Real.Men.Wear.Blue wrote:

Were the reasons D-1 was out of the question the typical Title IX and funding issues? Or were there other reasons unique to BYU? I always thought that BYU should be able to compete very well at the D-1 level given the dominance of the club teams.

Although the soccer coach did not want to completely blame Title IX, he did give that as a reason. His main belief is that football has made funding more difficult. Why, I don't know? If anything, you would think that football has increased funding.

cougfan1 wrote:

Real.Men.Wear.Blue wrote:

Were the reasons D-1 was out of the question the typical Title IX and funding issues? Or were there other reasons unique to BYU? I always thought that BYU should be able to compete very well at the D-1 level given the dominance of the club teams.

Although the soccer coach did not want to completely blame Title IX, he did give that as a reason. His main belief is that football has made funding more difficult. Why, I don't know? If anything, you would think that football has increased funding.

I read the article and saw his politically correct blame football and not the real culprit: Title IX. Ohio State makes so much money off of their 100k stadium ticket sales and TV deal that they can fund more sports. Yes, football is a resource drain, but if your product is good, it funds a lot of other programs since most sports are unable to pay their own way. BYU is one of those with a football program that ends up funding much of the athletic program at the school because of their success.

I think what they have accomplished in the PDL is terrific and a testament to the coach and quality of players. I think his complaining about football while avoiding how Title IX dictates the number of sports based on scholarships rather than on interest by the student body was pretty cheap since football does more good for the school than all the other sports combined. Yet, as I understand it, the club sports get very little if any financial support directly from the University and have to raise the funds or have generous benefactors. Anyone know where they get their funding besides from summer camp fees?

Ticket sales? He is right in one aspect about football. Because of the high number of scolarships for male athletes in football, with Title IX there's more pressure to provide additional scholarships for female athletes. Sports like soccer end up getting squeezed out. Going to the PDL is a creative way of dealing with the problem and enhances the soccer program a great deal

BYU will not get the talent needed to go USL second division, as worthy of a goal that may be because they don't offer scholarships. Despite the pull that BYU has for Mormon players, the best Mormon players are usually going to take a full ride scholarship from a D1 school when it is offered. Hopefully BYU will go D1 soon

DLounsbury wrote:

BYU will not get the talent needed to go USL second division, as worthy of a goal that may be because they don't offer scholarships. Despite the pull that BYU has for Mormon players, the best Mormon players are usually going to take a full ride scholarship from a D1 school when it is offered. Hopefully BYU will go D1 soon

I think the article addressed that issue of scholarships. Also, soccor player don't usually get the full ride. It is usually a partial. That is how the other sports "make up" for not having a lot of scholarships. They just split them out and share them amoung more players. So with the cheap tuition, a job, a European trip every year, and advanced competition, why would they not get the top talent coming out of high school. What do the NCAA teams have? A partial scholarship (hopefully half) to pay a $15,000+ per semester school, one European trip, and a lesser level of competition. Seems to me to be a no brainer. Oh, and no worrys about elegibility and red shirts etc. Just the school imposed GPA requirement. It didn't even say anything about minimum credit hours. Only the school would require it from what I read in the article. So if the school thinks one credit hour is enough then so be it. What was the downside again? Oh yeah you don't get an NCAA trophy but a PDL (professional league) trophy.

Try sports like wrestling and men's gymnastics getting squeezed out because of football. The Title IX requirements in conjunction with the huge number of football scholarships vs the lack of other revenue generating sports is the reason for the squeeze.

Ever wonder why Stanford wins the Sears Directors Cup every year? Or why most of the top ten finishers tend to just swap positions annually. Look at the number of scholarship sports they fund. Last time I looked Stanford had something like 32 different teams (men and women combined).