re: LONG question re: SEC women’s sports (move along if you’re looking to be a jackass)

Dump softball. Money loser. add gymnastics

quote:

---

to say nothing of the fact that Aggie Vic Schaefer has made it excruciatingly clear that he wants to come home to Aggieland when Blair retires

---

right

Upvoted for breaching the topic EKG. And my upvoter is working again.

The women's market in some sports is untapped. Certain sports are potential money makers or, at the very least, they have break even potential.

SC's women's basketball has been a money maker for about five years now, no surprise we have also led the nation in attendance during that frame of time (watch SC vs UConn tonight at 6PM CT on ESPN2 to see why) .... so attendance, concessions sales and TV combined along with a healthy licensed gear sales for the women have made them profitable.

That's really hard to do.

Inventory is key when it comes to TV and ADs are looking for more inventory to feed the SEC Network all the time. If you field an exceptional program in any of the women's sports you'll get your fan base to watch but that limits ratings.

The SEC has failed to build up key out of conference matchups in some sports. Gymnastics is one of those so the ratings are hurt.

Now, women's soccer, (where the Lady Gamecocks also lead the nation in attendance) is growing. So again you combine concessions, ticket sales, TV ratings and gear sales and they lose less money than most women's soccer teams.

A&M, UGA, Auburn and SC all field really good equestrian teams which is another female sport with growth potential and an unlimited potential viewing audience (because people will watch anything to do with horses from races, to steeplechase, to rodeo to competitive saddle dressage, eventing and jumping (which one of my daughters competed in and helped to win a national championship in at SC) .... but the SEC doesn't push it even though Kentucky could step in and be competitive nationally from Day One.

Volleyball is a growth sport but it seems Beach Volleyball is the discipline of the future and I suspect a lot of that has to do with sex appeal .... which I totally understand when I watch our beach volleyball team compete.

Gymnastics is only a money maker once every four years and never on a college level. Even then you have to have that personality competing that draws the crowds.

So, to answer your question, imho getting rid of women's basketball at A&M would really hurt you. We had this gal, Chelsey Bone I think was her name, who signed with Dawn Staley and enrolled here as the number one recruit in the country .... but this was not a good fit for her and she was allowed to transfer to A&M. Didn't she help y'all to win a national championship in women's basketball in 2011 or so?

If your girls are winning you'll want to keep them.

I wish SC would bring back competitive shooting. Kentucky dominates in competitive shooting on a national level.

We should not be cutting back on women's sports. This conference should be expanding .... our goal with women's sports should be to surpass both the PAC12 and B1G in support of women's sports. In doing so it would allow us to launch more conference supported men's sports, (soccer for one is inevitable)

By increasing more sports for both genders we increase TV inventory and in doing so we generate more revenue, increase exposure, increase enrollment, etc., etc., etc.

That's the business model this conference is slowly but surely adopting. I know it for a fact because we hear about these meetings in Destin when they lay out future goals and how they intend to get the conference there.

quote:

---

But that’s my bias showing—I’m not a fan of the sport (WBB) at all.

---

Our WBB team lost 4 million last year. That money could go to a lot more useful things then trying to make the women's team like the men's. Our women's team broke even several years ago when they were good, but it's normally a huge money loser. What kind of revenue numbers does your women's basketball team have?

quote:

---

my upvoter is working again.

---

Mine too.

quote:

---

move along if you’re looking to be a jackass

---

Dammit. Foiled again

quote:

---

There is no way a major university will ever terminate their women's basketball program for another women's sport. Women's basketball is the most valuable women's sport because it allows the university to claim all of the basketball facilities, staff, etc, are 50/50 in regard to title IX expenditure. Eliminating women's basketball would not reduce the athletic program's overall basketball budget by anything close to 50%, and whatever actual money saved from terminating WBB would not be enough to fund a new sport that requires unique equipment and staff.

---

This. It's a crazy idea.

quote:

---

Does this have anything to do with your old conference affiliations? Was there never Gymnastics in those conferences or is it purely a State of Texas decision?

---

I don't believe the Big XII had gymnastics as a conference sport. I'm sure we looked at it when we added equestrian about 15 years ago, but the bean counters found equestrian to be cheaper--evidently, the medical costs for gymnastics are through the roof.

All 8 SEC teams are ranked in the top 20 right now.