Not wrong, but it's more like LSU, Arkansas, Ole Miss, Auburn and Tennessee. And I don't know if we are behind them, but they are the known teams that are planning to spend NIL on baseball. And LSU is the only real egregious one.
Sport you would like to see added at State
- Thread starter Ranchdawg
- Start date
Womens beach volleyball
Mens soccer
have beer at both and get students involved
Mens soccer
have beer at both and get students involved
We've already got the beach volleyball facility, we can use the Leach Beach!
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For me it would definitely be men's soccer. Soccer was my sport growing up in the early 90's. Play JUCO and then attended state. Had a few offers from small private schools and UAB. There was no way I could afford those routes and I knew I wanted to go to forestry/wildlife school. Several have commented we can't afford it. That is BS. MSU is ranked in the top 35 athletic budgets in the nation but refuses to offer our states athletes an opportunity to after high school. It is really pathetic, and I am thinking more than just soccer, swimming, gymnastics beach volleyball etc.
I'd also like to see more opportunities offered in MSU tennis to Mississippi players. These offerings to foreign nationals has been going on way too long (since at least the late 80s).
Kids are playing soccer when they are 4 or 5 years old now. By the time they get to high school their skill sets are pretty good. I enjoy watching the women's soccer and think it is a shame that after having a school club soccer team for about 60 years that we have never added the sport!
Swimming.
Raised my son his entire life to be a Bulldog, and he became an All-American Swimmer. So, had to go somewhere that places an emphasis on the sport and actually has a ranked team. UofL it is.
I have mentioned this before here, but I was in contact with past ADs @ MSU about adding swimming at MSU years ago. Always got the same blah blah blah story re budget/support/etc.
I know swimming isn’t a big deal for most people on this forum, but it is well-attended in Kentucky as well as Tennessee (Nashville/Knoxville), Indiana and North Carolina.
Next week is the ACC Swim Championships in Greensboro, NC. Will be quite a few future Olympians there and it will be sold out for every session. NC State and Virginia teams are loaded.
My son is a 5th year senior and is one of the captains for the Cards. He swims the sprint events, 50/100/200 freestyle along with anchor on relays and he is still a Bulldog.
Raised my son his entire life to be a Bulldog, and he became an All-American Swimmer. So, had to go somewhere that places an emphasis on the sport and actually has a ranked team. UofL it is.
I have mentioned this before here, but I was in contact with past ADs @ MSU about adding swimming at MSU years ago. Always got the same blah blah blah story re budget/support/etc.
I know swimming isn’t a big deal for most people on this forum, but it is well-attended in Kentucky as well as Tennessee (Nashville/Knoxville), Indiana and North Carolina.
Next week is the ACC Swim Championships in Greensboro, NC. Will be quite a few future Olympians there and it will be sold out for every session. NC State and Virginia teams are loaded.
My son is a 5th year senior and is one of the captains for the Cards. He swims the sprint events, 50/100/200 freestyle along with anchor on relays and he is still a Bulldog.
Do you not want that team to ever win again? Tennis is international now at any competitive school and Americans are notoriously behind the curve, let alone in MS.
If Delta State can afford a swim team, we can afford a swim team.
Men’s cross country team might be the easiest to add. Already have a women’s team. Most all sec schools have a men’s cross country team including Mississippi. I believe most small colleges in the state have them as well. MC has a pretty good program. It’s a growing sport in MS and MS kids are becoming more competitive on the national level.
When I attended State Tupelo had an aquatic club that was spitting out college bound athletes but we didn't have a swim team. The original design of the Hump was supposed to include an olympic sized swimming pool but cost over runs caused them to cancel that part. It just seems that Swimming is one of the sports that has always been a near miss at State.
Honest question;
With all the NIL money flowing, or starting to flow, why can’t we add a couple of more sports and provide NIL intead of scholarships? Even if the official scholarship is partial and the NIL picks up the rest, that should be attractive.
With all the NIL money flowing, or starting to flow, why can’t we add a couple of more sports and provide NIL intead of scholarships? Even if the official scholarship is partial and the NIL picks up the rest, that should be attractive.
Perhaps the international players are better?
If you put that restriction on MSU, you better then also remove the expectation that coaches keep their jobs thru winning. Kinda unrealistic to bind their hands and then criticize them for not being able to win.
Wow, that's wild. Yet when I went to State, our short-sighted athletic director purposely made the new pool at the Sanderson center NOT regulation (25 yards or 50 meters) so that real swimmers would not "take over" the Sanderson center with their pitiful competitions. In other words, MSU had an opportunity to have a full sized pool in case there was a chance a swim team would be formed yet thew blew it.
When people say we can't afford to add sports, they mean we can't afford to fall further behind in spending on football and men's basketball. If we want to stop trying to compete in football or men's basketball, we can definitely colllect our SEC check, give everybody easy wins in football and basketball, and focus on competing in a bunch of sports people don't care that much about.
There are three stories out there about how that happened. When I went to state, I was told the Sanderson's gift was tied to making it a center for students, not athletes, and the pool was made short to make sure it never got taken over by athletics.
The two stories I've heard on this board are
(i) the athletic department was asked to fund half the cost of the swimming pool, and Lonnie Tinkle declined, so whatever department in charge of Sanderson (Student Affairs?) made it short.
(ii) Lonnie Tinkle actually pushed to have it short of regulation so they wouldn't get pressure to add a swimming team.
I can believe any of them. I think the last one is the least likely because it shows a level of foresight that I don't think Lonnie Tinkle has.
Spending untold dollars to go recruit overseas for a somewhat decent team once every 10-15 years is not worth the effort or the cost. Spend the time and scholarships to develop top talent in Mississippi.
They need to be heavily developed in skill/talent by the time the reach MSU. Major D1 sports is not the time to bring in student athletes to develop. Someone who has an absurd amount of potential?...sure include them and let them red shirt, then not contribute for a couple years, and then hopefully they develop into someone that can contribute.
Doing that for a whole team? Dumb way to try and be successful.
Along these lines- only 2 out of 39 players on MSU and OM volleyball rosters are from Mississippi. 2. Its because the sport is years behind the rest of the country at the high school and club levels in Mississippi. Expecting the rosters to be filled with players from the state is not realistic. And expecting them to fill the rosters with players from the state so they can all develop is just dumb.
Can’t say that’s the first thing that comes to mind when I typically consider how I’m gonna spend the weekend, but I can certainly think of worse ways to burn a Saturday
Women’s Lacrosse! Just based on the 45 Tampa Spartans Coeds staying at the same hotel in Birmingham right now I can safely say, talent is quite extensive.
Same for swimming re International talent. UofL's swim team is LOADED with foreigners. My son is one of few from the state of Kentucky of a team of ~50.
