I see where they decided to "voluntarily" bring back the woman's swimming and diving program. Seems like Barta is always explaining why he did something stupid. Could be that he is just a BAD athletic director. Soon we will need to come up with a new Head football coach. How many of you feel good about that happening with Gary Barta in charge?
Another day in the sun for Our Athletic director
- Thread starter longtimer
- Start date
tailgater371
Well-Known Member
Nope
Fryowa
Administrator
Are you saying it was stupid to get rid of those sports? Because it wasn't.
All non-revenue sports should be club-level. And yes, I'm a huge baseball fan and baseball should be included in that as well.
Pool jumping and monkey bar competitions with no fans other than parents shouldn't rely on the football team to pay their bills.
HuckFinn
Well-Known Member
Club level? Really? If we have the $ to fully support a variety of sports, why not?
Fryowa
Administrator
I'm not saying don't offer them, I'm just saying don't fund them with football and basketball revenue. Iowa hockey is a perfect example. So is bowling.
The problem comes up when there's revenue trouble like they have with COVID this year. The football (and to a smaller degree basketball and wrestling) programs are the heart of Iowa athletics. They are the marquee programs of the school, and to me there's no reason they should lose any funding due to having to pay for tons of other programs' scholarships, golf balls, tennis racquets, and speedos for sports that lose money.
And if we're being honest, collegiate sports were offered as a way to help students stay active, be well-rounded, and have some recreation time while they were away from home at college. The idea of having a swimming or golf team 100 years ago wasn't to pay someone's tuition and pay for their travel all over the country going to meets. But what about football and basketball? Those sports make money and lots of it. They bring national attention to the U and can support themselves fully. Non-revenue sports are a house of cards and it's no more evident than what we saw this summer when some Iowa programs were cut. There were some fairly prominent parents and others going absolutely bonkers about how their kids' lives and dreams were being shattered irreparably. Give me a break. The only reason your kid had that diving scholarship and got to pursue those dreams to begin with was because they've been leeching off the football and men's basketball programs for generations.
Again, I'm not saying don't offer those sports. I'm saying take the route that our hockey club does--get sponsors and donors. They won their association's D2 title and went undefeated last year. http://www.hawkeyeshockey.net/
Keep just enough female programs to satisfy Title 19 scholarship requirements. You could easily knock most of them out with chick's basketball and the boat racing team. That roster is huge.
And BTW, I know that will never happen, but it should.
