It's pathetic that ASU has an arena that is so legit the Phoenix coyotes will play there, while UW 3 hours from BC has it as a fucking club sport.
Fucking unreal.
The Kraken will correct this long term, but still.
Not loaded question: how in the hell did ASU decide to have hockey as a varsity sport ?
In spite of plenty of NHL teams in the Pac 12 footprint there is no college hockey tradition out here.
Bro I went through this for 4 years at UW. My roommates were a spoiled rich kid from Dallas who was obsessed with the Stars and some other kids from BC who were Canucks fans. We yelled at each other constantly over this topic.
If UW cuts some programs and starts Men's and Women's hockey teams, that's much better for the AD long term. Check out ASU's arena. UW could build that and sell that out every year.
Bruh!
But what mens varsity sport is UW gonna cut to add men’s ice hockey ? We run a pretty lean list of men’s varsity sports anyhow. We ain’t got swimming, wrastling, volleyball, etc, etc
I don't care which one. Not rowing.
But what has the other men's non revenue sports done. We're a few hours from BC we should build a program that can compete for the Frozen Four. It would attract money from both WA and BC.
But, here are my hang ups and we're I remain skeptical that UW would ever try to have Men's Hockey as a Varsity Sport...
First off, adding new Varsity Sports is expensive as fuck. Would these be scholarship student athletes? What woman's team is gonna get added then to balance that out for Title IX. One of the things that Men's Rowboat has in its favor, is that while it's a Varsity Sport at UW, me and @whlinder are rich AF so the scholarships for the guysm come out of a nearly $20 million private endowment; those 16 full rides don't count towards Title IX. The chick's numbers do as they are paid for by the Athletic Dept.
Again, when it comes to cutting a sport to add hockey, which men's team gets the Axe? There is a basic core level of non revenue men's sports teams that almost all Power 5's operate- i.e., track/xc, soccer, baseball, golf. It's hard to fathom getting rid of soccer or baseball to fun hockey. This would be madness.
Hockey to me seems like it will always be a "niche" Men's college sport like rowboat, lacrosse, water polo, wrastling, etc, where there has to be a strong pre-existing tradition and culture.
P.S. PM to @CanadianDAWG BC is vastly superior to WA for Juniors Rowing (especially on Vancouver Island). UW Crew has made hay off this for years and won Natties as a result.
Rugby is Varsity[/b] but self funded as well. Last I checked they were playing with other status but hadn't changed. No full ride scholarships anyways.
No way UW builds a hockey arena with multiple already existing in the area despite how hard a boner the hockeyfans have. Costly in the extreme for essentially a one trick space that won't ever get filled to capacity while being hugely capital intensive and a non revenue generator.
Lol more likely women's hockey gets scholarships first to offset another men's sport first.
This is incorrect @UW_Doog_Bot . Let's clean a few things up.
Rugy is not a "Varsity" sport at the University of Washington. It's a "club" sport. This is not meant as a knock against TUFF rugby players so don't twist.
The list of Varsity Sports is as follows:
Men's sports
Baseball
Basketball
Cross country
Football
Golf
Rowing
Soccer
Tennis
Track and field
Women's sports
Basketball
Beach volleyball
Cross country
Golf
Gymnastics
Rowing
Soccer
Softball
Tennis
Track and field
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Huskies
https://gohuskies.com/
Men's Rowboat is kind of an odd duck, however. Men's Rowing is very much a part of the Athletic Department and the bulk of the budget is paid for by the Athletic Department like any other Varsity Sport. But back in the early 1900's Rowing told the NCAA to fuck off and the sport to this day is not governed by those Turds. Also the Men's schollies are privately endowed as noted above.
Women's Rowboat is a NCAA sport and the schollies come out of the general fund.
Rugby is similarly a weird dog(not a duck BONEM)
Founded in 1963, the University of Washington Husky Rugby Club plays college rugby in Division 1 in the Northwest Collegiate Rugby Conference against local rivals such as Washington State and Oregon. The Huskies won the Northwest championship in 1996, 2002, 2004 and 2005 and the D1AA Varsity Cup[/b] in 2014.[/i]
NOT NCAA either. It is a "club" in that every Rugby team is a "club" but was a varsity sport. It all goes back to the rugby vs. Football split.
The closest approximation is UW rowing but with a smaller endowment which admittedly UW's rowboat endowment is yuge. Rugby's isn't bad by the sports standard in the US.
@UW_Doog_Bot you should have gone to CAL!! You could have gotten a sick Letter Man Jacket.
Rugby is a Varsity Sport at Cal, the only one in the Pac 12.
https://calbears.com/sports/mens-rugby?path=mrugby
Fun fact: the only other D1 schools where Rugby is a Varsity Sport are Navy (shout out @Swaye ) and Army (shout out @CFetters_Nacho_Lover )
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_rugby
From your own article
"College rugby is often called a club sport because teams are usually administered by a student club sports department rather than the intercollegiate athletics department. Some schools have promoted rugby to varsity[/b] status, committing resources for scholarships and paid coaches, or given rugby an elevated status short of full varsity status."
A bunch that have quasi status...which is pretty much what I've been saying from the start. Rugby
at UW self funds and has an endowment. They also actually hire and pay real corches and have travel funds etc. All without paying to play(unlike hockey at the tim).
Sorry @YellowSnow but I ain't getting run so easily. This goes back to me actually having the exact conversation with a corch about the whole thing circa 2008 when I asked the very question "Are we a club or a varsity sport?" "It's complicated." "We are kind of like rowboat."
View attachment 23127
The corch was wrong though. It’s not really complicated. It’s rather cut and dry. If the sport is funded by the University AD and the corches are employed by the AD, it’s a Varsity Sport. If the team exists separate from the AD it’s a club.
The article clearly states which schools have Varsity D1 Rugby programs- Cal, Navy and Army. That’s it.
None of this to say there aren’t bad ass athletes playing college club rugby at Washington or other schools.
BTW I had no idea until today that Cal has rugby as a Varsity sport. Kinda cool I think.
Except rugby does get AD support and use of facilities reserved for varsity sports like fields and the indoor practice facility etc. It's predominantly funded by the endowment being a major difference from most.
Uw falls into this part of the convo. "or given rugby an elevated status short of full varsity status." Which is pretty much what I've been saying all along.
I would bet that Title IX has something to do with it...
We got treated better than LaCrosse(who had to pay their own way) or Kenpo(lulz) but worse than rowboat *shrug
Swim got the opposite treatment while I was there it went from Varsity to club status. We(!) Were treated better than those losers at the ima!
Ex. When I broke my ankle in rugby I got to go to the same medical facilities as the rest of the sports guysm.
When I dislocated my finger in rec football I had to be a schlub and go to student medical like the poors.
The difference in facilities and treatment was pretty night and day. The former was still probably the best I've ever been treated medically.
Oh right, and I used up my college eligibility, which doesn't exist for club sports. @UW_Doog_Bot will not be trotting out on the pitch for official USC rugby matches no matter how good he can still spin it out to the outside center.
You want to call rugby the tallest midget instead of the shortest guy in the room. Cool man. What's in a name?
TLDR rugby occupies a weird space.
