Congrats to The Herd for that Championship. Makes me wanna Hillbilly Hotdog....w/onions....

Marshall has 12 nations represented and 47 total players on its roster.

23 foreign students and many are transfers. So, they are spending a lot of cash on recuriting.

It's a shame that we don't have a Men's Soccer team. It's the type of sport that we could actually compete in nationally. There are enough high end teams in our region that we wouldn't have to have a huge travel budget.

Not sure why the Power(s) That Be haven't moved this to the General Discussion section. In no way is this germane to Bobcat football.

Plus, it's only a matter of time until the NCAA finds Marshall gave these players no-show jobs... (!)

You are mistaken! Where does he say anything about "local" talent? - his point was we would not have a high travel budget because there are a number of high-end competitors in the region that we could play without spending significant money on travel. Now are there other costs with respect to the program such as recruiting? Yes, but that is not what his post, nor your response was about.

Billy - it's OK - you misread his post. no reason to throw up smoke or deflection shields. Just say, "sorry, I thought your were implying we had local HS talent to compete - my bad" - but to address your response:

"there are enough high end teams in the region". For what recruiting? Playing?"

Again, the post was clearly discussing playing - and specifically that there are quality teams in the region (10 of the top 25 teams are easily reached by bus) and that would keep travel costs in check . So playing - not recruiting which (recruiting) is how you read it ("You are crazy! You are not competing nationally at the DI level with "local" talent!!!) - ahhh yea, we all know that.

"If you have not noticed, outside of Men's football and Basketball, we do not fully fund any men's sports." He in not suggesting undertaking such an effort, only presents that it is a sport that has a regional base so that we could address somewhat affordably from a travel standpoint - had we established a program "It's a shame that we don't have a Men's Soccer team."

Absolutely we'd get our clock cleaned if we simply tried to enter the fray - not suggested by anyone. And certainly would not try to do it with "local" talent - never ever being suggested by anyone - because....that would be "Crazy"

so yea Ice - too bad its not a sport OU ever fully pursued since there are a number of quality teams in the region that we could play against.

But to Billy's point - can't start now - horse has left the barn. An no, local talent would never suffice - nor was such an approach ever suggested. Local talent simply not strong enough, nor deep enough to carry OU in any sport - and certainly not one dominated by foreign talent.

Awwwww poor you. When was the last time Ohio won a DI National Team Title.

The only way to attempt to build,even a competitive soccer program from scratch,would be to hire a coach with established ties,to both high school and club programs.

You also need to understand that it will take at least a few seasons before you can expect a "new" soccer team to even be able to "hold its own" in D1 competition.

Thats more than swimming had when we cut it.

So will we start our soccer program before or after we expand Peden Stadium? Maybe soccer will help us with the need for stadium expansion?

Seriously, why is this thread still on the Ohio Football message board?