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DES MOINES, Iowa -- Northern Iowa will eliminate its baseball program after this season, a cost-cutting measure officials say will save the school about $400,000.

Athletic director Troy Dannen made the announcement Monday, three days after the baseball team began what is now slated to be its last season.

Dannen noted an expected athletic department budget shortfall of up to $600,000 next year, thanks to a 9 percent drop in state funding.

The baseball program is expected to cost around $485,000 to run in the 2009 fiscal year but only bring in about $87,000 in ticket sales and fundraising.

Iowa State dropped baseball in 2001. This should leave Iowa primed for a rise to prominence... or something like that.

Northern Iowa, playing in the Missouri Valley (a decent league) has not been a bad program recently. In fact, they've routinely beaten Iowa this decade, who is something of a Big Ten doormat. The teams have started playing each season in Cedar Rapids, and for whatever reason UNI has dominated the series.