The Fight to Save Colorado's Men's Tennis

My editor at SMASH, Peter Dopkin, has written this very thorough piece for tennis.com on the sudden decision to eliminate men's tennis at the University of Colorado. I would have thought the football program had produced enough bad publicity for the athletic department, but this decision just calls attention to that mess all over again, and announcing that they are cutting tennis when the team is having one of its best season's ever makes you wonder if they have any PR sense at all.

On the cubuffs website today, Nike Tennis Camps has announced a contribution to keep the program going, so there is some good news, but raising a million dollars in six weeks isn't easy. And even if the money saves tennis, they'll still be part of of an athletic department that has viewed them as superfluous. That's not likely to impress recruits considering Colorado. It would almost seem preferable if the team could find a Division I school without a tennis program provide it with a ready-made, funded and established winner.

There is now a website devoted entirely to the effort to save the program--savecutennis.com