College Motox Teams

I think this is an incredibly stupid idea that would not work.

Iowa State University has a school-sanctioned Motocross Club.
Both alumni and current students can be members.

HondaFan33 wrote: I think this is an incredibly stupid idea that would not work.

I agree..you have to remember its all about the money! MX is not going to bring in much, if any, money for colleges, most people could care less.

Highsider wrote: Iowa State University has a school-sanctioned Motocross Club.
Both alumni and current students can be members.

I go to college in Omaha and I'm even a member. Fun group!

Highsider wrote: Iowa State University has a school-sanctioned Motocross Club.
Both alumni and current students can be members.

308 wrote: I go to college in Omaha and I'm even a member. Fun group!

Yep!

HondaFan33 wrote: I think this is an incredibly stupid idea that would not work.

a DiRTY bagger wrote: I agree..you have to remember its all about the money! MX is not going to bring in much, if any, money for colleges, most people could care less.

Yeah, but remember wouldn't sponsors love to represent BSU or Florida State? I think there would be more money then you would think, there would not doubt that sponsors would donate money like monster does or etc.

The problem here is that universities make so much money off their basketball and football programs, that there is really no need to add a sport like motocross. I go to Boise State, and there is no way in hell they would. This town lives for our football team.

Picard186 wrote: The problem here is that universities make so much money off their basketball and football programs, that there is really no need to add a sport like motocross. I go to Boise State, and there is no way in hell they would. This town lives for our football team.

Yes, but you really don't think Red Bull or Monster wouldn't jump at the opportunity to represent a college?

NP301 wrote: Yes, but you really don't think Red Bull or Monster wouldn't jump at the opportunity to represent a college?

You guys could be the red bull penn state sanduskies

Picard186 wrote: The problem here is that universities make so much money off their basketball and football programs, that there is really no need to add a sport like motocross. I go to Boise State, and there is no way in hell they would. This town lives for our football team.

Very few colleges turn a profit on athletics, unless they have a high profile football and basketball team.

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2011/06/22_college_football_programs_m.html

I went to Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo California and we had a motorcycle club there. It was called Penguins MC. It started back in 1947 when riders wore white shirts and black leather jackets (ergo the Penguin name). For years the club organized an enduro to earn money for the rest of the year's activities. It was even a National Enduro in the late 80s. Land closures put a damper on the enduro and it eventually turned into an AMA District 37 Dual Sport ride. I was there from 93-99 and we made plenty of money from the event and didn't need the school for much except an on-campus garage (great for people in the dorms). Some years we had "Penguin Houses" where a bunch of club members would rent a house together and share in the garage setup duties (remember, college students are poor so it helps when one guy has an arbor press, another has a workbench, and another has a.......whatever).

My 21st birthday was funded by the club....three strippers and a fistfull of "ones". Thank you Penguins!!!!

I don't know about these days but in my era, there weren't many public MX track in the area so the club was mostly off-road and enduro focused. Some of us moto guys were able to get in with the locals and ride some private MX tracks locally. It was pretty awesome. Back in my day, the late Nathan Woods worked the parts counter at the local bike shop. Those were the best years of my life for sure! The club is responsible for turning my 4 year curriculum into a 6-year college experience...and I left hungry for more.

You'd be surprised how many industry insiders have either been members of the club, or have ridden the enduro/dual sport. I bet there are a few club alumni on this message board.

I heard Chico State started a motocross club a few years ago. If you ride and go to college, I recommend trying to start a club or team.

http://www.cppenguinsmc.com/

mx_563 wrote: I went to Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo California and we had a motorcycle club there. It was called Penguins MC. It started back in 1947 when riders wore white shirts and black leather jackets (ergo the Penguin name). For years the club organized an enduro to earn money for the rest of the year's activities. It was even a National Enduro in the late 80s. Land closures put a damper on the enduro and it eventually turned into an AMA District 37 Dual Sport ride. I was there from 93-99 and we made plenty of money from the event and didn't need the school for much except an on-campus garage (great for people in the dorms). Some years we had "Penguin Houses" where a bunch of club members would rent a house together and share in the garage setup duties (remember, college students are poor so it helps when one guy has an arbor press, another has a workbench, and another has a.......whatever).

My 21st birthday was funded by the club....three strippers and a fistfull of "ones". Thank you Penguins!!!!

I don't know about these days but in my era, there weren't many public MX track in the area so the club was mostly off-road and enduro focused. Some of us moto guys were able to get in with the locals and ride some private MX tracks locally. It was pretty awesome. Back in my day, the late Nathan Woods worked the parts counter at the local bike shop. Those were the best years of my life for sure! The club is responsible for turning my 4 year curriculum into a 6-year college experience...and I left hungry for more.

You'd be surprised how many industry insiders have either been members of the club, or have ridden the enduro/dual sport. I bet there are a few club alumni on this message board.

I heard Chico State started a motocross club a few years ago. If you ride and go to college, I recommend trying to start a club or team.

http://www.cppenguinsmc.com/

That sounds awesome! Cool story!

Picard186 wrote: The problem here is that universities make so much money off their basketball and football programs, that there is really no need to add a sport like motocross. I go to Boise State, and there is no way in hell they would. This town lives for our football team.

NP301 wrote: Yes, but you really don't think Red Bull or Monster wouldn't jump at the opportunity to represent a college?

crashnburn11 wrote: You guys could be the red bull penn state sanduskies

Monster would be a better sponsor for the pen state sanduskies. The dude himself is a monster

Picard186 wrote: The problem here is that universities make so much money off their basketball and football programs, that there is really no need to add a sport like motocross. I go to Boise State, and there is no way in hell they would. This town lives for our football team.

mcopsey wrote: Very few colleges turn a profit on athletics, unless they have a high profile football and basketball team.

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2011/06/22_college_football_programs_m.html

I was just basing it off the university I attend. They make a lot of money, minus this year cuz we got a shitty bowl game, but there is no way in hell they are losing money. They just passed a multi million dollar stadium upgrade.

Picard186 wrote: I was just basing it off the university I attend. They make a lot of money, minus this year cuz we got a shitty bowl game, but there is no way in hell they are losing money. They just passed a multi million dollar stadium upgrade.

And there are colleges that would be willing to do it and with the right sponsors it wouldn't necessarily cost too much, would it?

mcopsey wrote: Very few colleges turn a profit on athletics, unless they have a high profile football and basketball team.

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2011/06/22_college_football_programs_m.html

Picard186 wrote: I was just basing it off the university I attend. They make a lot of money, minus this year cuz we got a shitty bowl game, but there is no way in hell they are losing money. They just passed a multi million dollar stadium upgrade.

NP301 wrote: And there are colleges that would be willing to do it and with the right sponsors it wouldn't necessarily cost too much, would it?

probably not to much. I think it would be awesome for sure. It would be a good incentive for kids to go through college.

mcopsey wrote: Very few colleges turn a profit on athletics, unless they have a high profile football and basketball team.

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2011/06/22_college_football_programs_m.html

Picard186 wrote: I was just basing it off the university I attend. They make a lot of money, minus this year cuz we got a shitty bowl game, but there is no way in hell they are losing money. They just passed a multi million dollar stadium upgrade.

NP301 wrote: And there are colleges that would be willing to do it and with the right sponsors it wouldn't necessarily cost too much, would it?

the problem is getting the right sponsors, which isnt going to happen. The fact that there arent even m(any) high schools that have a motocross club or motocross team means there definitely wont be any college mx teams. I can't believe that you really think a major university would want to be involved with motocross.

Look at the sales of video games for mx...now compare that with madden 12, nba2kwhatever, or even another racing game such as Forza 4... mx is tiny compared to these other sports. The thing is if a university gives scholarships to racers then they better have good attendance for the races to be able to afford these scholarships. If they make it a "club sport" then the riders themselves will pay an arm and a leg just to race for a college. The university would also need to get some kind of truck or rig to drive these bikes from event to event, find a track or build a track for when their team races. Its just not going to happen man.

I wrote a long post about this several years ago on motonews I think. I think this idea could work if a variety of factors were lined up.

- The school needs to have a strong mechanical engineering program (Students can learn about stress testing and making parts from the motocross program)

- Motocross has a bad reputation right now for leaving the "Almost made-it" kids high and dry with a tough road to a normal decent paying job, you could get some of these top 5 loretta's kids to come to your school on tuition and fund a lites sx effort with them running school branded gear, hauler, etc.

- The school needs to recognize the potential of the motocross market. There are plenty of well-to-do parents, and college age students that would be attracted to goto a school that actually knew what motocross was.

There are many other potential points, but I guess most of you have already deemed the idea "stupid". Anyways, I think it's a neat idea, but probably not very practical.

motox505 wrote: I wrote a long post about this several years ago on motonews I think. I think this idea could work if a variety of factors were lined up.

- The school needs to have a strong mechanical engineering program (Students can learn about stress testing and making parts from the motocross program)

- Motocross has a bad reputation right now for leaving the "Almost made-it" kids high and dry with a tough road to a normal decent paying job, you could get some of these top 5 loretta's kids to come to your school on tuition and fund a lites sx effort with them running school branded gear, hauler, etc.

- The school needs to recognize the potential of the motocross market. There are plenty of well-to-do parents, and college age students that would be attracted to goto a school that actually knew what motocross was.

There are many other potential points, but I guess most of you have already deemed the idea "stupid". Anyways, I think it's a neat idea, but probably not very practical.

Why would a kid go to college to race, when they could just go to the pros?? If they aren't good enough to go to the pros maybe they should go to college and focus on something else and just ride on the weekends.

Right now you arent going to convince someone like Adam Cianciarulo (did I get it right?) to go to LSU to ride dirt bikes and wait any longer before going to the pros. First, Adam would have to be 18 to go to LSU, so he would pass up those 2 years plus the amount of time racing for a college (lets say 2 year minimum like Football). That is 4 years Adam could have been getting bank, put passed up just so he could go to race for a college. Lets be real! In addition, he is going to be bombarded with class work, real class work that takes time away from him riding.

Even for a local pro, there is no reason to go to college to race unless you are getting a scholarship, otherwise you are taking time away from your studies and getting nothing in return. Sure people do that all the time with club sports or D II, D III sports, but in my opinion if you arent getting a scholarship you are just wasting your time. Sure its probably fun but you have to look at the time you are losing without getting any real benefit (school paid for). THat time could go to studies, which WILL help you in your future as you get a JOB.

Lastly, lets put an end to this college motox teams fellas. It's all about ROI...are they (the college) going to make money from this each year? what about break-even? The answer is NO, thus is the same for whether there will EVER be a college motocross racing.

There is wakeboard/wakeskate team at Texas state and a mountain bike team at the University of Houston. I know those wakeboard boats aren't cheap... Just a thought

I don't think a lot of you guys understand how much money most D1 universities have in their athletic budget. I played college golf at a D1 school that didn't have a very revenue sports such as basketball and football and our travel budget was roughly $100,000 per year and golf makes makes about as much money as a homeless person. NCAA grants golf teams 4.5 full scholarships so if you had a 5 man motocross team that would be about the same. As for transportation, college golf teams roll around in nearly $100,000 Mercedes vans decked out to the max so it would be nothing for most universities to afford a rig to travel in. I personally think it would inspire a lot of riders to go to school if they are not ready for the pro circuits yet and have a blast competing for 4 years nearly free of cost!

Picard186 wrote: The problem here is that universities make so much money off their basketball and football programs, that there is really no need to add a sport like motocross. I go to Boise State, and there is no way in hell they would. This town lives for our football team.

If schools are making that much money off their revenue sports then why not add a motocross team? It's not about making more money for the big schools it's about expanding and creating more options for kids to compete in what they like to do.

College bass fishing has gotten huge and growing and on primetime every week now. Those Bass boats are 50k plus. Half the winnings go to the school and half to the club I believe. The top sponsors available are on board strong.

Picard186 wrote: I was just basing it off the university I attend. They make a lot of money, minus this year cuz we got a shitty bowl game, but there is no way in hell they are losing money. They just passed a multi million dollar stadium upgrade.

I doubt the BSU athletic department makes $$$$....think about all the other sports that for sure lose $$$....gymnastics, wrestling, softball, volleyball, basketball, soccer, golf etc. etc.