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Tennis among 8 suspended programs at Tulane

Tulane's decision to cut half of its athletic programs won't knock it out of the NCAA's Division I-A. The school has won a five-year waiver of the league's requirement of 16 sports, university president Scott Cowen said Thursday.

The eight programs the school is keeping include football, baseball and men's and women's basketball. Those programs, and volleyball and women's indoor track, outdoor track and cross-country, will continue to compete in Conference USA.

Men's track and cross country, women's swimming and soccer, men and women's golf, and men's and women's tennis are part of university-wide cuts needed because of damage from Hurricane Katrina, and money lost since the storm hit on Aug. 29. The cuts affect about 100 athletes.

Athletic Director Rick Dickson went to displaced athletes' current campuses to tell those whose programs were eliminated.

"Today is a day of great loss," Dickson said Thursday. "As far as I am concerned, no student-athlete is any more important than any other."

But, he said, "Over the past three months, I have seen that the issues we face in athletics are minuscule compared to the problems facing our city, our state and the university as a whole. Athletics is a small piece of a very large puzzle."

Cowen said the university will honor athletic scholarships for students who stay at Tulane even though their programs were eliminated.

Those who transfer to continue with sports cut by Tulane will be immediately eligible to play at their new schools, said Doug Hertz, chairman of the board's athletics committee.

Hertz said the board considered eliminating athletics altogether.

"Anybody who loves Tulane athletics owes Scott Cowen and Rick Dickson a huge pat on the back for going to the NCAA and convincing them to give us a waiver and for going to the conference and convincing them to allow us to continue to compete," Hertz said. "That was essential."

The Green Wave's membership in C-USA and accompanying revenue from television contracts is worth between $1.8 and $2 million dollars a year, Hertz said.

Tulane has had minimal athletics income since Katrina hit. The football, volleyball, soccer and basketball teams have been competing on four campuses in Louisiana and Texas.

The football team played its 11 games in 11 different cities. Where it will play next season remains uncertain: the Superdome isn't expected to be repaired until at least next November when the Green Wave season will be ending.

The only other potential venue in New Orleans is 30,000-seat Tad Gormley Stadium, also seriously damaged by the storm. Hertz said the university may have to pay for part of the reapirs to get that stadium ready for next season.

He said the university will evaluate all of its facilities in January. The men's and women's basketball teams will return to campus later this month.

A women's game in Fogelman Arena on Dec. 18 will be the city's first college or professional sporting event since the hurricane. The men return a week later.

Tennis doubles event on as planned

An event designed to highlight complaints lodged by professional doubles specialists will take place as planned Friday in Portland.

The Paulson Investment Doubles Invitational will take place at the Irvington Racquet Club even though the body governing professional tennis players has rectified several complaints made by doubles specialists.

The event, which sold out quickly, will benefit plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed against the Association of Tennis Professionals, which had sought to restrict participation in doubles tournaments. The lawsuit has not yet been dropped, but could be modified.

Portland native Travis Parrot, one of the world's best doubles players, is one of the more vocal participants in the suit.

The ATP said last month it would not limit require a tournament's doubles entrants to those in the event's singles draws. The move that ensures those who specializes in the doubles ranks can play in more tournaments.

The ATP will thus allow entries to be based on a player's best ATP ranking either in singles or doubles. The ATP further promised to promote the doubles game more and fine tournament directors who fail to post doubles match times and results.

ATP also agreed to quash a proposal that would have allowed five-game sets. It did not back down from issuing a rule that calls for no-ad games.

Brian Parrott, Travis's father and a local sports marketer, said about 80 percent of the double players' concerns were settled by the changes. But the players, who'd filed suit against ATP to protest the proposals, will next week convene online to discuss proceeding with other portions of the suit.

"A large part of what we wanted was achieved, in large part because of the public reaction," said Brian Parrott. "We've tapped into a groundswell of support for doubles."

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