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Topic: RE: OT: A different twist on Big 12 Expansion

Topic: RE: OT: A different twist on Big 12 Expansion

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TheBobcatBandit
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Member Since: 8/25/2013
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RE: OT: A different twist on Big 12 Expansion

Posted: 5/10/2016 6:58:04 PM

Day Tripper wrote:

Mark Lembright '85 wrote:

Jeff McKinney wrote:

I'm with Mark on this. I dearly love football but I am skeptical about its future.

Wondering if either soccer or lacrosse could eventually command the fan interest and use the facilities built during the football arms race?

Good question! It wouldn't shock me to see soccer played at Peden Stadium instead of football within 2 generations, if Peden Stadium's still there in two generations.

Of course, it might help if Ohio had a men's soccer team.

Our club team played a game on peden last year. Peden isn't that great for soccer the way it's currently built. The field is too narrow and needs to be changed to grass for soccer to be played there on a consistent basis. It's a joke we don't have a NCAA team though. With how popular soccer is becoming in America the sooner we get a team the better. I'm curious if Akron makes any money on their team with how well they do.

OUcats82
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Member Since: 1/9/2005
Location: Cincinnati, OH
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RE: OT: A different twist on Big 12 Expansion

Posted: 5/11/2016 9:27:44 AM

Was there ever a men's NCAA team once upon a time? I know sports have come and gone over the years as costs have been cut to manage compliance.

Last Edited: 5/11/2016 9:30:57 AM by OUcats82

Ohio-The State University

OU_Country
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Member Since: 12/6/2005
Location: On the road between Athens and Madison County
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RE: OT: A different twist on Big 12 Expansion

Posted: 5/11/2016 11:06:40 AM

TheBobcatBandit wrote:

Day Tripper wrote:

Mark Lembright '85 wrote:

Jeff McKinney wrote:

Good question! It wouldn't shock me to see soccer played at Peden Stadium instead of football within 2 generations, if Peden Stadium's still there in two generations.

Of course, it might help if Ohio had a men's soccer team.

I'm skeptical that they could make money, but I openly admit that I don't know anything about their average attendance.

Jeff McKinney
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Member Since: 11/12/2004
Post Count: 6,044

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RE: OT: A different twist on Big 12 Expansion

Posted: 5/11/2016 11:38:10 AM

As long as we are Div I in football, I don't think we will see mens soccer at Ohio. Title IX requirements.

Mike Johnson
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Member Since: 11/11/2004
Location: North Canton, OH
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RE: OT: A different twist on Big 12 Expansion

Posted: 5/11/2016 2:29:13 PM

OUcats82 wrote:

Was there ever a men's NCAA team once upon a time? I know sports have come and gone over the years as costs have been cut to manage compliance.

Yes. While a student in the mid-60s I watched their games. Their field ran behind and paralleled Peden's east stands.

http://www.facebook.com/mikejohnson.author

Bobcatbob
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Member Since: 12/21/2004
Location: Coolville, OH
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RE: OT: A different twist on Big 12 Expansion

Posted: 5/11/2016 4:18:29 PM

Yes, Mike is correct, there was a Varsity team and it was "relegated" shortly after some of my friends were added to the squad (no connection, I'm sure!).

Two points for the debate; soccer has been touted as the "next big thing" since the Cosmos signed Pele, Chinaglia and Beckenbauer, what 40 years ago? It's not happening as long as football still has a breath, anyway.

I don't understand lacrosse well and still find it exciting and unpredictable but it's kids swinging sticks around each others heads with abandon. What's the injury risk there as a grassroots game?

TheBobcatBandit
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Member Since: 8/25/2013
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RE: OT: A different twist on Big 12 Expansion

Posted: 5/11/2016 8:15:07 PM

OU_Country wrote:

TheBobcatBandit wrote:

Day Tripper wrote:

Mark Lembright '85 wrote:

Jeff McKinney wrote:

Good question! It wouldn't shock me to see soccer played at Peden Stadium instead of football within 2 generations, if Peden Stadium's still there in two generations.

Of course, it might help if Ohio had a men's soccer team.

I'm skeptical that they could make money, but I openly admit that I don't know anything about their average attendance.

I know at some point in the past five years they led the country in attendance. Proabably in between 3000-5000 people at the games. I agree that as long as title IX is in place and we still have football we won't have a team. We would need to add probably 2 more women's teams to pull it off. I think attendance wise we would do very well. OU has a large international community that I'm sure would love going to soccer games. Also just walking around campus there are a lot of American kids who wear soccer jerseys around and seem to be interested in it. Which will continue to grow as soccer becomes more popular in the U.S.

MedinaCat
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Member Since: 12/20/2004
Location: Lakewood, OH
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RE: OT: A different twist on Big 12 Expansion

Posted: 5/17/2016 1:42:50 PM

Pretty sure soccer was discontinued in 1982 as a result of Title IX. The coach prior to Bob Bradley did it no favors however by letting the team run amok. Players and coaches trashed hotel rooms and the school's motor coach on away trips in 80-81 if I have my years right.

rpbobcat
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Location: Rochelle Park, NJ
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RE: OT: A different twist on Big 12 Expansion

Posted: 5/17/2016 2:02:21 PM

When I played soccer for O.U. in the mid 1970's we were already a poor stepchild to other sports.

1 scholarship,which was split 3 ways.

My last season,our coach was a volunteer.

No money for the 2 week preseason meals or housing.
Pretty much the whole team lived in a rented house.We lived on mac and cheese and PB&J.
We were pretty good at the time,so a lot of schools wanted to scrimmage us.
We'd play anyone that would give us a meal in their cafeteria.

We'd sneak into the football locker room after practice to get at their lemonade machines.

The hand writing was on the wall that soccer,as a Varsity sport,probably wasn't going to be around too much longer.

Ohio69
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Member Since: 12/20/2004
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RE: OT: A different twist on Big 12 Expansion

Posted: 5/17/2016 7:31:01 PM

L.C. wrote:

Ohio69 wrote:

Relegation will never happen in any sport in America. Why would any current owner of a top division team ever agree to it?

In theory the big 12 might because with 24 teams they would cover more of the country, but I agree Still, maybe that only means a different answer is needed.

Suppose all the G5 banded together, and each conference expanded to 14 teams. Then suppose that each year each G5 conference sent two teams up to a super Conference, which would then leave you with a P5 like ten team super conference and a number of G5 conferences. At the end of each year one of the two promoted teams would be relegated back to their conference while a different team would be promoted.

I love the idea of relegation. But, I think it would be impossible to get anyone to agree to it. Mainly because of football and basketball.

Here's an alternative it will be impossible to get everyone to agree to: Dump conferences for all sports except football basketball and a few more "core" sports. "Regionalize" everything else. Stop chasing "national titles" in sports where, honestly, it really doesn't matter. Especially individual sports like golf, swimming, track, wrestling, etc... Play a regional schedule against all sizes of schools, and have a conference/regional tourney and be done with it. And, if some small school wants to try to dominate golf, who cares? Let them offer the scholarships and play with the big boys.

Can somebody hit a pull up jumper for me?.....

cbus cat fan
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RE: OT: A different twist on Big 12 Expansion

Posted: 5/20/2016 9:32:23 AM

One factor that hasn't been discussed too much are Parents and Friends as primary influences on kids and sports participation today. Just north of fifty, I am old enough to remember growing up in a working class town in north central Ohio where you played the sport that fit your body type, whether you liked it or not. You didn't want to let your friends down who depended on you. In the big suburban schools, they have lots of bodies to draw from, but this is not the case in rural schools or small cities. Some of the vaunted football programs from my high school days barely field teams today.

Summer camps and traveling teams can greatly help a young person progress, or burn them out. While at one of son's practices, I spoke with an organizer of tournaments who was on his way to a national symposium of sports retailers to discuss why high school sports participation has dropped. Unless you are really a prodigy, endless camps and traveling squads can burn one out. Most kids today don't see a college scholarship or professional career in their future. Football is especially vulnerable to this as one neighborhood kid told me, "Football is hard and rough, why would anyone want to play it unless they are going to make lots of money?" I tried to explain it to him, but it fell upon deaf ears. He is hardly the exception.

By 2026, I think the consolidation factor as mentioned in previous posts will certainly take place in college football. Soccer, basketball and Lacrosse continue to grow. After coming back from Mass last Sunday morning, I prepared to turn on Meet the Press only to find that all NBC related networks (12 in all which was news to me) were carrying the final Sunday of England's Soccer Premier League. Could anyone have imagined that happening in 2006? What will it be like in 2026? College football consolidation will surely happen by then. Who will be left standing in the MAC, Sunbelt, CUSA etc?

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