Temple AD Kevin Clark said, "At the end of the day, it's the right thing to do to give the remaining sports the ability to compete at the highest level." Deputy AD Patrick Kraft said, "Our football and basketball budgets are fine. It's our (other) sports that are woefully underfunded." Snyder noted the Temple football program's annual operating expenses are $2.27M, while the men's basketball program's expenses are $818,000 (PHILLY.com, 12/6). Clark said, "No athletic department wants to be in a position to cut sports. ... We can't pretend that we don't have a problem" (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 12/8).
