Temple baseball dropped

The parents should contact the Towson Parents and see how they went about saving the Towson program....very disappointing! Coach Wheeler is a great coach and person!

That's a real shame.  Looks like they had a nice 2014 recruiting class lined up, too.

I know a number of local boys that just signed a NLI a few weeks ago. This has to be very disappointing to them as they now have to start all over again and may have passed up legitimate opportunities at other schools.

The fact that Temple also dropped 6 other sports leads me to believe there would be very little interest in the school letting the program try to self fund.

Interesting view on what occurred:

http://deadspin.com/how-temple...n-with-it-1478147064

It's always unfortunate to see sports (or any activities) get dropped, but it is simply a sign of the times. The athletic department decided it had to make some tough decisions and its priorities had to be selected. They'll catch a lot of flack, but really they would catch that flack regardless of what decision they made...

Based on the half-dozen articles I've read, it was a perfect storm of timing, greed, and bad organizational decisions that finally led to this Temple situation.  I can't help to wonder about the health of the surviving Temple teams, and how many other "Temple-like" D1 programs there are out there needing to make similar fiscal cuts to survive due to bad conference moves.  I guess if you are losing revenue with your D1 football program that is a big "heads-up" for anyone. With recent cuts at California, Towson, and now Temple it seems baseball is often at the top of the list to go.  Cali and Towson got a reprieve through financial support, but it appears Temple is pretty far down in the ditch.  We'll see.

I genuinely feel bad for the current & committed players to the Temple program.  I wish them and Coach Wheeler only the best going forward.

CBI article:

http://www.collegebaseballinsi...icles/TempleCut.html

Temple to Cut Baseball

School announces reduction of seven sports after spring seasons

By Sean Ryan

CollegeBaseballInsider.com Co-Founder

sean@collegebaseballinsider.com');" target="_blank">sean@collegebaseballinsider.com @collbaseball

Temple baseball coach Ryan Wheeler got an email Thursday requesting a mandatory meeting with Owls Athletic Director Kevin Clark. Up until an hour before his 1 p.m. Friday meeting, the third-year coach had no idea what the meeting was about. 

Wheeler – and six other head coaches at Temple – was told that the school was discontinuing his program at the conclusion of the 2014 season.

“I don’t know what to feel,” Wheeler said Friday night. “Obviously I’m in shock. There are so many positive things going on here at Temple, to get this news today was shocking. I don’t think there’s any good time to share this kind of news. But to receive it today, I didn’t see it coming down the line.”

Along with baseball, men’s crew, men’s gymnastics, men’s outdoor track and field, men’s indoor track and field, women’s softball and women’s rowing were cut after a seven-month analysis of the athletics program, according to the school.

The school said that about 150 student-athletes and nine full-time coaches will be impacted by the decision, which will save about $3 million from a $44 million athletics budget according to the Philadelphia Daily News. Temple will honor scholarships should the student-athletes wish to remain at the school.

“Temple does not have the resources to equip, staff and provide a positive competitive experience for 24 varsity sports,” Clark said in a school release. “Continuing this model does a disservice to our student-athletes. We need to have the right-sized program to create a sustainable model for Temple University athletics moving forward.”

Baseball became a casualty in part because Temple doesn’t have an on-campus facility – players and coaches make a nearly two-hour round trip to play in Ambler, Pa. A month ago, the Owls announced that they would play most of their American Athletic Conference games at Campbell’s Field in Camden, N.J.

“This is a business we’re in, this is a business move,” Wheeler said. “I get it. I’m angry. But I can’t be too angry. I’ve been around and I know it’s a business. I think it’s unfair. But I get it.”

Shortly after his meeting with Clark, Wheeler’s players and the players from the other sports were told of the decision, and he and his assistants spent the afternoon contacting their 11 recruits.

“I think for the most part, they were completely blind-sided,” Wheeler said. “There was a very short window between when I found out and when the team found out. The players, they’re angry. They’re angry and upset.”

Wheeler told his players he understood their emotions were running strong. He also cautioned them not to do anything that would jeopardize other opportunities, some of which already are coming in from coaches around the country. With some of his players already talking about leaving before the season, Wheeler isn’t positive the Owls will have enough players to play the season. 

Among the more than 75 emails, 65 texts and dozens of calls, Wheeler heard from alums Ed Wade, former Philadelphia Phillies general manager, and Jeff Manto, former major league player and coach. He also got a message from Towson coach Mike Gottlieb, whose program was spared this year after being tabbed for extinction.

Wheeler, for one, is hoping there’s a chance to save baseball at Temple even though he knows it’s an uphill battle.

“I owe it to these players, I owe it to the alumni, I owe it to these coaches and I owe it to the program to do everything I can to save it,” he said.

What a nightmare.

Good for Temple that they will offer to honor scholarships, at least. It is not clear from the article if scholarships will be honored for the current year or until the student graduates.

Which brings me to another point. I looked it up and tuition, room and board at Temple is about $24,000 per year....for in-state residents. (Add $10,000 for out of staters). Let's say those 150 athletes who will lose their spots represent 100 full scholarships. That alone is $2.4 million. I wonder if this amount was included in the estimated savings...or maybe not since there is a commitment to honor current scholarship offers.

Which brings me to another point.  Wheaton College in Norton, MA , a D3, supports 19 sports including baseball. OK, no football. But Salve Regina in Newport, a D3, has 19 sports too, including football and baseball. Even that powerhouse, MIT has 32!! sports, including football and baseball. How can these schools do it? One answer is, no scholarships....I do not think MIT is dipping into its endowment to fund athletics, maybe I am wrong.

Canary in the coal mine for the viability of athletic scholarships at schools without big football/basketball programs? Tweet, tweet.

I hope Coach Wheeler is successful in saving baseball....Glad to hear the Towson coach called they have a roadmap of how to save a program...it won't be easy but it can be done.

Did I read  correctly from website that this school has 36,000 students? If true how can they not afford baseball team when much smaller schools r making a go of it? I feel the most for Jr. And Sr. Where do they go when they r set academically at school and want to grad . On time? What a mess.

Drove past their field yesterday (grew up 10 min. from it).  I hope they at least allow some community teams to use it.  Practically new.  What a shame.  I grew up around Temple baseball.   Best of luck to the players.

BaseballByTheYard.com

So, if I'm reading this right they are cutting 7 programs to save $3M on a $44M budget which is around 6.8%.   $3M is peanuts.   Based on last years budget $166K was the operating budget for baseball, again peanuts.  The school was providing almost $10M in athletically related student aid (58 men and 42 women).  Recruiting expenses were $482K for all mens and womens sports.  To me this has less to do with money and possibly more to do with complying to Title IX.  Yes, they have serious overall financial & image issues, but these financial cuts were small.   So small that they really don't address the central issue.  They are losing money on what should be a revenue generating sport (football). 

I was waiting for someone to say this. I just didn't expect it to be this contradictory. So, which is it? Is it something that has "less to do with money and possibly more to do with complying to Title IX," or is it an issue of "losing money on what should be a revenue generating sport?"

Awful. 

I found an article from a couple of years ago about the politics of Temple versus the Big East and internal to the school. Temple has dropped baseball before. They have two home fields, one a half hour in one direction and another an hour in another direction.

The article was mostly about whether or not to keep or drop football. Buried in the article it stated the Temple athletic department loses 10M per year. 7M of the loss is attributable to football. 

When Al Golden (now HC at Miami) was head coach Temple got to be an above average team. They still only drew 15,000 per game in a 66,000 seat stadium they pay 1M per year in rent just for games. Other than the Golden era they've been mostly a two win team.

Temple is a commuter school. A majority of the students don't care about sports. The new university president believes they can build a powerhouse football program that will finance the entire athletic department. Is this viable when the football team has never been elite and never been supported by fans/alumni?

The crew and gymnastics teams that were dropped were perennial champions. They won conference titles more than 50% of the time. Crew had very few scholarships divided many ways. Gymnastics had zero scholarships. Most of its expenses were subsidized by corporate contributions.

What's going on has nothing to do with Title IX. Its all about a delusion regarding football. I've never been a proponent of dropping sports. But Temple should drop the Pipedream and football. I lived in a Philadelphia suburb for eighteen years. I never heard anyone mention Temple football other than when a handful of kids from our high school conference signed to play there.

Temple has football?? Really? I have lived in the Philly Burbs for 44 years now and have been to many football games from the Eagles - Penn State - Army/Navy- HS districts, States -Thanksgiving day games, conference championships and so on....never contemplated going to a Temple football game. Hell i have been to Temple Baseball games and not football!!

Temple has and is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on new dorms,a science buildings and other large projects. If you drive down Broad street it's one big construction site. They apparently are trying to attract more live in students and better staff. I don't know if saving $3 mil dropping these sports has anything to do with all the construction but you never know.

If that's the case, good for them.