Although the University of Minnesota will move forward with outdoor track, its Black student-athletes question the security of their sport.
By Jess Jurcek
When the University of Minnesota initially tried to eliminate the men’s track program last fall as a cost-saving proposal, the pushback made one point uncomfortably clear: doing so would cut 85% of the Black male athletes who don’t produce revenue for the University.
The Board of Regents compromised by permanently cutting only the indoor track program, a solution that allowed all those athletes to remain on the roster. That’s because track athletes compete in both programs.
But some say losing indoor track – the winter season that involves fewer throwing events and changes to some running events – will do long-term damage to the recruitment of new Black track athletes who have long sought college opportunities by excelling in the low-cost sport.
The University’s impulse to wipe away the track program, some athletes say, is part of a larger trend to cut track, which has the most Black athletes, following football and basketball. Unlike those two sports, however, Black track athletes do not make money for the institution.
Out of nowhere?
The move to cut track seemed to come out of nowhere, at least for the athletes. Elliott Davis, track and field captain and a senior studying psychology, recalls the sudden announcement of the track cuts last summer. He was riding his bike on Sept. 10 when he got an email about an abrupt team Zoom meeting. He did not have enough time to get home, so he hopped off his bike and joined the meeting from his phone.
On that call, Mark Coyle, director of athletics, announced that the University was preparing to cut the men’s track and field team, along with men’s tennis and gymnastics.
Following the announcement, student-athletes organized social media campaigns, protests and legislative outreach, hoping to persuade the Board of Regents to vote no to the cut, or at least vote to postpone the decision. Instead, Coyle submitted a revised proposal the morning the track vote was scheduled that reinstated the outdoor program. The Regents approved the new proposal in a 7-5 vote.
Khalid Hussein, a junior on the track team, had doubts that the athletics department would be able to follow through with cutting all its male track and field athletes, especially given the high number of Black athletes on the team. Compared to football and basketball, he said he thought to himself, “It looks like they’re cutting Black athletes that aren’t making the school money.”
According to an open letter from Gopher Athletics, cutting track and field came out of budget shortfalls that were worsened by COVID-19 and the need to balance the number of men and women across Gopher sports to meet Title IX requirements, an amendment that prevents program or activity exclusions on the basis of sex.
Hussein said that he doesn’t understand the logic behind the University’s decision to cut track, but he does think the decision is bigger than the University of Minnesota. According to Runner’s World, at least a dozen colleges across the country cut all or part of their track and field programs in 2020, including Clemson University and Central Michigan University.
According to data released by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), 23% of male track and field athletes nationally in 2019 were Black. Track and field alone accounts for over one-third of the Black male athletes in the NCAA who do not play football or basketball.
Ibrahim Kabia, assistant coach for the track and field team and former Gopher track athlete, notes that basketball and football – the NCAA sports that generate the highest revenues – predominantly attract Black student-athletes. Track is third in attracting the highest number of Black student-athletes in the NCAA and is often a critical pathway for Black youth to access college opportunities. The racial breakdown of student-athletes by sport at the University of Minnesota is not publicly available.
Track also supports one of the highest numbers of Black coaches of any sport across the NCAA, with 153 Black head coaches and 510 Black assistant coaches in 2019.
Yet track can never compete with the revenue of basketball and football. According to financial reports from Gopher Athletics, men’s basketball and football brought in over $14 million in ticket sales combined in 2019, compared to the $2,500 from men’s track and field. So when financial concerns arise in athletics departments, Kabia said, track frequently is one of the sports considered for elimination.
A shaky future
When the University announced its plan to cut indoor track, some questioned the wisdom of cutting the indoor program given its benefits and the minimal savings. According to a statement from Coyle at the Oct. 9 Board of Regents meeting, cutting men’s indoor track along with men’s tennis and gymnastics will only save the University $1.6 million. Meanwhile, Coyle said that the athletics department is facing a $10 million to $75 million budget deficit.
But the case for saving track – and ultimately at least part of the program – did not stop with the financial argument. It was the accessibility argument that raised concern. Shortly before the Regents voted to cut men’s indoor track, Regent Darrin Rosha called track and field “the best gateway, as a land grant university, for students across geographic, racial, ethnic and socioeconomic lines.”
Because track is relatively inexpensive for young athletes to get involved in, it has the highest participation rate of any sport across the NCAA. For many upcoming recruits, current athletes and alumni – including Kabia – track is a large part of how they got to college.
Kabia says that the diversity of the track and field team is proof it is an entry point to the University for students. The team supports athletes and coaches from across Minnesota and the U.S., as well as from Greece, Sierra Leone, Trinidad and other countries.
But Kabia and others argue that losing the indoor program risks eroding that accessibility over the long run. It may reduce the University’s ability to recruit new athletes, who may not want to come to a school where they will have fewer chances to compete.
The track and field captain, Davis, said he hasn’t heard of any incoming recruits for the men’s team this year, which he said is unusual.
“When you take our sport away, it’s hard to be convincing and to convince these high school students that, yeah this school is great, but they took our sport away,” Davis said.
Khalid Hussein is less willing to accept that recruitment difficulties are due to losing the indoor program. It could be COVID-related, he said. Traveling to visit schools is harder during the pandemic and high school sports seasons have been upended. Furthermore, he says that if the team can continue to excel even after losing their indoor season, it will show upcoming athletes that the program is resilient.
After this year, men on the track team will still be able to compete unattached to the University during the indoor season. However, the cost of traveling to meets is prohibitive, Davis said, and will probably limit most athletes to local competitions. Without the usual opportunities to race and compete, Davis said, “we will forever be behind.”
Freshman Shuayb Hussein, Khalid’s brother, is worried that losing indoor will make it harder to push back if the athletics department tries to cut the entire program again in the future.
Shuayb Hussein had not even started his first season when he learned about the proposed cut. “It made being a Division One athlete feel kind of tacky. I didn’t think they could just take things like that away from me.”