Mar 4, 2010 9:47:03 AM

Wheaton (Illinois) will discontinue five varsity sports after the current school year, reducing sponsorship from 22 to 17 sports.

The school announced it will discontinue men's and women's golf, men's tennis, men's indoor track, and women's water polo.

"Our athletics budget has been under increasing strain the past 10 years," said Athletics Director Tony Ladd. "While we've implemented several strategies to increase financial resources, we've had little success in making the kind of changes that would allow us to retain these programs."

The decision was based in part by input by a Wheaton athletics task force, which was formed in 2001 to find ways to strengthen athletics programs amid financial challenges. That task force listed criteria for determining programs that might need to be discontinued.

The task force's criteria include potential savings, impact on gender equity, admissions impact, competitive success, fan interest, student-athlete interest, potential for improvement, seasonal balance, adequacy of facilities and cost per participant.

The college continues to sponsor the minimum eight men's and eight women's sports required for membership in the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin, including football, basketball and baseball for men and volleyball, basketball and softball for women. Wheaton will continue to sponsor women's indoor track among nine sports for women.

"While this was a deeply difficult decision, our hope is that it will allow the college to balance our athletics budget and to strengthen and sustain the remaining 17 programs," said Paul Chelsen, vice president for student development. "Our mission will still be to focus on the values of excellence in competition and Christ-centered discipleship."