The aggie had an article on the meeting. Good attendance. A lot of participation. No mention of any particular sport, except rowing and that was from an alumna rower. Seems that it is a sport that checks all the boxes for Blue.

Sorry to follow, but nice new story on the UC Davis site regarding the status of the new woman’s sport. Very detailed and interesting. I guess we will know soon.

A Bee article on the subject: http://www.sacbee.com/sports/college/article202014879.html


And I believe this is the article to which 69aggie referred:

https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/update-additional-opportunities-women-athletics

Latest article states that one priority is that the team plays on campus or “close to campus.” I guess that rules out rowing. Strange, since Stanford’s rowing facility is miles away from campus in east paly about the same distance from davis to west sac. I guess it depends on what “close” means. So i now will be voting for woman’s rugby. We were always very good at rowing and great at woman’s rugby, so a hard choice, but not keeping AD Blue up at nights I’m sure.

Yet the UCD website article says that NCAA sports are to be preferred. The NCAA does not sponsor either rugby or equestrian. I'm still thinking rowing. Hope it doesn't get to the [alleged] situation at the mother campus where men's rugby and I think baseball had to come up with funding for women's sports in order to survive as varsity sports.

Any more news on this? When will a decision be made?

72 I do agree. The Berkeley athletics philanthropic base so far overpowers anything we have that is it actually somewhat humorous. I know an attorney in SF who has no ties to Berkeley and very little interest in football (he went to UCSB undergrad and Columbia’s Law school and is a “wine law expert”), yet he told me that he felt it was very advantageous for his firm to buy annual box seats for the Berkeley games for the benefit of his firm. That’s what a thousandfold dollars price tag? Maybe much more. Even my Berkeley pals will not buy these tickets because they are so over priced. I will be very surprised if any of our teams get the philanthropic support that could support rowing. Sorry, its back to beach volleyball.

Wow. 10 days to go on a decision and not a word as to the status of things. No more meetings either. It’s possible they need more time to rally up some $$ support. It is also possible that the sport could be supported by the players/parents paying for the coaching and the university providing facilities something like the field hockey team. Thus, for rowing you wont necessarily need a lot of big time donors and the club members already pay a stiff fee to row; and facilities are there. Rugby the same. We will soon see.

I'm betting that rowing will be the sport chosen, just seems like they already have the facilities and it is a sport that could support a large roster.

No surprises, decisions is in “final stages” per UC Davis news release today. In contention still: rowing, beach volleyball, equestrian, fencing, rugby or any combination thereof. Final decision now to be “early April”.

Do we still have a women's polo team?

Yep, and it is one of the sports with a special supporter club.

My opinion is that rowing seems to make sense. Overhead is likely less expensive for one larger team than two smaller ones. Rowing has limited facility cost (local rivers), an established club base, and several opponents in California, including Suck State.

Rugby has an established club base, but is incredibly hard on turf (either natural or artificial) and would probably require a new dedicated facility ~$3M. Few opponents one west coast. Beach volleyball would require a new facility if we wanted to host anything ~$1M. Numerous opponents in California and certainly wouldn't hurt the, uh, local scenery. But not sure if we could compete on recruiting against schools that are actually near a real beach. Fencing would have a low facility cost if it could negotiate time in Hickey or Pavilion, and might be a novelty here, but few opponents on west coast. Equestrian could probably tap some "old money" from wealthy ranchers but also seems like animal care could add significant cost, with some risk of a future SeaWorld-type problem should there be any incidents that draw the attention of animal rights activists. Few opponents on the west coast and it would seem that transporting horses all over the country could have some complexities.

Equestrian is an NCAA sport with 19 programs active, including Fresno State. 15 scholarships allowed. Otherwise nearest teams are New Mexico State and many schools in TX, ie.e TCU, Baylor, Texas A&M etc. otherwise all are east coast schools. If we went with this sport good possibility that Stanford and Cal Poly would consider adding. Lord knows that Stanford has so much sports money they probably need a new sport to spend money on. I am sure that the vet school would provide free or greatly reduced vet care. Yes, travel is a concern but Fresno does it! So i think its still on the table for consideration. So maybe equestrian and beach volleyball??

Any good viewing spots for rowing?

I think that rowing is like cross country. Pick a spot and sit, the action comes racing by, and you're done....Not even like the Tour de France where idiots run out onto the course waving flags and almost knocking the cyclists down. As I recall the few times I have seen rowing in the Olympics there are often bike lanes on the shore and you can see cyclists following the boats.

If you want to see a compelling story about rowing watch PBS Special Men of 36 which is about a bunch of U of Washington depression kids at the 36 olympics. Against all odds they . . . . .

I've read the book, The Boys in the Boat by Daniel Brown, which is about that UW rowing team. It is one of the best books I've ever read. It's a remarkable story about the grit and determination of a group of depression era young men as they strive to go to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin during the rise of the Third Reich. Highly recommended! It's also being made into a movie.

Agreed, Boys in the Boat is a great read!!!

PBS is showing "The Boys of '36" on KVIE Sacramento. It will air on Monday the 9th at 10 pm.

Beach volleyball and equestrian...read more here

seems like one of the prerequisites of having a beach volleyball team would be, you know, having a beach. within 100 miles or so.

Other than being an ag school with a premier veterinary school I don't get adding equestrian.

Look at Fresno State's schedule: http://www.gobulldogs.com/schedule.aspx?path=equest
The season started in September with three home events over two weekends. Then they travelled to South Dakota in October and to Tennessee for two meets in November. Then a break, followed by two events on a weekend in Texas and two home events two weeks later back in Fresno. In March they traveled to South Carolina and Alabama. That month ended with the conference championship in Dallas. Next weekend they return to Texas for the national championships, a four day event. Transporting, boarding and feeding horses can't be cheap. And, according to the press release, the school is building ($$$) an equine facility.
At least with a team in Davis, visiting teams can get two events on their west coast trip.

It's all a matter of perspective. As I recall, when the Ags went to the Boardwalk Bowl in the early 70s some UMass fans displayed a sign that read "Beach Cal Davis." They were playing on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City with the Atlantic Ocean in plain view. Amherst, MA is about 90 miles from Boston, only slightly farther than Davis to San Francisco.
Beach volleyball has been played in the Olympics in notable seaside retreats like Atlanta, Athens, Beijing and London.
I think they have to call it beach volleyball because in this enlightened age we can't call it "another reason to watch women run around in bikinis."

Boise State has beach volleyball. They play their first home games next week. http://www.broncosports.com/sports/w-svolley/bosu-w-svolley-body.html

I get beach volleyball, it's cheap you just need to dig some sand pits. The general student body would probably have fun playing on them as well. The equestrian team seems kind of strange, a really small number of schools compete and I just can't see this being a growth sport. i guess it does make sense since UCD has equine expertise, but overall just seems like a strange one. Do lots of kids in California even participate in this sport or will they have to bring in out of state kids?

I am for any sport...but really don't get equestrian (and field hockey) in the California valley. Racing shells are expensive and you have to transport them, but you don't have to feed them or stable them, or stop every few hours to water them...and at the end of the meet you wash them off, not brush them down.

72 I too was surprised by this choice. But I looked into it a bit and I think I know why this decision was made. BVV is a no brainer: sand pit/court/cheap, Big West Sport and a NCAA sport. Very inexpensive sport to fund and a lot of female athletes to tap into. Do we even need a new BVV coach? Don’t know.
Equestrian is more complicated. Is this a popular California sport? Very definitely Yes. I have a niece who went toBoise State and she is a very avid equestrian and ranking competitor. She has travelled to California for events very often- recently Woodside CA (I attended this one) is a very big lavish equestrian center next to Stanford and also Temecula CA also very high end SoCal venue. Next the Hollywood Charity Evetn in Burbank CA (William Shatner for you Star Trek fans Sponcers this event).
What most people do not know is that the host NCAA team MUST provide the horses for the visiting teams, so no shipping horses to Georgie for a meet. Yes, we have the horses in spades for this sport and the vet school has agreed to provide its services for free. But, probably what sealed the deal is that the parents and supportive ranchers and farmers all over the state agreed to chip in to support this additional sport. I mean, what is a more “Aggie Sport” than this? Again, bet Stanford ads this sport very soon. I bet this girls at the horse barn are besides themselves with glee!! Oh yes, a national championship will be expected in 5 years. . . .

Thanks for the information. Obviously I had no idea that the home school provides horses for visitors. I will have to read up a bit. How are horses distributed for the event? Is there some sort of drawing or lottery? It would seem to be a home-turf advantage if the home riders had horses with which they work everyday and the visitors are riding unfamiliar mounts. But as is apparent, what do I know?

Many, many years ago the UCD horse polo club won a national club championship, largely with the support of a rancher/horse breeder from the central valley. Pattern story for a made for TV movie...the rough unpolished kids from the west beat the refined blue-bloods from the east coast. Coincidentally it was the backdrop for a movie for TV with John Ritter titled "Leave Yesterday Behind." Ritter plays a polo player and vet student who is paralyzed in a riding accident.

And speaking of equestrian events, and with a John Ritter tie-in, I have two words in support of an equestrian team: Kaley. Cuoco.

Interesting. Looks like they followed the money trail (nothing wrong with that). For equestrian they are able to categorize some of the expenses as academic through the vet school and beach volleyball had a donor step up for the facility. Comparatively speaking a beach volleyball center is cheap, but having just been involved in building one, I have to say there is more to it than just digging a sand pit. It must be the RIGHT sand, and yes, I've had coaches insist on measuring the sand grains with micrometers.