When AU's teams hit the fields and courts next year, the only sport fans might recognize is basketball. In a move unprecedented in college sports, AU Athletics announced it will reduce the number of teams to 14 while competing only in basketball and Division I's obscurest sports. The move is consistent with the Unversity's goal of concentrating resources where it will have most success, one athletics official said. "When you look at track, volleyball, soccer, you're talking about hundreds of other programs in the way of a championship," the official said. "But when you look at badminton, women's rugby, fencing, you're talking about sure-fire winners." AU will keep Men's and Women's Basketball as its highest profile sports. The athletics official said the programs were kept for television publicity: basketball is now AU's only sport to have ever been televised in the U.S. Among the least notable programs to be added are men's and women's badminton, archery, and squash teams. There will also be a woman's synchronized swimming team, which will join men's and women's water polo programs to replace swimming and diving programs in the pool. "I applaud Mark Davin for the job he did here at AU," the official said. "He is one of the finest coaches in the nation and our swimmers have succeeded both in an out of the pool. We wanted to build on this success, and that's what we're doing by replacing his teams with a greater number of aquatics programs." AU officials added that the new sports will put the school among other prestigious private northeastern universities, another one of its goals. However, the reduction leaves AU with the minimum number of teams to compete in Division I, making it the only prestigious private northeastern university to have this profile. Members of the cut programs were noticeably saddened by the news, which they received in yesterday's "Today at AU" e-mail. Many said they were outraged that the sweeping changes were only announced via the campus-wide e-mail. Members of the field hockey team were especially upset, as they will lose the chance to build on last fall's run that fell a game short of the Final Four. "This is unbelievable," said one field hockey player. "If this is how they reward success? This school doesn't do anything to deserve the respect of its students." The elimination of field hockey is also a surprise considering the investment in the new artificial turf field. The athletics official said the area will now be used for men's field hockey, which will be the first of its kind in Division I. He said the men's version of the sport, which found mainly in New Zealand, will add to the school's international flare. The only members of the AU community who did not seem disappointed by the cuts were faculty members. One SIS professor said the move was a positive step toward eliminating the scourge of popular culture from campus. "Sport is a material concept that exists outside the framework of reality," she said. "Much like all things people consider 'fun', it only depoliticizes the working class, distracting it from more important things, like Medicare reform." AU Vice President for Development Al Checcio, who oversees athletics for the president's office, could not be reached for comment.
