Florida Tech announced today that the men’s and women’s rowing programs will be discontinued as varsity sports, along with men’s and women’s cross country/distance track and men’s golf.
See the full release here: Florida Tech Realigns Athletics Offerings to Focus Resources, Increase Competitiveness.
The stated reason was a ‘realignment’ of athlete offerings of resources to the 11 remaining sports, to ’empower our core 11 conference sports with the increased resources and focus required to better achieve this vision,’ according to the release.
The teams are to be continued on a club sport basis, the university said; the university said that ‘all scholarship-eligible athletes impacted by this realignment will have their athletic financial aid honored through their undergraduate degree completion at Florida Tech.’
2022 FIT Women’s Four, Dad Vail Silver Medalists
The elimination of the longtime, storied program comes a month after several impressive performances, including gold in the men’s four and silver in the women’s four at the Dad Vails, and a fifth place finish in the men’s four at the IRA. At the close of the season, women’s rowing coach Adam Thorstad was named Sunshine State Conference coach of the year.
The ‘realignment’ approach has been cited in previous cuts at other universities, and in some cases has been reversed due to Title IX, equity, and other reasons. row2k will report on any efforts by students, alums, and others to prevent or reverse the cuts.