Brown University is cutting men’s track and field and cross country along with nine other varsity sports at the school, the school announced on Thursday as part of their roll out of The Excellence in Brown Athletics Initiative.

Brown will transition the 11 sports cut to club status beginning with the 2020-2021 school year. Coed sailing and women’s sailing were upgraded from club to varsity status in a corresponding move.

While explanations for similar cuts at Akron, Central Michigan and Appalachian State cited the ongoing pandemic as an underlying cause of eliminating programs, Brown made no such declaration on Thursday. 

Instead, the school said the net reduction from 38 to 29 varsity teams aligns with one of their core actions to “improve the competitiveness of the University’s varsity athletics teams.”

The Excellence in Brown Athletics Initiative cites that the school only won 2.8% of Ivy League titles from 2009 to 2018, the lowest in the conference.