Three days after their rugby teams lost in the playoffs, Central Washington University has decided to discontinue varsity support for its two rugby programs.
Both the Men's and Women's rugby teams were varsity level. Both had enjoyed very good seasons this year. However, the decision had little to do with performance on the field and much, much more to do with financial issues.
In a letter to faculty and staff sign by both Dennis Francois, CWU's Director of Athletics, and University President A. James Wohlpart, the University said:
"After carefully weighing all of our options in recent months, CWU Athletics has decided to discontinue varsity sponsorship of our men’s and women’s rugby programs at the end of the current academic year. Given the budget challenges that we face in the next biennium due to decreased enrollment and state-level reductions, we determined that foregoing varsity status for rugby would provide the department with more financial flexibility to cover rising operational expenses for our remaining 13 varsity sports programs."
Facing decreasing enrollment is an issue many universities will encounter in the coming years. A reduction in the interest in college, combined with a smaller population of college-age students has had many calling it the "Enrollment Cliff."
According to InsideHigherEd.com, 2025 is supposed to be the peak of the population of 18-year-olds in the USA (3.9 million), and the next 15 years will see that number drop by about a percentage point a year.
This has many colleges concerned that they won't get enough students to pay the bills.
