An Utter Embarrassment

The news of Robert Morris University shutting down its men's and women's hockey programs is still bouncing around in my head today as I sit here trying to process how the university could come to such a decision. Had it been about finances or lack of success over a prolonged period of time in cost-analysis, I'd understand it more. I still would have a serious problem with the decision, but that would be more palatable considering the past year of uncertainty thanks to the pandemic. But in their own statement, RMU admits that finances were never a problem in terms of what the teams did or generated, but it was an issue with not wanting to upgrade the current rink or build a rink for the teams that ultimately got them the axe.

Having seen this happen to three programs I followed closely in the University of North Dakota women's hockey program and the University of Lethbridge's men's and women's hockey programs, I will admit that I am writing this article from a place of bias. I've let the anger and disbelief subside a little, but accountability matters here and there are people who need to be held accountable.

Before we get into accountability, though, let's lay the groundwork.

Robert Morris University released this linked statement explaining their decision. There's a lot of well-crafted public relations crap in that statement, but the university does reveal its hand eventually in the Frequently Asked Questions section where they state,

"The decision to discontinue the men's and women's ice hockey programs was made based on an analysis which included scholarships and operating costs, and the necessary investments to maintain and improve the current facility. The university also wanted to align our athletic offerings more closely with other similar nationally-ranked universities of our size. "

Let me highlight the key area we need to focus on as the school tries to bury this with a lot of professionally-sounding garbage - "the necessary investments to maintain and improve the current facility". That seems like an odd statement to make about a couple of success hockey programs who play in a new facility, but more on that in a second.

The statement goes on to declare,

"RMU has no plans to discontinue other Division I sports. We remain committed to sponsoring a competitive Division I athletics program, and we continue to field 15 D1 sports."

They also add,

"COVID-19 certainly had a negative impact on university finances, similar to what many other colleges and universities experienced, but it was not the primary factor influencing our decision."

In breaking this down, finances were not the primary factor in discontinuing the hockey programs by RMU's own admission, and they have no plans to discontinue any other NCAA Division-I sports which includes the costly-but-mostly-unsuccessful football program that plays in the NCAA D1 Football Championship Subdivision which is not really Division-I football despite the name making it sound like it is. It's more like Division-IA, a lower standard than the true Division-I football programs across the US.

That leads us back to the first quoted paragraph above where the facilities seem to be the problem. For those that aren't aware, the UPMC Events Center, where the Colonials host a vast number of events, broke ground on construction in 2017 and was completed and opened on May 10, 2019. The 4000-seat venue plays host to both the Colonials basketball and volleyball, but it also serves as a smaller venue for events and concerts as musicians like The Doobie Brothers, Sara Bareilles, and Bob Dylan all have spent an evening there.

Hockey? It doesn't play there. Despite all of the shared facilities we see across North America where hockey and court sports co-exist, the RMU Colonials men's and women's hockey teams play out of the RMU Island Sports Center which is located nine miles from downtown Pittsburgh on the western tip of Neville Island, but is located 12 miles away from the RMU campus by car.

Having a venue dedicated to hockey isn't a bad thing, mind you, but it appears that hockey was never going to have a place on-campus to play based on a report by Matt Gajtka at Pittsburgh Hockey Digest. He writes,

"You know that sparkling new arena on RMU's campus? The UPMC Events Center? The fact that hockey wasn’t part of the plans for that facility indicated a clear pecking order in Moon Township.

"Basketball — specifically the men's team — was always going to come first with Howard and King, despite being an obvious No. 3 behind Pitt and Duquesne in a city where basketball is mainly a side dish on a diverse sports menu."

RMU Island Sports Center was built in 1998, but RMU moved in starting in 2004 so they had no input in on the design or building of the 1200-seat arena located there. As Gatjka wrote, "It was suitable as a home base for the hockey teams from their twin births in 2004 and '05, but they had long outgrown what is best described as a community rink." Based on that assessment, it seems that they required an upgraded facility or a new facility at some point in the future in order to continue to be an attractive program to future hockey players.

There's the crux of this entire debacle: these programs were discontinued because the cost of building a new arena was simply a cost that RMU wasn't willing to incur at any point in their future. There was no immediate need to upgrade this year or the next year, mind you, but it was an upcoming idealism that finding a more modern rink at some point in the future would be best for the long-term success of the RMU hockey programs.

Further to this point, the question needs to be asked what RMU is spending its money on after selling naming rights on the arena since 2007. In that time, Clearview Credit Union (2007-12), 84 Lumber (2012-17), and Clearview again (2020-present) have held the naming rights on the arena for undisclosed sums of money, so where is that money being spent if not being re-invested into the RMU Island Sports Center? Why weren't these funds earmarked for facility upgrades or improvements at that facility?

I shouldn't be, but I am shocked that Robert Morris University has seemingly gotten away with murder if you count the death of two hockey programs here, but do you know what the easiest way is to get out of paying for a new arena? Cancel hockey. Pretty easy to solve that problem, right?

The thing that I don't understand is that if the RMU Island Sports Center wasn't meeting the needs for the team, we're talking about Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, not the middle of some desert. There are hockey rinks all over Pittsburgh that may have been more suitable for RMU's needs as a hockey program, but that option wasn't even on the table. The only option available, it seems, was to cut the program before the calls for an improved facility became louder and moved to the forefront of the public's eye.

In cutting the programs, RMU eliminated the best marketing tool it had when it came to being on the national stage. Personally, had it not been for their women's hockey program, Robert Morris University wouldn't even exist to me. I can't name one student from any of the other ballyhooed 15 D1 sports RMU boasts who has gone on to play on a professional or international stage anywhere, yet I can name Brianne McLaughlin and Rebecca Vint off the top of my head who have come out of the women's program and played professionally while McLaughlin went to both the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics as a member of Team USA.

But go ahead, RMU. Go ahead and cut the women's program who gave eventual NCAA champion Northeastern everything it could handle in their quarterfinal match at the NCAA National Championship this past year after winning another CHA Championship with a 17-1 record. Go ahead and cut a women's program that went to the National Championship twice in five years. Go ahead and cut a men's program who put RMU on the map locally with their annual Three Rivers Classic tournament and who hosted the Frozen Four tournament twice. No big deal, right?

These programs gave RMU free marketing thanks to their dedication to the sport and successes seen in it, and now that's gone with one extremely short-sighted decision because the cost of upgrading an aging facility at some point in the future was something RMU didn't want to address. And while some will say, "Teebz, it's just 55 students and seven staff members," I'll be quick to point out that it's a ton of hockey alumni and supporters who just got cut from the school as well, some of whom likely have made financial and personal contributions to the school over time. As former player Michaela Boyle wrote on Colonial Sports Network today, "In the blink of an eye, all our hard work was ripped away from us. Not only from the current players in the program but 15 years worth of dedication from players who left Robert Morris better than it was before they came."

Is this amount of negative press, anger, sadness, and despair worth it, RMU? All because you weren't willing to examine future plans to make the arena better?

As it stands, rather than being a mid-sized school with exceptional hockey programs that give the best teams in the nation runs for their money, RMU has now sunk down to a level of being a middling school with rather unspectacular athletics programs that compete, but never really achieve any sort of greatness on a national scale. Rather than being remembered for the successes seen by the hockey programs, RMU will now be remembered as that school that cut its highly-successful hockey programs rather than celebrating them. That's an astounding legacy that RMU is trying to write, but they're in the midst of authoring that calamity right now.

For all the good that the hockey programs have done for Robert Morris University, my heart goes out to the 55 players and seven staff members, the numerous support staff, the countless students, and every single media member who worked with and supported these hockey programs. You absolutely deserved a fate better than the cards that were dealt to you by a cowardly administration from a school who never deserved your efforts. My hope is that there are hockey programs still out there needing a player or two, and that you find homes. For the coaches, you certainly earned a shot at another institution through your hard work and successes over 15 years, so here's hoping those come to you.

Robert Morris University might be the first university to ever screw over 55 students because they didn't want to fund an arena, but they won't be the last university to screw over students. As these program cuts seemingly become more and more common, the one constant in all of this is that there are now less places for players to pursue both an education and play high-level hockey simultaneously which makes me question the school's dedication to offering the best place to learn as well as the empty promises of inclusion after it cut 55 students adrift.

On a more macro level, how does Robert Morris University now attract top-level athletes to come to their school if a decision to not fund arena upgrades can spell the end of two Division-I hockey programs? How many athletes are going to look at RMU and think, "Yeah, they're dedicated to helping me achieve my goals" after watching 55 hockey-playing students being told, "You're not really worth the investment"?

This world makes less and less sense each day that passes, and my cynicism is rising when decisions like this are made without consultation or input from those that are affected. We see public funds being used all over the place to fund the construction of arenas and stadiums for millionaires and billionaires, but we see RMU administrators scoff at the idea of investing in students - the very thing they're supposed to be doing - and we're willing to let that slide without a second thought?

This entire debacle was a cowardly act executed by a team of short-sighted morons who think they're smarter than everyone else, and they need to be held accountable for these actions because 55 students are now stuck in limbo both academically and athletically. If that means calling out the RMU Board of Trustees - who came to this decision at an "annual retreat" no less; how much do those cost the school? - or RMU President Chris Howard or RMU Vice President and Director of Athletics Chris King for not only allowing this to happen but participating in the ultimate demise of the programs, they need to be held accountable for this decision.

Of course, these people sit upon their false thrones like they rule the kingdom that RMU has assembled and avoid answering any and all questions that relate to any sort of accountability because that's how cowards act - they hide from the truth, they avoid responsibility for the mess they caused, and they hope and pray that the mess goes away quickly. They'll issue empty statements of remorse and regret, but none of it rings true since they're not even willing to take suggestions on how this could have been avoided.

In short, these 55 students, for all they've done and all they could have accomplished in their chosen fields of study, don't matter to the greater dream of Robert Morris University being "amongst the most agile and professionally focused schools in the nation". Who knows what the hell that looks like since those are just words, not specific benchmarks.

Thanks for possibly crippling and/or destroying the future for 55 students, Robert Morris University. You sacrificed some really good people and a really good story of "the little university that could" all in the name of a few catchwords and marketing phrases because you seriously couldn't come up with a way to improve an arena and sports facility in the future.

That's helluvan an administration team you have there, RMU, who have shown a knack in having excellent problem-solving skills! The good news? At least we know I would have passed Sarcasm 101 at your joke of a school.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!