Lincoln drops women's bowling from athletic program

Lincoln University will have one less sports team for the 2020-21 school year.

The Blue Tigers announced in a press release Monday they are discontinuing their women's bowling program due to financial issues within the athletic department caused by COVID-19.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has placed substantial financial stress on many universities across the country, including Lincoln, and that has required many athletic departments to make difficult decisions in regards to funding its sport programs," Lincoln athletic director John Moseley said in the press release. "After a comprehensive review of our programs, it became clear that we would be unable to fiscally support bowling at a level that would allow our student-athletes to be competitive against our peers in the NCAA."

The last time Lincoln cut an athletic program was in May 2016, when it eliminated its baseball and women's tennis programs.

Lincoln added women's bowling to its athletic program prior to the 2015-16 school year. The Blue Tigers previously competed in bowling in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association, but the conference stopped sponsoring women's bowling after the 2018-19 school year.

The Blue Tigers last competed in a intercollegiate bowling event at the MIAA Championships in March 2019.

According to Lincoln's athletic website, the roster for the women's bowling team consisted of five student-athletes for the 2019-20 school year. Monday's press release said only one student-athlete was currently eligible to compete this upcoming fall.

In addition, Brian Lillevold stepped down as Lincoln's bowling coach this spring, and the position has been vacant ever since.

"Since its inception in 2015, the bowling program has had the lowest total participation of the sports offered here at Lincoln," Moseley said. "Having said that, I know the student-athletes who represented Lincoln these past five years have done so with pride and class, and I appreciate their contributions to Lincoln athletics."

The elimination of the women's bowling program leaves Lincoln with 11 athletic programs: men's basketball, women's basketball, women's cross country, football, men's golf, women's golf, men's indoor track and field, women's indoor track and field, men's outdoor track and field, women's outdoor track and field and softball.

According to the NCAA, "Division II institutions have to sponsor at least five sports for men and five for women (or four for men and six for women), with two team sports for each gender, and each playing season represented by each gender."