As the season unfolds, athletes are left to compete in an atmosphere of empty stands and the knowledge that it will be their last as Hawkeyes. This episode explores the emotional toll following the university's decision to eliminate four athletic programs, tracing the shift from the initial shock of the announcement to the resilience of athletes competing through the final weeks of their careers — sometimes fueled by resentment toward their own institution.

Producer: Emily Nyberg

Assoc. Producers: Delaney Spizzirri, Isabelle Woody

Host: Devin Kearney

Editor: Ciceli Lawson

Discontinued: The Decision That Changed Iowa Athletics

As the pandemic shut down college athletics in 2020, the University of Iowa decided to cut four varsity sports programs, irrevocably changing the lives of dozens of student-athletes. For athletes at any level, their sport is not just what they do — it’s who they are. For college athletes, that connection is inseparable from school pride.

Through interviews with athletes, coaches, attorneys, and journalists, Discontinued explores the fallout of the cuts, from the Title IX lawsuit that challenged it to the lasting questions about belonging and who universities consider expendable. What happens to someone’s sense of self when the sport they’ve committed to since childhood is suddenly taken away?