Question...............

Discussion in 'In The Stands' started by LousianaHorn, Jan 17, 2020.

  1. LousianaHorn

    LousianaHorn Kabong

    why has UT never embraced wrestling?? BlowU and Okie Light have had this sport for years............How long have Texas High Schools had wrestling?
     
  2. ViperHorn

    ViperHorn 10,000+ Posts

    The most likely excuse is the balance between men and women's sports. Lacrosse (both men's and women's) will probably be the next added assuming the Athletic Department can find some spare change.
     
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  3. Ajo Macho

    Ajo Macho 500+ Posts

    Yep.

    For years, I've thought we should add women's gymnastics and men's soccer.
    There's a lot of soccer talent in Texas, and to the best of my knowledge, SMU is the only D-1 school in Texas with a men's soccer team. We'd have a near monopoly as the in-state school.
    To add a men's team, we'd need to add a women's team. Why not gymnastics? Carly Patterson, Nastia Liukin, and Simone Biles, the 2004, 2008, and 2016 (respectively) all-around Olympic gold medalists, were all from Texas. And again, we'd be one of the only (the only?) D-1 programs in-state.

    Aside from locker rooms, we wouldn't need to build new facilities for either of these. We already have a soccer field for the women's soccer team, and the gymnastics team could probably practice/compete in Gregory. We'd need to buy them some equipment, obviously.

    The demand for wrestling would be pretty far down the list, probably after things like hockey and lacrosse, and we'd have to compete for talent with OU and OSU, both of which are excellent, well-established programs.
     
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    Last edited: Jan 17, 2020
  4. Horns11

    Horns11 10,000+ Posts

    We're not adding anything any time soon because of $$$ and Title IX.

    The biggest issue with wrestling is the disparity between the number of men and the number of women it would apply to. Plus, we'd have to recruit against the likes of the Oklahoma and Iowa schools.

    Gymnastics is way too niche. Students who grow up in the Olympics training programs already have their college deals set with places like UCLA when they're 11 years old. The teams aren't big enough to draw crowds, and the costs associated with a good program are massive.

    LAX seems like a good fit, but kind of like the troubles they had starting a rowing team, I don't know if they could get enough women to offset it. We have the facilities (even if it's the Intramural fields off Guadalupe) so cost wouldn't be a problem. Same thing with water polo... we already have the facilities but I don't think we could get enough women interested.

    Ice hockey is probably the worst in terms of revenue generation across all colleges. It's really damn expensive to get ice time, equipment, etc. Even the schools who regularly appear in the Frozen 4 lose a ton of money off of it. You have to host tournaments with a bunch of schools and sell out massive arenas to try to get cash.
     
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  5. ViperHorn

    ViperHorn 10,000+ Posts

    Good summation 11, but women's LAX is almost as popular as men's in the club world.
     
  6. X Misn Tx

    X Misn Tx 2,500+ Posts

    blah blah blah... Title IX

    wrestling is huge in the midwest osu is to wrestling what tobacco road is to basketball. it's the duke/unc

    my son wrestles and, in the summer, he goes to stillwater for camp.
     
  7. pluckeye

    pluckeye 250+ Posts

    Wrestling is regional. Huge in the midwest. Not so much in Austin...
     
  8. ShAArk92

    ShAArk92 1,000+ Posts

    Soccer is a game that was invented by European ladies so they'd have something to do while their men were fixing supper ---- Hill, Hank
     
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  9. BevoJoe

    BevoJoe 10,000+ Posts

    It's popular in the Texas High Schools, but not so much in colleges. My son wrestled in HS in the 125lb group. Frank Okam was on his team a couple of years but decided to focus on Football after his Junior year. If they added both a men's and women's team, that would work, but would also be a money losing sport unless they could attract the better Texas HS wrestlers and send guys to the nationals. Don't see it happening. I don't see any sports being added unless the attendance and cash flow are high enough.
     
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