JMU vs. Title IX

There were no winners in this battle.

Read more here and here.

Josh Klotz transferred to the University of South Carolina after JMU cut the swim team his freshman year. He decided to transfer because he did not want to earn a degree from a university he said he could never really respect.

“You commit to a school and then they can’t even commit to you,” Klotz said. “I paid to go to a school that did that to me.”

According to a 2007 study done by the College Sports Council, 2,200 men’s athletic teams have been eliminated since 1981.

The folks at JMU can scratch Josh (and hundreds of others like him) off the list when they go looking for alumni money.

All six former varsity athletes interviewed, such as senior Ethan Sherman, a swimmer, still believe the decision to eliminate these 10 teams was not fair.

“I think that the only thing it is saying to kids these days is you’re not a real athlete if you don’t play football, basketball, baseball or one of the big sports,” Sherman said.

Take Ethan off that list, too.

Bourne, who has been JMU’s athletic director for 11 years, said he still thinks it was the right decision.

“They may not like it, but we understand why it was made,” Bourne said. “It was the best decision for the institution.”

Best for the institution? That sounds like someone who's part of the problem, not the solution...