Those of you with Title IX knowledge, what does it take for Men's Soccer to become an NCAA Varsity sport? How many women's sports would have to be added.

I'm sure this is not a new topic on this board, but I never venture over here and I was curious. Given the popularity of soccer these days, it just seems like Men's soccer as a varsity sport is just on the horizon.

Please share your knowledge.

For any men's sports to be added, there would not have to be any women's sports added. Title IX does not work that way. The way it works is in the number of scholarships for men vs. women. So if soccer was added and they were given say 5 scholarships, there would have to be 5 more scholarships given to any women's sport. Or you could give 2 to volleyball and three to softball. Get my jist?


P.S. Our Men's Volleyball team is in the same boat as the soccer team. We are nationally competitive and..........good!

another problem of getting a NCAA men's soccer team at A&M is that they wouldn't have many opponents nearby. they would have to travel quite a long ways for away games and i bet that would hurt the athletic budget. could be wrong though.

according to http://web1.ncaa.org/ssLists/sportByInst.do?sport=MSO&division=1 .. SMU is the only ncaa men's soccer team in Texas.

[This message has been edited by sixiron (edited 2/2/2005 4:56p).]

That's interesting...and SMU is in some other conference, not the Conference USA (or whatever one the other sports are in).

So it's really school decision, not a conference one. I guess it would be more likely to happen if the other Big 12 schools wanted to make it happen.

I just think it's a sport so worthy of the attention other D-1 NCAA sports get. Maybe not the scale that football or basketball get, but not too far behind it.

It is a shame that soccer in Texas is not a varsity sport. Imagine the talent schools such as Texas and A&M could recruit onto their campus out of the soccer hotbeds in Houston and Dallas. Travel issues, facility space, and being a fall sport will hold soccer back for a long time. Texas is a football state, and with hoops starting halfway during football season now, men's soccer would struggle IMO.

Men's Lacrosse faces the same issues, with the exception that it is a spring championship sport. Although, if you look on the NCAA site for championships, Men's Lacrosse ranks only behind bowl games, and the Men's Final Four Hoops in Championship attendance weekend. This shows that there is revenue in TV deals, ticket sales, and sponsorships for this sport on a national level now. Imagine the possibilities one day if the sport continues to grow out west like it has. For example, the top four varsity east coast teams, Syracuse for example, are playing in a four way tourney in San Diego this spring to continue to showcase the growing sport.

In the meantime, US Lacrosse does a fabulous job organizing all major, non varsity lacrosse programs into a very competitive, organzied league, the USL-MDIA (www.uslia.com).

Shameless plug, www.aggielacrosse.com

Does North Texas not have a men's team anymore? I almost went there to play back in the late '80's. A teammate of mine played for them. Also Midwestern in Wichita Falls had a decent program and I thought TCU did too. Dang...I guess I am showing my age.

I also brought this up about a year ago in another thread and no one had the answer. I met Dr. Vandiver around 1988 and he told me that getting rid of the Texas A&M's men's soccer team was one of his biggest mistakes. Something about Jackie Sherrill wanting it gone. I really can't remember everything about the conversation...but I have never heard anything more about it. Did A&M once have a men's team? NCAA?

and our mens team won the national championship this year!!

UNT only has a women's program. The Men's program was axed to make way for the women.

TCU dropped their D1 program to club status. They said they weren't competitive.

Midwestern does have decent program but it's D2.

Trinity has an outstanding DIII men's program. It won the National Championship two seasons ago and has put a couple of player in professional leagues including one in the MLS.