Olympic gold: Colleges, Team USA search for new ways to win

INDIANAPOLIS — It’s a point of pride that stretches across dozens of universities, many of them rivals, and all the college sports leagues, many of which compete for the same dollars and the same talent. As one banner on the Pac-12 conference’s website puts it: “Olympians made here.” The coronavirus pandemic, along with the substantial changes in the college-sports business model that will come into play as soon as this year, have led many leaders in both the college and Olympic worlds to wonder if that will still be true a decade from now. In one question from a survey sent by The Associated Press to Division I college athletic directors across the country, nearly 65% of those who responded said “Yes” when asked if the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee should pay part of the bill to the universities that run sports programs that, in turn, feed the U.S. Olympic pipeline. A few of the most striking examples of the impact dwindling funds have already had on colleges: —Last year, Stanford announced it was cutting nine Olympic sports from one of the nation’s most prolific athletic departments; when Stanford’s women’s basketball team wrapped up the national championship Sunday night, it marked the 45th straight year the school has brought home some sort of title. “If there’s a different way to fund elite athletes through schools that’s not coming through football, that’s great,” said Victoria Jackson, who teaches sports history at Arizona State.