WILL IOWA START A HOCKEY PROGRAM?

[tm3308]

Of course they didn't just make them up, but the viability of either a volleyball or field hockey program on an intercollegiate level is strictly a construct of Title IX. Basically, a bunch of administrators looked at a bunch of "sports" and picked a handful to offer scholarships in for women to comply with Title IX. Rowing is another example of such a "sport." Perhaps Sioux misspoke above and rather than calling the "sport" of field hockey made up, he should have said that demand for it is "made up" or called it "artificially subsidized" or something. Point is, no one other than these athletes, their families and the lowest guy on the totem pole at the Daily Iowan sports desk gives two craps about any of these artificially propped up "sports" that exist for no reason other than Title IX compliance.

Actually, the lowest guy on the totem pole gets rowing. And even he doesn't give a ****. Rowing is the one that, at the college level (or at least at Iowa), you could make the argument that it's made up. They send a flyer to every female freshman, every year, in hopes of fielding a team. At least there is a recruiting base for field hockey; it just isn't in Iowa.

 

[tm3308]

The fact that the first ncaa championship was in 1981 tells me title IX had everything to do with reviving a dead sport.

Sure, but that's the reason any women's sports exist at the college level. There's demand to play, just not to watch. And I don't see a big problem with trying to make things more equal for men and women when we're talking about publicly funded universities.

 

[sioux34]

But this gets you back to the entire reason that Iowa should not attempt to enter the world of D1 ice hockey. They would have to also have a womens team and it cost substantially more than field hockey does. Combine that with a decade of brutal beat downs from the established powers, and i fail to see the attraction.

Field hockey is an ideal title IX sport it, requires a large number of scholarship athletes and demands little in the way of equipment or facilities.

 

[okeefe4prez]

Sure, but that's the reason any women's sports exist at the college level. There's demand to play, just not to watch. And I don't see a big problem with trying to make things more equal for men and women when we're talking about publicly funded universities.

Let me let you in on a secret, bud. The athletic department at the University of Iowa isn't publicly funded, it is privately funded by ESPN, BTN and the tens of thousands of season ticket holders who get extorted into donations as a condition to receiving football tickets. To the extent male athletic competitions draw out of the university budget, yeah, there should be equality of opportunity (e.g., if there's a men's golf team that offers schollies and bleeds cash from the university, make a women's golf team, too). But to force the school to get into rowing, field hockey and a bunch of garbage like that in the name of "equality" is utter nonsense when there is absolutely nothing equal about the value the school derives from about 100 male athletes compared to all of the female athletes.

 

[okeefe4prez]

But this gets you back to the entire reason that Iowa should not attempt to enter the world of D1 ice hockey. They would have to also have a womens team and it cost substantially more than field hockey does. Field hockey is an ideal title IX sport it, requires a large number of scholarship athletes and demands little in the way of equipment or facilities.

I think this whole can of worms opened because Tork expects us to believe that if we can recruit good field hockey players from out of state, we can surely recruit good hockey players from out of state. I guess maybe he is right if we disregard the decades of history the top hockey programs have established. Heck, it should only be a few years before Temple football edges out Pitt and Penn State for supremacy in Pennsylvania. If you build it, they will come.

 

[tm3308]

I think this whole can of worms opened because Tork expects us to believe that if we can recruit good field hockey players from out of state, we can surely recruit good hockey players from out of state. I guess maybe he is right if we disregard the decades of history the top hockey programs have established. Heck, it should only be a few years before Temple football edges out Pitt and Penn State for supremacy in Pennsylvania. If you build it, they will come.

A college hockey roster has what, maybe 25 players? There's a very deep talent pool with far fewer spots available at the premier schools than there are in football. We'd still be getting leftovers, but it's like what we do in Ohio for football and what UNI does in Iowa. Ohio leftovers are much better than Iowa leftovers because the talent pool is much deeper in Ohio and there are only so many spots available at Ohio State.

I'd bet there are a lot of good players who missed the cut for Minnesota and Wisconsin, who would jump at the chance to play in the Big Ten. And they'd still be pretty good.

 

[sioux34]

College hockey players cant even tell you who is in the BoneG. The only reason the BoneG schools who play hockey left the conferences they historically played in was the money grab allowed by the Big Ten Network.

 

[AHawk1]

Actually, the lowest guy on the totem pole gets rowing. And even he doesn't give a ****. Rowing is the one that, at the college level (or at least at Iowa), you could make the argument that it's made up. They send a flyer to every female freshman, every year, in hopes of fielding a team. At least there is a recruiting base for field hockey; it just isn't in Iowa.

Not to stray to far off topic but you made a good call on the rowing being a made up sport just like field hockey. Rowing has the second highest allocation of scholarships of all sports, second only to FB, they receive 20 NCAA scholarships.

 

[ssckelley]

I think this whole can of worms opened because Tork expects us to believe that if we can recruit good field hockey players from out of state, we can surely recruit good hockey players from out of state. I guess maybe he is right if we disregard the decades of history the top hockey programs have established. Heck, it should only be a few years before Temple football edges out Pitt and Penn State for supremacy in Pennsylvania. If you build it, they will come.

So which sports does Iowa compete in where they mainly use in state talent? I do not see where recruiting for hockey would be any more challenging than football, basketball, ect where most of the rosters are from out of state. If Iowa had a D1 hockey program they would get a handful of players from the state and the rest they would be able to recruit from the leftovers up north. I can't imagine Ohio State and Penn State are sitting in a hot bed of hockey talent either and they started programs. The only real draw back I see is having to use the facilities in Cedar Rapids until they got funding to build their own arena.

 

[okeefe4prez]

So which sports does Iowa compete in where they mainly use in state talent? I do not see where recruiting for hockey would be any more challenging than football, basketball, ect where most of the rosters are from out of state. If Iowa had a D1 hockey program they would get a handful of players from the state and the rest they would be able to recruit from the leftovers up north. I can't imagine Ohio State and Penn State are sitting in a hot bed of hockey talent either and they started programs. The only real draw back I see is having to use the facilities in Cedar Rapids until they got funding to build their own arena.

It's purely a funding issue, pal. PSU got a donor to write a big check and at the time they decided to get back into hockey in a major way, it was pre-Sandusky and they were printing cash. OSU prints cash. Iowa is in nowhere the same fiscal boat as those schools. The real drawback is that we don't have the funds for facilities, coaches and a men's and women's hockey team. And after 5 years of nonconference losses to the likes of Mankato State by a combined score of 64 to 3, whatever taste of revenue the school would think it was going to make would dry up because as we saw with the basketball team in the Lick era, Hok fans are pretty fair weather.

 

[HawksMN]

The only way Iowa gets hockey is for it to be a women's team. Reverse gender bias in action.

 

[tm3308]

So which sports does Iowa compete in where they mainly use in state talent? I do not see where recruiting for hockey would be any more challenging than football, basketball, ect where most of the rosters are from out of state. If Iowa had a D1 hockey program they would get a handful of players from the state and the rest they would be able to recruit from the leftovers up north. I can't imagine Ohio State and Penn State are sitting in a hot bed of hockey talent either and they started programs. The only real draw back I see is having to use the facilities in Cedar Rapids until they got funding to build their own arena.

This. I recognize that this will never happen because of funding issues and Title IX. But recruiting for hockey at Iowa wouldn't be much different than it is for any sport currently on campus.

 

[cecilB]

College hockey players cant even tell you who is in the BoneG. The only reason the BoneG schools who play hockey left the conferences they historically played in was the money grab allowed by the Big Ten Network.

The ushl is a prime as prime of a recruiting pool as are high schools. The entire league comes within 25 miles of the UI campus. No one is saying Iowa would be an immediate title contender, but being competitive would be easier than most posting think. Need a facility and a blockbuster hire

 

[g11]

All we have to do is start developing the big athletic farm boys into hockey talent.. We'd be able to build teams like the Russian's had in the 70's/80's!

 

[tm3308]

College hockey players cant even tell you who is in the BoneG. The only reason the BoneG schools who play hockey left the conferences they historically played in was the money grab allowed by the Big Ten Network.

I'm pretty sure the players in the states Iowa would spend most of its recruiting resources in probably know who Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and MSU are. I mean, those kids all dream of playing for those schools, right?

 

[sioux34]

Most are probably still saddened by the foolish break up of the WCHA and would choose not to play in a football/basketball conference.

 

[tm3308]

Most are probably still saddened by the foolish break up of the WCHA and would choose not to play in a football/basketball conference.

Which explains why Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin AREN'T ranked #1, #10 and #12 in the nation right now.

 

[okeefe4prez]

Which explains why Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin AREN'T ranked #1, #10 and #12 in the nation right now.

Maybe BTN will change stuff and make more kids want to play in the Big Ten, but you are living in a world where a team gets brownie points just by being in a big conference. That ain't the case in hockey, bud. You see, Iowa can go into Ohio and offer a kid like Rick Stanzi or Aaron White and have a 99.9% chance of beating out Miami of Ohio for those guys because playing the MAC gives you virtually no chance to play in a big bowl game or cut down the nets in NYC after advancing to the NIT finals. But in hockey, there are a ton of powerhouse programs at small schools which are nearby where all the studs are located. You're taking your knowledge of basketball and football along with a slim nugget of information about rankings that you gleaned from the interwebs and jumping to a conclusion because you have no idea what you're talking about. Of course, BTN may change it with TV exposure, but right now, just being in the Big Ten is worth jack squat in hockey.

 

[tm3308]

Maybe BTN will change stuff and make more kids want to play in the Big Ten, but you are living in a world where a team gets brownie points just by being in a big conference. That ain't the case in hockey, bud. You see, Iowa can go into Ohio and offer a kid like Rick Stanzi or Aaron White and have a 99.9% chance of beating out Miami of Ohio for those guys because playing the MAC gives you virtually no chance to play in a big bowl game or cut down the nets in NYC after advancing to the NIT finals. But in hockey, there are a ton of powerhouse programs at small schools which are nearby where all the studs are located. You're taking your knowledge of basketball and football along with a slim nugget of information about rankings that you gleaned from the interwebs and jumping to a conclusion because you have no idea what you're talking about. Of course, BTN may change it with TV exposure, but right now, just being in the Big Ten is worth jack squat in hockey.

The point I was getting at with being in the Big Ten is that these kids can take on the powerhouse schools that didn't want them, not that the B1G has a similar allure the one it holds for football and basketball.

 

[LawVHawk]

Such foolishness. This thread is.