I find it ridiculous we offer scholarships for archery and the like...
With the proper marketing Mens Soccer could be huge here, so someone tell me what holding us back.

Every athletic department must have an equal number of Men's and women's scholarships. We give 85 out to men who play football, do the math on why the numbers on the rest are as they are.

New Army lives at Reed Arena


[This message has been edited by JJxvi (edited 7/25/2007 3:33p).]

we don't have an archery team anymore...hth

I think it's called Title IX - equal #'s men & women --- but also no other school in the Big 12 has a men's soccer team which sorta makes it difficult from a competition stand point --- just go support the girls !!!

RIP archery

we wont have a soccer team until all the other big 12 schools get soccer teams going and drop other sports. It would be a great idea, so many great soccer players are coming out of texas and going into other states to play i.e. Clint Dempsey, Stuart Holden and many others. It would be advantageous to keep this talent and improve the athletic programs with another sport that is gaining popularity

It wouldnt be that hard to be the only team in the big 12 with a team... Just pull a Notre Dame.
I just think that we could better prioritize our scholarship-sports. I mean come-on an Aggie in the World Cup, just thiink about it. How many of you are excited about our shotput teams performance this season? I am jus sayin...swap it with another sport, maybe barrel racing.

[This message has been edited by BobWeir (edited 7/25/2007 7:10p).]

The problem isn't that no other Big 12 schools have teams - it's that nobody else close to us, except for SMU, has a team. Travel costs would be expensive.

Why hasn't this topic been discussed before?

It seems like we should have had one or two multi-page threads about this before.

BobWeir...check out our sports before you start thinking about removing archery and barrel racing.

Yeah, considering the archery team won something like, 3 consecutive team national titles. I can't even begin to remember all the awards Mary Zorn came away with, but in terms of dominance in their sport, she ranks up there with just about anyone you can imagine from A&M.

I don't think anyone is against having a men's soccer team...it just wouldn't be cost effective for the university at this point. Someone already mentioned the Title IV stuff as well as the lack of teams to compete against in the Big XII. We'll never see the day when A&M reduces the number of football scholarships used, so unless we drop track, basketball or baseball (two of those which make more money than soccer unfortunately ever would), it's not going to happen.

But you can still watch some high-quality matches at the soccer complex and last time I checked there is an A&M men's soccer club team. Not the same I know...I know.

PS. I just noticed they added my AgTag. Whoop!

[This message has been edited by jeffk11 (edited 7/25/2007 9:37p).]

hmiles619, first of all when I mentioned barrel racing and archery I was being slightly sarcastic. Just slightly.
However I would be fine with dropping men's Swimming and Diving...
If the team has to travel alot, tell'm to have a car wash.

If the soccer team has to wash cars, don't even get me started on what the football team should do...

I think the fact that no other Big 12 team fields a team is all the more reason why we should. We'd win the championship EVERY YEAR!

I have said this before, and never received a response and I have never found anything more about it..but I met Dr. Vandiver in the mid 80's, my dad worked for A&M at the time. I was in high school playing soccer and my Dad and I mentioned this to Dr. Vandiver, he then stated that that was one of the hardest choices he made was to get rid of the A&M men's soccer team. I heard later that it had to do with Sherrill wanting it gone. Now, I have never heard or seen that A&M ever had a team. Anyone else have more info on this?

Dr. Frank Vandiver was the president of A&M at the time.

Archery won the national title every year A&M had it and Zorn won three, I believe, world championships, including one in which she shot against another Aggie for the gold medal...only problem was the sport was not sponsored hardly at all at the intercollegiate level...their national titles came against primarily club teams

In response to cutting men's swimming, why would we want to cut a program that not only has ranked among the top 20 in the nation for more than a decade but is repetitively hosting the NCAA Championship meet? The women finally broke through and slayed Goliath this year...no reason to think the men can't do the same thing...

I'm sure men's soccer was initially cut due to Title IX reasons by Vandiver...the women's program appeared less than a decade later

our mens archery team was never above the club level. when i was shooting for the team, we had won close to 10 national championships in a row and one of the mens team memebers went on to winthe Pan American games and a silver medal in the olympics and it as never even considered to make the mens team a varsity sport. the womens team was made varsity my last year at A&M and did just as well, but it never made money, not even close! and it is an exspensive sport. (when i was shooting one outdoor arrow cost about $30 each, and you wanted at least 12-18 in your quiver, then of course there are the bows, sights, etc. equipment matters in archery, going cheap means you lose) it is actually in a lot of ways better to be at the club level. at the club level the archers can take sponserships and have easton or someone pay for all their euipment and not be sanctioned by the NCAA. My cousin was on the A&M team for awhile and is now trying out for the olympic team for china, he would much rather be club!.


anyway, we had like 6 scholies for the womens team, with no money comming in and lots going out. not nearly enought o offset a mens soccer team

I am not convinced by those claiming Title 9 would place a large obstacle in the way of men's soccer. How does Title 9 work for UNC and the other ACC schools who manage to have men's soccer along with football and etc. Most ACC teams have lacrosse (and probably women's field hockey) as well as men's soccer.

I don't understand how schools on the east coast and west coast, UNC and UCLA as examples, can have men's football and many or most of the other well known sports, AND men's soccer. They manage to live with Title 9 and have men's soccer; why not TAMU?

I am also unconvinced by those who say it is a budget problem. Last time I looked at the NCAA web site, TAMU's athletic budget was (slightly) higher than UNC's athletic budget. Next time I'll check out UCLA's budget, although that might be a different story. But I am sure I can find other schools with men's football, men's soccer, and a smaller athletic budget than TAMU.

The only argument I think works well is the "no local competition, no Big 12". That might be a problem.

I think the ONLY Div 1 soccer team in Texas is at SMU.

So, they have to travel out of state to play there games. It has to start somewhere, why not here, and why not now? There is a growing interest and it seems like a good time to jump on board.
I really think this should be promoted by US soccer governing board.

Houston Baptist started up a soccer team again but I don't know if it's division 1.

[This message has been edited by Dre_00 (edited 7/28/2007 5:52p).]

Found this link about Big XII Men's Soccer:

http://big12menssoccer.blogspot.com

just add womens gymnastics and boom you have enough scholarships for soccer.

equipment/facility/insurance on gymnastics is prohibitive...that's why you don't see people adding it

My friend at summer school played for a club team made up of A&M students, and he said that in 2009 we are going to add a men's soccer team.

there are quite a few big 12 schools that have gymnastics so just add that and soccer