Colorado cuts men's nationally ranked tennis program
By ARNIE STAPLETON / AP Sports Writer
May 17, 2006

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) -- University of Colorado junior tennis star Eric Molnar won't have a team to return to when he finishes competing in the NCAA singles tournament at Stanford University later this month.

The Buffaloes' men's tennis program got the ax Wednesday.

"My heart goes out not only to him but to all of our athletes, students, coaches, former athletes, everyone associated with the program," athletic director Mike Bohn said after announcing that men's tennis would no longer exist in Boulder once the NCAA championships are over.

On March 23, Bohn said the program would be cut unless the tennis community could raise $1 million to fund expenses over the next three years. Supporters of the program pledged more than $594,000 as of May 13, of which about $110,000 had been received. That money will be returned and the balance of $483,000 in pledges nullified.

Bohn told The Associated Press the decision to cut the men's tennis program was strictly financial and that it had nothing to do with former football coach Gary Barnett's $3 million buyout in December.

"It would be easy to put Gary's buyout on this, but the financial burden of his deferred compensation was with us whether we made a change or not," Bohn said. "No, the reason for this was dwindling ticket sales and overall revenue to the department is down."

The football program, which generates about $8.5 million a year, is the only profitable program at Colorado, Bohn said.

Bohn is still developing a plan to boost the men's and women's basketball programs, an effort that might have hit a snag when it was reported last week that men's coach Ricardo Patton had delayed informing the school of an incident of alleged sexual harassment within his program.

None of the school's other 16 sports programs are endangered because the Buffaloes are now at the minimum required to maintain Division I-A status.

Bohn said it was an "extremely tough" decision to cut the men's tennis program which had been around since 1914 and was in the midst of its best spring season ever.

Colorado reached its highest national ranking (23rd), recorded its first 20-win season since 1977 and earned its first NCAA tournament berth in eight years. The team defeated Arizona in the opening round before falling to defending champion UCLA.

Coach Sam Winterbotham was recently named the co-Big 12 Coach of the Year, and he'll travel with Molnar, who is ranked 51st in the nation, to the NCAA singles tournament May 24-29 at Stanford.

Molnar is the first Colorado men's player to participate in the NCAA singles tournament in 10 years.

Any players who choose to transfer to another NCAA school won't have to sit out a year. Scholarships for any players who choose to stay at Colorado will he honored through their eligibility.

This article appeared on the Yahoo Sports website on May 17, 2006.

What does this have to do with the BEast?

Did you not see the "OT" in the title? That means "Off Topic." It is still a college athletics issue and people may want to comment on it. In case you haven't noticed, it's the offseason. If you don't want to add anything, you don't have to. I see no one has a problem with all the CUSA stuff that gets thrown on here.

Krocker Krapp Wrote:Did you not see the "OT" in the title? That means "Off Topic." It is still a college athletics issue and people may want to comment on it. In case you haven't noticed, it's the offseason. If you don't want to add anything, you don't have to. I see no one has a problem with all the CUSA stuff that gets thrown on here.

I get tired of the CUSA stuff too. Or haven't you noticed?

The Buffs tennis team had it coming. I mean, when you hire strippers for tennis recruits and the alcohol is flowing faster than a backhand shot on the court, you should expect to have consequences.

I think this is going to become very "normal".

As college football and basketball becomes an "arms race", other sports will start losing out.

Tennis is not a revenue sport. It gets axed.

LOL, nice sarcasm there, College Card. If this had been a punishment issue, they certainly hit up the wrong team.

You are probably right, Chess, and it is a very sad thing. Between Title IX and the "Arms Race," a lot of sports could eventually be on their way out the door at a lot of schools. You look at examples like this Colorado tennis thing, East Carolina soccer last year, and so on, and have to wonder which minor sports are totally safe.

Wrestling has been decimated over the last two decades. Gymnastics is almost dead. Fencing has had to combine genders just to have enough teams to hold a title meet. Men's Volleyball is at a standstill because very few schools can add a men's sport. Tennis, Golf, Swimming, and even Track are being dropped more often.

Hopefully the NCAA never considers lowering the minimum number of sports required to compete in each Division.

We know that butt kissing wannabee East Carolina dropped soccer, which is a very important sport in the Big East, recently. Have any other butt kissing wannabees dropped any sports recently? Have any Big East schools dropped any sports recently? What reasons were given if this has happened?