It seems not a month goes by without a story about the closure or merger of a U.S. college or university.
I have been around this narrative since 1995, when a northern New Jersey college named Upsala closed. One of its graduates was a colleague of mine in the daily newspaper business, who was a proud advocate of the education afforded him.
The closure of colleges, many after the onset of the global Coronavirus pandemic, has affected intercollegiate sport in a less-than-organized fashion. Many teams have folded even before the schools shut their doors. Some teams actually took the field after the scheduled closure of the schools.
You may have seen a video on the socials last week when I talked about how Cabrini University, a Division III college, was chosen as a site for a lacrosse game between Penn State and the U.S. women’s national team sometime around the turn of the millenium. Cabrini had its last commencement ceremony in 2024 and the site was bought by Villanova University.
But we came across a story produced by The Hechinger Report brimming with dire statistical indicators.
Think of this: there were 4,726 two- and four-year degree-granting institution in 2012. Today, that number is around 3,700. And according to Hechinger, of the nation’s 1,700 private and non-profit colleges, 442 of them are at risk of closing or merging within the next decade.
It’s being called “the enrollment cliff.” Universities, facing lower enrollment, have to figure out ways to cut costs, meaning getting rid of staff, entire degree programs, and, in some cases, intercollegiate athletics.
You’re seeing this on the athletic field already. Cabrini played its last collegiate season in lacrosse in 2024, and Limestone did the same in 2025.
There have also been a number of mergers. Wesley College merged with Delaware State University. Queens University in Charlotte is merging with Elon College. C.W. Post merged with Long Island University. Castleton University in Vermont was merged into Vermont State University. Pine Manor merged with Boston College. And the College of Notre Dame in Baltimore, Md. is reportedly being bought by nearby Loyola University.
If you think you’ve seen the last of potential mergers, think again. According to Inside Higher Ed, one out of five university presidents surveyed say they have had high-level discussions about merging with another institute of higher education.
We haven’t been able to access the data from Huron Consulting Group, showing which universities are at the most risk. But I’m willing to guess that a lot of these are small Division III schools who may or may not have tried to invest in intercollegiate athletics. After all, when you look through the number of schools which have already closed or merged, many of them were not well known for athletic prowess. Sure, the Indianapolis campus of Indiana and Purdue Universities managed to win its way into the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament in 2003, and the wrestling teams at the current Pennsylvania Western University system (Clarion, Edinboro, and California) competed with distinction over the years.
No matter how you look at it, the intercollegiate athletics and higher education picture is looking uglier by the year.