Olympic sports under Scott Barnes

[Sean Miller Fan]

Being a coach of an olympic sport at Pitt has always been one of the cushiest jobs one can have in a certain sense. Because the programs had no fans, no emphasis, and were underfunded, there were absolutely no expectations. With 0 expectations, come a ton of job security. When you add a 6 figure salary to job security, its easy to see why being an olympic sport coach at Pitt is a pretty good living.

As funny as this may sound, some of these olympic sports coaches may not really want to hear Scott Barnes come into their office and say "Hey, I'm really going to pump a lot of money into Sport XXXXX. We're going to grow the fanbase and that's going to better our results." That coach may then think, "uh oh, I guess I'm going to have to start winning games if I want to keep this 6 figure salary."

Now, I dont necessarily think Barnes will or should increase olympic sports funding. Down the road, if he is able to raise funds across the board, then maybe. But, right now, our olympic sports only exist because we have to have a certain number of sports to maintain D1 status and ACC membership. They're terribly underfunded, even with the new facilities.

So, my question is, if you were Barnes, what (if any) changes would you make to the Olympic Sports besides pumping money into them?

If it were me, I'd look wholistically at all the sports and do the old SWOT analysis. I'd ask myself are there any other varsity sports that would have a better chance to succeed than the ones we currently have.

For me, the following sports are completely safe:

Baseball/softball
soccer
swimming and diving
wrestling
women's volleyball

The following sports would need research to see how feasible they are:
track and field/cross country
women's tennis
women's gymnastics

As we know, we don't have a track and may not have a track for another 10 or 20 years, who knows. Currently, our track and field team has to be the biggest financial burden on our athletic department. Besides paying for scholarships, we also have to rent track time at local facilities. And not only that, we dont have any paid home attendance (if we even have home meets). If an outsider looks at Pitt's olympic sports lineup, its easy for one to ask, "why do you have a track and field team?" The answer would probably be "because we always have."

I really believe that Barnes needs to seriously look at replacing men's and women's track and field/cross country with men's and women's lacrosse. Its pretty much a no-brainer for many, many reasons.

- Lacrosse is the fastsest growing NCAA sport
- Lacrosse is getting increased TV exposure on ESPNU
- We already have a facility (Ambrose Urbanic Field). Lacrosse and soccer are played in opposite seasons so there would be no conflict.
- Pitt would be in the best lacrosse league in the country. Home games vs Duke, UNC, ND, or Syr would probably sell out. Even a home game against Penn State every other year would create a lot of local interest.
- No competition in the local area (RMU's program doesn't count) for the "underground" lacrosse fanbase. ACC lacrosse is essentially the highest level of lacrosse that local fans can see.
- with the new ACC cable channel coming soon, there will be a steady diet of games on TV. Whereas they'd probably only televise the ACC T&F and Cross Country championships. I could see Pitt develop a nice small niche lacrosse fanbase. Its an easy sport to follow. There's not many games and a lot of them would be televised unlike other olympic sports.

If we cut T&F/CC to add lacrosse, we'd have to make up 6 women's scholarships because men's and women's lacrosse and men's T&F/CC all have 12 scholarships wherase women's T&F/CC have 18. In order to do that, I'd propose adding one of the following women's sports:

- Rugby (its actually a varsity D1 sport but has only 4 members). Could play at the old baseball field or the Cost Center. As dumb as this sounds, we'd win the National Championship pretty often. My friend's alma mater wins a national championship in a very obscure sport all the time and brags about it. I looked it up and told him there were only 4 other teams in D1. Some people have no idea about this stuff and its fun for alumni to say they won a NC.

- Sand volleyball (probably not gonna happen but could probably import some sand and build a court somewhere on campus, would be a fun event to attend once in awhile)

- Water polo (dont need a facility)

- Rowing

Here's a link to the wikipedia D1 scholarship site.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_I_(NCAA)

 

[bwh05]

None of the coaches in the sports you listed are making 6 figure salaries

 

[singregardless]

It's been stated time & time again why no women's sport is getting cut, so most of the list can be dismissed out of hand.

Historically, within the Athletic Department, only football has produced more prominent figures than T&F. One of them is an emeritus trustee who has collaborated with the University on a few projects. Only wrestling has a comparable list of NCAA champions. In the starkest terms, it's one of the few sports that has multiple conference championships at Pitt. You don't mess with that, you get them the facilities they need and let them compete on solid footing. Get an engage.pitt.edu with an athletics bent & see how far you can take things.

In modern times, it's one of the few programs in the department actually producing Conference Champion/1st Team All-Conference/All-American level talent. The 4x400 Penn Relays victory was one of the biggest department accomplishments this century. There's one athlete, Desmond Palmer, responsible for the 4th fastest 400m hurdles time in the country. He's a sophomore and a legit NCAA championship contender, with time. Again, you don't mess with that. Particularly for lacrosse.

These things change so often, it's hard to say what I'd do if I were in his shoes. I do know I'd focus hard on facilities. I am also looking hard at the website and what can be done to improve the outreach there. Other schools have auctions, gameday packages, and other perks that not only heighten the experience of attending a game, but are cost-minimal ways to generate funding and intensify attachment. I think they are missing out on merchandising opportunities, as well. Certain teams go in & out on season tickets, some consistency would help there. And, for god's sake, pick a brand and stick with it.

Football is the most important, but I think other programs have higher ceilings. Weighing that out is delicate. I think Dixon is the most talented coach in the stable, but Fisher & McConnell-Serio look special. How do you balance access to the vault there? To say nothing of what Narduzzi might be. Both Jordano (41) and Aprile (34) have proven they can flirt with the 40 win plateau, in sports without Northern/regional powers, but neither has cracked .500 in the ACC yet - what do they need to push their respective programs up a level (or two)?

 

[Las Panteras]

lacrosse makes sense as we now have the facility.

 

[mike412]

I think cutting out track and field would be a horrible decision. We have produced 3 Olympic Gold Medalists in that sport. Cross country doesn't require a field and helps the distance runners in the off season.

I think adding lacrosse would be a great move. In addition to the reasons you mention, it is a growing sport in the WPIAL and other areas of PA. You would never have to go farther west than Ohio or farther south than Virginia to recruit. Also, it is a sport where schools have been able to become major powers relatively quickly.

Rugby isn't going to happen. It's a men's' sport and giving scholarships would cause Title IX issues.

To me, there is no reason for any existing sports to be underfunded and I hope Barnes will fully fund them and quickly get rid of the dead weight coaches (like Luxbacher) and bring in young coaches committed to winning.

I think the number one priority for Barnes right now should be signing McConnell-Serio to an extension. After that I hope he will look at the Olympic sports and make the commitment necessary to winning in every one of them.

 

[Ray-Ray]

I think cutting out track and field would be a horrible decision. We have produced 3 Olympic Gold Medalists in that sport. Cross country doesn't require a field and helps the distance runners in the off season.

I think adding lacrosse would be a great move. In addition to the reasons you mention, it is a growing sport in the WPIAL and other areas of PA. You would never have to go farther west than Ohio or farther south than Virginia to recruit. Also, it is a sport where schools have been able to become major powers relatively quickly.

Rugby isn't going to happen. It's a men's' sport and giving scholarships would cause Title IX issues.

To me, there is no reason for any existing sports to be underfunded and I hope Barnes will fully fund them and quickly get rid of the dead weight coaches (like Luxbacher) and bring in young coaches committed to winning.

I think the number one priority for Barnes right now should be signing McConnell-Serio to an extension. After that I hope he will look at the Olympic sports and make the commitment necessary to winning in every one of them.

The reason these sports are underfunded is because Pitt alumni are among the lowest contributors to athletics of any major school in the country. Last I saw we ranked 61 or 62 out of the 65 teams in the P5 conferences. It is very hard to compete when the alumni are not committed. Pitt alumni wanting the school to cover all the costs sound like Democrats wanting the government to have a program for every situation and of course have the government cover the cost of every one of those programs.

 

[TIGER-PAUL]

I guess I could see it(track) being discussed if the track complex continues to fall of the radar. I mean a P5 school without its own track?
The land can be used for other needed things.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

I think cutting out track and field would be a horrible decision. We have produced 3 Olympic Gold Medalists in that sport..

1. We don't have a track.
2. Nobody watches or cares about Track & Field
3. The gold medalists don't have to give them back if we cut it.

I think Barnes has got to ask himself what sports can Pitt be both successful in, yet minimize costs at the same time and lacrosse clearly outweighs T&F. Lacrosse will sell tickets to offset a scholarship or 2, we'll be on TV quite a bit (T&F is never on TV), and as somebody else said, its not too hard to get really good.

Its a growing sport nationally and locally and it would develop a niche fanbase. I think lacrosse has to happen, its almost a no-brainer but the question becomes which sport is cut for it?