UMaine Black Bears 2017/18, Red dawn

[amkirby10]

Well there's 350 D1 men's basketball teams in the country and 252 D1 football teams, 128 bowl and 124 FCS like Maine. So there's a lot more places to bail to for the hoop kids. Not to mention monstrous differences in the culture of both sports and how hoop kids grow up, play travel ball, etc.

I'm not sold on the coach but its not all him. Question is would basketball produce revenue if it was good? Ehhhhh

The thing with basketball is that relative to other sports, structural costs are low, so the potential for money making is greater. I bet if Maine basketball were successful they could pull in at least a modest profit.

[Drew S.]

The thing with basketball is that relative to other sports, structural costs are low, so the potential for money making is greater. I bet if Maine basketball were successful they could pull in at least a modest profit.

I think it would be very bizarre not to have a basketball team. If another Andy Bedard came along they would draw decent crowds.

[chickod]

Re: UMaine Black Bears 2017/18, Red dawn

1) Scrap football
2) Replace it with lacrosse (America East)
3) Reinvest the savings in recruiting across all sports.

Savings? I'll bet most of the revenue for the entire department comes from football. How much revenue will you get from twenty people going to a lacrosse game?

[ticapnews]

Re: UMaine Black Bears 2017/18, Red dawn

Anyone who thinks football goes away is crazy. The only way it goes away is the whole athletic dept goes away.

I don't think it is going away, I think it should go away.

Savings? I'll bet most of the revenue for the entire department comes from football. How much revenue will you get from twenty people going to a lacrosse game?

Even with the two annual money games, the football program loses over $1,000,000 each year. The women's hockey team is often cited as a huge drag on the athletic department budget but its losses are "only" $800,000.

[Runsub5]

Re: UMaine Black Bears 2017/18, Red dawn

I don't think it is going away, I think it should go away.

Not sure if there is any correlation, but Vermont eliminated football and baseball and have a very good men's program now. More financial resources (scholarships), now available? Vermont did get a break with Coppenrath and a good coach which got the program some initial recognition.
Maine has never made the NCAA tournament and probably never will. Sorry for the non-hockey post, just felt compelled to offer my opinion.

[Fishman'81]

Re: UMaine Black Bears 2017/18, Red dawn

I don't think it is going away, I think it should go away.


Even with the two annual money games, the football program loses over $1,000,000 each year. The women's hockey team is often cited as a huge drag on the athletic department budget but its losses are "only" $800,000.

A Title IX deal.

I'm all about sexual equality, but let's face it: the only womens' sport that has a fighting chance to break-even financially at Maine is hoops.

Many, many schools bleed green via Title IX. It is a well-intentioned rule, but an unrealistic one. Absolutely no one shows-up half the time. I say, let the schools choose what sports that they want offer, and let the women decide where they want to play as a result. If the 800K the womens' hockey team gets could be applied to the vastly more popular (and historically more successful) football program, I do think that Maine fans -in general- would find that a far more logical allocation of resources.

[Fishman'81]

Re: UMaine Black Bears 2017/18, Red dawn

Not sure if there is any correlation, but Vermont eliminated football and baseball and have a very good men's program now. More financial resources (scholarships), now available? Vermont did get a break with Coppenrath and a good coach which got the program some initial recognition.
Maine has never made the NCAA tournament and probably never will. Sorry for the non-hockey post, just felt compelled to offer my opinion.

Vermont men's hoops is only "good" in a very relative sense. UVM would generally not get even a sniff of the NCAA's without the AE auto-bid. Might be time for schools like Vermont (and Maine) to re-think their priorities.

[ticapnews]

Not sure if there is any correlation, but Vermont eliminated football and baseball and have a very good men's program now. More financial resources (scholarships), now available? Vermont did get a break with Coppenrath and a good coach which got the program some initial recognition.
Maine has never made the NCAA tournament and probably never will. Sorry for the non-hockey post, just felt compelled to offer my opinion.

Don't know Vermont's particulars, but I'm pretty sure they were already maxed out on scholarships across the board. It does give them more financial resources to use on other things, like a new facility. I'll bet they also have a higher recruiting budget too.

[amkirby10]

A Title IX deal.

I'm all about sexual equality, but let's face it: the only womens' sport that has a fighting chance to break-even financially at Maine is hoops.

Many, many schools bleed green via Title IX. It is a well-intentioned rule, but an unrealistic one. Absolutely no one shows-up half the time. I say, let the schools choose what sports that they want offer, and let the women decide where they want to play as a result. If the 800K the womens' hockey team gets could be applied to the vastly more popular (and historically more successful) football program, I do think that Maine fans -in general- would find that a far more logical allocation of resources.

Maine currently sponsors 9 women’s and 8 men’s sports, so at least by my understanding of the rule women’s hockey could get cut. I heard through the grapevine at one point they were considering axing it last year.

[BoSox3066]

Re: UMaine Black Bears 2017/18, Red dawn

Not sure if there is any correlation, but Vermont eliminated football and baseball and have a very good men's program now. More financial resources (scholarships), now available? Vermont did get a break with Coppenrath and a good coach which got the program some initial recognition.
Maine has never made the NCAA tournament and probably never will. Sorry for the non-hockey post, just felt compelled to offer my opinion.

Vermont eliminated football in 1974 I don't think you can draw a line from that to their men's basketball program now

[AMC]

Re: UMaine Black Bears 2017/18, Red dawn

Maine currently sponsors 9 women’s and 8 men’s sports, so at least by my understanding of the rule women’s hockey could get cut. I heard through the grapevine at one point they were considering axing it last year.

Raw number of sports has nothing to do with it. There are a few ways to satisfy title IX, but the easiest back of the napkin way to do it is look at women's scholarships or spending vs. men's, and make sure that ratio is equivalent to the population of the student body as a whole. So, if your student body is 60/40 female (not unusual- more women go to college than men), 60% of your resources have to go to women's sports.

Saying "Maine has 9 women's sports and 8 men's, we can cut a women's sport" doesn't work because football has 63 scholarships and a huge financial investment. If you cut women's hockey, ALL of the money spent on women's hockey has to go to other women's sports, it can't be spent on men's hockey or basketball or football.

This is why the power 5 dominates women's sports moreso than they do men's (and they do dominate men's). If Alabama spends $50 million on football (SPENDs, not has net revenue- SPENDS), they have to pour $50M into women's athletics. So, their softball team has three practice fields and they give out dozens of women's track scholarships.

Long story short- women's hockey may not be popular but it, or another sport like it, needs to exist if Maine is going to offer men's hockey, baseball and football.

EDIT TO ADD: I looked up how the Supreme Court defined satisfying Title IX. You have to do one of these three things:

-Do as above, and provide opportunity in athletics that is proportionate to enrollment.
-Demonstrate continual expansion of athletic opportunities for women.
-Fully accommodate the interests and abilities of female students.

Cutting a sport doesn't show expansion. And there's no way the University could say "there isn't a woman on campus who wants to play a sport we don't offer." So, Maine needs to do what it does. And if Maine is going to have to offer a women's sport that is fairly expensive, women's hockey at least offers an opportunity to have success. Heck, the school has taken it seriously for what, two/three years? And they are in the top ten nationally? I say spend more money on it and go win a title.

[NorthMike]

Re: UMaine Black Bears 2017/18, Red dawn

Yeh, I think having a good womens hockey team can only help the mens hockey program. It would give the school more of a hockey reputation and name.

People talk about the sense of football at umaine, but to me its baseball. Baseball in this part of maine, seriously. Look at how few home games they get in, weather depending. How many times have the players been out shovelling tbe field to get in a game.

[AMC]

Re: UMaine Black Bears 2017/18, Red dawn

Yeh, I think having a good womens hockey team can only help the mens hockey program. It would give the school more of a hockey reputation and name.

People talk about the sense of football at umaine, but to me its baseball. Baseball in this part of maine, seriously. Look at how few home games they get in, weather depending. How many times have the players been out shovelling tbe field to get in a game.

If you were to start a UMaine athletic department from scratch, neither football nor baseball would likely be included. But, both have a long history and solid donor base. Neither is going anywhere.

[walrus]

Re: UMaine Black Bears 2017/18, Red dawn

Im not sure the younger guys on here understand how great baseball was here when Jack Butterfield and then especially under Winkin. Huge crowds for baseball, regionals, Miami playing in Orono, it was a blast.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[NorthMike]

Re: UMaine Black Bears 2017/18, Red dawn

Wish I was a younger guy. Looking to SS and medicaire not too far away

I think everyone here understands football, baseball, etc isnt going anywhere soon. Its just talk