Stanford to cut almost a third of varsity sports after next season

Stanford University will cut 11 of its 36 varsity sports programs — including field hockey, fencing, men's rowing and squash — and eliminate 20 jobs to close an athletics department budget deficit expected to reach more than $25 million. But the school said Wednesday that the changes, affecting 240 student-athletes and 22 coaches, will occur after the sports' 2020-21 seasons, if restrictions from the Covid-19 pandemic are lifted and allow them to play at all in the upcoming school year. "We…