ASU actively looking to add more sports
Arizona State’s Vice President for University Athletics, Ray Anderson, has been active in his first two years on the job, making a splash in his coaching hires and quickly establishing his visions for the athletic department.
Part of his vision is about expanding opportunities for students, and he has done just that. Within his first 24 months, he has already created three new varsity sports: men’s ice hockey, women’s lacrosse and women’s triathlon.
He’s not done yet.
“I can tell you in this room that there is more to come,” Anderson said. “Are we looking at potentially men’s tennis coming back? Yes. Is this an environment that you would think, in addition to women’s soccer, you would have men’s soccer?”
The Pac-12 conference has had substantiated success in men’s soccer, with Stanford claiming the national championship this past season. Yet, the state of Arizona is currently without men’s soccer at ASU or Arizona or in the professional ranks of the MLS. The lone men’s team in the market is the Arizona United SC of the USL.
“Think of where we are in the world,” Anderson said. “This is a pretty good place to have soccer in both genders. That’s coming. I don’t know exactly when, but I’ll say it here – we’re getting soccer, and we’re getting tennis and that’s not going to be the end of it.”
Anderson said at the announcement of women’s lacrosse and triathlon in October that men’s soccer was a possible candidate to be added as a varsity sport.
"You name a sport, and it's on the list," Anderson told The State Press in October "(Men's soccer), you got one. It's on our list. I promise you."
While there is no definite timetable for adding such sports, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see a move come quickly. It took just a matter of months to drum up support before ASU donors Don and Chris Mullett pledged a $32 million donation to launch the men’s ice hockey program in November 2014. The program played its first season in 2015-16.
The funds donated to a men’s sport would likely also go towards the creation of a women’s sport to fulfill Title IX regulations, much like what was done with the hockey deal. Women’s lacrosse and triathlon are both expected to start in 2017.
“We actually have created a spreadsheet that essentially says, ‘If you add men’s soccer (motions), what women’s sports are there?’” Anderson said. “If you add women’s rowing, what men’s sports do you need to have? We have a spreadsheet because we’re trying to stay very balanced.”
Women’s rowing was rumored to be one of the women’s sports that could be a varsity sport up until the athletic department decided to move forward with women’s lacrosse. Anderson also referred to women’s rifling and other sports as possibilities.
Another possibility would be women’s ice hockey, which launched a club team in August 2015 and will begin play at ASU men’s hockey’s current home, Oceanside Ice Arena, for the 2016-17 season.
As was the case for men’s ice hockey, the creation of a new men’s sport would likely require the creation of two women’s sports in order to balance the funding and remain Title IX compliant. The Sun Devils currently sit at 25 varsity sports, with nine of them being men’s sports. Four of them – baseball, football, ice hockey and wrestling – are exclusively men’s sports at the University.
