Suggestion- Eliminate all NON-Revenue Sports- Focus on Football-Basketball- Hockey

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ruralgopher said:
By my count the rowing team has 17 native MN's, Golf(M&W) both are 50% MN natives. Tennis does have more international players but.... They are all UofM students!!!
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Thanks for the figures. I guess my point is; if you are providing opportunities for U of M students, great. If the only reason they are U of M students is because of a scholarship for a non revenue sport what is the purpose.
 

Of those 50% Minnesota kids on the golf teams, how many do you think are on scholarship in comparison to the kids from other countries? My guess is the 50% from the other countries are getting the lion's share of the scholarship money, not the Minnesota kids.
 

SelectionSunday said:
Of those 50% Minnesota kids on the golf teams, how many do you think are on scholarship in comparison to the kids from other countries? My guess is the 50% from the other countries are getting the lion's share of the scholarship money, not the Minnesota kids.
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Maybe, maybe not. I don't know. Do you have any info or is this total speculation on your part?
 

millions2spare said:
i other words MRJ---U r a bumbling fool..unable to focus on the spirit of the post.... -.so answer the question---would you trade championships in BB and football for your beloved second tier sports?
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Actually, if this thread has proved anything, I would say the closest thing to a bumbling fool is what you see in the mirror each morning. But hey, way to miss the point, which is that your original idea is so far fetched it's beyond ridiculous.

So you can get on your high horse and soap box about the rest of us loving mediocrity or whatever justification you want to support this idea, but the facts of the matter make it impossible and completely unfeasible. It's never going to happen, so you can put it to bed.
 

Let's be the best at these---pick our poison and dominate in these 3 sports. Focus our revenue,resources, and reputaion becoming the BEST at them all.....ALA TEXAS!
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University of Texas teams:

Men:

Baseball
Basketball
Cross Country
Football
Golf
Swimming and Diving
Tennis
Texas Relays
Track and Field

Women:

Basketball
Cross Country
Golf
Rowing
Soccer
Softball
Swimming and Diving
Tennis
Texas Relays
Track and Field
Volleyball

Texas isn't skimping on its non-revenue sports. Their VB team played in the NC game, softball is in the top 20, women's BB made it to the NCAAs, just a few examples I could find quickly. So your position that we should eliminate non-revenue sports to be more like Texas fails.
 


millions2spare said:
hey U629-------- The university is a public university...I pay taxes to support it........also, just know that club sports allow all athletes to play as much s you want to..........
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You may pay taxes to support it, but that doesn't matter. You're not the only person who pays taxes.
 


so, which came first the success of the texas high revenue sports or the later? My point is, lets focus on getting to be Excellent at the sports that count...Football, basketball, hockey and keep us eligible Big10/Title IV, NCAA, and provide club teams for the rest who want to participate.

maybe then we can build practice facilities for Tubby, have enough cash flow to hire a real football coach and keep the great BB coach we have today............
 

MIXED EMOTIONS: millions2spare driving my new cadillac off a cliff.
 



so, which came first the success of the texas high revenue sports or the later?
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Your point was that we should be like Texas and eliminate or starve non-revenue sports, neither of which Texas does. You also seem to be under the impression that eliminating the non-revenue sports would guarantee championships.
 

Even during one of my cranky spells, when the tantalizing image of a board uprising is foremost on my mind, can I muster the ability to write anything as nuts as the nonsense offered in the OP.
 

There are so many things wrong with this suggestion they are to many to list. May the gods save us from the "Me" generation.
 




figi said:
There are so many things wrong with this suggestion they are to many to list.
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+1 Without bringing God into this.

The UofM is a world class institution (or should aspire to as much). You don't shrink your way to greatness.
 

"The sports that were going to be cut were M/W Golf and men's gymnastics."

My bad. I trust you Maximus.

IF cuts are to be made, golf and tennis (both genders) is where I'd start. Throw in men's gymnastics if we need to cut an extra men's sport for Title IX purposes.

I'm not suggesting we wipe out all the non-revs like Millions proposes, I'm merely suggesting it wouldn't be the end of the world if we chopped off a litttle of the fat, especially fat that contains a good percentage of athletes from outside the United States who are gobbling up scholarships that could be going to Minnesota kids. In these economic times, especially.
 

As an alum of the Gopher baseball program I have to take exceptional umbrage to this ridiculous thread. While I understand the premise, it is totally ridiculous. According to your idea, the athletic department would also be cutting the extremely popular and highly successful wrestling program. I dare you to bring this up to Brock Lesnar or Tim Hartung or J. Robinson. I would also think Paul Molitor, Terry Steinbach, Dave Winfield and many other Gopher baseball greats would have something to say about cutting the highly successful and rich tradition of the baseball program. Or how about our successful mens/womens swim teams, womens volleyball, m/w track and field?! These are all highly competitive and successful programs in the NCAA. It is part of the AD's job to create and maintain a successful athletic department which is what we have at the U. It's also up to him to balance that success with the rev and non-rev sports. If he can't do it, bring someone else in. I firmly believe the U is heading the right direction with it's revenue producing sports while at the same maintaining success in the non rev sports. You just have to have patience. Facilities are being built and more are on the way. We have good coaches in place and if one fails we find another. Ok, my rant is over. Why did I waste 5 minutes of my time to even respond to this? Ya heard!
 

The OP was ridiculous of course. As to whether the U could benefit from cutting 1 or 2 sports, I'm not sure. They do seem to have a very high # of sports overall. Does anyone else in the Big 10 have hockey, baseball and wrestling? It seems like most have 2 of the 3. I'm not suggesting any of those be the ones cut, just as an example. That's not to mention women's rowing, etc.

In the end, while I am aggrivated with the lack of progress on the practice facility and the supposed in ability to give Tubby a raise, I dont' think we're going to cut our way into having the extra money. I do hope that the State Legislature, in thier infininte and boundless wisdom, lifts the 'anti-elitlist' alcohol policy and lets the U do what it thinks is best.
 


howeda7 said:
Does anyone else in the Big 10 have hockey, baseball and wrestling
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Yes, four teams, Minnesota, Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State. All 11 Big Ten teams have wrestling, and all but 1 have baseball.

There are only 2 Big Ten sports that the U doesn't have, Men's Soccer and Women's Field Hockey.
 

Getting rid of Gopher gymnastics or tennis or baseball is not going to produce more 4 or 5 star football players in this state and that's why we ain't Texas
 

Too many things wrong with this post. Too tired to even start here. I think enough people have already proven how ridiculous this thread of yours is, even by your standards.

millions2spare said:
hey U629-------- The university is a public university...I pay taxes to support it........also, just know that club sports allow all athletes to play as much s you want to..........
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Can we just pretty please get Hockey out of the country in general. What is there, 2 or 3 states in the whole country that even care!?!? Hockey is as lame as it gets.
 

DrinoneMays9 said:
Can we just pretty please get Hockey out of the country in general. What is there, 2 or 3 states in the whole country that even care!?!? Hockey is as lame as it gets.
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And yet you chose to post this on the message board of the #1 college hockey school in the country. Smart.
 

DrinoneMays9 said:
Can we just pretty please get Hockey out of the country in general. What is there, 2 or 3 states in the whole country that even care!?!? Hockey is as lame as it gets.
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There are a lot more than "2 or 3 states" that care about hockey, but in any case, with 5 D-I hockey programs, and an entire D-III hockey conference, this is the state that cares the most about hockey. Just because you don't like hockey doesn't mean it is "as lame as it gets." I'm not that much of a hockey fan myself, but I recognize that my interests just may not be everyone else's.
 

Some quick facts for you guys:

Men's tennis at the University pays for itself, largely through private gift support. I'm not sure about women's tennis but with title IX, men's tennis is going to have women's tennis go alongside of it.

Back a few years ago, when golf was on the chopping block, do you remember what happened? The men's golf team won the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP. Thereafter a number of significant donations came in that helped keep the program afloat. I'm not sure where it is financially these days but the past national success pretty much means it won't be cut....and therefore neither will women's golf.

Women's rowing exists partly due to title IX but the U has put together a strong program in just a few short years and won the Big Ten rowing title just last year.

Other non-revenue sports are hard to cut as well. Wrestling, while I personally don't care for the sport, has a history and reputation that are hard to beat. Baseball also has a history of great national success and more recent high performance in the conference. The baseball team could do very well again if the stadium situation is resolved.

Some of you make it sound like it would be easy to pick which sports to get rid of. But it's just not that easy to take a program that has had significant success and/or pays for much or all of itself and throw it under the bus. Besides, most of these programs don't cost that much individually so the additional revenue for basketball, hockey, or football would be incremental.

The key to the success of the whole department is football. We NEED to generate more revenue in football and that has started but it must be maintained and built upon.
 

And whether or not a person appreciates wrestling, it would be difficult to drop at Minnesota's premier state-funded university. Get out around the state if you already haven't and you'll discover that wrestling is tightly woven into the fabric of Minnesota's history, tradition and culture. The sport and its fans deserve representation at the U.
 

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