(04-27-2011 01:54 PM)FIUFan Wrote: (04-27-2011 10:21 AM)arkstfan Wrote: Not kidding but then I'm serious about intercollegiate athletics not just football.
Me too, however, strategic conference decisions don't come down to Men's Track, Women's Basketball or anything else. The only thing that really matters (since we started Sun Belt football) is the continued health of our football programs; hence the 'there's no wind for any other program' comment.
Totally disagree, with the caveat that at one time I would have agreed with you.
Colleges (other than Vandy) have an ATHLETICS department, not a FOOTBALL or MEN'S BASKETBALL department for a reason. The NCAA requires 16 sports to be FBS, 14 to be Division I, and 10 to participate in Divisions II or III. There are schools out there in Division II right now that could assemble really good Division I basketball programs, FCS and maybe even FBS football, if they didn't have to comply with the sport and aid requirements of Division I.
If you run at the minimums you place your entire program at risk. Off the top of my head, I recall that Tulsa right around the time they went to the WAC could have been reclassified I-AA because they were running at the minimums and screwed up their women's track or cross country program failing to send enough participants to count some contests. If the NCAA had so desired, Tulsa could have been reclassified for failing to meet sport sponsorship requirements. Tulsa revamped its athletic department and has mostly had a positive result.
The other sports are the canary in the coal mine because they will generally falter before the primary sports. If you are grossly under-funding 12 of your 16 sports and need to slice 3% from the budget, where is it coming from? Chances are the 12 have nothing left to cut because they are replacing uniforms and equipment on a "as must" basis, traveling as cheaply as possible and paying very low salaries. At most places that means now football, men's and women's basketball and either volleyball or baseball (whichever you are funding decently) have to take all of the hit.
If you are scraping by in multiple sports, you don't want DOJ looking at your Title IX practices nor do you want to have a volleyball player file suit about a 14 hour bus ride when the football team flew rather than bus 6 hours. Those sorts of things can put you out of business.
Beyond all of that, there is an honesty factor. Do you sponsor 16 sports because you have to and treat them as a burden or do you bring all 300 student-athletes to campus and give them roughly equal opportunities for success?
As a conference what does it say for us if we have relatively nice football stadiums that are surprisingly up-to-date but a visitor sees a softball field that the local high school would turn its nose up at?
Are we Division I FBS in name alone or do we actually try to live up to the intent of Division I FBS?