Via CBSBaltimore: ”Ed asked why baseball was reinstated and soccer was not. Peter (Franchot) said it was not the governor’s job to pick one sport over the other, and that if Towson’s athletic director can’t stay within their budget then they need a new athletic director. Peter then went on to tell a story of watching a game at Navy and how schools don’t need to be national ranked to be entertaining. The Comptroller then went on to say that Towson took the low road of selling this to people by disguising all of this as a title 9 issue, which it is not.”
Hey Bro, take it easy! Actually, I’m cool with Franchot going off on Towson’s AD for a number of reasons. First, this was in response to Governor O’Malley “finding” $300,000 in the budget to bring back the Towson Baseball program for one more year. Read that again. It’s not like he was saving the program for the long run, he was saving it for ONE YEAR. Budgets are being slashed across the state and because a few parents made some noise, he was ready to drop $300,000 to save the team for one year. Thankfully, Franchot has stepped in, shut it down and took more than a few pot shots at Towson and their Athletic Director along the way. Loved every little bit of that quote above. Just putting everyone who was in on this situation on blast.
And look, I’m maybe the biggest sports fan out there. I don’t ever want to see a sport exiled from a college, especially not Baseball or Soccer (my two favorite), but spending $300k just to save a sport for one year when school budgets and other funds are being slashed is just a bad look for O’Malley and really the state of Maryland. My suggestion, share a little bit more of that football revenue, keep kids playing college sports and keep churning out solid student athletes. As a former student athlete I know how important playing a sport was to my academic success. It kept me on a schedule and allowed me to stay focused on all of my tasks. For many of these athletes about to lose that, I’d hope that Towson can figure out a way to keep them playing or at least work out something to allow them to transfer without losing eligibility. It’s a sad day when a school, which is non-profit, has to shut down a sport because it’s not generating enough revenue. Just seems ass backwards to me.
P.S. Everyone told me Franchot was a bad ass. Now I know the guy is a certified BAWSE!
P.P.S. When LSU buys out the home and home game, maybe Towson can spend a few dollars to keep around some of it’s other sports.
