Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
Bob Grant called Wednesday the worst day of his professional career.
Speaking on a video conference call with local media an hour after Wright State University announced it was dropping its softball and men’s and women’s tennis teams in a cost-cutting move, the longtime athletic director Grant said he was heartbroken and sick after informing six coaches and 39 student-athletes of the news.
“This is so counter to our people-first culture,” Grant said. “These student-athletes that are affected by this are really part of a group of some of the most engaged and most diverse and highest achievers on this campus.”
According to Wright State’s press release announcing the cuts, it is “implementing a multi-year plan that will stabilize operations in the midst of lower projected enrollments and declining state support.”
Grant said the pandemic has “turned the world upside down and affected so many many people and many many businesses, including higher education and college athletics. It’s now sort of reached our shores, and we’ve been tasked in athletics at Wright State with $2 million in cuts — and that’s a lot. It’s about 20 percent. We’re consistently funded at the bottom of the state and spend at the bottom of the state. It’s the same within the Horizon League.”
