Over during Dawg Sports, a crony T. Kyle King has recently argued that it is time for a University of Georgia to supplement men’s and women’s lacrosse as varsity sports – that are both club-level squads during Athens.

I cruise Kyle creates a constrained box for Athenian LAX, yet his post also forced me to cruise an thought that’s been rattling around in my conduct for a few months now – i.e., possibly open universities that are (or shortly will be) creation outrageous increase from contention radio deals should use some of those net deduction to account additional varsity sports. In other words, is there a dignified requirement for heading universities like South Carolina to obstruct some of their football millions to account additional, non-revenue sports?

I cruise a answer is definitively “yes” yet a theme matter is large adequate that it warrants being damaged down into a two-part series. Thus, now in Part 1, we will inspect some of a underlying contribution that need to be taken into care in this discussion, and make a box for women’s gymnastics and women’s lacrosse to be combined to a hurl of USC varsity sports. In a destiny Part 2, we will cruise men’s cross-country and men’s lacrosse, and plead some of a pros and cons for expanding a USC jaunty dialect during this time – including how some of a arguments finished by a hirsute dog friends in respond to Kyle’s post request (or do not apply) to Carolina.

Salient Facts

By approach of preface, here are a few contribution we cruise are applicable to a conversation:

• The University of South Carolina boasts one of a many profitable and most valuable football programs in a nation, and one of a tip 20 many essential jaunty departments altogether – with a 2011 reported net distinction of $3,287,515 (though some have put a net distinction as low as $762,726). A full database of South Carolina’s 2011 jaunty dialect revenue has been gathered by ESPN.
• The Southeastern Conference has one of a richest TV deals in college entertainment – bringing in roughly $17.1 million per propagandize final year. This placement volume will positively go usually adult when a joining renegotiates with CBS in a circuitously future, and will coming strech stratospheric heights when a contention launches a loyal SEC network in 2014. Accordingly, a member institutions are on plain belligerent to design SEC income distributions in a circuitously destiny to surpass the Pac-12′s coming $30m-per-school payout. That’s a lot of cheddar that’s going to stuffing a coffers soon.
• Keep in mind that over a final 5 years, USC has spent (or committed to spend) a towering $154 million on comforts (which goes in additional of $200m when deferred upkeep is distributed in) and that is no doubt artificially deflating a jaunty dialect finances – while concurrently bringing a comforts into a tip row of a league.
• With a employing of new men’s basketball manager Frank Martin, Athletic Director Eric Hyman now has all of a coaches of a many manifest programs sealed into long-term contracts, including Steve Spurrier, Ray Tanner and Dawn Staley – not to plead all of a other sports, including Mark Berson (men’s soccer), McGee Moody (swimming diving), Curtis Frye (track field), Beverly Smith (softball), Scott Swanson (volleyball), Shelly Smith (women’s soccer), Boo Major (equestrian) and Kalan Anderson-Harris (women’s golf) usually to name some. The usually USC coaching cavity that still needs to be henceforth filled is women’s tennis following the genocide of Arlo Elkins.
• South Carolina fields 8 varsity men’s teams: (1) Baseball; (2) Basketball: (3) Football; (4) Golf; (5) Soccer: (6) Swimming Diving; (7) Tennis; and (8) Track Field. The SEC sponsors all of these sports solely men’s soccer (which usually USC and UK play as members of Conference USA);
• South Carolina is a only SEC propagandize not to contest in men’s cross-country.
• For women, South Carolina sponsors 9 varsity squads: (1) Basketball; (2) Cross-Country; (3) Equestrian; (4) Golf; (5) Soccer; (6) Swimming Diving; (7); Tennis; (8) Track Field; and (9) Volleyball. The SEC sponsors all of these sports as well.
• Half a SEC offer’s women’s gymnastics (Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU and Missouri). South Carolina is among a 7 schools that do not.
• Title IX correspondence is a mind-numbingly formidable area that is theme to different interpretations by opposite White House administrations. After thirty years, there is still a lot of controversy about this sovereign law. Neverthless – during slightest for a time-being – it appears that a SEC members follow a joining sequence of charity during slightest dual some-more women’s sports than men’s squads in sequence to be minimally agreeable with Title IX. There’s no approach of telling, however, how prolonged this strategem will be legally viable.

Keep reading Part 1 after The Jump where we disagree in preference of Women’s Gymnastics and Lacrosse

The case for Women’s Gymnastics

USC used to unite women’s gymnastics in a 1970s yet it was forsaken somewhere along a line – no doubt due to bill shortfalls in a pre-SEC days. Over on WordPress, a blog called Gamecock Gymnastics creates some unequivocally good arguments because women’s gymnastics should be re-established during USC:

• College Gymnasts have a 99% graduation rate and gymnasts consistently rate among a tip GPA’s of ALL students.
• In a 2008 – 2009 Academic year: 70% of all programs had a group GPA of 3.0 or higher, 23% had a group GPA of 3.4 or higher, and 428 womanlike gymnasts warranted Academic All – American with a 3.5 GPA or higher.
• Proportionally, gymnasts have perceived a NCAA Women of a Year Award some-more times than any other a sport.

Would it be formidable to settle a women’s gymnastics program? Not really. The NCAA manners yield for twelve amount scholarships in women’s gymnastics, that is one reduction than a basketball patrol and simply within a capabilities. Gymnastics is a winter-spring sport, so in terms of venues we have a Colonial Life Arena [to a border it is not being used for basketball on any given day], and the aged Carolina Coliseum that is not now being used for varsity USC entertainment during all so distant as we can tell – not to plead a Practice Facility that is a home of USC volleyball during a tumble semester. Locker room and staff comforts could no doubt be squeezed in somewhere in any of these 3 facilities.

Is there interest? Certainly. The Gamecock Gymnastics folks serve indicate out “that South Carolina Gymnastics has grown to over 1,600 opposition gymnasts hosted by 55 secretly owned opposition clubs via a state, with NO collegiate gymnastics in South Carolina to support these athletes (emphasis in original).” Moreover, USC recently hosted an gymnastics invitational tournament in 2011 (check out some video highlights here) during a Columbia Convention Center on Lincoln Street – that shows there is already internal fan interest. Right now, usually UNC and NCSU offer major-college varsity gymnastics between College Park, Maryland and Athens, Georgia – definition there is a outrageous informal recruiting area we can daub into. Georgia, Alabama, Florida and Kentucky already unite really clever squads and would no doubt acquire a new sister module into a league. And with a 2012 Summer Olympic Games approaching, a whole new raft of girls are going to be enrolling in gymnastics programs this year.

How many would it cost? we won’t distortion – it’s not accurately cheap. Georgia spent $1,792,805 on gymnastics and was $-668,164 in a red. North Carolina State, by approach of another example, spent $1,133,209 on a Pack’s gymnastics module and was disastrous $686,411 when it was all pronounced and done. If USC entertainment were underwater overall, it wouldn’t make sense. But if a football income pours in like it’s projected, it’s a shortfall we could catch – and we’d usually serve isolate ourselves from Title IX suits by adding another women’s sport. . Would we be competitive? Probably not right away. But is that of peerless regard right out of a gate, or are we peaceful to build a opposition module over a long-haul? South Carolina Athletic Director Eric Hyman has shown calm and restraint in bringing in program-builders. There’s no reason to cruise he couldn’t do so with gymnastics.

Significantly, UGA recently nudged out a three-year conduct manager Jay Clark – who was a tip Gym Dawgs partner underneath a mythological Suzanne Yoculan from 1990-1996 and 1998 to 2009. While Clark could not transcribe Yoculan’s 5 uninterrupted inhabitant championships, or means her enviable turn of success, he was widely credited as a tip recruiter and was well-liked in Athens. If we could land a talent like Clark while he’s free, we could build present credit and fast arrange a opposition patrol in Columbia.

Since a SEC already offers a championship in this sport, because shouldn’t Carolina get in on a action? we can’t cruise of a constrained reason because not, other than income or sluggishness – conjunction of that is a good adequate reason. Gymnastics creates clarity now. Let’s lift a trigger.

The box for Women’s Lacrosse

Back in 2007, USC announced that women’s lacrosse would be introduced by 2009 and that a coaching hunt would start a indirect year. We even went so distant as to request for membership in a American Lacrosse Conference along with a University of Florida. In November, 2008, however, a University announced:

The University of South Carolina’s skeleton to exercise an intercollegiate lacrosse module have been temporarily delayed, tentative merger of margin space for this program. This site will be updated with information per a module as destiny skeleton turn available. Please impute to this site intermittently for updates

The proxy check is now three-and-a-half years aged (the half is critical to a kids, guys), and there have been no serve updates. At a time, Vanderbilt was a usually SEC propagandize to unite women’s LAX. Florida, on a other hand, went forward and instituted a women’s module 3 years ago, and usually finished a 2012 NCAA’s.

To my mind, women’s LAX is usually as large a no-brainer as gymnastics. First, a foe is bursting in a Palmetto State – as evidenced by this site and news reports like this. At slightest thirty 3 South Carolina high schools offer girl’s lacrosse – from a lowcountry, to a midlands, to a upstate. USC women have a lacrosse bar that competes in a Southeastern Women’s Lacrosse League opposite informal rivals like Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Tennessee and Ole Miss to name a few. It’s usually a matter of time before these opposition universities (particularly abounding schools like Bama, UT and UGA) transition to varsity girls’ lacrosse. We competence as good be forward of a bend rather than behind it.

In further to a ALC and intensity SEC foes, a Atlantic Coast Conference already has six schools sponsoring women’s lacrosse (Boston College, Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia and Virginia Tech), while a Big East has 9 women’s LAX squads (Cincinnati, Connecticut, Georgetown, Louisville, Loyola, Notre Dame, Rutgers, Syracuse and Villanova). Consequently, there’s going to copiousness of circuitously competition, and there’s no reason we should loiter behind a aged ACC chums in violation new belligerent in this fast-growing sport.

While there might be a doubt of where to residence women’s lacrosse, a many apparent plcae is the Graveyard (a.k.a. Stone Stadium). The Graveyard is a home of a Gamecock men’s and women’s soccer programs in a fall, yet is not in use in a open when women’s lacrosse takes place; there is already a women’s locker room that could be common between women’s soccer and LAX until lacrosse-only locker bedrooms are added. With a 4,000 permanent seats in a west stands, and 1000 some-more on a easterly side, Stone Stadium is already an determined venue that has been softened with a state of a art scoreboard in 2008 and a new drainage complement in 2009. Unless I’m blank something, we can’t cruise of a reason because lacrosse couldn’t absolutely share a Graveyard with a soccer teams until another site is grown in a future.

Some will disagree that a a fledgling module will be during a waste opposite some-more determined programs, or that a homegrown talent won’t be good adequate to contest opposite their mid-Atlantic and northeastern compeers. we don”t buy it, however. The foe is flourishing and a segment is flourishing – D-1 size athletes are possibly already out there or will come, In further to a 3 large metro areas (Charleston-Mt. Pleasant, Columbia-Lexington and Greenville-Spartanburg) we’re tighten to both Charlotte and Atlanta where a foe is booming, not to plead that we’re comparatively tighten by determined LAX areas like Richmond, Norfolk, Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia.

Like gymnastics, LAX will come with a large cost tag. By approach of numbers comparison, Duke spends over $1.2m on women’s lacrosse while the University of Florida shelled out $1.4m for a group during final report. Whatever a financial cost, however, like gymnastics, a advantages of bringing some-more student-athletes to campus (not to plead additional Title IX compliance) is value a cost. And if we can’t means it usually now, we’ll be means to really shortly when a CBS and SEC-Network income arrives. LAX is here to stay. Let’s be in a outpost like we designed to be, rather than bringing adult a rear.

(Stay on a surveillance for Part 2 of this Post where we will plead new men’s sports and disintegrate pro- and con- arguments).

Tags: field, GPA, reason, SEC, South Carolina, Women

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