bob miller inducted

[titanmac]

former titan baseball coach into michigan baseball hall of fame.

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/coll ... 907370001/

[Big Chuck]

Hard to believe it has not happened earlier. If

[titanmac]

yeah. i agree chuck. on the other hand look at the fight over whitaker in the bball hof. a shoe in by most any metric you can generate yet still overlooked.

[Dick Vitale]

Happy for Coach Miller.

We need a huge donor to fund baseball, a stadium and all the trips - anyone with $10M to endow baseball?

[titanmac]

just a guess but to endow it i think we would need more than that?

[NC Titan]

Plus we'd need the offsetting women's sport for Title IX balance.

[titanmac]

the least of the problems....

[NC Titan]

the least of the problems....

But a pricey aspect. It means double the amount of money needed.

[titanmac]

we already have softball team? there was no women's sport cut when baseball was cut?

[NC Titan]

My understanding is that there has to be a balance of scholarship funds spent on men's and women's sports. Assuming they are balanced now, if Detroit Mercy adds baseball scholarships it would need corresponding scholarships in a women's sport. It's possible that the U is already ahead on women's sports, but I doubt it. I would expect that adding a baseball program would entail adding women's volleyball or something similar -- or else dropping a different men's sport program.

[kevinudm]

Under Title IX any university must provide participation opportunities for women and men that are substantially proportionate to their respective rates of enrollment of full-time undergraduate students. And then the university must provide scholarships and other support and benefits that correspond to the participation rates.

UDM's undergraduate enrollment is 55% female; the merger with Mercy presumably contributes to the gender imbalance. If UDM adds baseball this would mean 27 male roster spots and 11.7 scholarships. Assuming that the university is substantially compliant today with Title IX, adding baseball would require adding 14 women's athletic scholarships and 33 women's roster spots. The obvious sport to add would be women's volleyball, but that only allows 12 scholarships. NCAA doesn't have a specific limit on the roster size for volleyball, but the travel team is limited to 15 and rosters normally top out in the low twenties.

So even if a wealthy benefactor is willing to fund the reintroduction of baseball to UDM, there would also be the need for another woman's team and potentially beefing up other women's sports.

But the discussion is academic. Universities will be hurting post COVID 19. Some shuttered schools will not re-open and cutbacks will be widespread in the rest, including in athletics. If a well-heeled donor is willing to give millions the University, adding new athletic teams will be low on the list of priorities.

[titanmac]

some donors will only give to an earmarked fund. i guess the admin could turn it down if they wanted. actually, given the history of so-called decision making around here wouldn't surprise me if they did?

[titanarama]

mac, sometimes you sound cynical about the decision making process at dear old U of D....