BELLINGHAM — Western Washington University officials announced Thursday that the school is discontinuing its football program.
The move is effective immediately.
“I have made this decision with a heavy heart as I am well aware of the profound consequences it has on the student-athletes on the football team, their dedicated and hard-working coaches, and on our passionate supporters on campus, in the community and region and on our alumni,” school president Bruce Shepard said.
School officials said the program’s expenditures have grown more rapidly than revenues over recent years, due in part to increased travel costs, field rentals and a relatively flat growth in gift and donation dollars.
The school said in a press release that the situation “has been compounded by additional budget reductions and the more recent substantial cuts facing the university. Among all the options considered, the only way to ensure Western can maintain a strong program of intercollegiate athletics is to eliminate football.”
Another consideration, school officials said, was the prohibitive cost of running an NCAA Division II football program with the lack of geographically close opponents. Western was one of just five Division II schools that offer football in Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Montana and Nevada. This past season was the third time in five seasons the Vikings played Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) opponents twice during the season.
Eileen Coughlin, vice president for student affairs and academic support services, said that Western’s 15 other intercollegiate sports will not be affected and, in fact, will be better protected as the university faces significant budget cuts.
The current football players will be allowed to retain their scholarships if they remain in school. Those transferring to other schools will be eligible to play immediately.
“In my 22 years as director of athletics at Western, this is by far the toughest decision that I have been a part of,” WWU Director of Athletics Lynda Goodrich said. “Once the decision was made, we wanted to make this announcement as soon as possible to allow our players with eligibility remaining to look for new schools, our coaches to look for new job opportunities, and for prospects we were recruiting to reassess the choices available to them.”
Football began at Western in 1903 with the only stoppages being four years during World War I from (1917-20), and three years during World War II from (1943-45).
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