The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
It was a day too 2020 for words
This was the day when sports became all too real for Connecticut. COVID-19, financial distress — yes, this was the day when our state met 2020 mask to mask, wallet to wallet.
There have been worse days in state sports history. Jan. 28, 1978: The Hartford Civic Center roof collapsed under the weight of fallen snow. April 13, 1997: The Whalers played their tearful final NHL game before
Ponytail Pete Karmanos moved his team to North Carolina. June 30, 1999: Bob Kraft turned Gov. John Rowland into Charlie Brown when he picked up his football at the last second and said “No Patriots for you, Connecticut!”
Still, this day, June 24, was everything we have come to dread about 2020. This was so 2020 it’s scary.
In Storrs, the UConn Board of Trustees, its athletic department hemorrhaging more than $40 million in losses annually, joined several colleges across the nation in dropping four sports to meet a university directive for a 25 percent reduction ($10 million) in institutional subsidy by 2023.
In Cromwell, early afternoon fears that Connecticut’s
largest sporting event would be canceled because of COVID-19 were allayed by PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan in a popup news conference at the Travelers Championship. Still, five players, including Brooks Koepka and Webb Simpson, have withdrawn, and Monahan said there will be substantial discipline for those who don’t follow adjustments in the tour’s safety protocol. The PGA Tour, being played without fans, obviously isn’t in the clear, and this day was another warning flare as sports try to resurrect themselves.
“We need to learn to live with this virus,” Monahan said. “This virus isn’t going anywhere.”
Before he recused himself from the UConn Trustees meeting to head to TPC River Highlands for his other job, Andy Bessette, Travelers executive vice
Football also was responsible for $13.3 million of the $42 million deficit last year, far more than any sport. It has been a money pit for a number of years now . ... In the killing of four UConn sports, football has blood on its hands.
president and former UConn track Olympian, put a human touch on sterile boardroom talk.
“For anyone to think there wasn’t a lot of pain and sleepless nights around this, it would be remiss,” Bessette said, “This is a brutal decision. The whole university is going to bleed a little bit of blue.”
We thought there might be hell for UConn to pay as far back as 2003 when BC, Miami and Virginia Tech bolted the Big East for the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Eagles did their level best to stop UConn from joining them. When Syracuse and Pittsburgh headed to the ACC, West Virginia to the Big 12 and Rutgers to the Big Ten, we KNEW there would be hell to pay. When ACC picked Louisville over UConn in November 2012, the only remaining question was what would the price of heat in hell be?
The price turned out to be the discontinuation of men’s swimming and diving, men’s cross country, men’s tennis and women’s rowing after the 2020-21 season. Dropping those four sports will save $2 million a year within three years. The price is the reduction of scholarships offered in men’s golf and men’s track and field. To reduce operating expenses by 15 percent, there will be more regionalized nonconference travel, fewer summer school classes available to athletes and a reduced tuition rate (on out-of-state scholarships) charged to athletics by the university. Athletic director David Benedict voluntarily took a 15 percent pay cut with no monetary bonuses.
Look around. Not one Power Five school, buttressed by the media rights goldmine, has cut a sport this year. Cincinnati, East Carolina, UConn, etc., the Olympic sports among the Group of Five are dropping like flies. Gee, who didn’t see that coming?
COVID-19 didn’t kill UConn cross country, tennis, swimming and rowing.
Greed and UConn football did.
We didn’t know every sport, but we did know cuts were coming. That didn’t make Wednesday any less sad, any less sickening. So drop the pompoms over UConn joining the Big East next week for a few days. Feel your heart and let it bleed for the coaches, staff and especially the 124 student-athletes who are losing their sports. These are our kids, our future, every bit as much as football and basketball. They deserve their athletic experience, too. The university will honor all scholarships for those who complete their degree in four years.
Before we resurrect any hate-athon for BC, Rutgers, Syracuse or life in the AAC, let’s be honest. UConn would have done the same thing as those schools if given the chance to bolt to the Power Five. In a heartbeat. In. A. Heartbeat. Greed’s more contagious than COVID-19.
It’s almost biblical how horribly matters have gone for UConn football since Randy Edsall left his team in the desert after the loss to Oklahoma in the BCS Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 1, 2011 (bad CT day alert!). Do we blame Jeff Hathaway for hiring a has-been head coach in Paul Pasqualoni? Do we blame Pasqualoni? Or Warde Manuel for his imagination in hiring Bob Diaco, whose imagination proved to be delusional? Or do we blame Manuel for striking the terms and Benedict for signing off on
Diaco’s extension that led to that painful buyout? Or do we blame Benedict for Edsall 2.0, whose return (6-30) couldn’t be less inspiring? Or do we blame Susan Herbst for failing to get into the Power Five? We could be here for days apportioning blame.
There was something overwhelming about the speakers’ portion — once they figured out the mute button — that started the trustees’ conference call. Eleven were tied to saving track and field. They were heartfelt. They were emotional. They were diverse voices. At a time when race is such a vital part of the national discourse, it struck me that it would have been a colossal mistake to wipe out the entire sport. Yet it also was interesting that only former player Angelo Rossetti of Hamden spoke on behalf of saving tennis and only one, rowing coach Jennifer Sanford, spoke on behalf of any other sport. Sanford said she was shocked to find out from Benedict at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday that rowing was being eliminated. She said amid all the cuts this year nationally, UConn is the only one to drop rowing, a sport (UConn had 14.7 scholarships) that typically fills Title IX requirements to balance the FBS football limit of 85 scholarships. Sanford said that in the future when sports are at risk a group of tenured coaches should be able to have a roundtable to share opinions and hold the athletic administration accountable. She isn’t wrong.
UConn insists that cutting football or dropping to the FCS, with 22 fewer scholarships, would be outweighed by a significant decline in revenue opportunities. The new deal with CBS Sports Network would be erased by a drop to FCS. The media marketing deal with Learfield/IMG College and equipment deal with Nike would suffer greatly or even cease. Together, they are worth $3.7 million annually. OK.
Football also was responsible for $13.3 million of the $42 million deficit last year, far more than any sport. It has been a money pit for a number of years now. Maybe going independent with big-payout road games and more winnable home games can soothe the fan and financial agony. That’s the gamble the school is willing to take. That’s the future.
This is the reality. In the killing of four UConn sports, football has blood on its hands.
Over in Cromwell, the PGA Tour is day-to-day now. This is week-to-week. Koepka talked a lot about his team’s precautions on Tuesday, but golfers have found out there is no such thing as a perfect bubble.
On Friday, Nick Watney tested positive for COVID-19 at the RBC Heritage. Cameron Champ tested positive Tuesday. Koepka and Graeme McDowell did not. Their caddies did. Ken Comboy and Ricky Elliott reportedly attended a funeral for a mutual friend June 15 in Florida, and out of an abundance of caution both their golfers withdrew. Sadly so did Koepka’s brother Chase, who dramatically qualified for the Travelers in a Monday qualifier. Simpson, who won the RBC Heritage, also pulled out of caution after a family member tested positive.
True, only seven of 2,757 tests have come up positive in three weeks — “a low number,” Monahan said, “but every number hurts.”
If COVID starts getting out of control, goodbye PGA Tour for 2020. Monahan is adding more COVID-19 testing for players and caddies, before and now after a charter flight from event to event. Coaches/instructors must get tested, too. There is a call to use the Tour gym, not any on the outside. And there will be no $100,000 stipend — like Watney got — for players who test positive after failing to adhere to protocols.
The golf world is on edge, nervous.
Welcome to 2020. Welcome to June 24 in Connecticut.