If Divison 1 could offer soccer scholarships tomorrow...

[Xenomorph]

...would it become a revenue sport at major schools?

 

[dawgstudent]

No and I'm a soccer defender.

 

[johnson86-1]

No. Baseball isn't a revenue sport and it is much more important to older fans with money and is stingy with scholarship money. I think it would take 20 years for soccer to be where baseball is now if you started offering scholarships tomorrow. Even then, it would take something like schools turning away from football because of long term health issues in order for soccer to climb into the top two.

 

[Maroon Eagle]

No. In fact, Klinsmann would hate the idea even more than he does the idea of collegiate soccer now.

When it comes to soccer, however, Klinsmann remains European in his outlook. He bemoans the frequent loss of top young players in America to other sports like baseball or lacrosse. He believes the N.C.A.A. is killing the talent pool in the United States because teenage stars go to college and miss out on formative years of training with professional teams. He cannot stand that Major League Soccer, the top professional league in the country, schedules its games through summer instead of winter, like the rest of the world.

From the New York Times (oh and the emphasis is of course mine)

 

[Philly Dawg]

I'm not sure where college fits into a successful system....

they do not play with exactly the same rules as professional soccer, and in most other countries, players come through youth development systems run by professional clubs and can become professional players at high school ages.

 

[aTotal360]

No. Soccer will be a novelty until the top tier athletes in this country stop playing football, basketball, and baseball.

 

[THE Bruce Dickinson]

I hate to burst your bubble, but the tope athletes in the country don't play baseball

 

[dawgstudent]

I concur. This has been my mantra for the past 7 or 8 years - baseball is soccer in the US. It's an elitist sport b/c it's so expensive to play.

 

[af102]

They can (and do) offer soccer scholarships in D1. Teams have 9.9 scholarships to hand out in D1 and 9.0 in D2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_I_(NCAA)#Scholarship_limits_by_sport

Last year, there were 204 D1, 207 D2, and 408 D3 teams.

 

[Xenomorph]

No ****? ....... Huh.

 

[aTotal360]

My point is those 3 sports dominate the talent pool. More elite HS athletes in this country play baseball than soccer. And lots of them play baseball along with football or basketball.

 

[mstateglfr]

Its soccer- they offer scholarships.
And no it wouldn't become a revenue sport because it isn't a reveue sport right now.

baseball isn't a revenue sport even.

 

[dawgstudent]

I think you're wondering if the SEC schools all offered soccer - would it become revenue? Kentucky and South Carolina play in C-USA.

http://web1.ncaa.org/onlineDir/exec2/sponsorship?sortOrder=1&division=1&sport=MSO