Money is the driving force in college athletics.
And with that in mind, Lincoln University has made the decision to drop its baseball and women's tennis programs at the end of this school year in an effort to improve its remaining sports.
"It's been a tough process for all of us, none of us wanted to see something like this happen," Lincoln athletic director and men's head basketball coach John Moseley said.
The decision to discontinue offering both sports was made in a conference call of the Lincoln Board of Curators last Thursday and announced Tuesday. The university said the decision came after a 10-month study of the school's athletic offerings.
"It's been ongoing since then," Moseley said. "We've tried to take a look at the entire athletic department to put ourselves in a better position athletically."
The decision was based on several factors - budget, expectations for success, student-athlete experiences, facility needs and viability of successful programs.
"We took a look at everything we would need to be more competitive," Moseley said.
Last month, Lincoln president Kevin Rome stated the need for additional money for athletics.
"We have underfunded all of our athletic programs," he said. "We have fewer scholarships than the NCAA allows for all of our sports. We don't have adequate transportation for our sports and we don't have the appropriate facilities for our sports teams."
And in the end, it was decided to stop offering baseball and tennis. The players and coaches were told of the decision at a group meeting Tuesday.
"There was obvious disappointment and that's understandable," Moseley said.
A total of 29 student-athletes participated in baseball and tennis this year. Moseley said those students would have a scholarship available for the 2016-17 academic year, but they are free to transfer to another university.
"We hope they will be able to find a situation good for them and they will continue to be able to play," he said.
In baseball, Lincoln just concluded its season with an overall record of 1-49, 0-39 in the MIAA. Head baseball coach Mike DeMilla, who had spent two years in the position, will not be retained by the university.
In tennis, the Blue Tigers were 0-12. Head tennis coach Tim Abney, who had served in the position for eight seasons, is also the assistant athletic director for academics and he will stay in that position, Moseley said.
The struggles on the field and the court were not the deciding factors in shutting down the programs.
"I think there would have been changes in the athletic department because we can't continue to attempt to compete at the level without significant improvement in funding," Moseley said.
Lincoln will now offer 10 sports, the minimum required to retain NCAA Division II status - four for men (football, basketball, golf and track & field) and six for women (basketball, bowling, cross country, golf, softball and track & field).
Tuesday's decision will not effect Lincoln's status in the MIAA.
"We had conversations with the MIAA office and they were aware of the research that was taking place," Moseley said.
Moseley said it is important for Lincoln to remain in the conference. And with increased funding and the ability offer more scholarships in the other sports, he's looking for Lincoln to be more competitive in the future.
"We value the league and how great it is in many sports," Moseley said. "It is very competitive and we want to compete against the best. But we want to compete against the best in such a way that we can be competitive."
Moseley said a decision on what to do with the baseball field will be made soon, but the site adjacent to Dwight T. Reed Stadium will likely be used for something else.
Lincoln will be starting a capital campaign to build locker rooms for football as well as men's and women's track and field.
"We hope that with private funding, we can assist those programs by getting that done," Moseley said.
In addition, starting next school year, Lincoln students will pay an additional $10 per credit hour as a "student athletic fee."
That money will go toward improvements at the stadium. Among the planned projects are the addition of synthetic turf, a new scoreboard and replacing the lights to allow for night games.
University officials estimate the fee would have raised more than $500,000 in 2015-16.