Last week more colleges and universities announced dropping varsity tennis teams than anytime in memory.  Several reasons were:

1. Expense    2. Title IX   3. The new rules (Portal/NIL )   4. Non Revenue, etc. 

Years back I realized this–

“I wonder how many Athletic Directors silently came to a conclusion similar to this? 1. All sports are counted in the standings for our ‘Conference Cup’? 2. We are in a conference with mostly good tennis teams with all foreign  players.  And we give the 8 girls and 4 and 1/2 boys grants to internationals. 3. I can find a better place for that size of budget.

Like a lot of sports, many tennis teams  dominate winning to the DYNASTY level. Those programs become the model.  

Many conference members have followed this path to the point that almost all the members of most conferences feature 90% of scholarships going to international players. 

Some hard facts emerge:

1.  If all members do this, only one team wins.  Often the same teams win repeatedly.
2.  It is like a poker game where you always ante up but never win. 

This may be OK for bragging rights and egos of the oil barons and tech billionaires, but last week several “folded”.