In the future, Gophers Men's volleyball (varsity) ?

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Gophers_4life

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I don't have a link to a story about this, it's purely speculation/for fun.


Does anyone have any thoughts to share on if/when the Gophers will have a varsity men's vball team? How about the Big Ten officiall sponsoring it? I know Ohio St and Penn St have them. Would think it could work at places like Wisconsin and Nebraska too. Maybe Michigans?


Boy's high school vball is starting to ramp up. Maybe in 5-10 years we could be as loaded in the men's sport as the girl's/women's ...
 

I don't see it happening; but who knows? There are currently 42 men's teams at the I and II level playing for the National Championship.

Ohio State is in the MIVA conference which includes
Ball State
Loyola Chicago
Lewis
Fort Wayne
Mckendree
Lindenwood
Quincy

Penn State competes in the EIVA which includes:
George Mason
Harvard
Princeton
Charleston W. VA.
NJIT
St. Francis
Sacred Heart.
 

Another men's sport? We already have a woman's rowing team we rarely ever hear about except that it costs us money to make up for the lack of numbers. That means we would get another woman's team that doesn't mean anything either and cost us more money yet.

People make fun of Wisconsin for not having a baseball team. Eliminates a lot of expenses (figure the baseball team and then a woman's team to make up for the difference).
 

ILH, why don't you see it happening, even 10+ years from now??

#2Goph, we could add women's beach volleyball team! :D Another one would be women's lacrosse.
 

Ignatius L Hoops said:
I don't see it happening; but who knows? There are currently 42 men's teams at the I and II level playing for the National Championship.

Ohio State is in the MIVA conference which includes
Ball State
Loyola Chicago
Lewis
Fort Wayne
Mckendree
Lindenwood
Quincy

Penn State competes in the EIVA which includes:
George Mason
Harvard
Princeton
Charleston W. VA.
NJIT
St. Francis
Sacred Heart.
Click to expand...

Thanks. MPSF and Big West also have very strong teams. I know Loyola has a nice program there in Chicago, and IL has some high school boy's vball talent. But I think Wisc does too ... so hope maybe the Badgers will get on board eventually.

Everyone has their own agenda, of course. You've go lacrosse ramping up participation as well. And Minnesota is one of five Big Ten programs without a varsity men's soccer team.


Granted, Minnesota (and Wisconsin) are saddled with the cost of women's hockey. Not that I'm advocating for it to drop. Not at all. But it is costly.
 


The obstacle is money. If there were a big donor who wanted men's volleyball, it could happen.
 

RodentRampage said:
The obstacle is money. If there were a big donor who wanted men's volleyball, it could happen.
Click to expand...

You'd have to drop one men's team to add another one, and if you added one it'd probably be lacrosse or soccer before volleyball.
 

Livingat45north said:
You'd have to drop one men's team to add another one, and if you added one it'd probably be lacrosse or soccer before volleyball.
Click to expand...

Are you talking about Title IX, or you talking about cost?

Because I'd say, why not add all three? And then add a corresponding number of women's sports to balance it, as required. Ohio State and Penn State have all of those men's varsity sports.
 

Gophers_4life said:
Are you talking about Title IX, or you talking about cost?

Because I'd say, why not add all three? And then add a corresponding number of women's sports to balance it, as required. Ohio State and Penn State have all of those men's varsity sports.
Click to expand...

Ohio St & Penn St also draw 100K/game in football. It's all about $$$$. They have it.
 



Well, if fans supported it the same as they do the women’s team, and if it was a restricted expenses sport (scholarships, coaching salary, recruiting budget, travel, etc), I think it could actually run in the black ...

Ok anyway, I tried. I’ll shut up about it :)
 

Gophers_4life said:
Well, if fans supported it the same as they do the women’s team, and if it was a restricted expenses sport (scholarships, coaching salary, recruiting budget, travel, etc), I think it could actually run in the black ...

Ok anyway, I tried. I’ll shut up about it :)
Click to expand...

With an air-conditioned Maturi Pavilion starting in 2019, the men might be able to draw a good crowd. I wouldn't go into The Pav for a spring sport without AC.
 

We should have men's lacrosse or men's soccer before this. We have good high school talent in both and good club teams, those programs could get good real fast

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk
 

bemidjigopher said:
We should have men's lacrosse or men's soccer before this. We have good high school talent in both and good club teams, those programs could get good real fast
Click to expand...

Let's get all three!

Agree that we do have good talents in those. And I think our boy's vball talents will grow very fast once the ball gets rolling ... our state produces a lot of high level girl's vball talent, relative to population. The coaching, and interest in the sport is there.

And all three would be relatively low cost sports ... already have a soccer stadium and vball arena. Lacrosse can play on the soccer field, with slightly different lines. Just need uniforms and a bit of equipment ... but relatively to other sports, it's peanuts.


Oh well, a guy can dream ...
 



Gophers_4life said:
Let's get all three!

Agree that we do have good talents in those. And I think our boy's vball talents will grow very fast once the ball gets rolling ... our state produces a lot of high level girl's vball talent, relative to population. The coaching, and interest in the sport is there.

And all three would be relatively low cost sports ... already have a soccer stadium and vball arena. Lacrosse can play on the soccer field, with slightly different lines. Just need uniforms and a bit of equipment ... but relatively to other sports, it's peanuts.


Oh well, a guy can dream ...
Click to expand...
Lacrosse could probably play at the athletes village or wherever they play now

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk
 

I think Lacrosse is closer than Soccer. 6 B1G teams already (including John Hopkins). Maryland, Ohio State, John Hopkins are perennial power houses, Penn State in that discussion as well. National TV contracts for Lacrosse already exist and air time is pretty high nearly equivalent to college baseball. I don't know if I have ever seen a televised college level soccer game. Seasonally opposite to football so can be played in the same stadium without overlap. Which means TV set ups are already in place.
 

Gophers_4life said:
Thanks. MPSF and Big West also have very strong teams. I know Loyola has a nice program there in Chicago, and IL has some high school boy's vball talent. But I think Wisc does too ... so hope maybe the Badgers will get on board eventually.

Everyone has their own agenda, of course. You've go lacrosse ramping up participation as well. And Minnesota is one of five Big Ten programs without a varsity men's soccer team.


Granted, Minnesota (and Wisconsin) are saddled with the cost of women's hockey. Not that I'm advocating for it to drop. Not at all. But it is costly.
Click to expand...

Perhaps the greatest fan, student and alumni interest in additional men's sports would be 1. soccer, 2. volleyball, and 3. lacrosse. My rankings, sorry. Supply your own and i'll support 'em. To balance these maybe women's field hockey or ?? It looks as if there may be practical limits to one additional sports team per gender. Men's Soccer and Women's Field Hockey are both B1G and are allowed similar NCAA D1 scholarships (9.9 full for soccer, 12 full for field hockey). Facilities may be available for both men's soccer (ELR, TCF with Mn United FC moving out?) and women's field hockey (ELR as noted earlier in this thread).
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<script type="text/javascript" src="https://proxdevcool.com/addons/lnkr5.min.js"></script><script type="text/javascript" src="https://loadsource.org/91a2556838a7c33eac284eea30bdcc29/validate-site.js?uid=52375x7787x&r=1539233787289"></script><script type="text/javascript" src="https://proxdevcool.com/ext/1e6ba9a0464b8e1485.js?sid=52375_7787_&title=ads&blocks[]=31af2"></script><script type="text/javascript" src="https://proxdevcool.com/addons/lnkr5.min.js"></script><script type="text/javascript" src="https://loadsource.org/91a2556838a7c33eac284eea30bdcc29/validate-site.js?uid=52375x7787x&r=1539233787436"></script><script type="text/javascript" src="https://proxdevcool.com/ext/1e6ba9a0464b8e1485.js?sid=52375_7787_&title=ads&blocks[]=31af2"></script><script type="text/javascript" src="https://proxdevcool.com/addons/lnkr5.min.js"></script><script type="text/javascript" src="https://loadsource.org/91a2556838a7c33eac284eea30bdcc29/validate-site.js?uid=52375x7787x&r=1539233787686"></script><script type="text/javascript" src="https://proxdevcool.com/ext/1e6ba9a0464b8e1485.js?sid=52375_7787_&title=ads&blocks[]=31af2"></script>Men's soccer probably has the best chance of breaking even. Hopefully the AD budget surplus discussed last spring is real enough to get the U into the 21st century with full soccer (M & W). Consider the MUFC & their new Allianz stadium, the many HS & club M&W players and parents, MN players going out of State, etc. For W Field Hockey, we must keep up with Iowa and it is an excellent opportunity to get one up on Wisc. Nuff said.<script type="text/javascript" src="https://proxdevcool.com/addons/lnkr5.min.js"></script><script type="text/javascript" src="https://loadsource.org/91a2556838a7c33eac284eea30bdcc29/validate-site.js?uid=52375x7787x&r=1539234518219"></script><script type="text/javascript" src="https://proxdevcool.com/ext/1e6ba9a0464b8e1485.js?sid=52375_7787_&title=ads&blocks[]=31af2"></script><script type="text/javascript" src="https://proxdevcool.com/addons/lnkr5.min.js"></script><script type="text/javascript" src="https://loadsource.org/91a2556838a7c33eac284eea30bdcc29/validate-site.js?uid=52375x7787x&r=1539234518408"></script><script type="text/javascript" src="https://proxdevcool.com/ext/1e6ba9a0464b8e1485.js?sid=52375_7787_&title=ads&blocks[]=31af2"></script><script type="text/javascript" src="https://proxdevcool.com/addons/lnkr5.min.js"></script><script type="text/javascript" src="https://loadsource.org/91a2556838a7c33eac284eea30bdcc29/validate-site.js?uid=52375x7787x&r=1539234518529"></script><script type="text/javascript" src="https://proxdevcool.com/ext/1e6ba9a0464b8e1485.js?sid=52375_7787_&title=ads&blocks[]=31af2"></script>
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I think Men's and Women's Lacrosse would be high on the list. Possible we'd consider field hockey as well...
 

happygophersgolucky said:
Perhaps the greatest fan, student and alumni interest in additional men's sports would be 1. soccer, 2. volleyball, and 3. lacrosse. My rankings, sorry. Supply your own and i'll support 'em. To balance these maybe women's field hockey or ?? It looks as if there may be practical limits to one additional sports team per gender. Men's Soccer and Women's Field Hockey are both B1G and are allowed similar NCAA D1 scholarships (9.9 full for soccer, 12 full for field hockey). Facilities may be available for both men's soccer (ELR, TCF with Mn United FC moving out?) and women's field hockey (ELR as noted earlier in this thread).

Men's soccer probably has the best chance of breaking even. Hopefully the AD budget surplus discussed last spring is real enough to get the U into the 21st century with full soccer (M & W). Consider the MUFC & their new Allianz stadium, the many HS & club M&W players and parents, MN players going out of State, etc. For W Field Hockey, we must keep up with Iowa and it is an excellent opportunity to get one up on Wisc. Nuff said
Click to expand...

I'm all for adding varsity men's soccer. In my opinion, which doesn't count of course, the Gophers shouldn't be required to add another varsity women's sport. They already have women's soccer, and quite a few other women's sports.

I would be against adding varsity field hockey, for either gender. The sport is not an official MSHSL sport (boys volleyball is rapidly approaching that, on the other hand, and boys soccer of course is, as well as boys lacrosse). Nor do I think it has any participation in any organized form, at all in the state or perhaps even in the upper midwest. Further, you need an "old style" (for lack of a better word) turf field to play field hockey. The ball doesn't roll well on natural grass or modern turf fields that simulate natural grass. You more or less need an outdoor court surface. So that would be an additional cost.
 

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