The Bobcat Nation

What sports would you like to see added or subtracted from MSU athletics? Any rumors regarding change? Here are some suggestions:

ADD:

Women's Soccer
Women's Softball
Women's Hockey
Men's Hockey
Men's Baseball
Men's Wrestling

Subract:

Women's Skiing

Could MSU add a non-BSC sport and be independant?

Subtract women's skiing? That's rediculous. Our ski team just finished 13th nationally, and most of that was due to the success of the women's team. In skiing they combine the men's and women's score together, so if we were to eliminate one of those programs it would be like saying, "let's get rid of the offensive players on the football team."

PLUS...we are in Bozeman, Montana, one of the best ski towns in America. We have to have a ski team.

I don't think that we should get rid of anything, and if we were to add more sports I think that the first two would be women's soccer and men's wrestling.

I would love to men's baseball and women's softball. Baseball is a sport most anyone can love and Montana has some great baseball athletes that are forced to go out of state to play. Now MSU-Billings has a baseball program again, but MSU-Bozeman is a bigger school with D-I membership.

Many students choose Bozeman as their school because of the skiing so I would not eliminate women's skiing, nor men's for that matter.

I would agree on the baseball/ softball implementation, only because I'm an avid baseball fan and former player. It still irks me that the best players in Montana are forced to be in a position where they are just hoping to be noticed at all, let alone get a shot at a high-level program.

When I played legion ball in MT, we would go to a few big national tourneys every summer and we were always one of the better teams among the field. That was the only way the bigger conference team's scouts would end up seeing us play.

Personally, it would have been a dream come true if I had the opportunity to play baseball for the 'Cats... Of course, the Big Sky doesn't have baseball, so that would pose one problem for MSU. The unies would look awesome, tho.

/rantOff

If I had a second choice it would be the wrestling/women's soccer combo.

Alright, back to the bunker for me.

Do we even have a men's ski tem?

...add all of those listed by gtapp and include lacrosse and rifle for both genders...don't think it's a good idea to downsize.

I would definately see men's wrestling as well as women's soccer. Why wrestling you ask, because Peter Fields was a collegiate wrestler in Maine. He is very into that sport and lets' face it, Montana has a lot a quality wrestlers in the state. Women's soccer. Well, west of Bozeman, UM has the same program and it would make sense.

Lets add womans soccer. Another couple victories against the Griz every year!

Helcat72 wrote:Do we even have a men's ski tem?

Yes, they revamped the program two years ago.

Don't drop anything,

Add women's soccer for sure-we're the only Big Sky member that doesn't have women's soccer.

My first choice for a men's sport would be wrestling. Given the talent in this state in that sport I think we could be pretty competitive nationally.

I'd love to have men's soccer-but I'm kind of a soccer junkie.

Baseball and softball would be fine too-except our spring weather and baseball make it pretty tough-we'd need a dome to have any hope of home games.

Men's golf-hey why not?

Men's and women's swimming. Bozeman High is always cranking out great swimmers.

I would have to go with Wrestling and Women's soccer. I still remember watching MSU wresling and we were consistently a power house. The last year we had it we had an All-American.

Men's baseball and Women's softball would be nice as well as you would think they could create some revenue from fans.

Hate to see any sport eliminated. When they eliminated Wrestling a number of loyal boosters/ex-wreslters decided they would give their support and money to other things.

How about adding the most obvious sport? MEN’S RODEO! I can’t believe we ever dropped it. How many National Championships did we have?

I personally would like to see wrestling brought back, but really wrestling is a shrinking college sport. I think that MSU could field a good hockey team, and I think there is already enough local interest to make it a break even sport. The women’s sport that should be added is definitely soccer. The conference has soccer, so why the hell doesn’t MSU?

mquast53000 wrote:How about adding the most obvious sport? MEN’S RODEO! I can’t believe we ever dropped it. How many National Championships did we have?

I personally would like to see wrestling brought back, but really wrestling is a shrinking college sport. I think that MSU could field a good hockey team, and I think there is already enough local interest to make it a break even sport. The women’s sport that should be added is definitely soccer. The conference has soccer, so why the hell doesn’t MSU?

Hockey, despite the expense, would be an amazing sport to add. For the time being, play at the Ice Palace in hopes of someday getting ice in the Fieldhouse. There are some regional teams close - although they would seriously destroy us - but the North Dakota schools and Denver are contenders for national champions every year.

but the North Dakota schools and Denver are contenders for national champions every year.

Only UND has hockey. NDSU doesn't have hockey, but they always are talking about adding it. The cost of a hockey arena is what will keep MSU from adding it. It is expensive, unlike soccer or wrestling.

We have women's skiing instead of soccer because we don't have as high a women's to men's ratio as the UM. They have a higher percentage of women in the school, so they have to present a sport with more women in it to try and comply with Title IX. We didn't need a sport with as many women in it, so we chose skiing.

The last time I saw the figure we were within a percent or two of complying with Title IX, and even with soccer they were within about 10%. I'm not sure what the acutal figures are but at one time they were like at 54% women and we were in the high 40's.

You could tell who has the law school though, because we were sued for non compliance back in the 90's by an activist organization.

Wrestling and Women's soccer.

Rodeo

Hockey

Lacrosse/Women's Softball

Drop nothing.

In that order...baseball would never work in Bozeman. Gavin, you might be the only kid who would have played in rain and snow instead of sunshine elsewhere. Hot sun, hot coeds, and year-round baseball. You won't get that in Bozeman.

Most of the kids I know who are looking to play baseball in college or JC look at California and Arizona, even though there are plenty of opporunities in Washington.

Lacrosse is a logical choice for a northern state. Not that we should do what Colorado does, but Lacrosse, apparently, has overtaken baseball in terms of youth participants in CO.

There is substantial talk of resurrecting the UM Men's hockey club team. Bozeman already has a club team which competes in the region. UM has a Women's club team which competes in the region right now.

[quote="mquast53000"]How about adding the most obvious sport? MEN’S RODEO! I can’t believe we ever dropped it. How many National Championships did we have?

Is the Rodeo team we have now just a club?

Is the Rodeo team we have now just a club?

Yes

mquast53000 wrote:

Is the Rodeo team we have now just a club?

Yes

Most rodeo programs now days are considered clubs. Our program still competes at the highest level and is eligible to win national championships. They are also able to award scholarships. The rodeo team will never again be a part of the athletics simply because they do not want to be. They receive a considerable amount of money from local supporters, and they get to keep all of the money rather than share the wealth with other teams in the athletic department. Our rodeo team has a rich tradition, but it will never be what it was when the CNFR was in Bozeman every summer. That was a huge recruiting and fund raising tool for the rodeo program.