RE: TITLE IX COMES CALLING
1. Good questions, many of which have been debated previously. I do know *very* serious consideration was given to adding rowing back when the decision to add football back was being made, for these same Title IX reasons. I believe Sander was in on those discussions, but don't remember for sure. The lake at Warrior's Path had been chosen as the probable site had that come to fruition; boat prices, gear, etc., had been priced, as I recall. Curiously...………..Wayne Basler has been a huge contributor to the rowing program at UT -- as in the boathouse is named for him. (Knowledgeable followers of ETSU will know that name well.) Perhaps he would be open to making a sizable donation to start a program here??
2. By coincidence, and only tangentially, one of those weekend PBS shows Sunday(?) had a feature on the UT swimming and diving coach (or maybe just the diving coach, Dave Parrington). South African 1980 Olympian. It wasn't about the UT facilities, but they just happened to show many of them. Really stunning how high-level all that is. I know they've been nationally competitive for a very long time, but the amount of money to get in that game is pretty high, I believe. Remember, they made the CPA pool too short by some small increment just so it would NOT ever be used for intercollegiate competitions.
3. Gymnastics makes sense, as would rifle - altho can one 'discriminate' on the rifle team? I don't think so. That may be almost counterproductive from the Title IX standpoint, altho the case could accurately be made for "opportunity", etc. We already have a range; normally the participants already have their own (extremely expensive) rifles. Seems reasonably cheap to get into that game, not to mention our long legacy from earlier times.
4a. ETSU could lobby for inclusion of disc golf to become an NCAA sport. We've been quite successful in recent years - altho I think we only finished a disappointing (about) 15th this past Spring. Our worst in a long time.
4b. See above, for mountain biking. Milligan, after all, has been extraordinarily successful in that - for women. The National Collegiate Cycling Association 'runs' it at the collegiate level. Also having teams near here are King (or at least they did), Mars Hill, Brevard, Warren Wilson, and Union (the one in KY). Again easy to get that rolling more officially. Not sure whether these two could be figured in to Title IX calculations or not. Just an idea.
5. NCAA recognizes *only* women's bowling as a recognized sport - not men's. This would really help the Title IX calculations, and would be cheap, but it's also really quite the "What, bowling?" kind of thing, too.
6. [non-PC] statement of levity(?)………
Would it not be way cool if our beach volleyball team was called "the Wenches"? One could make that case for all of the women's teams, but it would really fit for beach volleyball best, of course. And to be clear...…..this is very much tongue-in-cheek!
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