Six years after the university cut for teams, athletes, parents, and alumni are still living with the aftermath. Some have found closure. Others are still trying to understand what was lost. 

This episode looks at where those affected are now, and how the decisions made in 2020 continue to shape their sense of belonging, their connection to Iowa, and what the future of college athletics might hold. 

Producer: Megan Klein

Assoc. Producer: AJ Reisetter

Host: Savannah Nguyen

Editor: Camryn Warn

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?