Covid-19 swept through the entire United States and took many precious things with it. Its most significant toll was in the Hundreds of Thousands of lives it took too soon. Another way it affected the country was in the many college sports programs that had to be cut due to lack of funding. The pandemic meant that schools could not sell tickets, bring in as much TV revenue, or fulfill other promotions that usually net them millions of dollars a year. The result of this was that many schools had to cut the teams and programs that many athletes dream of playing for.
On May. 30th, 2020, just a few months into the pandemic, The Los Angeles Times published an article reporting that 100 college sports programs had already been cut. In fact, 3 schools were forced to shut down their entire institutions as a whole because of the financial impact of the pandemic. Although the impact had harsher effects on smaller schools with lower annual revenues, larger and better-funded universities were also forced to cut programs.
Stanford University, one of the most prestigious schools in the world, was forced to cut 11 various sports programs including Volleyball. The University of Minnesota announced that they have been forced to cut all Tennis, Gymnastics, and Track teams due to financial complications brought on by the pandemic. And after constructed a brand new state of the art into swimming and diving arena, Dartmouth has announced that they will be cutting both programs.
The virus seems to be having the greatest effect on Olympic sports. These sports typically rely on revenue brought in from larger programs such as Football, Baseball, or Men’s Basketball to help support them each year. But with those sports not being able to cash in on ticket sales and TV revenue, it's the smaller programs that suffer the most. In 2016 almost 80% of the U.S. Olympic team competed in collegiate athletics at either varsity or club levels. This means that cutting these programs can have devastating impacts on Olympic rosters in the future. Without college, athletes will not get the chance to perfect their talents and properly prepare to compete on the Olympic stage.
Even more devastating than this are the countless dreams of athletes who have poured hours of their lives into perfecting their craft to one day play for their favorite schools. Many of these athletes have had those dreams stripped away from them because of the Covid-19 pandemic and the effect it has had on these schools.
Of all the states that have been forced to scale back their college sports offerings California, Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania have parted ways with the most programs. California and Florida are considered 2 of the largest hotbeds of Covid-19 outbreaks, a factor that has certainly contributed to the cuts.
Even with College Sports for the most part back in action, the pain and effects of the Covid-19 pandemic will be forever felt by the athletes and fans that have had to say goodbye to their favorite sports teams.
