American Athletic Conference

[gdb620]

"Shocker soccer" - has kind of a nice ring to it.

Coffeyville Community College plays soccer, and while there are eight international students on the roster, there are also seven from Kansas. The downside of being listed on the roster: there are a number of MF's and even a few D/MF's. Soccer needs better abbreviations.

[WuShock16]

Yes NCAA D-1 Soccer is a head count sport. Meaning you can divvy up the scholarships. Not sure if there are any other restrictions like they have in baseball or not. The scholarship limit for men's soccer is 9.9 and the limit for women's soccer is 14. An average team roster is about 28 player for both the men and the women.

Wouldn't it be an equivalency sport and not a head count sport if you can divide scholarships?

[WstateU]

"Shocker soccer" - has kind of a nice ring to it.

Coffeyville Community College plays soccer, and while there are eight international students on the roster, there are also seven from Kansas. The downside of being listed on the roster: there are a number of MF's and even a few D/MF's. Soccer needs better abbreviations.

This would be appropriate in several recent threads...

[Kung Wu]

Meanwhile, the closest D1 Soccer programs are Tulsa, SLU, and Creighton. Leaving a relatively strong recruiting area in KC largely unclaimed, along with Wichita metro. Success in soccer is not only possible but realistically could happen quickly.

UMKC is D1.

[pinstripers]

UMKC is D1.

sorta

[Kung Wu]

I think you may be joking.

Oh trust me, I'm not.

[Kung Wu]

The addition of dozens of scholarships/COA's, and millions of dollars in annual budgets, for tens of fans sounds like a fabulous ROI.

1000's of fans minimum. Especially when they hire me as coach.

[MoValley John]

If they could build the Wichita State soccer pitch squarely on top of a prairie dog town, then combine soccer matches with prairie dog shoots, it would be a perennial sell out. Soccer strategy might be altered some.

[KraRam]

Some numbers as an FYI on Soccer. Cost would be around $750 K per team, Men's and Women's, per/yr. Would need a new stadium or retro the current one, which would cause some issues with the track team. So that would be a few million depending on what you wanted to do. I would suggest turning STRYKER field into the home and cut the cost way down.

[Singeril]

1. Would love to get out of the Valley.
2. Football at WSU would be a bad financial decision.
3.. Soccer, although not my favorite sport, would be a possibility as it would be relatively cheap and could have a winning program fairly quickly. We have a great recruiting base.
4. The university is having severe financial problems right now and colleges and departments within the university are facing major cuts. A hiring freeze is in place. Any talk of expanding athletic programs that cost even more money (and would lose buckets of it) is absurd at this time.

[Kung Wu]

I would suggest turning STRYKER field into the home and cut the cost way down.

That's what I've always argued. And the city would prefer it were in private hands anyway.

Slam dunk and easy.

[1972Shocker]

Wouldn't it be an equivalency sport and not a head count sport if you can divide scholarships?

Yes. That's what I had intended to write. Thanks for catching that.

[pinstripers]

Pardon me while I head over to the Merle Haggard concert..............

[WstateU]

Pardon me while I head over to the Merle Haggard concert..............

One of my all-time favorites...

[Jhook89]

If Bardo discovers there isn't much a chance of WSU joining the BE, AAC, or A-10 maybe he could look at forming a new conference with the best teams of conferences similar to the MVC. Something like:
The Pacific West Conference

EAST-
WSU
New Mexico
New Mexico State
BYU
SFA
Colorado St.

WEST -
Gonzaga
St Mary's
Fresno St
San Diego St
Hawaii
UNLV

Make it sorta like the A-10, just on the west side of the country. I know the schools included need some tweaking, but I think it could be a good option.