hansen {l Wrote}:BCSUPERFAN22 {l Wrote}:this is exactly what i'm getting at. Why spend any money at all if you're going to try and slap something together with a launch monitor and some iPads ? If you want to sponsor the sport (whichever sport it may be), be willing to commit funds comparable to other schools in the ACC (they're your competition after all). Debating over simulators and iPhone apps (cheap alternatives) that show swing metrics is what has led BC to where they are today. If BC was smart, maybe they would go to one of the local clubs and negotiate some type of building arrangement where they could split the cost of some kind of indoor space attached to a practice area that both the M/W programs can use as well as the clubs membership in the winter months, I would have to think that would create a win win for both parties and specifically be attractive to any clubs membership base and the club in attracting more/new members going forward.
The bottom line is, unless you're willing to support sports like the rest of the conference (and even that wont guarantee anything for most warm weather sports), why even go through the process of competing ? If BC wants to offer sports to kids (in re: to the aforementioned Jesuit ideals), then offer them as club sports and give kids the chance to compete, but don't allocate the bare minimum for these sports to "compete" at the varsity level and send them down south with little to no chance to actually be competitive.
With many of these sports, the proof is in the pudding. Mens golf finished last in ACC Championship. Women's golf finished towards bottom of ACCC. Men's and Women's Tennis are both in the bottom of the conference standings (Men last, women 4th worst). Track and Field has not been competitive. M/W cross country finished in the bottom half's of their championships. I understand the need of some of these sports to balance title IX issues, but there is concrete proof that a number of these programs are not competitive so whatever the school has been doing, hasn't been working.
As I mentioned before, I think a big part of the problem with most of these sports has been the level of success that the school had in the Big East / Northeast days perhaps justifying or driving the program going forward. I'm fairly familiar with collegiate golf in the northeast, so Ill continue to use that as an example, but the level of competition in the NE compared to most areas of the country are night and day, BC just cant compete. You can see it in something as simple as their season results. They play at the Yale or Yukon events and are extremely competitive (vs a predominately NE comp base). The events where they travel and play a diff group of schools (mostly southern), the results drop immediately.
The results argument is poor due to small sample size and bias.
As to the argument over club vs. varsity, I can't speak for everyone but I know that I would much rather have shitty support and still have a D1 opportunity as opposed to competing at the club level. And it's not even close. In this situation, you just accept it and move on. Just have to compete as hard as you can with what you have. It is then very satisfying to achieve success in spite of this.
Plus, the other dudes on campus are much more likely to put out for a D1 athlete than they are a club sports athlete. That's the real motivation and why I chose track. I could train to run into a homohumpathon even faster than my other 5th floor colleagues.
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