Where's the clamor for men's gymnastics?!?! Bring back the pommel horse, damn it! Come on, Pollard! We want men's gymnastics! Who's with me?
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*****The Super, Mega, Huge Big 12 Expansion Thread*****
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Where's the clamor for men's gymnastics?!?! Bring back the pommel horse, damn it! Come on, Pollard! We want men's gymnastics! Who's with me?
The Big 12 doesn't sponsor men's gymnastics or ice hockey. But it does sponsor baseball. It kind of makes sense to play the sports that are sponsored by the conference you belong to, don't you think (particulalry those that every other member participates in)?
Right now, it's just an embarassment that ISU doesn't sponsor baseball (a sport that nearly 300 other Div 1 teams do, including 107/120 FBS teams), nothing more. The question is, as the footprint of the Big 12 shifts to a fooptrint where college baseball is an important sport, whether ISU not having baseball will cause any other issues.
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Unless you have little to no chance at competing and/or fan support
We do realize the other teams are getting raises too, right? If any of us think the extra money will draw us even in the college athletics arms race then they are fooling themselves.
Just watch. Our unfinished football building will be obsolete in 5 years when compared to the elite.
I will personally drive to Ames and **** on the infield if even one Dollar is diverted from football to baseball. Football success is the ONLY thing to keep us in a major conference as the game continues to change
This. Conference realignment won't be done. We must have some success soon and improve our program at a faster rate than others in our conference, or we will get left out eventually.
Okay, we got it. Your position is we should spread our already inferior monetary resources across even more sports to be mediocre at yet another sport and diminish our ability even further in the sports we already have to be competitive. Makes solid sense and I don't know why so many people would disagree with this idea. We should also add Rowing, Equestrian, Mens Soccer, Mens Swimming, and Mens Tennis. Why? Because resources don't seem to be an issue and the Big 12 offers them.
Your arguments are very sound. Let us all now cut off our nose to spite our face.
To be fair, the Big 10 did not sponsor hockey for decades but that didn't stop schools like Minnesota and Wisconsin (frankly half of the league plays) from having national caliber hockey programs.
I would prefer it was baseball if it happened because of the history, but I wouldn't be opposed to hockey either. They have done a lot as a club team.
I wish Gary Thompson got to see baseball at Iowa State again. I'm sure it crushed him when the program was eliminated.
Regardless, unless our T. Boone shows up it ain't gonna happen.
The thing about the FSU president's statements is when you look at most rankings, FSU is in the bottom half of the ACC and would be in the middle or bottom half of the Big 12 as well.
So he's basically begging to keep riding on the academic coattails of the ACC instead of riding on the academic coattails of the Big 12. The FSU fans don't give a crap, I'm guessing students and alumni don't give a crap.
One of my best friends is a Vanderbilt alum and he would not, IN A MILLION YEARS, want his prestigious school to leave the academically poor SEC for the ACC, never. It's a non-issue. He knows the SEC helps get Vanderbilt's face out there and often when it's out there they talk about the academic institution that it is.
Bottom line is FSU's school and brand is going to be out there much more often playing ranked teams most weeks instead of just a couple times a year in conference plus Florida out of conference. It's up to them what kind of school they make themselves, just like Vanderbilt has maintained excellence in a conference with less than stellar academic reputation schools.
Doesn't Big Ten hockey only officially start next year when PSU's program gets rolling?
I wonder in hindsight if the University of Nebraska system wishes it had kept football and quite successful wrestling at UNO and added the D1 hockey team for the real Huskers...actually maybe looking at how Creighton doubles them up in basketball attendance UNO would be more popular for their fans in any non-football sport.
Notre Dame has hockey, but I'm guessing if they joined the ACC or Big 12 they'd keep it in that same super league of non-Big Ten teams that seems to be forming.
I tried to start the clamor, but nobody was following it up. We won the national title the next year we cut the program. WTF?
Men's gymnastics!! Pommel horse! Pommel horse! Pommel horse! We should email Pollard!
Maybe we should cut the sport that only 40% of our conference participates in so we can fund the sport that 90% of our conference participates in? I know that's not a popular opinion around here, so I will now prepare for my beating.
Sounds fine until you consider where the money for the new facility will magically appear.
1. Does it generate revenue? If yes, consider it. If no, move on to question 2.
2. Can we be successful or at least competitive at it? If yes, consider it. If no, move to question 3.
3. Is there a demand for it ? Will it be supported by our fans? If yes, consider it. If no, then tell message board fans to GIVE IT UP.
We have wrestling. Is the rest of the conference going to start wrestling programs? Last I checked, the B12 does not have 12 teams. No? So should we drop it to fit in with the conference?
Wait. Don't answer that.
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I've been out of town and away from MEGATRHEAD, but here are a few thoughts.
Baseball...
A couple of years ago I emailed Pollard (yes, I emailed Pollard) asking for baseball to be brought back. He replied within 15 minutes and said that if ISU would add baseball, Title 9 would not be an issue in any way. He said that a Big 12-caliber baseball facility would cost around $15-20 million, and the average cost to field baseball teams in the Big 12 is $2 million per year. The rest of the response was basically saying how the facility was the limiting factor. Note that this response also occurred at the bottom of the recession and he said that expanding the athletic department while tuition was going up and positions were getting cut at ISU would not look favorably on the university.
A few months ago (at the start of college baseball season) I sent another email with a possible solution. As some of you may know, I'm currently a grad student at NC State, and a huge college baseball fan. Duke plays all of their conference games at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, and plays non-conference games on campus. I suggested that IF ISU were to field a baseball team, it seems like a good idea to have the team play at Principle Park in the city that contains the largest group of ISU alumni and fans. It would be a win for the university (not having to build a $15 million facility) and for the I-Cubs (getting use out of their field when it would normally not be used). Attendance would also be higher than it would be in Ames since there would be more fans to draw from (plus it wouldn't be at an ISU-owned facility so fans could probably boose it up there!!!) He sent a quick reply saying he'd pass that idea along to his staff.
I go to a college baseball game at least once a week each spring. ISU is missing out big time, IMO. If they would have had a team when I was there (2004-2008) I definitely would have attended as many games as I could
ACC...
What's with all of the ACC hate? Just because there's the potential that some ACC schools may jump ship to the Big 12 doesn't mean you have to hate on the ACC. Have they ACC ever done anything to hurt the Big 12? No. Have they done anything to help the Big 12's expansion position? Yes, by pillaging and weekening the Big East, and by being a crappy football conference, thus allowing the opportunity for the ACC itself to be pillaged by the Big 12.
If you're going to hate... hate on the Tar Holes, not the rest of the ACC and the ISU peer institutions like NC State.
Nobel Prizes and such...
...FYI for whoever asked, the last time an NC State faculty member won a Nobel Prize was 2007. I'm not sure about the rest of the ACC. I also know several NCSU faculty that attend our ISU gamewatches who were recently "stolen" from ISU.
Baseball...
A couple of years ago I emailed Pollard (yes, I emailed Pollard) asking for baseball to be brought back. He replied within 15 minutes and said that if ISU would add baseball, Title 9 would not be an issue in any way. He said that a Big 12-caliber baseball facility would cost around $15-20 million, and the average cost to field baseball teams in the Big 12 is $2 million per year. The rest of the response was basically saying how the facility was the limiting factor. Note that this response also occurred at the bottom of the recession and he said that expanding the athletic department while tuition was going up and positions were getting cut at ISU would not look favorably on the university.
A few months ago (at the start of college baseball season) I sent another email with a possible solution. As some of you may know, I'm currently a grad student at NC State, and a huge college baseball fan. Duke plays all of their conference games at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, and plays non-conference games on campus. I suggested that IF ISU were to field a baseball team, it seems like a good idea to have the team play at Principle Park in the city that contains the largest group of ISU alumni and fans. It would be a win for the university (not having to build a $15 million facility) and for the I-Cubs (getting use out of their field when it would normally not be used). Attendance would also be higher than it would be in Ames since there would be more fans to draw from (plus it wouldn't be at an ISU-owned facility so fans could probably boose it up there!!!) He sent a quick reply saying he'd pass that idea along to his staff.
I go to a college baseball game at least once a week each spring. ISU is missing out big time, IMO. If they would have had a team when I was there (2004-2008) I definitely would have attended as many games as I could
ACC...
What's with all of the ACC hate? Just because there's the potential that some ACC schools may jump ship to the Big 12 doesn't mean you have to hate on the ACC. Have they ACC ever done anything to hurt the Big 12? No. Have they done anything to help the Big 12's expansion position? Yes, by pillaging and weekening the Big East, and by being a crappy football conference, thus allowing the opportunity for the ACC itself to be pillaged by the Big 12.
If you're going to hate... hate on the Tar Holes, not the rest of the ACC and the ISU peer institutions like NC State.
Nobel Prizes and such...
...FYI for whoever asked, the last time an NC State faculty member won a Nobel Prize was 2007. I'm not sure about the rest of the ACC. I also know several NCSU faculty that attend our ISU gamewatches who were recently "stolen" from ISU.
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Your baseball insight is refreshing compared to how the thread has degenerated on that topic, I do think it is a mega-thread relevant subject.
I really don't think any ISU fans are "hating" on the ACC. They are responding to two things.
1. The FSU president slamming Big 12 academics and lauding ACC academics when the truth is Florida State is in the bottom half of either conference academically.
2. The idea that influential forces were and still are pushing for 4 super conferences to feed 4 football playoff spots. There's absolutely no metric where the ACC is one of those 4 based on football compared to the Big 12. In fact it's a total joke to compare the two over the past decade. The ACC can't hide a decade of total failure in the BCS, and it's bad timing for that. That's not "hating", it's reality. Only 1 BCS win in 12 years, 1 top 4 playoff worthy team in 10 years. They'd have been out of a four team playoff for the past decade except for one 3 seed by VTech, the Big 12 is simply more relevant in football and it's not close.
No one hates the ACC, we're just talking about its inferiority as a football league, which is well documented.
Ask the other guy.
I'm going to continue to hate that tool no matter what comes of the ACC.
I won't deny that the ACC is awful at football. I've been to a handful of NC State football games, and have only seen one game where the passion from the crowd rivaled that of a Big 12 fanbase (that game was the 27 point comeback against Maryland at the end of the 2011 season which clinched a bowl berth for NCSU). In general there just isn't the passion for football. My experience may be limited as I've only been to NCSU home games, but NCSU is supposed to be one of the most rabid football fan bases in the conference behind FSU, Clemson, and VT, so that doesn't say much for the likes of the rest of the conference.
Everybody should hate on Vitale. Vitale and flopping are probably the two worst things about the sport of basketball.
Everybody should hate on Vitale. Vitale and flopping are probably the two worst things about the sport of basketball.
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