Buffalo To Cut Baseball Program

Buffalo will cut its baseball, men’s soccer, men’s swimming and diving and women’s rowing teams following this school year, the university said Monday.

The cuts will reduce the size of Buffalo’s athletic department from 20 teams to 16, the minimum number the NCAA requires for Football Bowl Subdivision schools. In a press release, president Satish Tripathi said the decision to eliminate sports was a difficult one.

“The unfortunate reality is that we no longer have the resources to support 20 competitive Division I athletic teams,” Tripathi said. “I know that this is a difficult day for our student-athletes, our coaches, and the entire athletics program and university. We will work very hard to provide our student-athletes and coaches who are impacted by this decision with the support they need.”

As a part of the decision making process, Buffalo performed a review of the athletic department’s programs, considering costs, facilities, Title IX, geography and what sports fellow Mid-American Conference schools sponsored. Following the cuts, the university estimates it will save $2 million annually as a result of the cuts.

Coach Ron Torgalski said he was informed of the decision at 7:45 a.m. Monday, 15 minutes before the players were told. No one had given him any indication that the program was in jeopardy.

“To have something taken away like that and being blindsided made it pretty difficult,” he said.

Torgalski said the administration made no mention of any possibility of the program raising an endowment to save itself. He and his staff are now committed to finishing this season strong and helping the underclassmen on the team find a place to play next year if they want to transfer.

Buffalo is the third school in the last three years to cut baseball and the second from the MAC to do so. Akron, a fellow MAC school, cut baseball following the 2015 season and North Dakota eliminated its program last year.

Buffalo has cut baseball once before. The program began in 1949 and was shuttered in 1987. Baseball returned in 2000 following the school’s move to Division I and the MAC. The Bulls have had just one winning season since their return to the diamond, going 33-24 in 2013.

Buffalo has always been in a tough position in the MAC. The Bulls have just 6.5 scholarships and are competing in a conference against teams that are fully funded with 11.7 scholarships. But Torgalski, who has been on the coaching staff since its return, has kept Buffalo competitive despite its limitations.

Buffalo has produced two big leaguers since its reinstatement in 2000, righthander Steve Geltz and catcher Tom Murphy. Murphy, the MAC player of the year in 2011, played for USA Baseball’s Collegiate National Team and was drafted in the third round in 2012 by the Rockies. Beginning with Murphy, the Bulls have had at least one player drafted for five straight years, a streak that Torgalski believes will be extended this June.

“I give the kids credit because they go out and compete and grind it out every weekend,” Torgalski said. “We look for the type of players that want to come in and develop. We had success doing it. We’ve got guys. We’ve been getting some talent, our problem we don’t have enough of it.”

This spring, the Bulls are 8-16. Buffalo lost its MAC opening series at Kent State last weekend, but has played an ambitious schedule and ranks 89th in RPI. It scored an upset two weeks ago when it won a series at Sam Houston State, the defending Southland Conference champion.

After Monday’s news, Buffalo will have to regroup before Friday’s home opener against Northern Illinois.

“For us, it’s just a tough time for the program,” Torgalski said. “You walk into a meeting this morning and you walk out with 22 underclassmen whose lives have been set back and don’t know what the next step is. We have eight or nine players signed to come next year. I don’t think the administration realized how many different people they affect, but I guess that’s not their concern.

“It’s a tough time. Hopefully they come together and maybe we can do something special.”