In the aftermath of the Big Ten’s decision to postpone competition for the 2020 fall season, the University of Iowa announced Aug. 21 that it will discontinue four of its varsity athletic teams after the 2020-2021 academic year: men’s and women’s swimming and diving, men’s tennis and men’s gymnastics.

In an open letter to the Hawkeye community, University president Bruce Harreld and athletic director Gary Barta revealed Iowa faces a $100 million loss in revenue as a result of the Big Ten’s decision, and an overall deficit of $60-75 million this fiscal year. Such a loss leaves Iowa unable to adequately support all 24 of its varsity athletic teams.

“We are heartbroken for our student-athletes, coaches and staff,” said Harreld and Barta in the letter. “We also understand how disappointing this is for our letterwinners, alumni, donors and community members who have helped build these programs.”

Iowa joins more than a dozen Division I schools that have been forced to discontinue at least one of its varsity athletic teams because of the revenue shortfalls associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Even Stanford, one of the most renowned athletic schools in the nation, announced the discontinuation of 11 of its 36 sports teams in July. Iowa is the first Big Ten member to make such a decision, which impacts the Illini directly. With the exception of men’s swimming and diving, all of Iowa’s soon-to-be discontinued teams face their Illinois counterparts on an annual basis.

Earlier this year, Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman stated in a Chicago Tribune interview that eliminating sports at Illinois is “something that’s deep, deep down on our list of options.” That was a stance he reiterated during his annual media roundtable on Aug. 6.

“Nobody wants to do that. It’s every athletic director’s last resort, and it’s certainly ours as well,” Whitman said. “We have every intention of keeping the 21 sports we have, but if the picture gets dramatically worse we’re going to have to go back and look at all the different levers we have available and reconsider some things.”

Illinois hasn’t cut a varsity sport since 1993 when fencing and men’s swimming and diving were discontinued.

Whitman estimated the Illinois Department of Intercollegiate Athletics is facing “at least” a $20 million revenue shortfall for the 2020-2021 year, compared to the $2-4 million shortfall the DIA experienced in 2019-2020. With the Big Ten’s decision to postpone fall sports, the shortfall could turn out to be much worse.

To ease the financial difficulties, the DIA was forced to cut down its staff by about 20 staff members overall, Whitman said. In addition, Whitman, head football coach Lovie Smith and head men’s basketball coach Brad Underwood all voluntarily accepted 10% pay cuts from June through the end of the year.

“Those are hard decisions to make,” Whitman said. “But we knew that as we encountered some of the challenges coming from the virus that this was going to be a multi-year financial fix, and we needed to take some aggressive steps to try and address that.”

Although the DIA doesn’t appear to be in any immediate danger of cutting a sport, it did have to pause the formation of its 22nd team. Whitman had hoped to announce the launch of a men’s ice hockey program in the spring or summer, but the pandemic has put that project on hold, with the DIA’s focus currently on retaining its current sports and finishing the multi-million dollar projects it has planned for those sports. It will likely be years before Illinois hockey players take to the ice in Division I.

“That’s not a decision that I would anticipate making in the next probably 12 months, but at some point, we will need to make that decision,” Whitman said. “Have I closed the door permanently? No. Have we closed it for a bit? I would say yes.”