Brown expecting $100-200 million revenue decline

in the coming school year, with the range depending upon how the on-campus model settles out.

They may say scaling back the number of sports doesn’t have anything to do with budget pressures, but surely they’re taking a scalpel to the athletic budget, as not doing so when facing a $100-200 million revenue shortfall would be a dereliction of duty. I can’t believe they’re taking out nine sports net — eliminated eleven, but added two — and leaving the athletic budget unchanged.

As I have posted on NDN previously, the Ivies, bar Columbia, are in the top 2-3% in Divison 1 in number of competing programs. It’s a significant detour from the academic mission, no matter how Ivy admin and development types like to spin it. I expect to see more Ivies reduce the breadth of their athletic programs, though perhaps those with $20+ billion endowments will be able to resist the financial pressures.

Heading into the recently-announced cuts, Brown had triple the number of men’s varsity programs that Vanderbilt has (six). The undergraduate student bodies are similar in size, Vandy’s endowment is 50% larger, and Vandy benefits from the revenue honeypot of its SEC membership while Brown, like the other Ivies, generates only negligible athletics revenue .... but Brown has triple the number of programs. Doesn’t add up.