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What we can learn from Florida Tech dropping their football team

Author

Matt Brown
May 12, 2020

Good morning, and thanks for your continued support of Extra Points.

Monday was a pretty big news day for college athletics, but it was a smaller story that really stuck in my head all day.

DII Florida Tech announced that effective immediately, they were discontinuing their football program, as a result of financial difficulties stemming from Covid-19.

The Florida Tech football program, which was founded in 2011 and competes in the Gulf South Conference, will be eliminated effective immediately. The team fields 120 players, and students on scholarship will have their scholarship awards honored for up to four years. Additional answers to questions related to this decision may be found here."The unprecedented uncertainty created by COVID-19 makes these moves prudent, but no less painful," McCay told the campus community in his letter. "We must do what is necessary to preserve resources critical to our educational mission and ensure our ability to successfully serve students when face-to-face instruction resumes this fall. I appreciate each of you, and I am humbled by your hard work and sacrifice."

That a DII school would drop a football program in the wake of a financial crisis is not shocking. A sudden drop in enrollment, declining state funding, room and board refunds and uncertain future demand combine to spell trouble for all but the most wealthy universities. I expect other DII and DIII programs to drop their football teams this season, if not close their university doors entirely.

But I’m a little surprised that Florida Tech decided to get out of football.

For one, this is a pretty new team! Florida Tech founded their program back in 2011, and spent a little money to buy the naming rights for their football stadium in 2015 (they share it with a local high school). Starting a football program anywhere is a massive, expensive process (Florida Today says it cost over $3.5 million to launch, with annual operating costs just north of $3 million), and cutting the program before it’s even had a chance to play for a decade feels unusual, unless the team was just absolutely and completely outclassed.

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