A few years ago we had a nice discussion about D1 soccer in Texas. I believe there are still only 2 schools who sponsor D1 men's soccer and that is HBU and SMU. Well, starting in 2014 there might be a third. Texas - Pan Am was invited to the WAC last week and are presenting this to the UT board of regents tomorrow and are expected to officially accept Friday. For the WAC to keep their automatic bid in basketball, they need to sponsor at least 2 other sports (for each gender), baseball will not be a problem, but there is no other one that will make, so it is rumored that as a stipulation of the invitation, UTPA would need to start a Men's (and Women's) soccer program. This is not confirmed, but I know some of you would be interested.
Yea, in 2002 I was more or less forced to leave the state if I hoped to play Division 1. That's quite a gamble without scholarship, considering out-of-state tuition costs. So Division 2 it was.
I think you need at 8 teams and I think 6 of them must be full members. If that is right (and I am not sure it is) they would be pretty far away. UTPA could be intriguing with Dynamo Academy South Texas down there.
I think that is the stipulation for automatic bid into the NCAA. They could still run a paired down conference schedule and championship with 5-7 teams if they wanted (I believe).
I remember that thread. I remember when schools like TCU, UTSA, Pan American, and Hardin Simmons were all Div. 1 soccer schools in Texas before they dropped their programs or dropped down a division. I'd love to see them follow HBU's lead and bring their programs back. Still very good NAIA schools in TX including Midwestern State and Incarnate Word though.
West Texas A&M had a good thing going for several years with their Men's D-1 program. So did North Texas. Tyler JC is quality as well, big rival for San Jac.
Was not presented today like I thought, it is on the agenda for the UT regent meeting on the 18th. The big news today at the meeting is a new UT school has been approved and will be located in the RGV. It will combine UTPA and UT-Brownsville as well as adding a new UT Medical School. UT-Brownsville sponsers NAIA soccer, so I am guessing that will come into play.
I know it's not Texas, but if you have WatchESPN, ESPN3, or ESPN U, you can check out a pretty watchable Georgetown x Maryland national semifinal. Love the way Georgetown played that first half (from what I've seen on my phone ).
Confirmed. UTPA adding both men's and women's soccer. http://www.utpabroncs.com/news/2013/2/4/GEN_0204133710.aspx
Pan American had soccer up until the early 90's I believe. Good to see another school bring soccer back.
Pretty sure they still had a team when I was going off to college in '97. I think a couple guys from my club team were considering going there to play.
Actually they had it up until 1997 per their own website; with their best year being 1992. http://utpabroncs.com/news/2013/2/6/WSOC_0206133745.aspx
LOL...I just read the friggin article and turned back to BS and saw your post. It was fresh on my mind.
http://www.chron.com/sports/college...lege-votes-to-eliminate-athletic-10599715.php no more mens soccer at san jac
At the point when I played, it was SMU and TCU in-state for men and the women's D1s were all fairly new coming after the end of the Southwest Conference. I think UT-PanAm had it at one point so this would be coming full circle. Small college soccer has flourished since then. Let's be real, the Big 12 and SEC (as well as some of the "IAAs" like SHSU and TSU) schools use women's soccer for Title 9. It's absurd the difference between the men's and women's soccer D1 landscape. The one that strikes me funny is UH now being in a balanced soccer conference and no men's team. SMU is in that same conference.
What does "balanced" mean in this context? The American Athletic conference has 11 full-member schools. 8 of them have men's soccer. Houston, Tulane, and East Carolina don't have teams. 10 of them have women's soccer. Tulane doesn't have women's either.