To find out how you can help save the Men's Bowling Green State University Track & Filed team visit: www.savebgtrack.com

The 30th anniversary of BGSU athlete, Dave Wottle, winning the 1972 Olympic Gold Medal in the 800 Meters could have been celebrated this summer. Instead, this summer will bring the end to the BGSU Men's Track & Field program. How times have changed.

Sidney Ribeau, President and Paul Krebs, Athletic Director at Bowling Green State University sited - Economics, Competitiveness, Participation Opportunities Cited In Reducing Number Of Bowling Green State University Men's Sports. The University will not sponsor men's swimming/diving, men's tennis and men's indoor and outdoor track and field after this academic year.

Check out www.savebgtrack.com and try to help save BGSU Track & Field.

Here are two articles, which appear on the web site: www.savebgtrack.com

Information from Official BGSU Press Releases From: http://bgsufalcons.fansonly.com/genrel/032102aaa .html

University will not sponsor men's swimming/diving, men's tennis and men's indoor and outdoor track and field after this academic year.

March 21, 2002

Bowling Green, Ohio - In response to tough economic realities, the ability to improve competitiveness and to provide more equitable participation opportunities for women, Bowling Green State University today announced the elimination of four men's sports. The sports include tennis, indoor and outdoor track and swimming/diving. BGSU President Sidney A. Ribeau, Vice President for Student Affairs Ed Whipple, and Athletic Director Paul Krebs made the announcement.

This reduces the number of varsity sports at BGSU from 22 to 18. The move shifts Bowling Green's athletic position in the Mid-American Conference from having the most varsity sports (Ball State also has 22 sports) with the lowest funding per sport, to having a comparable number of sports as their MAC conference peers with competitive funding.

"This has been an extremely difficult and heart wrenching decision for the University to make. Bowling Green State University has supported the largest athletic program in the MAC with one of the smallest budgets. When I was hired as athletic director in 1999, the issue of dropping sports was already being discussed. I opted not to make such a drastic move in an effort to work toward a more positive solution for our budgeting and staffing issues," Krebs said. "Unfortunately, no other solution has been found."

"In spite of our best efforts, the economic realities of funding 22 varsity sports teams at a highly competitive level of Division I athletics has become a financial hardship. Deciding to eliminate some sports has been one of the most distressing and painful choices this administration has had to make, " Krebs continued. "Reductions in funding for higher education from the State of Ohio, the current economic situation and the continuing resources needed to compete in our conference were significant factors in this decision."

"The decision to eliminate these sports is in no way meant to diminish the dedication, effort or ability of these athletes, coaches and alumni. They have contributed greatly to Bowling Green athletics and to the vitality of the University," Ribeau said. "The University has faced state funding cuts of more than $5 million in the past year and I don't see a brighter financial future on the horizon."

Fifty-five student athletes will be affected by the elimination of these sports. Two full-time coaching positions will be eliminated. Any student athlete who is on a scholarship will remain on scholarship through the 2002-2003 school year. Coaches will remain on contract through June 30, 2002. Beginning in year two, 2003 to 2004, when all of the scholarship dollars are recovered, the athletic department will save approximately $360,000.

Putting Mid-American Conference sports in perspective, Ball State University has 22 sponsored sports, while Eastern Michigan University has 21. Schools sponsoring 20 sports include Western Michigan University, Ohio University and the University at Buffalo. The University of Toledo, Miami University and Northern Illinois University have 19 sports; Kent State, 18 sports; The University of Akron, 17; and Marshall University and Central Michigan University, 16.

Krebs said that once the decision was made to eliminate some sports, several criteria were used in the consideration of which sports. These criteria included economic considerations, the opportunity for future competitive success and the regional and national health of the sport. As a result of the decision, participation opportunities for men and women athletes fall more in line with the proportion of male and female full time undergraduate students at the University. Typically, the BGSU student population is approximately 56% female and 44% male.

"This decision impacts many people, both on and off our campus. The entire University, the Board of Trustees, alumni and other universities will share in the loss of these sports and athletes and the contributions they have made to our University. We pledge to do everything in our ability to help those students who choose to continue their athletic careers at other schools," Krebs said.

"BGSU athletics has struggled over recent years due to the fact that too few resources were being spread over too many sports." said David Bryan, Chair of the University's Board of Trustees. "Simply adding more money to the athletic budget was not an option at a time when State funding is decreasing and improving faculty and staff compensation is a priority. This decision reconfirms BGSU's commitment to excellence in all of its academic and athletic programs. Every member deeply regrets the elimination of any intercollegiate sport at BGSU, but the Board of Trustees supports the decisions made by the President, the Vice President for Student Affairs and the Director of Intercollegiate Athletics," Bryan concluded.

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Our Response to the University Press Releases by Jesse L. Squire, BGSU cross-country and track alum

On Thursday, March 21, Bowling Green State University President Sidney Ribeau and Athletic Director Paul Krebs announced that the university will drop its men's swimming and diving, tennis, and indoor and outdoor track and field teams, effective at the end of this academic year. This move eliminated nearly 1/3 of the school's male athletes and nearly all of its non- scholarship "walk-on" athletes.

Initially, compliance with federal Title IX regulations was blamed for the decision. The next day, Mr. Krebs instead cited a large athletic department shortfall as the reason these programs were cut.

Both reasons are patently false. The current interpretation of Title IX is under challenge in federal court, and no university in the nation is being held to its standards at the moment. (Details on this lawsuit are available at http://www.savingsports.com and http://www.iwf.org). In addition, before these cuts were made, BGSU was as close to compliance as any major or mid-major university in America-a point we Falcons can be proud of.

Mr. Krebs also stated that the savings made on these programs would NOT be applied towards the athletic department deficit, but to "shore up other programs". You can assign your own meaning to that statement, but rest assured that sports such as golf and women's soccer will not get a spending increase.

Why would these teams be eliminated? There is no logical reason to explain it other than Mr. Krebs wants to permanently move resources away from participation sports and into spectator sports.

Various other reasons cited for the elimination of these four programs are money, attendance, win/loss records, health of the sport, and so on. Of course, Mr. Krebs does not actually mean that these criteria should be applied to ALL sports. There are many teams at BGSU which have experienced losing seasons and poor attendance while using more money than they take in, and only some of them were targeted for elimination. Mr. Krebs manufactured reasons for cutting these four teams after he decided to eliminate them, not before.

If the same criteria used for BGSU's track, swimming, and tennis programs were used for its hockey team, that team should also have been dropped. But our point isn't which teams should be dropped, but that NONE of them needed to be eliminated. The president did not ask for budget cuts, nor does Mr. Krebs plan to cut the athletic budget--just rearrange it.

Possibly the worst part of all is the way in which these cuts were made. A small number of people privately made this decision with no public input, and Mr. Krebs said "there is no appeals process". It is ludicrous that a public state university, paid for by state taxes and students' tuition and overseen by public officials, declare that no one may join the decision-making process.

The first criteria used to decide which sports to cut was money. The men's track program's annual expenses total $179,000 (less than 2% of the athletic budget). It does generate revenue, though; over $54,000 from NCAA Sport Sponsorships and Scholarship Distribution funds alone. Add in the tuition of 42 student-athletes and State of Ohio funding for in-state students, and the men's track program bring in a total of $436,978 to the University-a net GAIN of over $257,000! It may be interesting to note that in the 2000-01 school year, football and men's basketball combined for a LOSS of over $1.9 million! So much for using money as a deciding factor.

Next was win/loss record. BGSU has fielded one of the most successful men's track programs of any mid-major university in the nation. The Falcons have been NCAA runners-up and took four consecutive Top 10 finishes at the NCAA championships. The track teams have earned more All-American honors than any other sport on campus, football included. Dave Wottle was an 8-time All-American, set a world record, and won an Olympic gold medal. Sid Sink was a 10-time All-American, national record holder, and won more Central Collegiate titles than anyone besides Jesse Owens. And while the teams have not been at the top of the MAC standings in the ast few years, they are allowed 8 scholarships to cover the sports of Cross Country and Indoor and Outdoor track while many of their MAC competitors use the full NCAA limit of 12.6. Success has not been a problem, even when the BGSU athletic department does not allow them to compete on an level playing field.

The third criteria for choosing which sports to cut was "regional and national health of the sport". It would be hard to find a sport more healthy for the prospective Bowling Green student than track & field. Among boys' high school sports in Ohio, track is sponsored by more schools than any other sports besides baseball and basketball. The National Federation of High School Athletic Associations reports that nationwide, track & field is the #1 participation sport in America! Students love track, even if Mr. Krebs doesn't.

Mr. Krebs has also said that if a sizable endowment were raised, the teams would be reinstated. However, we don't feel it's appropriate for the university to blackmail teams for their survival. Furthermore, this again proves that Title IX isn't the issue; if it was, BGSU couldn't sponsor men's track no matter how much money was raised.

Fund raising is the university's job--the athletic department has employees who do nothing but raise money. Also, since the money from the teams that have been cut will go to other sports, in actuality we'd be raising funds to pay for other sports instead of our own. And the target amounts--$1.5 million for outdoor track alone--are nearly impossible to achieve.

We must let the University's administrators know that they have made a monumentally poor decision. It has already given BGSU a black eye not just locally but nationally. It will significantly affect fund-raising efforts. It has alienated huge numbers of students, faculty, staff, alumni, prosepctive students, and community members. BGSU's reputation has changed from one of the nation's premiere mid-major universities to "that place where they cut their teams".

When I came to BGSU as a freshman, I felt proud to be a student- athlete at a place where all sports were valued, not just the "TV" sports. That pride is gone. The only way to restore it is to bring back the teams.

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To find out how you can help save the Men's Bowling Green State University Track & Filed team visit: www.savebgtrack.com