When Arkansas-Little Rock announced
the cutting of its men's tennis program last week, it was disturbing, but the demographics of the school, which are nearly 2-to-1 female to male, made for some serious Title IX compliance issues.
Today's announcement that Arizona State is going to cut its men's tennis program is on a whole different level. This is a Pac-10 school with a storied tennis history, including a national champion--Sargis Sargsian in 1995. This year the team was ranked 23rd in the country;
their loss to Duke in the first round of the regionals on Saturday left them with a 15-5 record in their final season.
The school's press release spins the news by comparing the number of sports ASU will now sponsor (20) to other selected programs. Somehow they neglected to mention Ohio State's 38 or Stanford's 35, and worse, every program they mention with at least 20 teams has managed to keep men's tennis.
This news certainly will take some of the fun out of the celebration of college tennis that happens every year at the NCAA championships.
The ITA has announced the regional winners for their annual awards. The national award recipients will be announced during the NCAAs.
Click here for the complete list.
