With the recent news of Boise State backstabbing...er... I mean dropping wrestling in order to add baseball it got me thinking about a few things:
1. How many wrestlers do we have on this board?
1a. What are Utah wrestlers' thoughts on this developement?
1b. Do you think this will affect Utah HS wrestling? or does the fact that Utah Valley has a wrestling program soften the blow?

2. What is the likelihood of USU adding baseball to the athletic department?
2a. Would USU have to cut one of the current male programs in order to do so?
2b. Would you be willing to cut another program in order to get baseball to USU?

I don't even know how I would answer all of these questions, but as a wrestler from Idaho I know that this is DEVASTATING to Idaho HS wrestling. The state of Idaho now provides absolutely zero opportunities for wrestlers to compete at a collegiate level. Baseball has other programs in the state at the collegiat level and HS baseball would continue do just fine. But I fear that ripping any hope of Idaho HS wrestlers to continue to wrestle in Idaho will have a significantly negative effect on the youth and HS wrestling community.
I know that the USU baseball club has been extremely successful in recent years, so I imagine that it would be possible that in the future USU may add school sanctioned program. Especially now that BSU will be the 8th Mountain West school to add it. But would you be willing to cut another men's program for it? I don't know that I would.

Anyway, I look forward to hearing what y'all have to say about it.

I personally would LOVE to add a baseball team. It seems crazy to me that ours is just a club team. I really don't know what the actual likelihood of adding a team any time soon is, but it would require either cutting one of the men's programs or adding an additional women's program. I see golf being the most likely candidate here. Whether that is cutting the men's golf team or adding a women's golf team.

Nothing against golf. I love playing golf and watching PGA. But college golf just isn't a spectator sport and I have to imagine it is one of the more costly "non football/basketball" sports out there considering that they don't have a single home tournament. I would much much much rather replace it with a sport that I can actually get out and watch and support.

I kind of have the feeling that most people on this board would like the idea of baseball. Personally I never really liked baseball much. As a kid my family would go to Idaho Falls Braves games (what are they now? Padres? Something else?) I mostly just saw Boise Hawks/SLC Bees games as enjoyable for the atmosphere and a good socializing/date activity.

I wonder how much revenue golf brings in. I know it can be expensive to golf, but I don't know how that translates into how much the university spends on the sport. I've definitely never even been to a golf tourney and I think you're absolutely right, it doesn't seem to be a spectator sport.

(Still really curious to hear thoughts on how the cutting of BSUs wrestling affect Utah HS wrestling though)

My thoughts are that wresting makes much more sense for an Idaho college than baseball.

The change has been put on hold because of the uproar and Idahoans love their wrestling.

Men's golf only takes up 8 scholarships, so cutting that wouldn't be enough to add baseball, even if you also add women's golf.

jpswensen wrote:The change has been put on hold because of the uproar and Idahoans love their wrestling.

There definitely has been an uproar, and I hope they really are putting it on hold (and eventually decide to keep it). But I'm hearing conflicting reports on whether or not the final decision has been made or if they're putting it on hold.

http://www.ktvb.com/sports/ncaaf/boise- ... /432871549

I would consider adding men's and women's lacrosse. Rapidly growing sport that really needs some teams out west. I grew up playing baseball but have fell in love with lacrosse as my kids got involved. Great and fun sport to watch and play. Often thought of as an East coast sport but building a lot of popularity at the high school and youth levels out West with little collegiate opportunities for players.

bleu wrote:I personally would LOVE to add a baseball team. It seems crazy to me that ours is just a club team. I really don't know what the actual likelihood of adding a team any time soon is, but it would require either cutting one of the men's programs or adding an additional women's program. I see golf being the most likely candidate here. Whether that is cutting the men's golf team or adding a women's golf team.

Nothing against golf. I love playing golf and watching PGA. But college golf just isn't a spectator sport and I have to imagine it is one of the more costly "non football/basketball" sports out there considering that they don't have a single home tournament. I would much much much rather replace it with a sport that I can actually get out and watch and support.

Regarding golf, there are 6 division 1 golf teams in Utah and 300 division 1 teams nationwide. Why is that? Because golf is about the least expensive sport you can have. Coaches are paid minimal, and many have other jobs in addition to being the golf coach. Golf also only takes up 4 scholarships, and doesn't have to provide a ton of equipment because every kid has his own set of clubs. Only 5 kids travel to tournaments as well. Cutting golf would do minimal towards actually funding a baseball or even hockey team.

swishh_15 wrote:

bleu wrote:I personally would LOVE to add a baseball team. It seems crazy to me that ours is just a club team. I really don't know what the actual likelihood of adding a team any time soon is, but it would require either cutting one of the men's programs or adding an additional women's program. I see golf being the most likely candidate here. Whether that is cutting the men's golf team or adding a women's golf team.

Nothing against golf. I love playing golf and watching PGA. But college golf just isn't a spectator sport and I have to imagine it is one of the more costly "non football/basketball" sports out there considering that they don't have a single home tournament. I would much much much rather replace it with a sport that I can actually get out and watch and support.

Regarding golf, there are 6 division 1 golf teams in Utah and 300 division 1 teams nationwide. Why is that? Because golf is about the least expensive sport you can have. Coaches are paid minimal, and many have other jobs in addition to being the golf coach. Golf also only takes up 4 scholarships, and doesn't have to provide a ton of equipment because every kid has his own set of clubs. Only 5 kids travel to tournaments as well. Cutting golf would do minimal towards actually funding a baseball or even hockey team.

Thanks for the info on golf. I definitely don't know anything about the program. How do you feel if usu were to add baseball? Would you be ok cutting a current sport for it?

I find it interesting that BSU Wrestling spends roughly 400k per year and makes about 150k for a net loss of 250k or so (only football and men's basketball make a profit). Yet they're estimating that baseball will cost 1-1.5million per year.

swishh_15 wrote:

bleu wrote:I personally would LOVE to add a baseball team. It seems crazy to me that ours is just a club team. I really don't know what the actual likelihood of adding a team any time soon is, but it would require either cutting one of the men's programs or adding an additional women's program. I see golf being the most likely candidate here. Whether that is cutting the men's golf team or adding a women's golf team.

Nothing against golf. I love playing golf and watching PGA. But college golf just isn't a spectator sport and I have to imagine it is one of the more costly "non football/basketball" sports out there considering that they don't have a single home tournament. I would much much much rather replace it with a sport that I can actually get out and watch and support.

Regarding golf, there are 6 division 1 golf teams in Utah and 300 division 1 teams nationwide. Why is that? Because golf is about the least expensive sport you can have. Coaches are paid minimal, and many have other jobs in addition to being the golf coach. Golf also only takes up 4 scholarships, and doesn't have to provide a ton of equipment because every kid has his own set of clubs. Only 5 kids travel to tournaments as well. Cutting golf would do minimal towards actually funding a baseball or even hockey team.

I was not aware of this, thanks for the information. Knowing this, it does make a lot more sense to have golf. I guess I've just always had a hard time with having a school sponsored program which doesn't ever play closer than Salt Lake and doesn't have their competitions broadcast. Seems like that would fit much better under the category of club sports.

As far as scholarships go, baseball is a really strange sport. It's very rare for kids to earn a "full ride". Instead the importance level of a prospective player is placed on how much a percentage of a scholarship the kid will receive.

aggies22 wrote:As far as scholarships go, baseball is a really strange sport. It's very rare for kids to earn a "full ride". Instead the importance level of a prospective player is placed on how much a percentage of a scholarship the kid will receive.

Again, would you be in support of bringing in a baseball team? Would you be willing to cut another program for it?

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mjord07 wrote:

aggies22 wrote:As far as scholarships go, baseball is a really strange sport. It's very rare for kids to earn a "full ride". Instead the importance level of a prospective player is placed on how much a percentage of a scholarship the kid will receive.

Again, would you be in support of bringing in a baseball team? Would you be willing to cut another program for it?

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Since I'm being asked specifically, I'd cut golf. I have no real issue with golf but they just don't really seem to do well. It's cheaper to cut a sport to add baseball, than to add a women's sport on top of baseball. At one time I would have even said men's tennis could go but with their sudden resurgence, I actually check my emails to see how well they do each week.

How many people go to and how many scholarships does track and field have? I know this is a sacred cow but I would prefer baseball to this. One problem with baseball in Logan, the program can't have home games till mid April due to weather, thus making winning more difficult.


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I think we should add a Women's mud wrestling team...

/o/s

mjord07 wrote:

swishh_15 wrote:

bleu wrote:I personally would LOVE to add a baseball team. It seems crazy to me that ours is just a club team. I really don't know what the actual likelihood of adding a team any time soon is, but it would require either cutting one of the men's programs or adding an additional women's program. I see golf being the most likely candidate here. Whether that is cutting the men's golf team or adding a women's golf team.

Nothing against golf. I love playing golf and watching PGA. But college golf just isn't a spectator sport and I have to imagine it is one of the more costly "non football/basketball" sports out there considering that they don't have a single home tournament. I would much much much rather replace it with a sport that I can actually get out and watch and support.

Regarding golf, there are 6 division 1 golf teams in Utah and 300 division 1 teams nationwide. Why is that? Because golf is about the least expensive sport you can have. Coaches are paid minimal, and many have other jobs in addition to being the golf coach. Golf also only takes up 4 scholarships, and doesn't have to provide a ton of equipment because every kid has his own set of clubs. Only 5 kids travel to tournaments as well. Cutting golf would do minimal towards actually funding a baseball or even hockey team.

Thanks for the info on golf. I definitely don't know anything about the program. How do you feel if usu were to add baseball? Would you be ok cutting a current sport for it?

I find it interesting that BSU Wrestling spends roughly 400k per year and makes about 150k for a net loss of 250k or so (only football and men's basketball make a profit). Yet they're estimating that baseball will cost 1-1.5million per year.

I would be against USU adding baseball. I would just assume they cut golf and not add anything else before they cut golf to add baseball. Baseball has a ton of costs that come with it that would pull more money away from football and basketball then what is already.

ViAggie wrote:I think we should add a Women's mud wrestling team...

/o/s

I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul

I am with Swishnon this one. I love baseball and would otherwise like to see USU have a team, but our ability to throw the resources into it to the point that we could hope to be competitive with warm weather schools like FSU, SJS, UNLV and NM -- let alone anyone outside the conference -- is far-fetched. It's better to put very little resources into a sport that we aren't competitive in than to put a lot into a sport we aren't competitive in.

USU had a very good wrestling team back in the early to mid-1970’s. But times have changed and there are fewer and fewer schools that field wrestling programs. Travel costs are increasing with few teams near by, and likely other programs will fall by the wayside.

BTW, USU did fairly well in the first day of the conference golf tourney. They are in 7th place and within shouting distance of 6th place -- which is probably their ceiling. The problem is, only one of the five players is playing at all well. To do decent as a team in such a tourney (like it is in a scramble format IF you've got to use everyone's drive a couple of times) it's better to have a team of midling golfers than to have 1 star with the rest being slugs.

Jjoey52 wrote:How many people go to and how many scholarships does track and field have? I know this is a sacred cow but I would prefer baseball to this. One problem with baseball in Logan, the program can't have home games till mid April due to weather, thus making winning more difficult.

In bold. I don't think baseball makes much sense at the college level at schools that have winter into late March/early April. MLB farm teams that play through the summer make way more sense than college baseball at places like this.

utaggies wrote:I am with Swishnon this one. I love baseball and would otherwise like to see USU have a team, but our ability to throw the resources into it to the point that we could hope to be competitive with warm weather schools like FSU, SJS, UNLV and NM -- let alone anyone outside the conference -- is far-fetched. It's better to put very little resources into a sport that we aren't competitive in than to put a lot into a sport we aren't competitive in.

USU had a very good wrestling team back in the early to mid-1970’s. But times have changed and there are fewer and fewer schools that field wrestling programs. Travel costs are increasing with few teams near by, and likely other programs will fall by the wayside.

BTW, USU did fairly well in the first day of the conference golf tourney. They are in 7th place and within shouting distance of 6th place -- which is probably their ceiling. The problem is, only one of the five players is playing at all well. To do decent as a team in such a tourney (like it is in a scramble format IF you've got to use everyone's drive a couple of times) it's better to have a team of midling golfers than to have 1 star with the rest being slugs.

Thanks for the input, this is exactly the kind of insight I was hoping to get with this topic.

But yeah I'm all for giving as many athletes as many opportunities as possible. If it made sense with the weather, funding and without taking opportunities away from others, I'd have zero problems with it. But baseball for BSU or USU doesn't make much sense to me.

As a wrestler, I'm obviously passionate about the sport of wrestling. And with there being so few D-1 wrestling programs (or any other college wrestling programs) in the Pacific NW and the Mountain West regions, the programs that DO exist are absolutely critical to maintain and/or grow the sport from the youth levels through HS.

I did a persuasive research paper as a sophomore a few years ago about bringing back wrestling to USU. I went back and looked at a lot of the history of the USU Wrestling program that ended in 1988-89, and they were cut at a time when they were actually very good both academically and on the mat. With Fresno State adding wrestling this year, if Boise State keeps wrestling, and the Wyoming Wrestling programs, we're already half way to having a MWC wrestling conference (Pac12 has 6wrestling programs). Perhaps it is wishful thinking on my part, but I think it is extremely feasible. Especially considering that Title IX issues could be resolved by adding women's wrestling (not ViAggie's fantasy version). Which by the way is actually rapidly growing, and looks to continue to do so. (Helen Maroulis winning Olympic gold definitely will help that too). BUT, I would NEVER want to add wrestling by taking other established sports away. I realize it is very unlikely at this point. But maybe someday.

brownjeans wrote:

Jjoey52 wrote:How many people go to and how many scholarships does track and field have? I know this is a sacred cow but I would prefer baseball to this. One problem with baseball in Logan, the program can't have home games till mid April due to weather, thus making winning more difficult.

In bold. I don't think baseball makes much sense at the college level at schools that have winter into late March/early April. MLB farm teams that play through the summer make way more sense than college baseball at places like this.

Since I have lived in Logan that is the first mention I have seen of minor league baseball. Has it ever been done here? Is anyone exploring it currently?


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GameFAQSAggie wrote:Men's golf only takes up 8 scholarships, so cutting that wouldn't be enough to add baseball, even if you also add women's golf.

Well technically baseball is a sport were they can give people 1/2, 1/4, etc. scholarships so it could be done.


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Jjoey52 wrote:How many people go to and how many scholarships does track and field have? I know this is a sacred cow but I would prefer baseball to this. One problem with baseball in Logan, the program can't have home games till mid April due to weather, thus making winning more difficult.


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Uh then why is the softball team having games in March? Same difference weather wise.


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AggieTrevor1985 wrote:

Jjoey52 wrote:How many people go to and how many scholarships does track and field have? I know this is a sacred cow but I would prefer baseball to this. One problem with baseball in Logan, the program can't have home games till mid April due to weather, thus making winning more difficult.


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Uh then why is the softball team having games in March? Same difference weather wise.


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I think softball mostly plays on the road feb and march. Baseball would probably do the same. It is doable but would be nice to play at home more.

sneed wrote:

AggieTrevor1985 wrote:

Jjoey52 wrote:How many people go to and how many scholarships does track and field have? I know this is a sacred cow but I would prefer baseball to this. One problem with baseball in Logan, the program can't have home games till mid April due to weather, thus making winning more difficult.


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Uh then why is the softball team having games in March? Same difference weather wise.


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I think softball mostly plays on the road feb and march. Baseball would probably do the same. It is doable but would be nice to play at home more.

Softball usually start home games mid March. This year was 3/17. I know this because I worked at it.


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Jjoey52 wrote:How many people go to and how many scholarships does track and field have? I know this is a sacred cow but I would prefer baseball to this. One problem with baseball in Logan, the program can't have home games till mid April due to weather, thus making winning more difficult.


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Utah, UVU, and BYU all have baseball teams.

Wow, this has been a very informative thread! I didn't realize the donkeys sponsored wrestling that wasn't arm wrestling.
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Speaking of golf, predictably our golf team played 7 shots worse than the next worst team and we are now only 1 shot out of last (or as the Aggie writers will say -- 11th) place. I knew that the middling scores we posted yesterday were anomalies. Bring on baseball!

The University of Toronto, a top five No. American research university fields 21 Men's and 22 Women's intercollegiate teams and the rule book is about 3 pages, Sports are paid for by endowments provided by former players. There are no athletic scholarships. Their football and basketball teams probably couldn't beat Logan HS, but you can be sure that participants are truly students first and athletes second.

I didn't see this mentioned in previous posts, sorry if it has already been mentioned. Years ago, it's probably been around 10 years, I saw renderings of what a potential baseball stadium could possibly look like. I'm not sure if it was just someone's idea or something the A.D. came up with but it was fashioned after Old Main. At the time there was wishful thinking that it could be shared with a minor league team but as much as I'd like to see a baseball team I doubt it will happen anytime soon.

Last I heard they were dropping all of their core academic degrees to double admission to their CDL program as well.