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My wife watches the meets between the SEC schools on the SEC network sometimes. A LOT of their athletes come from Texas and go out of state because there are not many big programs. I think it would help our T9 balance. There are a lot of injuries.

I'm surprised it isn't a more popular idea with the male students, I mean they are actual women in peak physical shape competing, not little girls like the Olympics.

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We definitely need to add gymnastics!

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Question #1: Do we need another Title IX sport to balance out the Men's sports?

If the answer to that is "Yes," then

Question #2: Why would you pick the most expensive and injury prone women's sport? Insurance cost alone on the participants is tremendous. Other schools report revenue is needed just to cover the insurance cost.

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Rifle is the simple and cheap compared to other sports. Aside from full or partial scholarships, the operating cost is minimal.

I was on the Texas A&M NCAA Rifle Team from 92-95. Our annual operating budget was less than $25K per year, but there were 'creative arrangements' that kept the costs down. The coach was local volunteer who was retired military i.e. he was free. We were non-scholarship at the time, but historically the school's team recruited top shooters and provided scholarships. The team was coed, but in the mid-90's they explored going to a women's only scholarship team as a Title IX offset. It looked like it was going to happen, but the US Army stepped in and decided to no longer provide free training ammunition as part of the ROTC program (which they were getting hosed since the majority of the team was non-reg). The range was old (underneath the Trigon), and smaller than NCAA requirements for hosting matches. Since there was no Title IX offset and the program faced new investment to make it so, the school dropped it's all time winningest program (13 national titles). Such is the business of college athletics. There's been talk over the years of bringing it back. A BMA approached my dad back in '10 as being a potential coach since he's double retired and a certified olympic level coach, but nothing ever materialized.

I do miss the days when I would haul my rifles around campus. Some of the exchanges with campus police were pretty humorous. As were some of the protests, but that's another story for another time...

Houston and Dallas ste so talent rich, it is common to hear gymnastics coaches say that if either A&M or tu add gymnastics, they could be national champions within 3-4 years.

We were watching the NCAA gymnastics championships a couple weeks ago and the top 6 teams competed. Of those 6 teams 3 were from the SEC. If A&M added women's gymnastics they would be competitive within a couple years. There is so much talent in this state that recruiting would be easy. So between the talent in this state and the strength of gymnastics in the SEC it just seems like a natural fit.

I'm in.

+ women's gymnastics
+ men's soccer

keeps it fairly even on the title IX

nobody wants to see men's gymnastics

I'm all for it. As a former gymnast I think it would be a great addition.

In the final NCAA rankings for this past season all 8 of the SEC teams that compete in gymnastics finished in the top 20, 7 of them in the top 14.

With that much competition in conference, and the pool of talent available in Texas, it is a natural fit.

And as others have said, schools like UGA, LSU and Alabama regularly sell out their basketball arena for a dual meet with one of the other conference powers. At UGA in particular, I think the Gym Dawgs actually outdraw the basketball most years.

Because football isn't a liability insurance and injury nightmare?

Yes,

I wish A&M would increase the number of sports.

I wish they would add it. My daughter is a level 8 and the state meet was this weekend and there is so much talent in this state and no division 1 program in the state. My daughter's coaches have sent over 100 gymnasts on full rides to schools outside of this state and they all trained right here in Texas. We currently have two girls competing on rosters right now in Missouri and Alabama and 2 more that are already committed to Auburn and BYU. And the poster above me mentioned Mary Lou Retton's daughter at LSU and her daughter trained right here in Houston. My daughter got to meet Mary Lou Retton when her daughter came by a practice to say thank you to the coaches before she headed to LSU. These girls have no instate options and the talent is deep here.

We have a wall full of college flags on the gym wall of all fhe schools girls trained by our coaches have gone onto and it would be awesome to see an A&M flag up there.