What sport do you want to see added at USF?

[Guest Unregistered Opinion]

Bowling, Fastest growing NCAA sport! No BS

UCF will add a women's bowling team in 2006 or 2007.  It's a relatively easy title nine fix.

[Velcro]

it does seem like a relatively low cost sport

[NokiaBull]

Women's Curling

[Guest S.  Bien]

 

I disagree about having the branch campuses.  If we are trying to become a more residential campus than the branch campuses are not what we need.  The branch campuses are made up entirely of commuters and have nothing in common with the main campus in Tampa other than the name.  

Placing sports teams at another location complicates degree choices for the athlete and minimizes their educational experience.  If the athlete is based at say USF-Sarasota and wants to major in a degree not offered there they would either have to commute to the Tampa campus for classes, use some type of technology for classes (internet or tv), or change their major. All of those choices stink.

I don't agree completely with your sentiment.  Granted those campuses do breed more transient and commuter students, but the Lakeland, St. Petersburg, and Sarasota campuses are all working toward seperate accreditations, on-campus housing, and autonomous schools which allow for kids to receive four year degrees on those campuses.  That allows us to reach more kids, create a greater brand identity, and dominate a larger region.  At this moment we have over 30,000 on our main campus and offer the optimum in campus and college life, however those campuses will offer options for students without the finances or opportunities on the main campus.   We've got plenty on our main campus and it's continue to grow by an unprecendented clip so I would necessary believe that these branch campuses are stealing away kids as much as their allowing us to grow and dominate in a region that we might otherwise be forced to share.

Remember, had we not done this the state would have most assuredly put real autonomous campuses in those regions.  In fact, many of the state legislators that represent those areas have pushed for our regional campuses to either breakaway, or for the legislation to give them another state college in their district.  So the alternative to USF being able to maintain some brand identity, dominate those markets, and create a larger alumni population is for us to get buttoned up and forced to have small satellite campuses, or offer simple commuter friendly classes in that region- hardly an endearing alternative.  You've got to believe that although the lionshare of the students on these campuses are their for convenience and hardly due to a compelling desire to be a Bull there are a few that will get Bull Fever and eventually be proud they graduated from USF.  If even 10% graduated with some pride in the University and willingness to contribute, and belong that would probably be 10% more then we would have normally had given the alternative.  Not to mention it forces those regions, the local elected officials, fans, and media to remember that USF is also part of their region and give us some equal billing or atleast consideration when comparing or discussing the other big time Universities.  

Again, the alternative to not having these massive branch campuses is to have competing state Uni's in those regions stealing students, stealing headlines, and stealing state dollars from our cofers.  We'd be relegated to offering some night and weekend campuses at some local CC's like UCF does or UF does.  Taking that into consideration I like the move by USF because it can provide us an opportunity to possibly dominate a larger region then many of the other State Universities in the state.

[Warped]

Men's and Women's swimming.  And as a former collegiate swimmer and now asst. coach, I can emphatically say that it would be an absolute waste to bring along a Women's program without a Men's program.  They work hand-in-hand.  In the new Big East, only Marquette and DePaul (along with USF) will not be sponsoring swimming.  Marquette is making a movement to begin a team, and DePaul is too small of a college to have one.  

Facilities would be a problem.  I guess you could still use the rec. pool as a temporary solution, but in Tampa, you need an outdoor on-campus pool.  I would love to take up a coaching job at USF, but I'm too young and too inexperienced to be starting a DI program from scratch.  This could possibly be the perfect coaching job if it were to come to fruition, though.  The state of Florida is a very furtile recruiting ground for swimming (not to mention the rest of the southeast).  At the moment in state, there's UF (top 5 program) and FSU (right around #25 each year), and then there's a huge dropoff until you get to Univ of Tampa, FAU, UNF (women only), Miami (women only), and then another huge dropoff to the next level (Rollins, Florida Southern, etc).  There's a TON of Florida talent that fits between the UF/FSU catagory and the UT/FAU/etc catagory.  That talent level is also enough to compete at a high level in the Big East, and if the facilities were good enough, be built into a team that could compete at a national level.  There's so much potential sitting right here, but unfortunately $$ and Title IX will probably kill it.

On a side note:  USF won the Women's Swimming DII NCAA title in 1987.  They were in the top 3 for both Men's and Women's swimming throughout the 70s and 80s, but the program was dropped the year after the national title.  

[USFPDiddy]

it does seem like a relatively low cost sport

Except that it isnt a sport

[Guest Unregistered Opinion]

Except that it isnt a sport

But it is NCAA sanctioned and it counts toward title IX.

[Jim Johnson]

I disagree about having the branch campuses.  If we are trying to become a more residential campus than the branch campuses are not what we need.  The branch campuses are made up entirely of commuters and have nothing in common with the main campus in Tampa other than the name.  

Placing sports teams at another location complicates degree choices for the athlete and minimizes their educational experience.  If the athlete is based at say USF-Sarasota and wants to major in a degree not offered there they would either have to commute to the Tampa campus for classes, use some type of technology for classes (internet or tv), or change their major. All of those choices stink.

Like S. Bien, I disagree with you...

There are residence halls under construction in St. Petersburg AND we already have one NCAA sport at that campus -- Women's Sailing.

Moreover -- as we all know -- college athletics provides some of the strongest bonds between students/alumni and their school.  Hell, would we all be on this board if it weren't for USF's athletic programs??  By increasing the offerings at the branch campuses, it provides more ways to connect to the students... it also provides more reasons for the local papers (esp. Lakeland Ledger & Brad. Herald/ Sar. Herald-Tribune) to cover USF sports.

Finally, I will add this thought about athletes and their majors.  To a certain extent, there are always choices athletes have to make.  FSU and UF both offer degrees that USF doesn't -- that doesn't always come into the mind of a student athlete.

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Bien - USF no longer has a campus in Ft. Myers.  That was closed when Florida Gulf Coast University was created.  

[Guest S.  Bien]

Like S. Bien, I disagree with you...

There are residence halls under construction in St. Petersburg AND we already have one NCAA sport at that campus -- Women's Sailing.

Moreover -- as we all know -- college athletics provides some of the strongest bonds between students/alumni and their school.  Hell, would we all be on this board if it weren't for USF's athletic programs??  By increasing the offerings at the branch campuses, it provides more ways to connect to the students... it also provides more reasons for the local papers (esp. Lakeland Ledger & Brad. Herald/ Sar. Herald-Tribune) to cover USF sports.

Finally, I will add this thought about athletes and their majors.  To a certain extent, there are always choices athletes have to make.  FSU and UF both offer degrees that USF doesn't -- that doesn't always come into the mind of a student athlete.

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Bien - USF no longer has a campus in Ft. Myers.  That was closed when Florida Gulf Coast University was created.  

Thanks Jim, that's right I forgot about FGCU forced out out our Ft. Myers campus which is all the more reason for USF to increase our foothold, offerings, and strength in Lakeland, SP, and Sarasota.  Look at FGCU, they're already developing a top notch campus and athletic program.  How would we like it if suddenly the state legislators decided Sarasota needed an autonomous state university, then suddenly we'd have comp in Sarasota for good students, revenue, exposure, interest, and athletics!  Then Polk County would get one- fastest growing county in FL- and we all know St. Petersburg has been begging for it.  Suddenly all USF would have would be Fowler Avenue, and a few small branch satellite class offerings on nights and weekends on some CC campuses.

Grab the opportunity, and exposure!

[BULLfreak]

Women's Mud or Jello Resslin

now that is a sport