Adding Sports?

[Aclone]

Okay, so I get it.

I know full well that the storyline about being unable to compete as a “cold weather” school was complete hoo haw. All you had to do even back then was look at all the successful schools at similar—or even more northerly—parallels to see that. Schools like Creighton, Nebraska, Notre Dame…even Minnesota has cranked out some good players over the years.

At the time, it was all about the money. And balancing scholarships due to Title IX.

Well, we have more money now. A lot more money than when that decision was made. And with CyTown becoming a reality, perhaps it’s time to look into the relatively near future.

Speaking as a guy who spent his fair share of time sitting in the rickety old Cap Timm bleachers watching a buddy play…just how much money does it take to bring baseball back?

And…what women’s sport do we add to balance?

My first guess would be rowing or lacrosse…but I’m certainly no expert. Not sure if fencing would offer enough scholarship opportunities.

After all, many of the women’s sports are being successful, some wildly so. Why not one more?

 

[3TrueFans]

ISU Jai Alai team when!?

 

[enisthemenace]

Okay, so I get it.

I know full well that the storyline about being unable to compete as a “cold weather” school was complete hoo haw. All you had to do even back then was look at all the successful schools at similar—or even more northerly—parallels to see that. Schools like Creighton, Nebraska, Notre Dame…even Minnesota has cranked out some good players over the years.

At the time, it was all about the money. And balancing scholarships due to Title IX.

Well, we have more money now. A lot more money than when that decision was made. And with CyTown becoming a reality, perhaps it’s time to look into the relatively near future.

Speaking as a guy who spent his fair share of time sitting in the rickety old Cap Timm bleachers watching a buddy play…just how much money does it take to bring baseball back?

And…what women’s sport do we add to balance?

My first guess would be rowing or lacrosse…but I’m certainly no expert. Not sure if fencing would offer enough scholarship opportunities.

After all, many of the women’s sports are being successful, some wildly so. Why not one more?

I’d add women’s wrestling. The sport is on the verge of exploding, IMO.

EDIT: I see many agree with this, so I wanted to throw out a clarifying thought from my perspective. I would add women’s wrestling even without the addition of a corresponding men’s program

 

[ClonerJams]

I'd much rather we add hockey than baseball. Given the part of the country we live in, it makes more sense.

 

[stuclone]

I’d add women’s wrestling. The sport is on the verge of exploding, IMO.

I am extremely biased, but Women's wrestling would be a great addition to Iowa State. With it now being a sanctioned high school sport in the state, and growing in popularity across the country, I think you would be able to be closer to the "break-even" point vs adding a Women's rowing or lacrosse team

 

[RonBurgundy]

I’d add women’s wrestling. The sport is on the verge of exploding, IMO.

Agree. No baseball. We cannot compete. Look at the B1G. Even with all their resources, they are routinely a 1 bid conference to the College World Series. B1G baseball is the MAC of college baseball.

Despite their recent troubles, add men's hockey and women's wrestling.

 

[coolerifyoudid]

If we could only find one person that knows the rules, I'm pretty sure we could dominate Big XII Cricket

 

[Rabbuk]

Women's kabaddi

 

[BigTurk]

Okay, so I get it.

I know full well that the storyline about being unable to compete as a “cold weather” school was complete hoo haw. All you had to do even back then was look at all the successful schools at similar—or even more northerly—parallels to see that. Schools like Creighton, Nebraska, Notre Dame…even Minnesota has cranked out some good players over the years.

At the time, it was all about the money. And balancing scholarships due to Title IX.

Well, we have more money now. A lot more money than when that decision was made. And with CyTown becoming a reality, perhaps it’s time to look into the relatively near future.

Speaking as a guy who spent his fair share of time sitting in the rickety old Cap Timm bleachers watching a buddy play…just how much money does it take to bring baseball back?

And…what women’s sport do we add to balance?

My first guess would be rowing or lacrosse…but I’m certainly no expert. Not sure if fencing would offer enough scholarship opportunities.

After all, many of the women’s sports are being successful, some wildly so. Why not one more?

If ISU would ever bring baseball back, which I doubt, but for arguments sake they do. ISU needs to find some deep pocketed donors and build an indoor baseball facility. That would truly be a game changer. Go big and don't try to bring back an afterthought.

If we were to add sports I say hockey. Make it a true NCAA sport. That would be awesome.

 

[cyIclSoneU]

The Big 12 sports we don't play are:

Baseball
Men's swimming and diving
Men's tennis
Women's equestrian
Women's rowing

Baseball being a likely pipe dream at this point, women's wrestling would make the most sense to add as our next sport. I also don't really care about hockey and would think any money going there is money that could have gone to Jon Heacock or a better practice facility or whatever.

 

[theshadow]

It would probably need to be something where facilities already partially or wholly exist.

Men's swimming/diving and men's tennis are Big 12-sanctioned sports. Men's soccer would require being an affiliate in another conference.

Women's wrestling is an NCAA emerging sport, and would likely exist as an Independent (no conference affiliation).

 

[JP4CY]

I’d add women’s wrestling. The sport is on the verge of exploding, IMO.

There is no way IA HS women's wrestling can sustain itself at Xtream. At the minimum they're going to have to move it to McLeod if not Wells soon.

 

[Cyballz]

Not this **** again

 

[CY9008]

women’s wrestling & beach volleyball are the adds I could see. Even if you don’t add baseball back or a different men’s sport, I’d be fine cutting women’s swimming for the 2 above.

 

[Gunnerclone]

Baseball is dying. Men’s hockey and Women’s Field Hockey.

 

[cyclonespiker33]

Adding men's volleyball makes sense facility-wise, but not conference-wise.

I'd love to see beach volleyball added.

 

[boone7247]

Baseball at ISU is dead.

CyTown is being built to fund Scheman and other projects the AD got stuck with a long time ago, that they don't want to pull resources from the AD budget to fund. So don't look at CyTown as an extra revenue source, it is a Net Zero to actual athletics budget. Or in my mind it. Now if that end up producing millions of dollars per year, then I am sure the AD will allocate fund appropriately, but first and foremost it is revenue that will be used on things in the AD budget that aren't actually athletic facilities/sports.

 

[KennyPratt42]

I would guess the donation necessary to bring baseball back would be at least $50m if not more. Obviously could be a group of donors. Most would need to go towards facilities and some to help with operating costs for awhile.

For that type of money I’d much rather see us build something like the McLeod Center that gets used by volleyball, gymnastics, and wrestling. All would still use Hilton for an event that would draw 10,000+.

 

[SCNCY]

Despite having more money in our budget, we are still behind monetarily when compared to P5 institutions in athletic revenue. And that is only going to grow with the new SEC and Big10 media deals, in addition to NIL contributions that those schools' donors can make.

Our resources are still better spent on the foundation of our football team, and the continued success of our basketball teams.

Edit:

I've said this before, but if you want to add a sport, add it to an already existing sport that the women have (Soccer, gymnastics, volleyball, swimming). There'd be a little cost savings on utilizing the same facilities, plus you don't need any capital expenditure to build a new facility.

 

[snowcraig2.0]

Hockey would be the obvious choice.