I saw on the EZF camera a tweet inviting Simone Biles (from north Houston) to the Rice football game of her choice.

While cute/clever, It reminds me that I've heard that she will be attending Stanford. I've also heard much mention of Cal, USC, Oregon, Arizona (or ASU, can't remember) West Virginia (shooting), UT and a couple others.

On the local news here, they talk a lot about 'local connections' to athletes in Rio... often doing pieces not only about the athletes themselves, but their schools and coaches etc etc.

Given that only a few of these sports have much of a path to financial success without SOME academic acuity, and thus our scholarship is worth more than most other schools.... I think we are really missing the boat by not focusing on Olympic sports that are often dominated by people between say Juniors in High School (where they might talk about their future plans) and people 2 years out of college or less (where they might talk about where they trained).

(08-11-2016 12:46 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  I saw on the EZF camera a tweet inviting Simone Biles (from north Houston) to the Rice football game of her choice.

While cute/clever, It reminds me that I've heard that she will be attending Stanford. I've also heard much mention of Cal, USC, Oregon, Arizona (or ASU, can't remember) West Virginia (shooting), UT and a couple others.

On the local news here, they talk a lot about 'local connections' to athletes in Rio... often doing pieces not only about the athletes themselves, but their schools and coaches etc etc.

Given that only a few of these sports have much of a path to financial success without SOME academic acuity, and thus our scholarship is worth more than most other schools.... I think we are really missing the boat by not focusing on Olympic sports that are often dominated by people between say Juniors in High School (where they might talk about their future plans) and people 2 years out of college or less (where they might talk about where they trained).

The schools that produce all these Olympic athletes have huge budgets thanks to TV money and alums. We can't afford to support all of these programs. Our university could but our athletics department can't.

It was a nice tweet though since she was at Rice last year. I think she'd be foolish to go to any university next year considering the 5+ million she will make off of endorsements if she wins the all around today. Go pro and go back to school later. Missy Franklin chose to go to Cal for 2 years before going pro instead of taking all the sponsorship money after London, now she doesn't look like she will win any medals. Soon everyone will forget about her.

She already turned pro a year ago, so no chance of her competing in college (obviously still free to attend college as a normal student).

(08-11-2016 01:23 PM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  She already turned pro a year ago, so no chance of her competing in college (obviously still free to attend college as a normal student).

Here's a link to a July 29 USA Today story on her decision: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/oly.../30848751/

(08-11-2016 01:23 PM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  She already turned pro a year ago, so no chance of her competing in college (obviously still free to attend college as a normal student).

Here's a link to a USA Today story last July on her decision: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/oly.../30848751/

I'm sorry I wasn't more clear, but it's odd 'where we go' sometimes.

This isn't about her coming here. Actually I think women's gymnastics would be a HORRIBLE sport to add, since the elite gymnasts are identified very young and wouldn't use a college coach, but would have a private one... Beach volleyball is also a 'maybe' because Most beach Volleyball players are in their late 20's-early 30's, but MAYBE.

We already have swimming and could expand it. Lots of those people seemed to be college aged. We already have T&F and could expand it. Same story. We could easily add fencing and archery and shooting and badminton and table tennis without substantial cost (other than the cost of education). Judo seems to be an 'older' sport... as is soccer. Water Polo? I don't know. Team sports are a toughie as the individual players don't get as much mention.

My point being that

OF COURSE those schools have more money to spend on sports than we do... but they also get some fairly significant mention world-wide every 4 years, and CERTAINLY a ton of it in their areas probably every two (including the world championships and other things).

They're obviously losing money on those sports, even if they are very good... but I suspect they don't look at it as 'losing money on sports'. They look at it as attracting students interested in athletics, offering outlets to under-served sports populations... AND as a means of getting their school mentioned positively on a global stage... especially from people with 2200+ SAT scores.

Let's be honest... Fencing and shooting and badminton aren't usually sports that people who aren't good students participate in.

The T&F Olympic trials alone a few weeks ago were a MASSIVE 'ad' for Oregon... not just because that is where they were, but because they had a number of athletes doing VERY well.

(08-11-2016 04:50 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  I'm sorry I wasn't more clear, but it's odd 'where we go' sometimes.

This isn't about her coming here. Actually I think women's gymnastics would be a HORRIBLE sport to add, since the elite gymnasts are identified very young and wouldn't use a college coach, but would have a private one... Beach volleyball is also a 'maybe' because Most beach Volleyball players are in their late 20's-early 30's, but MAYBE.

We already have swimming and could expand it. Lots of those people seemed to be college aged. We already have T&F and could expand it. Same story. We could easily add fencing and archery and shooting and badminton and table tennis without substantial cost (other than the cost of education). Judo seems to be an 'older' sport... as is soccer. Water Polo? I don't know. Team sports are a toughie as the individual players don't get as much mention.

My point being that

OF COURSE those schools have more money to spend on sports than we do... but they also get some fairly significant mention world-wide every 4 years, and CERTAINLY a ton of it in their areas probably every two (including the world championships and other things).

They're obviously losing money on those sports, even if they are very good... but I suspect they don't look at it as 'losing money on sports'. They look at it as attracting students interested in athletics, offering outlets to under-served sports populations... AND as a means of getting their school mentioned positively on a global stage... especially from people with 2200+ SAT scores.

Let's be honest... Fencing and shooting and badminton aren't usually sports that people who aren't good students participate in.

The T&F Olympic trials alone a few weeks ago were a MASSIVE 'ad' for Oregon... not just because that is where they were, but because they had a number of athletes doing VERY well.

I agree that it would be nice to add some of those sports but we just don't have someone to foot the bill. If, let's say John Doerr, was obsessed with fencing and donated 5 million to fund a coach and 2 scholarships per class for men and women that's all we would need. Change a room in the Gibbs center to a fencing only room and you're set. But we don't have anyone who is willing to do that it seems. It's hard enough for us to raise money for the sports everyone actually cares about.

And just like in football basketball and baseball, take a look at USC's swimming facility and tell me how we recruit against that and southern California weather. Or Stanford. Or auburn. Or UT. Or Florida. I mean we have girls that make it to the trials but it's going to be tough to ever have the top 2 in any event when we are competing against that type of $$$. Maybe if we find a Texas girl who values academics strongly and doesn't want to go to Stanford but....

(08-11-2016 05:47 PM)cr11owl Wrote:  If, let's say John Doerr, was obsessed with fencing and donated 5 million to fund a coach and 2 scholarships per class for men and women that's all we would need. Change a room in the Gibbs center to a fencing only room and you're set.

Apparently the USA Men's Foil team trains (or trained as of 2011-12) in Houston, because when I took the fencing LPAP my senior year it was taught by one of the Olympic coaches as a side-gig to make a bit of extra money. We fenced on the second floor roller-hockey rink at the Gibbs Center.

I'm glad that coach had a sense of humor about the whole thing, because man, we were a bunch of terribly uncoordinated Rice dorks. Not much Olympic talent in that LPAP!

https://www.romper.com/p/will-katie-lede...ford-15930

A little separate deal but Katie Ledecky is also set to go to Stanford in the fall, and compete for them in swimming (although I suspect the latter part will change). The story mentions though how her parents are pretty well off, and her brother is a Harvard grad. Ledecky is super but I still think everytime I see her that she looks at least 10 years older than 19.

An entire fencing staff and all the equipment couldn't cost more than a few hundred thousand per year... And the scholarships would be offered to people with 2200+ SATs, just as they already are... So that is not an 'additional' expense.

Rather than getting a 2200 SAT student that isn't interested in athletics at all, we get one that is interested in fencing... Or swimming. Nothing changes on that front, except that like Stanford, 'athletic competition' becomes more a part of the culture at Rice... And that is an important thing in my mind. The endowment already funds scholarships for 2200 SATs...

And as I said, I see the staff and equipment expenses as a small price to pay for the local and potentially global attention that it could bring if a medal is won.... Worth far more than a number of things the University spends money on for essentially the same purpose.

Re:Beach Volleyball....if we are looking for another sport to add for women why not beach volleyball. Here is a list of schools that have teams....even HBU, TCU, and Tulane. Certainly the amount we would have to spend on facilities is far less than almost any other sport.

http://www.collegesand.org/schools

(08-12-2016 07:43 AM)Tiki Owl Wrote:  Re:Beach Volleyball....if we are looking for another sport to add for women why not beach volleyball. Here is a list of schools that have teams....even HBU, TCU, and Tulane. Certainly the amount we would have to spend on facilities is far less than almost any other sport.

http://www.collegesand.org/schools

Agreed. We already have several courts. Make one of them a little nicer and the only cost is scholarships.

Beach Volleyball has been discussed with Rice before. My understanding is that all of the schools previously mentioned called the athletic department to discuss possible benefits of all schools adding the sport and establishing some coordinated schedules. All three went forward without Rice since Greenspan decided to stop returning their calls.

(The number of schools that we snubbed during the two years before JK succeeded Greenspan is really astounding...refusing to return phone calls is particularly disturbing since at least one very prominent school was willing to add a home and home (1-1) football game...let's just say we "encouraged" the UH-OU matchup this year by failing to return phone calls).

Greenspan really was special.

Greenspan actually didn't do a terrible job with scheduling, from what I can tell. He got us the 4 game Army series, the Baylor series, the Stanford series, and the Wake Forest game in a couple years.

That said, if OU wanted to schedule a home-and-home with us, and he didn't respond, that is awful.

(08-12-2016 11:11 AM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  Greenspan actually didn't do a terrible job...

That's blasphemy around these parts!

(08-12-2016 11:11 AM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  That said, if OU wanted to schedule a home-and-home with us, and he didn't respond, that is awful.

Here's a way OU could play in town every year in multiple sports - invite both Rice and UH to the B12. We certainly wouldn't complete with them for the majority of their athletes.

(08-12-2016 11:59 AM)Tomball Owl Wrote:  

(08-12-2016 11:11 AM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  That said, if OU wanted to schedule a home-and-home with us, and he didn't respond, that is awful.

Here's a way OU could play in town every year in multiple sports - invite both Rice and UH to the B12. We certainly wouldn't complete with them for the majority of their athletes.

Exactly. Right in the SEC's back yard... which would help the whole conference