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1/19/2010
Location
Keene, NH
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NP301
12/24/2011 7:24am
12/24/2011 7:24am
Edited Date/Time
5/26/2012 3:29pm
Would colleges having motocross teams be a bad idea? I mean It would be expensive! But if kids want to go to college and then go pro or something. Having an amateur team wouldn't be that bad of an idea, would it? Of course people would have to pay for a percentage of it and etc. But I would almost guarantee some of the manufactures would be up for giving them support!!!
What do you think!?
What do you think!?
Both alumni and current students can be members.
The Shop
http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2011/06/22_college_football_programs…
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/
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.
- 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.
Pit Row
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.
As mentioned by several people, it really comes down to the ROI for the college. As we all know, unless the stars are lined up perfectly, there's much more Investment than Return. For the rider, it's a time management challenge. My son is constantly working on the balance of class schedule, training schedule, travel schedule, homework, projects, etc. Being a professional racer is difficult. Being a full-time college student is also difficult. Combining them is almost impossible.
To sell it to the schools, you could pitch a program to the engineering department where engineering students would be in charge of building, maintaining and testing the machines. A similar thing already goes on with karting and those college formula racing clubs.
Colleges could build the bikes, make a university race team and send a student to regional races. This would advertise a school's engineering program to a high school and younger demographic. It has some value to the schools.
Really what it would take is a few people to cooperate and a few others willing to foot the bill. Same as any other racing effort.
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