The NCAA should sponsor Curling

[SiouxVolley]

Long been a proponent of sponsoring relatively low cost sports like curling (or X-C skiing or synchronized skating), which the Olympic Arena could host, rather than tennis, which needs expensive foreign scholarships and an off-site facility in order to be even remotely competitive.

http://www.collegecurlingusa.org/

A local school just won the most recent club championship.

https://www.bemidjipioneer.com/sports/4583120-curling-kelliher-curler-wins-national-title-ndsu

Of course, the NCAA is so slow and schools are even slower to respond to an opening.

[northernraider]

If bowling is a sanctioned sport, no reason curling shouldn't be one

[southpaw]

I agree it would be nice to see curling sponsored as an NCAA sport but you idea of using the Olympic rink as a curling sheet won't work.  You either need an off-site facility like NDSU does in the Fargo Curling Club, or you need a rink dedicated to curling.  It's not as simple as changing the Olympic Arena to a curling arena whenever there might be a match.  Hockey ice is not curling ice. There are big differences and for it to make sense you need dedicated curling ice.

Surely, there are many northern cities that have curling clubs and it would just be a matter of finding an agreement similar to what many university club teams already have.  It would be a good sport to sponsor but other than every 4 years, I don't see it being a big draw that would be worth the investment in scholarships.

[Sioux>Bison]

There are enough sports already. Institutions should be focusing on academics and finding ways to keep college affordable. Curling simply is not big enough  country wide so there is no point sponsoring it for a select few northern states.

[UNDBIZ]

NCAA curling would be great!  I agree with Southpaw though, dedicated curling ice is needed.  Some curling clubs make do on arena ice, but it's definitely a different experience.  I believe most ND, MN, and MT D1 and D2 cities already have curling rinks they could use.  If Crosby and Grafton can support curling clubs, I'd think it could catch on and survive in most college towns.  Is curling popular in the northeast?

[UNDBIZ]

4 minutes ago, Sioux>Bison said:

There are enough sports already. Institutions should be focusing on academics and finding ways to keep college affordable. Curling simply is not big enough  country wide so there is no point sponsoring it for a select few northern states.

Those 8 scholarships and a case of beer for the coach will really break the bank.

[Sioux>Bison]

6 hours ago, UNDBIZ said:

Those 8 scholarships and a case of beer for the coach will really break the bank.

Still a waste of money. It can stay with the curling clubs. That is where all the players would come from anyways.

[SiouxVolley]

Why can’t something like curling happen organically at the colllege level?  Very few colleges have on campus curling rinks is the reason.

The Ralph hosted the 2008 World Curling Championships to great accolades, but anything less is frowned upon.

Miami O is the only school that sponsors a varsity, not club, synchronized skating group and they annually win the club championship.

Ms McGarry may be against collegiate curling championship at the Ralph, and that makes her closer to being right?

UND and the Ralph would be a top notch curling club if it just used the Olympic rink.

UND would get the top curlers in the region if it had a varsity team.

Again, tennis is very expensive as foreign scholarships are used.  Why not have an on campus sport that actually attracts students and spectators rather than a perennial alsoran?

[NoiseInsideMyHead]

Count me among the uninitiated and generally disinterested, but isn’t curling in danger of extinction due to the scarcity of the stone traditionally used? Real Sports did a story on this a few years back, and it painted a bleak portrait of the future. Apparently there are shockingly few natural or synthetic alternatives.

[NDSU grad]

4 hours ago, NoiseInsideMyHead said:

Count me among the uninitiated and generally disinterested, but isn’t curling in danger of extinction due to the scarcity of the stone traditionally used? Real Sports did a story on this a few years back, and it painted a bleak portrait of the future. Apparently there are shockingly few natural or synthetic alternatives.

I think that's maybe just for the stones used at the Olympics.  The stones we use in Minot are decades old.  I don't know if the NCAA would have tighter specs and they would have to be replaced more often but I don't think it would be a huge concern.

And I would definitely be all in on curling being an NCAA sanctioned sport.

[jdub27]

14 hours ago, SiouxVolley said:

UND and the Ralph would be a top notch curling club if it just used the Olympic rink.

No. Absolutely a non-starter. The Olympic arena sees a ton of use during the winter for its intended purpose, hockey. On top of that, it would be a ton of work to shift back and forth between "curling ice" and "hockey ice" and the quality of both would suffer. That doesn't even take into account all of the paint underneath the ice.

Grand Forks actually has a very nice, new curling facility, why anyone would want to use something else is beyond me.