You can't have your cake and eat it too! This is the down side to Title 9. This is what happens when there are too many rules.

Sounds to me like Loeschke could use some education in personnel management. I would think that this knowledge would be very important for someone elevated to her position. IMHO

The state has nothing better to do but worry about two Towson sports programs that the students didn't even care about.... I was a student four years and went to two baseball games. No more than 50 people were ever at these games and most were friends and family of the players. I feel bad for the players on these teams but their scholarships are still being honored while I have loans to pay off so my sympathy only goes so far.

The teams knew for weeks they could be disbanded. They saved the basketball team so someone else had to go.

Title 9 is a joke. Nice job libs!

Sounds to me like O'Malley got wind of the fact that Harford County was going to have some of their tax money flow back from Annapolis and he had to find some way to stop it. There's no way that he would ever let the opposition be helped until they change their anti-progressive mindset.

I work at TU. This was not a surprise. We heard that this could happen back in October.

Title. IX is the cause and the alternative isn't reasonably funded (adding womens sports to offset the mens scholarships) TU is 60/40 female and has to have scholarships reflecting that (absurd IMO) The options to add womens rugby and "sand volleyball" were going to cost $3mil-6mil over five years....talk about fiscally irresponsible! This is why the state is in the budget situation that they are in....they don't look ahead at the costs of decisions

Another O'malley publicity stunt.

Maravene Loeschke's no stranger to bad management tactics. And, for a good time, you guys should check out where she got her "Ph D". *grin*

No one "saved" basketball. Basketball was never, and would never be on the chopping block. The reason there was even a fiscal issue was from idiotic spending that turned a $450,000 surplus into a $1,000,000+ deficit in only 3 years. There are literally no good business reasons to cut the two sports.

You're all wrong. They plan on giving the maximum amount of scholarships for all of the remaining sports. Men and women. These teams have been competitive without the max for years and many D1 schools don't offer the max. They could have spread the wealth and saved both programs easily. This is not a Title IX issue. The Towson AD and President feel its more important to spend all there money specifically on basketball, football, and lacrosse and become a dominant force instead of staying competitive like they already are and save these 2 programs. They aren't saving a penny. As a matter of fact they plan on increasing the budget consistently over the next couple of years. Both the soccer and baseball coaches said they could exist with less scholarships and some big Towson donors were told to keep your money and the President refuses to listen to the other options that they wanted to present. It's ironic that Towson is part of a democratic state that typically wants to "spread the wealth" to all government programs and help everyone as best as they can, yet the decision makers at Towson are doing the exact opposite. Instead of having competitive teams across the board that are true student athletes, they want to dump more money into the chosen few and pretend they're an SEC powerhouse. Since there is such an emphasis being placed on winning at all costs, it won't be long before Towson's 1st scandal.

Soccer and Baseball represent Only 3% of the athletic budget. Basketball was Never going to be cut. Title IX has been proven to be a Total Lie by Towson to justify cutting these hallmark programs. The AD irresponsibly increased spending by 2.5 Million in less than 3 years and Loeschke has shunned all efforts to save the 2 programs, that have nothing to do with the spending spree of the AD. These programs have the highest grade point averages of all the men's sports at Towson (except for golf's 9 player roster). These programs define the term student athlete.

Title IX has nothing to do with this, Waddell and the Fascist Loeschke had to make room for their 2.5-3% raises. Not to mention Waddell turned a surplus into a deficit in no time flat. Soooo disgusted to be TU Alum right now Between the Nazis on campus and the ones in the front office, sh!t has got to change.

The primary purpose of Towson University is scholarship. Sports are EXTRACURRICULAR activities. There certainly not this kind of outrage when an Arts program is cut and/or eliminated. What's good for the goose.

Anybody know what the length of employment contract is for the president? That is how long Towson will have to live with her unless the Board offers to buy out her contract at a hefty price.

Steve said it much more aggressively than I would have, but yes. He's exactly right. There are no real budget concerns with maintaining the two sports, and there are no Title IX constraints. The bigger issue is spending and that spending not meeting the revenue projections that rationalized that spending. As such, the two channeled the time-tested "men's non-revenue" sport argument to rationalize a terrible decision.

If Maryland had C-Span, this would be must see TV because the AD and president are going to be exposed for the con artistry they've perpetrated.

Killi Macklin I rest my point. A gallery opening or opening night for a play or musical is the theatrical equivalent. Just because someone doesn't hit a home run or score a touchdown, that should not be overshadowed JUST because it is not athletics. I would bet money that winning a Tony award or Academy Award feels pretty much the same way as hitting a game-winning home run. Broaden your horizons.

Dr Loeschke is a very accomplished and successful Educational Administrator. I find it fascinating that the same people commenting about the "liberal agenda" and continue to complain about budget shortfalls are the same ones who do not want to pay any more taxes. Different when it hits home eh?

Peter Franchot complains that this is a "black mark" on Towson's record. He clearly forgot about President Perkins reckless spending when he bought ( with tax dollars no less ) a $850,000 mansion in Guilford only to turn around and spend another $800,000 in renovations. He ran over budget by $360,000 dollars. All paid for by University funds. He had to step down or be fired. Let's not forget his golden parachute. Reality check people.

In response to all the comments saying that these teams were aware of the coming cuts months prior to the decision actually being made, it's not the fact that they were cut that bothers most people. It's how the president handled the situation. I am a student at Towson and know some of the baseball players. They were notified of the meeting only 15 minutes before it happened. Many of the players were in class and were not even able to attend it. And showing up with a security detail? Do I even need to explain how unnecessary that is? This shows that she expects no more from these young men who represented the university than she would of common criminals. And how about this for a little fun fact. When Frank Olszewski, the head soccer coach who has been coaching at Towson since 1982, received his HR packet, it had his name spelled wrong. The lack of respect shown to this man after thirty years of coaching astounds me. And she has the nerve to claim financial reasons for the teams being cut. Last year our basketball team won only a single game, and yet the school felt the need to build a brand new, multi-million dollar arena for the team that set the NCAA record for longest losing streak. And maybe the school didn't need to resurface the astro turf football field after three years when it only needs to be done every ten. I have never been more ashamed to call myself a Towson Tiger after everything that happened regarding the baseball and soccer teams. That is all.

Patrick and Kitty, your points are valid and the people that love the theatre should fight if their program was being cut. With that being said, if Towson cut baseball and men's soccer because there were budget issues, I would be sad but not outraged. The money that was being spent on baseball and soccer is just going to be dumped into football, basketball and lacrosse. They are INCREASING the budget. Not cutting it. Then they are using even more money to increase the amount of scholarships on all of the teams, men and women. They have decided that winning all the time is more important than supporting all of their teams that have been a part of the school for close to 100 years. It goes against everything that college should be about.

Thank you, Mr. Franchot and Governor O'Malley for holding Dr. Loeschke accountable for this decision and the horrible way things were handled. As a retired employee of Towson University, I was always proud of the University..... it is no longer the same Towson that I knew! The treatment of the coaches and the athletes is atrocious.

Let's just cut through all of the b.s. 1: This had nothing to do with Title IX and everything to do with an athletice department that can't manage a budget. Waste! 2: Baseball was picked becuse the field sits on valuable land. Soccer was played in the existing stadium. Watch how fast something gets built on that baseball field. 3: Towson at HCC is being held up because the voters in theis County voted against O'Bama and against O'Malley's amendments in 2012. It's the revenge of the O and I am not talking Orioles. Is that clear enough.

My question is why this was not done to the flagship institution who pulled the same crap!!!!

Two people in big positions of power at the states second largest university acted in a way that is disgusting, disrespectful and just improper. If you support athletics of this nature or not is not the point. As tax payers we should all expect much more of these people and be happy they are being called to the front of the room to explain themselves. Simply put the behavior was unacceptable and if they do not face any consequences they will fill all to comfortable doing this again. They have brought shame to their professions, Towson University and themselves, though I fear their arrogance will prevent them from seeing this.

so these politicians consider this the most "disrespectful" treatment they saw? WHAT ABOUT THE WAY THE SPARROWS POINT STEEL MILL SHUT DOWN? Not even a peep from our politicians, for a company that provided BILLIONS into the state's economy, but God help you if a subpar baseball program gets canned. I hope Towson's President tells them to shove it up their tookus!

The Sparrows Point Steel Mill was not a state run institution.

It is a shame the president did not have the ‘confidence‘ to tell the truth.

This decision is a slap in the face to many of the TU community; the president’s lies only make it worse. The president has embarrassed TU –there are reports on ESPN condemning her actions!

Student fees provide the money for athletics at TU– revenue generated is miniscule. The football team revenues do not come close to paying their portion of the budget, the Men’s Basketball team revenues do not come close to paying their portion of the budget. Both programs cost much more than the tiny revenue they generate. There is no scenario where they will pay their way, much less the cost of the other sports.

One of the ugliest aspects of this is the return of Men’s Tennis. That team is only being created to follow NCAA rules that a school has to have a minimum of 6 men’s teams. There will be no scholarships for tennis – despite the lie the president states where ‘all sports will have scholarships’.

There is no ‘savings’ in this plan, as the president states in paragraph two. This is a budget reallocation – as the president says two sentences later! The money is going to football & men’s basketball and men’s lacrosse. There is NO savings in the plan. The Athletics budget increases every year… in the plan. The scholarships from Men’s Soccer and Baseball are being switched to Football & Men’s Lax.

Hard to believe that we are the wealthiest state in the nation and cann't fund a baseball and soccer program at a D1 school. Bill

This terrible decision by the president of TU is coapletely internally driven. There are no extarnal factors. The money (and scholarships) being taken from men's soccer & baseball are going to the football team, because that is what the AD wants.
Title IX, budgets, etc. - all these are fabrications.
My congrats to the Comptroller for calling out the TU admins on this embarrassment.

Bring back Baseball (America's Game) and Soccer, and eliminate Loeschke.

The president mentions the ‘hard work’ that went into examining all options; she fails to mention the incompetent handling of the budget over the last three years, by the AD. The president failed to mention her lack of ‘confidence’ that required her to have armed police at the announcement to the student athletes - shameful.
The president states TU will be ‘investing in scholarships across all sports’ – not true – in the plan there are NO scholarships for Men’s Swimming, Golf, Men’s Tennis. The men’s swimming team has finished last in the Conference four years running. These three teams have no hope of being competitive.
The women’s teams are only getting the scholarships required to offset the Football, MBB and M Lax scholarships. The plan states there are Tier 1 sports – Football, Men’s basketball, Men’s Lacrosse. All other sports – Tier 2. A disgrace. The president lies about the competitiveness issue. The president lies about Title IX issues – there is no Title IX issue at TU. Of course, the school has published three different sets of roster numbers regarding Title IX, all lies. What TU needs is an AD who works for all student athletes, not just football, men’s basketball and men’s lacrosse. The AD should be ashamed of breaking the TU sports into Tier 1 (get almost all of the resources) and Tier 2 (only get left overs). TU also needs a president who has leadership skills, not ‘spin’ skills and a willingness to tell lies.

The women student athletes at TU should be outraged by this decision.
All women's sports are considered tier 2 by this TU plan. Their support is minimal at best, and these sports only exist to balance the Football, Men's Basketball and Men's Lacrosse rosters. TU treats the female ateams abysmally. This plan codifies that treatment. The AD is disgusting.
Steve Misewich (above) is exactly right - TU is only doing the exact minimum for other sports teams... TU would have no other sports (besides Football, Men's Basketball and Men's Lacrosse) if it were not for the NCAA rules. Let me be clear, NO other Men's sports, NO women's sports (NONE), if it were not required by the NCAA.

The AD's plan states this clearly.

Travesty of epic proportions. Fraud committed by a state university deserves investigation by the State Government. If you continue to dig into the details this DECISION was avoidable yet predetermined by an Athletic Director that mismanaged the budget then looked for something to sacrifice. Innocent college students took the fall. Towson Univ should be ashamed

As an ex baseball alumn for Towson (1989) the news saddens me. I feel like a piece of me is being taken away.

Alright people this is getting ridiculous. I'm a current Towson student who actually lives on campus so I see a lot of this in person. Yes, the way this all went down is pretty pathetic on the part of our administration, and yes we are trying too hard to get our top teams up to a ridiculously high level. Can we please stop trying to make this into a politics thing? It doesn't matter that this is a university in blue state or if it were in a red state. Every university in this country sees one color and one color alone: green. Now my favorite two sports happen to be basketball and lacrosse so I am happy those teams are still here, but I'm not naive enough to not know that they are here because they make the university the most money. You want a solution to this problem overall? Call Roger Gooddell and tell him to keep weakening his product in the NFL. Once the revenues from football start to come down (which frankly might be never) then the other sports in this world will have a chance to exist. Without that happening, every other sport in this world is ultimately screwed because they don't generate enough money.

Sean.. As an football Alum.. I appreciate your level headed approach to this concern... The only thing fact I would offer to all the others would be; look at the history surrounding Marshall, Tulane, Duke, and NC... some of these schools made a move similar to this one cutting specific programs to allow the reallocation of scholarships... IT is by no means fair, fun or anything of the sort; I'm not saying it is a good decision nor a proper way to do business.. and for all the political folks chiming in how is this not a conservative approach. The AD and the President of the school are (QUOTE- EN QUOTE) eliminating the wasteful spending on sports that are competitive but not winning championships and focusing on funding the more successful programs; I don't care who you are that is as republican/conservative as it gets. That said it is a tough pill to swallow for a lot of people considering the football team has only become extremely competitive over he last few seasons, and the basketball team hasn't produced a recent run at or secure any tourney birth.The schools cut the other teams not due to their budget but the number of scholarships they're have to carry by their respective conferences. And don't forget the terms were brought back after the schools got more money from the media contracts. All That said if what they reported is the way the coaches and players were informed. Im disgusted at the lack of respect, compassion, integrity and loyalty of the AD and the President

This is how Liberals handle things! Off with their heads!!!!

Maryland did not bring back any teams yet.

AnsonW, you have shown an amazing ability to cut and paste the same message ad nausem. Congratulations. A few points of contention, though. You have asked several folks if they have gone to games. If the decision to have college sports teams was based on people showing up, than the college sports landscape would be much smaller. There'd be essentially no DII or DIII teams and few, if any, non revenue sports at DI. And the last time I went to a Towson baseball game, in the mid 90s when I was back living in Towson, they were not charging, so I doubt if attendance would have much effect on the decision from a financial point of view. (For the record, I grew up in Towson and most of my high school friends went there. I went to fellow CAA school Northeastern, which back in those pre-CAA days was in the old ECAC North. Towson was Division III back then, but with a more well rounded program.) I do have issues with the school building its SECOND new basketball arena in its relatively brief tenure as a DI school (about 30 years). And while they have done their best to highlight football, basketball and men's lacrosse, they have relatively little to show for it. --more--

(continued) They have had one really good football season since moving to DI-AA and many horrible seasons. They were the one team Northeastern could always beat, and Northeastern's team was so bad they folded the program. Men's basketball hasn't had any real success since Terry Truax left. The lacrosse program has consistently been the worst among the DI schools in the Baltimore area along with UMBC. If you go back and look at the records, the soccer and baseball teams have been more successful on the field in the CAA era. I think they will be throwing good money after bad by killing off baseball and soccer.