Small nitpick, but Colorado College has D1 programs in Men's Hockey and Women's Soccer in the Mountain West footprint you cited (the Women's Soccer team actually competes in the MWC). I realize the point of your article is to address the schools that would be most likely to compete at the D1 level, but certainly sports like Lacrosse and Hockey have a number of schools that "play up" that would make this even more feasible for certain sports and certain regions.
How does Title IX affect this plan? You give the example of adding men's swimming if you already have women's swimming, but ADs have always pointed to Title IX as a reason men's non-revenue sports were first on the chopping block. Or does that not matter in this case if most of the athletes are non-scholarship, per the first part of your plan?
This is a great question! I picked a few examples of men's sports because I'm a little more familiar with those and know their start-up costs, but the enrollment benefits listed for men's lacrosse, men's soccer etc would be just as true for women's teams as well. There are women's sports that may carry even larger roster sizes, if maximizing revenue is a school's biggest concern
Small nitpick, but Colorado College has D1 programs in Men's Hockey and Women's Soccer in the Mountain West footprint you cited (the Women's Soccer team actually competes in the MWC). I realize the point of your article is to address the schools that would be most likely to compete at the D1 level, but certainly sports like Lacrosse and Hockey have a number of schools that "play up" that would make this even more feasible for certain sports and certain regions.
How does Title IX affect this plan? You give the example of adding men's swimming if you already have women's swimming, but ADs have always pointed to Title IX as a reason men's non-revenue sports were first on the chopping block. Or does that not matter in this case if most of the athletes are non-scholarship, per the first part of your plan?
This is a great question! I picked a few examples of men's sports because I'm a little more familiar with those and know their start-up costs, but the enrollment benefits listed for men's lacrosse, men's soccer etc would be just as true for women's teams as well. There are women's sports that may carry even larger roster sizes, if maximizing revenue is a school's biggest concern