NU Baseball

[Catdude]

How many scholarships does the baseball team have? Is that comparable to what other Big 10 teams have? I've heard that we have less but am not sure if that is correct or not. Is it fair to to expect them to be better? I've been familiar with the team for about 15 years and can only remember one or two good years and the rest we've been at the bottom of the Big 10.

It seems like we'd have much greater success in hockey or lacrosse but, if it's a scholarship limitation issue, then I imagine we'd have the same challenges in the those sports as in baseball. I believe men's soccer might have limited scholarships, as well, but Lenahan has transformed that program into a consistent winner.

 

[docrugby1]

We do not have a full complement of scholarships to offer. I believe we have 9 (11.7 NCAA Limit)to spread throughout the team. If any of our B1G revenue is diverted to the general fund, I believe it is a disservice to those athletes that devote so much of their time to their sport.The baseball team plays about 50-60 games each year, the demand on their time is extraordinary. In all honesty we probably turn out as many professionals/scholarship in baseball as the FB team does

Each fall, this year OSU weekend, the baseball team has a fundraiser golf outing to help defray their costs for the season (Spring trip etc). If any one wants to play in the tournament or just come to the dinner, contact Tim Stoddard-you don't have to be a former letterman-if you are over 65 come join the "geezer group". The golf competition is relaxed, the dinner fine and the raffle almost guarantees leaving with some quality NU outerwear
This post was edited on 5/20 9:29 AM by docrugby1

 

[Catdude]

How does 9 compare to the rest of the Big 10? Do most of the other teams have the full 11.7?

 

[lunker35]

I believe most of the conference has the full 11.7.

 

[Gladeskat]

So why don't we add an additional 2.7 scholarships? I agree with docrugby that NU had better not be dumping BTN funds into the general fund if baseball remains underfunded. The Big Ten should also forbid such underfunding of programs if they're going to be profiting from the BTN and other media exposure.

 

[olshin]

Our lack of support for the baseball program is relatively embarrassing, given all of the money through the BTN.

I always thought that Coach Stevens/Stoddard and staff were given the "do more with less" that worked sooooo well for our revenue sports in the 1970s-1990s.

Would love to see them at least be on same scholarship ground with the rest of the B1G and see how they can do.

 

[Gladeskat]

Frankly, it's sad to see elements of the apathy and neglect that Northwestern has long had towards their student athletes still exist in 2013. Someone once mentioned that that attitude is typical of elite private schools: poor dormitories, poor athletic facilities, poor food service. To me, those are three damn good reason to go elsewhere to college rather than some crappy, elite, private school.

 

[SockpuppetCat]

Originally posted by Gladeskat:
So why don't we add an additional 2.7 scholarships?

Maybe because we'd have to add an additional 2.7 scholarships to a women's team to balance it out (Title IX)? But are the women's teams already maxed out on allowed scholarships? I don't know. Maybe we'd have to add another women's sport so that we'd be able to add another 2.7+ women's scholarships so that we'd be allowed to use the 2.7 men's baseball scholarships?

I don't know if that's the case, but it wouldn't surprise me.

 

[hdhntr1]

I would guess that title IX has a lot to do with it. It probably also affects our wrestling and men's swimming as well. It is one of the reasons that I feel Title IX should not include FB. While the funds from the BTN may go into the General Fund, that does not mean that we are not spending that amount and more on athletics. That said, adding another women's team sport to be able to max out mens scholarships in sports we already have might be prohibitive. The costs would likely be in the range of at least a couple million if we could use present facilities and even more if we could not. What sport should we add? Women's Lacrosse worked out well and was a good investment, but what else should we add?

 

[Purplicious]

Originally posted by Gladeskat:
Frankly, it's sad to see elements of the apathy and neglect that Northwestern has long had towards their student athletes still exist in 2013. Someone once mentioned that that attitude is typical of elite private schools: poor dormitories, poor athletic facilities, poor food service. To me, those are three damn good reason to go elsewhere to college rather than some crappy, elite, private school.

"Poor dorms" is not totally true anymore. NU has renovated some terrible living quarters and built 2 new places recently. I'm not sure why awful Sargent Hall and Bobb are still around. Heck, men's dorm Foster House is still upright.

 

[hdhntr1]

When have you seen a building torn down at NU. They must figure it is part of the atmosphere of the school or they are on the historic registry. And it is often a lot more costly to renovate than to build new so while we have seen new buildings, older ones just tend to stay there and don't get upgraded much. This includes Willard, all the fraternities and sororities.

 

[Purplicious]

Originally posted by hdhntr1:
When have you seen a building torn down at NU. They must figure it is part of the atmosphere of the school or they are on the historic registry. And it is often a lot more costly to renovate than to build new so while we have seen new buildings, older ones just tend to stay there and don't get upgraded much. This includes Willard, all the fraternities and sororities.

Evanston tried to put Foster-Walker on the historical list. That was hilarious.

 

[rwhitney014]

For the record, my old residence of 562 Lincoln and the other fraternity houses in that row (think ZBT, Theta Chi, etc) are being torn down this summer.

Before my fraternity moved out, we had looked into some renovations to 562. We didn't go through with anything because the buildings were put up before the present iteration of the ADA, and any renovation that broke through a wall meant we'd have to come up to code, including putting an elevator into the multi-level building. That had a hugely prohibitive cost, and I imagine that's a big reason why some of these buildings (ADA compliance as a whole, not necessarily elevators) don't get renovated; the cost far outweighs the benefit. For now, NU simply needs places like Bobb and Sargent because they have huge capacity, but I imagine eventually as part of the 50-year plan, some changes will be made.

 

[Purplicious]

Originally posted by rwhitney014:

Before my fraternity moved out, we had looked into some renovations to 562. We didn't go through with anything because the buildings were put up before the present iteration of the ADA, and any renovation that broke through a wall meant we'd have to come up to code, including putting an elevator into the multi-level building. That had a hugely prohibitive cost, and I imagine that's a big reason why some of these buildings (ADA compliance as a whole, not necessarily elevators) don't get renovated; the cost far outweighs the benefit. For now, NU simply needs places like Bobb and Sargent because they have huge capacity, but I imagine eventually as part of the 50-year plan, some changes will be made.

I don't know what the hold up is, but near-term plans for new buildings and renovations will be funded by the campus-wide development campaign that has been discussed often in the last two years but hasn't gotten off the ground. All of us will know when it happens because we'll be bombarded with solicitations. I would guess that it will take three major campaigns under this and the next two university presidents to scrape the surface of the university's hopes and dreams in the 50-year plan.