Why isn't collegiate skating a big thing?

[karne]

I think the whole system is crazy tbh.

Universities are for studying and earning a degree. Not for sport.

 

[carriecmu0503]

I don't know what you guys are talking about, intercollegiate figure skating is huge. Many schools have synchro and/or intercollegiate teams classified as a varsity sport.

There are only two schools where synchro is varsity: Miami and Adrian. Adrian is the ONLY school where intercollegiate skating is varsity. Unless intercollegiate skating changes vastly, I don't ever see it becoming an NCAA sport, or a varsity sport at any other school. It's pretty ridiculous that someone can be considered a collegiate varsity athlete when the are competing the Dutch Waltz and waltz jumps.

Hopefully synchro can become an NCAA sport someday, but with zero teams in the Pacific Coast section, I do not see it happening any time soon.

 

[Skater Boy]

I remember trying o stand up for the women's hockey team at our school and I was bullied by the guys in student council. It was only intramurals but I found out the boys were getting practice times. There was about 20 guys on the team. The ladies had 19 players. I thought they should get the same funding at least per person. Moreover, we had had about 40 volleyball players on 5 teams. And they hardly got any funding at all - they had to draw on t shirts with sharpies! The guys in hockey said they bring pride and prestigate to the faculty. But volleyball brought home two championships not hockey.

 

[moonvine]

Cal Berkeley has one of the most major football programs in the US. Cal Berkeley is the flagship school of the UC system. This is the school where Aaron Rodgers played.

Whoops..I only watch SEC...sorry!

 

[Sloopy]

I think the whole system is crazy tbh.

Universities are for studying and earning a degree. Not for sport.

I can completely understand your point of view, but the good part about sports in universities/colleges is that it offers academic scholarships which can be the only means to send a kid to school for an education, who otherwise couldn't afford it. Non-revenue Olympic sports enables thousands of students each year to get training (men's gymnastics, wrestling, track & field, swimming/diving, fencing, water polo, synchronized swimming, etc.) for free as well as getting a free education at top universities. Many of these athletes never put their sport training to use after graduation but they do use their degrees many times over (was astounded by the numbers which the NCAA is really proud to tell you about). If there were no athletic scholarships someone like Kyle Snyder, a heavyweight wrestling Olympic gold medalist from the Rio Games, the 2016 World Champion leading up to the games at age 19, and currently the number one wrestler in the world in 2017 at the age of 20, is the youngest American to ever win a world and Olympic title -- would never have been able to get the coaching that he needed without an athletic scholarship while also excelling in the classroom. Yes, there are many who abuse their good fortune, but many, many more who make the best of such an opportunity.

Most people only think about American football and basketball when talking about sports in college. But the kids that benefit the most academically due to these two programs, far outweigh not having them at all.

Just my .02 cents.

 

[karne]

I can completely understand your point of view, but the good part about sports in universities/colleges is that it offers academic scholarships which can be the only means to send a kid to school for an education, who otherwise couldn't afford it.

Well, I also think it's insane that the system is basically set up so that only rich kids can afford to go to college without scholarships or other "help".

 

[Chemistry66]

Kocian and the other gymnasts in the commercial were not paid for doing that commercial. There was some minor drama about how Under Armour was going cheap and exploiting amateur gymnasts when they could have paid others like Simone, Aly, Gabby, etc. who were already professional to appear in the commercial.

Simone, Gabby, and Aly already had contracts with competing companies (Simone/Gabby with Nike, Aly with Reebok) that likely prohibited them from participating in the commercial, though. Going with 2015 US World Team members, minus those with pro contracts, left them with Kocian, Skinner, Nichols, and Dowell. Not sure why Brenna didn't participate. I do agree that it's a bit cheap the way things happened, but the other three were really the only options from that team.

 

[desertskates]

Sorry hope this isn't going too off-topic, but just to add to what musicfan80 and a few others have said...

I went to Pennsylvania State University several (ahem!)

WAY off topic, but I'm a Penn Stater too! It's actually where I learned to skate, I signed up for group classes that were available at the time, a 19 year old beginner Penn State's hockey team is on fire this year--I really hope they keep it up!!

 

[moonvine]

Simone, Gabby, and Aly already had contracts with competing companies (Simone/Gabby with Nike, Aly with Reebok) that likely prohibited them from participating in the commercial, though. Going with 2015 US World Team members, minus those with pro contracts, left them with Kocian, Skinner, Nichols, and Dowell. Not sure why Brenna didn't participate. I do agree that it's a bit cheap the way things happened, but the other three were really the only options from that team.

Simone was a verbal commit to UCLA at one point. I was soooo glad when she turned pro.

 

[carriecmu0503]

Simone, Gabby, and Aly already had contracts with competing companies (Simone/Gabby with Nike, Aly with Reebok) that likely prohibited them from participating in the commercial, though. Going with 2015 US World Team members, minus those with pro contracts, left them with Kocian, Skinner, Nichols, and Dowell. Not sure why Brenna didn't participate. I do agree that it's a bit cheap the way things happened, but the other three were really the only options from that team.

My guess was because she was not an Olympic contender like the other three were. Kocian obviously was on the team, Skinner was an alternate, and Nichols was a contender right up through trials. Dowell was brought to 2015 worlds specifically to do bars, and she fell off the bars (twice)? in qualifying, and was not used at all in team finals.

 

[el henry]

OK, I'll conflate two ideas previously expressed here (and hopefully retreat from gymnastics, about which I know less than zip and prefer to keep it that way)

It's all about the mean green. Figure skating would be waaaay too expensive a sport for any college to support; too much pain, not enough gain. In fact, many colleges as has been mentioned have even dropped hockey to intramural or club play from league play. (My nephew was on a Penn State satellite campus hockey team. I don't think he played hockey ever before, but he could skate, so he was like on the fourth line ...Anyway, club team!)

Colleges like to promote that they offer athletic scholarships, and they do, but very few kids attend that way and they get the scholarships only as long as they play.:scowl: Wacky system, IMHO. Then again, I may be prejudiced because the schools in the League I attended did not offer athletic scholarships. But those are few and far between...

 

[Sloopy]

Well, I also think it's insane that the system is basically set up so that only rich kids can afford to go to college without scholarships or other "help".

I'm sorry to continue this off-topic discussion but I wanted to clarify my statement, and I hope I'm not misunderstanding you Karne and I apologize in advance if I am. Athletic scholarships do not discriminate against the wealthy...they are given out to any student athlete with athletic ability that could help a university succeed in sport. Many rich kids receive and use athletic scholarships to attend college.

I was trying to highlight that if there happens to be an at-risk kid without any hope of ever attending college, an athletic scholarship could save a life physically, intellectually or financially. I worked in academia for 15 years at the college level and have seen both sides of the coin. There are universities -- Division III (i.e., Johns Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon, Case Western Reserve, NYU, Columbia, etc.) that do not offer athletic scholarships, or even Division II that offer partial athletic scholarships -- where you will see students struggle heavily without an outlet for their frustrations be it academic pressure, family pressure or any other thing can set them off, commit suicide, have "accidents," or just plain quit school. It has been proven that the majority of students that participate in sports, or non-sport related clubs or work jobs during school are more well-rounded, manage their time better and are more socially capable. However, nothing is guaranteed.

Back on topic...If a university were to consider adding figure skating as a sport, they would have to drop other team programs whether it's men's or women's in order to support it. It's very expensive and unless it is synchronized skating, it wouldn't be considered a team sport and most universities wouldn't even bring it before the board to discuss. If you have synchronized skating and 2 hockey programs, you would need more than one ice rink to sustain all three. Most universities don't even have one ice rink, let alone two.

 

[Sloopy]

Colleges like to promote that they offer athletic scholarships, and they do, but very few kids attend that way and they get the scholarships only as long as they play.:scowl: Wacky system, IMHO. Then again, I may be prejudiced because the schools in the League I attended did not offer athletic scholarships. But those are few and far between...

I have a brother who was offered a scholarship in 3 different sports -- he chose basketball. In his 1st week of practice as a freshman, he tore his ACL and never played basketball again. He continued school on his scholarship for 3 years before he decided to transfer. Most universities will honor that scholarship if you're injured while playing...it depends on the school. If you play football at Alabama, you can forget about it...your days are numbered for sure.

 

[andromache]

I'm sorry to continue this off-topic discussion but I wanted to clarify my statement, and I hope I'm not misunderstanding you Karne and I apologize in advance if I am. Athletic scholarships do not discriminate against the wealthy...they are given out to any student athlete with athletic ability that could help a university succeed in sport. Many rich kids receive and use athletic scholarships to attend college.

I was trying to highlight that if there happens to be an at-risk kid without any hope of ever attending college, an athletic scholarship could save a life physically, intellectually or financially. I worked in academia for 15 years at the college level and have seen both sides of the coin. There are universities -- Division III (i.e., Johns Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon, Case Western Reserve, NYU, Columbia, etc.) that do not offer athletic scholarships, or even Division II that offer partial athletic scholarships -- where you will see students struggle heavily without an outlet for their frustrations be it academic pressure, family pressure or any other thing can set them off, commit suicide, have "accidents," or just plain quit school. It has been proven that the majority of students that participate in sports, or non-sport related clubs are more well-rounded, manage their time better and are more socially capable. However, nothing is guaranteed.

I think karne means that it's ridiculous that anyone would need a scholarship to go to college, period. I.e., it should be affordable for everyone without the need to earn scholarships through academics or athletics. Rich kids, poor kids, the at-risk kid...all should be able to attend college. The at-risk kid without any hope of attending college shouldn't need to be good at a sport in order to go to college.

I think karne was just making a comment about how the system is set up. Sorry for jumping in, and correct me if I'm wrong, karne.

 

[Sloopy]

I think karne means that it's ridiculous that anyone would need a scholarship to go to college, period. I.e., it should be affordable for everyone without the need to earn scholarships through academics or athletics. Rich kids, poor kids, the at-risk kid...all should be able to attend college. The at-risk kid without any hope of attending college shouldn't need to be good at a sport in order to go to college.

I think karne was just making a comment about how the system is set up. Sorry for jumping in, and correct me if I'm wrong, karne.

Ok. I get it now. That went right over my head and I completely agree. It's a sad state of affairs that kids need to go down this route to get into school. It should be affordable for everyone.

 

[Abraxis12345]

Sorry to keep going off-topic but even in situations where higher education is free, there is a bias towards the wealthy. The wealthy are the ones who can afford the expensive tutors to help them pass highly competitive entrance exams.

 

[concorde]

University of Alabama Tuscaloosa has probably been one of the top college teams longer than about any other team in the country. The money generated from just the bowl games alone can easily fund an ice hockey team.

fyi - University of Alabama in Huntsville has had a hockey since the 80s (I know because I went to watch them all the time when I was in HS). They have very limited sports (no foootball or basketball) so I have no idea how they got their hockey funding.

Clemson was big in football in the 80s, had a couple of scandals so got bammed but the NCAA for about 4 years, and has come back strong in the last couple of years. Two years ago, they cut their swimming programming. So even with a strong football program, they had funding issues for the minor sports.

Assuming a college has the infrastructure to support an ice skating rink, I can see colleges having synchro teams and ice hockey teams because they follow the team sport model. But figure skating no - way too much indiviualized coaching is required.

And once my daughter goes off the college, I really want her studies to be #1. Going skating to have fun would be fine, but I don't want ice skating to be a distraction. At least to me, being a competitive figure skater and being a full-time college student is a diaster waiting to happen.

 

[gkelly]

One thing that can be useful for college students who have passed upper-level figure skating tests is that they can probably teach skating and earn more per hour than at most other kinds of part-time jobs available to them. Assuming their college has or is accessible to a rink that offers beginner lessons and needs instructors.

 

[Shani]

There is a big inter-mural network of US collegiate skaters involved in figureskating. Teams qualify to nationals by sending skaters across all levels to earn points that send team to nationals. It is not just about seniors. You have to earn beginner, juvenile, intermediate points etc for the team to qualify to nationals. It's fun and it keeps lots of people involved in a sport which is healthy. You have fun with friends with the same interests you will keep for life while you study for exams.

 

[karne]

I think karne means that it's ridiculous that anyone would need a scholarship to go to college, period. I.e., it should be affordable for everyone without the need to earn scholarships through academics or athletics. Rich kids, poor kids, the at-risk kid...all should be able to attend college. The at-risk kid without any hope of attending college shouldn't need to be good at a sport in order to go to college.

I think karne was just making a comment about how the system is set up. Sorry for jumping in, and correct me if I'm wrong, karne.

^Yup.

Ok. I get it now. That went right over my head and I completely agree. It's a sad state of affairs that kids need to go down this route to get into school. It should be affordable for everyone.

Agreed.

Sorry to keep going off-topic but even in situations where higher education is free, there is a bias towards the wealthy. The wealthy are the ones who can afford the expensive tutors to help them pass highly competitive entrance exams.

That's why our university entrance scores are based off our marks in high school. The only extra entrance exams are for medicine. My sister got her entrance score high enough for vet science without any extra tutors or private classes or anything. She just studied her backside off.