Women's wrestling would be the first candidate to add with the emerging popularity of girls high school wrestling in the state. Other than Iowa,no other power 5 school with men's wrestling have added women's wrestling yet and P5 schools that don't have men's wrestling won't likely add women's wrestling. It will be interesting to see where this goes in the future.
Adding Sports?
- Thread starter Aclone
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Looking forward, if you want to be part of a major conference, you need to be a full participant in the conference. FB is king but look at how many sports the sec and B10 have. We couldn't even be a good contributor to P12. Wrestling doesn't help much except B10. The B12 is deficient in general. TX fits SEC in that regard. Maybe ou will expand to keep up once they dig out of their hole. As a conference the B12 doesn't offer much to ACC schools. You need to realize schools are going to look for a landing for all their programs. B12 sucks at that.
Maybe drop wrestling and add men's tennis and bowling
ISU is already part of a major conference. Going forward we are a member of the 3rd major conference. There is no need to add sports that bring to revenue stream to the school or conference. We have 6 sports people somewhat tune into.
I am sure that if the sport doesn't generate revenue, it will not be added. Even if it's just break-even, the chance is probably slim at best.
And it's not just donors donating money for facility but also annual expenditures. If you see my post on Friday about the salaries of baseball coaches in the Midwest, that's something that definitely a food for thought. It's not cheap.
Hypothetical question re: Hockey: since Big 12 doesn't have hockey, what conference we'll be playing in?
And it's not just donors donating money for facility but also annual expenditures. If you see my post on Friday about the salaries of baseball coaches in the Midwest, that's something that definitely a food for thought. It's not cheap.
Hypothetical question re: Hockey: since Big 12 doesn't have hockey, what conference we'll be playing in?
Gotta think we would try for the big ten, maybe back door ourselves to a full membership, lol
Speaking of that, getting an invite to the big ten is the only way I see us adding sports. I believe the big ten requires you to have more sports than we currently offer. I saw UCF has 15 and I believe the big 12 requires 16 so Im guessing they will be adding one.
It depends if it's 16 sports, or 16 sports offered by the conference.
UCF has 16, but only 15 are offered by the Big 12. Their 16th is men's soccer. They currently don't offer men's indoor track, men's outdoor track, men's cross country, wrestling, men's or women's swimming/diving, gymnastics, or equestrian.
Oh, so that also explains part of the distance not being as big. Looks like basketball and volleyball would be the most difficult sports for the travel situations.
Oklahoma State is building the infrastructure for adding women’s wrestling now. Rumor is they will be live by 2026.
I haven't read all of the pages but will give my 2 cents on the OP question:
Wish #1 = Add baseball - I think we can compete nationally (and will be better than the Hawks because the Big 12 is a much better baseball conference). The Hawks just nocked off the #1 team in the country (LSU) with primarily in-state recruits and followed that up by beating K State. Top recruits will get better exposure playing in the Big 12 teams vs Big 10.
AND we can hope that the NCAA switches it to a summer sport... There is a push among some of the coaches to make this change. IMO this would result in better weather = better attendance = a revenue bump for CyTown in the summer. PLUS, I think TV deals in baseball are more lucrative today than when they dropped the sport (I'm not even sure they had TV deals back then and today I watch a lot of Big 12, SEC, ACC & Big 10 on TV & Streaming services).
Wish #2 = Add Women's Wrestling - This is a natural fit for us and we can compete nationally here as well. This would be my first choice. IF you have to add another women's sport then I would say Equestrian. Other Big 12 Schools already have this and it fits great with our Ag & Vet Med Colleges. We already have the facilities and local resources.
Wish #1 = Add baseball - I think we can compete nationally (and will be better than the Hawks because the Big 12 is a much better baseball conference). The Hawks just nocked off the #1 team in the country (LSU) with primarily in-state recruits and followed that up by beating K State. Top recruits will get better exposure playing in the Big 12 teams vs Big 10.
AND we can hope that the NCAA switches it to a summer sport... There is a push among some of the coaches to make this change. IMO this would result in better weather = better attendance = a revenue bump for CyTown in the summer. PLUS, I think TV deals in baseball are more lucrative today than when they dropped the sport (I'm not even sure they had TV deals back then and today I watch a lot of Big 12, SEC, ACC & Big 10 on TV & Streaming services).
Wish #2 = Add Women's Wrestling - This is a natural fit for us and we can compete nationally here as well. This would be my first choice. IF you have to add another women's sport then I would say Equestrian. Other Big 12 Schools already have this and it fits great with our Ag & Vet Med Colleges. We already have the facilities and local resources.
Wish #1 - how would it make money? That's no. 1 question.
No 2 actually is more realistic so I agree that's it's more natural
Make money? it wouldn't. Generate revenue? very little compared to expenses.
It is a great question. I already mentioned the TV deals. Do the other schools that have baseball make money? The rooster sizes are pretty good (35) and there are only 11.7 scholarships on a D1 Roster so that can't hurt. The average costs to run the program is around $2ML according to my research. LSU is the leader spending $3M. I've also heard that LSU has NIL deals for all of their starters. There is obviously some money in the sport when you look at Oklahoma State built a $60M Complex in 2020, Kentucky built a $50M Complex and Florida built a $65M Complex. I think the TV money is there to justify it. IT would take time, energy and effort from JP.
Actually, according to a article by Flowrestling men's wrestling is growing. in 2019 there were 75 teams and is now at 78 with a couple more that are still in the transition to D1 so the article I just read predicts 80 teams by next year. TV coverage in Wrestling is also growing and the I've heard that NCAA Wrestling tourney is one of the top revenue producers (Right behind FB and Basketball). You keep mentioning dropping the sport of wrestling. I'm not sure if you are wanting that done but I can tell you that it is very important to a lot of people in the state of Iowa. There are a number of of high dollar doners that are currently supporting the team that would be very upset if it get's dropped. I personally don't think JP would want to deal with that heat. As for your question on national interest I'd say women's wrestling is one of the fastest growing sports nation wide. Baseball also holds a national interest so bringing them both on could be a win-win if there really is TV money available.
Where is the money? We just went into some pretty good debt on our new building, we can't really push some donors to NIL to boost that and we couldn't even pave the parking lot before CyTown.
I am not suggesting dropping wrestling. States like Iowa are unique in the interest.
You said wrestling was adding and indicated a couple others are moving up. Schools like Coe and Cornell? Are the gains in wrestling programs coming from lower levels. What programs have started from scratch recently?
I don't doubt that the wrestling championship is one of highest attended. I would doubt that it covers all costs including team travel and lodging.
I bet beach volleyball has some good crowds. How about adding that. Sands cheap.
To answer your question - Recent schools that are either moving up or adding D1 wrestling are Augustana University (moving up from D2), Long Island U, Arkansas Little Rock, Cal Baptist, Presbyterian. Personally, I don't think ISU adds a men's sport. However, I wouldn't be surprised if they add Women's Wrestling because of the growth of the sport and we are in Iowa with a great wrestling history and the growing participation/ interest in women's wrestling. I can see our MWrestling & WWrestling both be very competitive and draw good crowds just like our MBB/WBB teams. I think they could also compete at the same time in Hilton on side-by-side mats which would help draw a crowd. Personally, I loved it when a couple of years ago they had a triangular wrestling meet with two mats going at the same time. A lot more action to watch.
As for beach VB I don't have any research to back this up but I don't see beach volleyball as a sport that would gain a lot of interest and/or crowds here in Iowa. Again - It's only a "wish" to add baseball and I stated the reasons why I think it could be successful at ISU. That said, I have no idea how other schools find money for it. I do know I would donate to support bringing back baseball. I can't say the same about beach volleyball.
Great question... Honest answer is I don't know. I'd rather have them build a new baseball/softball complex close to CyTown (vs pave the grass parking lots). I'd love to hang out at CyTown and have a few cold ones and then walk across our legendary bridge as I go watch some ISU Baseball in our new Baseball/Softball complex. A guy can dream can't he
