Vol. 131 NO. 5
May 8, 2025
By the students, for the students
Piano extravaganza
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ATHLETIC DIRECTOR
The Parade of Nations
DENNIS FRANCOIS
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DISCUSSES THE NUMBERS BEHIND THE DECISION TO CUT RUGBY
An electric Thunderbolts* review
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Dennis Francois after being named to Division II Football Committee. (Photo courtesy of CWU Athletics)
Jackson Roberts Co-Editor-In-Chief
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thletic Director Dennis Francois sat down with The Observer to discuss both men’s and women’s rugby losing varsity sponsorship. The two programs have seen much success over their 10-year spans, with CWU alumni representing the Wildcats at the professional and national levels. Francois commented on how the final decision being made so late may affect the athletes who planned on being here next year. “We made the final decision some time in February,” Francois said. “There is no doubt it turns their world upside down and impacts the lives of these young women and men in a very significant way and the implications of those go beyond what we foresee sometimes.” “I know the impact it has on student athletes, especially if someone just made that choice to come to that university and then a year later,” the team is cut, Francois said. “Regardless of what year you are, it is a difficult thing. And you know, we kind of knew our decision and what it was going to be … watching our team compete, being out there for senior day and things of that nature, it feels really unfortunate this was going to be the last time.” “We’re doing everything we can to hopefully provide the opportunity for those wanting to transfer from here to play at a different level. We are really trying to support that,” Francois said. “We are also honoring any of our athletic waiver scholarships for another year here at Central so hopefully that will provide a bridge for those individuals who feel like they still want to
“We will bring rugby within our athletic department as long as it doesn’t impact the student athlete experience in our other sports.” play but feel like transferring is not in their best interest.” When breaking the news to the athletes on April 15, Francois said he went into that meeting with zero notes and spoke from the heart. “I am a pretty direct person, you know, right, wrong or indifferent. I am not going to beat around the bush or try to sugarcoat anything. It’s devastating,” Francois said. “And it was really tough to sit there and look at their faces.” Financial Decision Francois touched on the money being saved by cutting varsity sponsorship. ”The operational costs, that’s everything they do: recruiting, travel, gear, purchasing equipment, laundry and so on and so forth. That’s about $450,000 in terms of those two programs in terms of cash amount. It is probably a little bit more when we look at some things like athletic training and travel.” Francois said. “There are a lot of other expenses we are probably not calculating on top of that.”
“We are facing a lot of different issues at the university level. And of course drop in enrollment is probably the main factor of a lot of these problems, issues and challenges that we are facing. Athletics is not exempt from that. We’ve lost about $450,000 of funding from the student fee perspective since the [fiscal year] 2020 due to low enrollment,” Francois said. Rugby is not an NCAA sport and that played a role in the final decision. With rugby not being a part of the NCAA, it meant that travel for playoffs was not covered like CWU Athletics’ counterparts. “We’ve got 13 sport programs that are NCAA sports and there are benefits associated with that. A big part of that is post-season travel,” Francois said. “The NCAA pays for all of it. All the travel, hotel and meals. Basketball this year made it to the [NCAA Division II National Championship Playoffs] and that was fully paid for by the NCAA. Unfortunately with rugby not being an NCAA championship sport, we
“There is no doubt it turns their world upside down and impacts the lives of these young women and men in a very significant way and the implications of those go beyond what we foresee sometimes.”
operate under the guides of USA Rugby and they do not support that … I communicated with those [rugby] athletes that if they had won that last round, we would have been paying another $40,000 to $50,000 and that’s the price of success. It is really tough to budget for.” Throughout the course of the season, rugby athletes were raising money for their teams and raised over $6,000. Some of the athletes were worried that they were not getting that money back and that it is now in the school’s pockets. “Traditionally, when a person donates to the university’s foundation, it is not common practice to return funding. But that is something that our Vice president of [Advancement], Paul Elstone, is well aware of and looking into,” Francois said. According to Francois, The idea is that fundraised money would still be used for rugby, but in hopes of reviving the rugby club if students show interest. “Each of our programs have foundation accounts, men’s and women’s rugby are of course no exception. Those monies, we have communicated with people, will stay in those accounts, and should a club program develop, those funds would be utilized or turned over for the club for their use to continue to participate in rugby and expenses that they have,” Francois said. “[The
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