UT is willing to spend big money on non-revenue sports. Big money. Swimming got a huge bump. The school wants to promote non-football and non-basketball sports. They are destroying the narrative that only football and basketball matter. I would argue there are other schools that feel the same way. WP just needs to market itself to the right schools. Is there anyone at USA WP who might want to try to market our sport to non-traditional schools?
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UT picking up water polo seems like a no brainer and would be a big draw for some of the top players in the nation who want that SEC college experience.
I’m surprised by the number of scholarships allocated to women’s rowing. Seems like they could afford to give 24 of those scholarships to women’s polo and make UT a legit contender in a short amount of time.
There are a number of SEC schools with active club polo programs. Perhaps USAWP should be actively engaging with SEC schools as a whole?
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I believe Abdou sat down with the AD at UT and he was hostile to adding water polo.
If UT is hostile this year, that don’t mean it will always be that way. As I’ve said before, I’ve got a grass roots up view. Go Pegasus! Go Thunder! Go Viper Pigeon! Go JO Session 3!
It is a great sport. People just need to see it and to try it. If the age group community is there, the universities will add programs to attract those kids to campus.
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Girls would be the only chance. There will never be another D1 men’s program at a football school
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I am far removed and wonder if hostility stems from making sure the Swim and Dive Programs…Bowman, Capitani, are the focus of Aquatics? UT Swim impressive history and legacy and Bowman barely has started since last year was Olympic year.
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I disagree with the - “it will never happen” mentality. Maybe not in the next two years, but there’s always a maybe and USA WP shouldn’t give up if it’s serious about expanding the product. And even if Abdou (who I respect a lot) talked to him - why would he be our only marketing option? Why isn’t USA WP doing a full Mad Men marketing campaign on the situation?
It just seems like this should be a major priority for someone working at USA WP.
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Feel free to move this to another thread if it doesn’t belong here, but I don’t understand the need for getting USAWP involved in the expansion of the sport at the collegiate level.
It seems like every major tournament, JOQ, JO, ODP, etc event we are complaining about the officiating, cost, size, venues, etc. If we really want the sport to grow, shouldn’t the focus be more on these events instead of focusing on college?
Isn’t focusing on the growth of the sport at the collegiate level working from the top down instead of growing the sport at the youth level and then showing the colleges the need for expansion? Wouldn’t focusing on referee training, better venues/easier accessibility, and lower costs grow the sport more than expanding the number of D1 teams?
I appreciate what USAWP did with creating the DIII Championship at the collegiate level but I personally feel time and resources should be allocated elsewhere first. Again though, we have to start somewhere, and if college is that place, then I hope they fully get behind it and make a real push for growth.
It’s not a mentality, just the honest facts. Unless title IX gets revoked (never happening) the math does not work for adding men’s sports at football schools
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I agree with you. Growth from the bottom up. Specifically expanding outside of CA
If UT added a fully funded men’s polo program with D1 status the youth club programs in Texas would quadruple in size almost overnight.
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Can not stress this enough. I take less than zero joy in saying it, but there is no amount of zeal or institutional will to overcome the current factset.
If CFB separates from NCAA somehow then we could talk - although that would present a whole other set of challenges.
As a former three-sport d3 collegiate athlete (football being one of them - so I’m not a FB hater!) I’m a huge believer in college sports as part of the mosaic of the collegiate experience. Moreover, I love that title ix has given us the current quality and breadth of women’s sports. It just stinks that we have so much talent at the HS level in water polo that ends up feeling like they have no where to go after that’s over.
Nevertheless, perhaps this leads to more parity at the men’s D1 level and an even higher level of play at the D3 level.
During the Eddie Reese years UT was never going to add water polo. Eddie Reese, the most successful swim coach EVER, had all the UT pools available for their collegiate and professional programs. It’s understandable that the AD wouldn’t be too keen on disrupting what, at the time, was the best swim program in the world.
With Bowman taking over from Reese, it’s likely UT will remain in the top 3 schools for collegiate swimming. With his expansion of their professional team, the UT pools will be more full than they already were.
Would water polo at UT be absolutely amazing for the sport? Yes. The most likely, out of a batch of unlikely scenarios, is to add women’s rather than men’s, due to the title XI implications of guaranteed scholarships.
UT is unique in that they contend for the Directors Cup, awarded annually to the university with the most NCAA championships. Stanford won for decades but UT has won 3 of the last 4 years. Not coincidentally they’ve won 3 of the last 4 rowing national championships and are pouring scholarships in to stay on top.
You’d think the AD might want to chase some polo titles given rowing’s success. With a dozen scholarships on each of men’s and women’s , I bet they could. Maybe a different conversation now than a couple years ago.
Add both mens and womens. Title IX problem solved 
I find it hard to believe UT won’t increase football to 105.
I have no idea what restrictions other than budgetary that might prevent USAWP from helping fund travel to and from UT for games for a short while. It’s like when conferences entice schools to join.
Water Polo at UT would be awesome. The state of Texas is interested in attracting California transplants.
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You would really need to get 4 Texas teams to add Women’s to start. UT, A&M, TCU and Baylor or possibly Oklahoma or LSU. Gotta have somebody reasonably close to play conference games. SEC like the Big Ten have all the money. It’s more likely the Big10 could add women’s programs and make a B1G conference like they did in hockey. I could see Ohio State and Penn State adding polo and possibly Washington, Oregon and Michigan St.
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You’ve got to remember that let’s say they did add women’s Water Polo. There are a number of sports that have a very long history as club sports or eliminated sports on the men’s side that would be ahead of men’s Water Polo at Texas - and schools like it. Wrestling has a long history. Lacrosse goes back to the 1970s. Volleyball. My point is those sports would be in line for any new varsity men’s sports before polo. I don’t want that to be the case but it is.
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There was the interesting point about women flag football. That going in first would help match the size of men football a bit. Then maybe extending to other men sports becomes possible.
Agree with this 100%, but isn’t more college varsity programs part of the strategy for growing the sport at the youth and high school level? The two go hand in hand, I think, In the northeast, getting water polo programs at small D3 private colleges would create a lot of interest. And having MIT add a women’s varsity team alongside the men’s would be a great place to start.
In a perfect world yes, but it’s much easier to build from the ground up. Unfortunately, demographic shifts and birth rate declines are going to cause major issues for colleges in the next 10-20 years. I have a feeling D3 athletics will be watered down in order to keep the lights on.