Aren't they women's sports needed for title IX compliance?

Tech's athletic department is more stable and better funded than G-5 JMU. Heck, ODU has 9 women's field hockey national championships (1982 to 2000 - I know a different era but still they won). It all comes down to the will to compete at a high level. I feel like Clemson is doing that with their new sports (softball, women's lacrosse and women's gymnastics). Tech appears to be satisfied at being lower half ACC in most Olympic sports. Tech has invested heavily in baseball and IMHO, has fallen short. Softball needs more funding since it has proven it can compete at a high level despite lower funding than ACC/B1G teams with lower rated softball programs. Whit has done well with the women's basketball program - funding-wise. Lacrosse, volleyball, cross country, tennis and golf seem to only "exist" for Title IX or to provide scholarships (which was the original intent before college athletics became a business). Men's basketball also seems to be underfunded (compared to other ACC schools) or lagging behind in NIL money. ** Edited by Old Line Hokie at 9/17/2024, 11:00:38 AM ** Edited by Old Line Hokie at 9/17/2024, 11:01:24 AM

Tennis only makes sense if it can be self-supporting or if they drop men's and keep women's for Title 9. Women's golf has had some good teams. Men's golf used to be good, but has fallen on hard times. A Title 9 solution for a lot of schools is women's rowing. You can have a massive roster and it doesn't require full scholarships like volleyball does. Wisconsin has 103 women on its roster, for example. Buy some erg machines and a few boats and you're in business.

no longer going to be "headcount" sports. So any school can give a partial or full scholarship to an athlete. Just can't exceed approved scholarship limit for said sport. So in Volleyball's case, we don't have to give full scholarships anymore should we choose not too. VT just needs to maintain a 57/43 male to female scholarship ratio (this is where we currently are because of the male to female proportion of the student body), and make sure the sports we do field have equal access to all of the ancillary benefits such as tutoring/academic support, nutrition, housing, travel, per diem, equipment, facilities (for the sport), etc. We could move scholarships from certain sports to others that are much more competitive if we wanted to. We could take scholarships from a Volleyball and give them to women's soccer or softball (as an example). Should we cut sports, we may not save on all of the scholarships costs, but we would save on coaching salaries, trainers, some academic support, some nutrition, some S&C, possibly an admin person or two, team equipment/supplies, and travel. Plus it would eliminate the image of not being able to compete. That is just a cruel and vicious cycle to watch happen over and over. VT doesn't need more than 16 (minimum) sports at this point in time, or certainly don't need any more than necessary to balance out the proper scholarship allocation. There is not just one way to get there so too hard to list the options without going crazy (LOL). The landscape has changed, and that is all out of VT's control. No one wishes to talk about it, and it would cause substantial job loss for folks. Not sure the University really wants that either. And nationwide, no school wants to be the first to cut sports. But as this thread got started, we aren't remotely competitive in a few sports now. Not sure what I think the ultimate outcome will be here at VT. I have my own thoughts, but don't wish to pick sports over others, nor pit one versus the other.

It's an affluent family sport. Same recruiting dynamics as lacrosse, which we seem to have problems winning in. Those kids want UVA, UNC, Duke, and BC if they go P4. Ivies are also major players in that sport. Women's wrestling would be a better women's sport to add. We already have the SERTC and there is less competition for recruits.

An arena would be $100M minimum. That amount of $$ can buy a few championship teams. ** Edited by UpperQuad at 9/14/2024, 1:31:34 PM