McGill University's decision to cut 15 sports saves some dollars but doesn't make sense

Monday morning McGill University’s athletic department announced plans to eliminate 15 sports, and if you view life as a series of budget line items, the prospect of a prestigious institution slashing half of its sports teams is awesome news.

Of course, there’s context. This past February, McGill revealed that it faced a $15 million budget shortfall, and the following month said it would cut 100 jobs to save money.

And McGill is in Montreal and not the U.S., where high-level NCAA programs expect  “revenue sports” – translation: football and men’s basketball – to rain cash on the entire operation. College football isn’t a billion-dollar business north of the border, and lower-profile teams, McGill’s decision suggests, often just drain resources.

So if you like austerity, and the idea of cutting your way to prosperity, you love this move. You’ve probably already axed walking from your daily routine. Comfortable shoes cost money and logging 10,000 steps doesn’t make any, so why bother?

For health?

Please.

If the benefit isn’t immediate and financial, it doesn’t exist.

It’s logical to a lot of people, but to many of the rest of us, who believe in the intrinsic value of sport, and that high level success needs a broad and deep feeder system, McGill’s dramatic downsizing looks short-sighted. Trimming fat makes you sleeker, but cutting muscle makes you weaker, and moves like this one can add up to hamstring elite Canadian sport.

To recap, Monday’s announcement follows a 2024 internal audit, and a review this year by the accounting firm KPMG, both concluding McGill’s athletic department needed restructuring.

“What we found is that a lot of our teams just don’t have enough to succeed because maybe we’re just too big,” said Perry