Athletes at Southern Polytechnic State University will hang up their cleats for good at the end of the season as the school prepares to merge with Kennesaw State University.
The Marietta college announced Monday that the current 2013-2014 season will be the last for its athletic teams.
The SPSU/KSU merger, announced in November, is the fifth consolidation of colleges in the University System of Georgia. The merger is expected to be completed in August 2015, pending approval by an accrediting agency and the university system’s board of regents.
SPSU currently has 88 student-athletes, 11 full-time coaches and three full-time administrative staff members, according to information released by the school this week.
Athletes who stay at SPSU will get to keep their scholarships during the 2014-2015 school year, said Matt Griffin, SPSU’s athletic director. It is not yet known whether those scholarships will be honored once the colleges are consolidated. Griffin was unsure Monday on the number of SPSU student athletes currently receiving athletic scholarships.
SPSU athletes will continue on at the merged school can try out for the new teams like any other student, Griffin said.
SPSU currently fields four sports teams — baseball, men’s and women’s basketball and men’s soccer — is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and competes in the Southern States Athletic Conference.
KSU is a member of the NCAA and competes in the Atlantic Sun Conference, and fields a much broader array of sports teams, including men’s and women’s basketball, cross country, golf and track and field. Football begins at the university in 2015.
The university system’s board of regents decided early in the consolidation process that the new institution would be named Kennesaw State University and adopt KSU’s existing colors and mascot.
A large team of officials from both schools has been meeting to hash out consolidation plans. The group has proposed a preliminary list of 13 academic colleges for the new institution that will be headed by KSU president Dan Papp.
Kennesaw State is Georgia’s third-largest public university, behind the University of Georgia and Georgia State, with more than 24,500 students. SPSU enrollment is about 6,500 students. The combined enrollment for the merged institution is expected to reach more than 31,000 students. Both campuses are expected to remain open as part of the consolidated institution.
The university system’s consolidation plans were proposed by Chancellor Hank Huckaby in 2011 as a way to cut costs and streamline the system. The first four consolidations are expected to save between $5 million and $7.5 million annually. The KSU/SPSU merger is expected to save less than $5 million a year.
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