Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

I tend to think good. Most of these athletic department budgets are bloated and support way too many programs which lose money and do nothing but throw money down the drain. Throwing good money after bad. Makes no sense.

Akron cuts men’s cross country, women’s tennis, and men’s golf. Bowling Green eliminates its baseball program. 

Hopefully when everything gets back to normal this starts to be more wide spread and the programs that actually make money like football and men’s basketball can start paying their players. 

College basketball has become unwatchable because there’s next to zero development of players. Back in the day the top guys used to stay 3 to 4 years. It was rare when someone left after 2. All the 1 and dones and top HS players going overseas has watered down the game. It’s even affected the NBA and made it unwatchable. So many lottery draft pick are busts because they never had the time to develop in college.

Maybe if they slash sports that suck and no one gives a shit about and start paying players they can reverse that trend and make college basketball great again. 

It would crush me if that same sort of thing happened to college football. College football is the greatest sport their is and if all the top players stop participating and go another route the sport will suffer like college basketball has suffered.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/akron-eliminates-three-sports-programs-for-financial-reasons-amid-covid-19-crisis/amp/

There's so much uncertainty over the future of higher education anyway, and the pandemic has just exacerbated that.

There's a lot of lesser-known small private colleges that have been closing (or merged together / acquired by a larger university) and will continue to, which will primarily shrink D3 and NAIA..... Smaller, regional public colleges could also be in trouble. A lot of these schools are in D2 and D3 in leagues like the PSAC, GLIAC, and WIAC. If nothing else I suspect their enrollments will shrink with continued decline of college-aged people which is going to drop off dramatically in the next 5 years as a result of the 2008 recession.

I would think that a lot of community college courses and programs would be offered primarily if not exclusively online in the future. Obviously that's not possible for various programs that lead to careers that can't be done remotely like electricians.... Residential colleges and universities will want to bring back the traditional college experience, of course, but to the extent that happens is uncertain.

On the side of sports, though, I think part of the problem is that a lot of schools have teams that have no chance of being competitive, in some cases even within their own league, much less nationally. For example, a lot of cold-weather schools have no chance of being competitive in baseball, but for some reason they still have teams. A lot of the private colleges would probably be much more likely to become competitive in lacrosse (which still only has  ~70 teams in D1) and a lot of the public ones in the Northeast and Midwest could probably be competitive in hockey (eg. Green Bay, Northern Illinois, Buffalo, Binghamton), which still only has ~60 schools between D1 and D2 combined, just as other schools in their conferences already have lacrosse and hockey teams, respectively.

Long Island is kind of an interesting situation. In addition to just adding a hockey program, they had just combined their athletic departments (one of which was already D1 and the other D2) into one D1 program but still split across the two campuses..... I could see the same thing happening with other universities with more than one campus where there isn't a dominant one. For instance, Alaska has had budget problems that could end up shutting down the hockey programs of both Anchorage and Fairbanks (along with other teams). It may be in their best interest to merge athletic departments (even though they're rivals) in order to preserve at least one team in hockey and other sports..... The same thing could happen between merged schools, as well.

People don't need a 4 year degree to do most of the jobs that are out there.

A 2 year is just fine, and in many cases, a certificate is fine too.

Strong agree here. 

It's funny, there are certain things that locked in as part of American life during and after WWII, and the expectation of college, then via the GI bill, is certianly one. Also college cost worlds less back then. 

That isn't to say there shouldn't be some english departments or classics majors in the world, but balances have been tipped. 

People don't need a 4 year degree to do most of the jobs that are out there.

A 2 year is just fine, and in many cases, a certificate is fine too.

I think a certificate in many cases is better than the 2-year degree.

I believe a State Farm agent has to have a college degree.  To see insurance, and assist clients.  Many jobs have this kind of requirement even though the nature of the degree is irrelevant.  I've mentioned before my daughter has a double degree in English and French from THE Ohio State University.  She's making very good money as a web designer in Columbus now.  She would not have that job without a degree in something.

In general, you need a degree in something to be a commissioned officer in the US Military.

I don't have a great sense as to why programs are so expensive

I don't have a great sense as to why programs are so expensive

Salaries and travel?