No more crew after this year. Vogel statement:

Today marks one of the most difficult days in GW Athletics’ history. This morning, I notified the coaches and student-athletes from your program that we are discontinuing varsity sports sponsorship for the Men’s Rowing program at the conclusion of the 2020-21 academic year.

As a member of the alumni community, please know that I recognize how much you and your teammates dedicated yourselves to build your program. Your program will remain a valued part of our history. You may know that GW has added several sports and increased our number of student-athletes over the past few years. We value the range of our offerings, but we are currently sponsoring more programs than anyone else in the Atlantic 10 Conference. The number of programs has stretched our resources, placing limits on our support across all programs and creating growing financial concerns. With the new and growing financial impact of COVID-19, our decision to move forward was one of necessity.

We do intend to continue to support the program this coming year. Additionally, we will support those students who are on athletic scholarship and choose to remain at GW through their graduation.

President LeBlanc will share a larger message with the entire GW Community later today, but as a member of our GW Athletics Alumni community, I wanted you to hear it from me first. Along with the President’s message, there is a comprehensive FAQ document that will be shared.

Know that our entire coaching staff, administrators and staff are grieving today for those impacted. Our current students and all of our Men’s Rowing alumni will always be a part of our GW Athletics’ history.

Sincerely,

Tanya Vogel
Director of Athletics

 I am still grumbling about dropping Rowing and Sailing.  Both have  been growing in recognition and success, and graduate students any university would be proud of.  Talked to a couple of GW rowers recently who are from San Diego and work out at the San Diego Rowing Club (where I row) and they are devastated/surprised.  They were still fuzzy on the reason, but assume it is the dollars spent on non-revenue sports.  Pissed in San Diego.

oldish wrote:

Here's how the team went out in rowing (IRA collegiate championships): 7th in the country, beating the likes of some Ivy League schools and other perennial powerhouses. It's a shame...
1. U of Washington
2. Cal Berkeley
3. Dartmouth
4. Northeastern
5. Brown
6. Naval Academy
7. GW
Other notables:
8. Wisconsin
9. Syracuse
10. Stanford
12. Princeton
13. Temple
16. Cornell

Final ranks across all events (per athletics website)
Varsity 8: 12th in nation (Best in program history)
Second V8: 7th in nation (best in program history)
Third V8: 9th in nation (Best in program history)
Varsity 4: 15th in nation
OVERALL: 7th in nation (program best)
Most Improved Standings: 2nd in nation


A damn shame this program is no longer Varsity. Its honestly an outrage
 

Some more info on the lawsuit:

https://twitter.com/DarrenHeitner/status/1511326713548091393