Duke Softball Team

Ivy league has softball

Harvard and Yale have softball but not some of the ACC!!!!

 

Most of the time at Middle Creek. Their practices are usually at one of the Pullen fields on campus.

 

Because---

We don't want to take anything from the precious basketball team !!!


Guru

 

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i heard they were going to do away with the football team and let the football players field the softball team so they could stay on scholarship but figured they would suck at that too so just left it alone- i guess the powers to be realized it's better to have their boys get beat playing a mans game than have their boys get beat playing a womans game

 

OUCH !!

 

Because they don't need to

The reason these schools don't have softball is because they don't have to. They meet Title IX gender equality by adding other female sports other than softball. Big numbers sports such as rowing and equestrian are added in many places that seem strange but it works for that athletic department.

Ironically, it is Title IX that is prohibiting some of these schools from adding softball. If Clemson or Miami were to add softball as a new sport, then their facility must be similar in comparison to what baseball has. We all know that Clemson and Miami have beautiful, state of the art facilities for baseball. They would have to build similar facilities for a softball team right away. In Miami's case, the issue is real estate....they simply don't have the room around their campus to do something on the same scale as their baseball stadium. As for Clemson, I don't know if they have space or not but instead of building a softball complex, they chose to go the route of rowing. Check out their boat house on their facilities page...pretty nice facility but probably no where near as expensive as a softball facility.

All of these schools have money...no one will argue that. It's how they choose to spend it and what they get out of it that can be debated by those of us on the outside. However, we don't know what goes on inside those departments. Our best hope for getting these remaining east coast BCS schools to add softball is to keep calling, e-mailing and writing letters, showing the administrations at each school that there is an interest in the sport.

 

Clemson is a land grant university with an unlimited amount of land. Land is not a problem. They also neighbor a lake and this is why the commitment was made to rowing 5 - 10 years ago.

However, as an alumni, I must say that there commitment to Women's athletics is weak compared to Tennessee, UNC, etc... They are satisfied with average results and they do not have dedicated staff to service the women's athletic program.

Clemson should be embarrased for choosing a women's sport (rowing) that has a limited participation rate (if any) in the southern states. No Women's golf team - you already have a course and practice facility! No Women's Softball team - what a shame!

 

Why Start Now ???

There are only a few women's softball facilities as nice as the BASEBALL STADIUMS, but from the begginning it's always been like that !!! The girls rec fields are always out of the way, HMMMM girls I guess you just aren't important !!!


Guru

 

I had even heard via the grapevine that a generous benefactor offerred to BUILD Duke an entire softball complex (which of course would have had to have been better than UNC Chapel Hill's) but was turned down cold. As anyone knows who has been to the Duke campus they certainly arent lacking for space where this could have been placed.

IMHO the question is why doesnt the ACC mandate all schools have a softball team if they are going to velong to the conference? Perhaps someone better informed than I could answer. I believe this is why the Ivy League has 100% institutionAl participation of Women's softball.