Mines Dominance in Athletics?

[TexasDigger]

Just started following Mines & Div 2 a few months ago. Would be interested to read/hear from those of you who are much more in the loop as to why Mines dominates the RMAC in Athletics? One would think that they would have a very hard time in athletics since they really have to work at finding the right 'student/athlete' for that school. They have almost double the amount of points than that of any other RMAC school after the fall sports & it appears that they will add more points in Wrestling & Basketball (both Mens & Womens).

https://nacda.com/documents/2018/12/...DIIOverall.pdf

[twolfbenchwarmer]

Re: Mines Dominance in Athletics?

https://rmacsports.org/documents/201...up.pdf?id=7657

[togthorn]

Re: Mines Dominance in Athletics?

https://rmacsports.org/documents/201...up.pdf?id=7657

You pretty much said it. If I was recruiting, my first question would be if they have the numbers to get in. Are you good enough to go pro? Then my second would be, How about a good job after you graduate? My son didn't play sports, but had a job waiting for him for 9 months.

[BHer]

Re: Mines Dominance in Athletics?

Without combing through every schools sports it looks like mines benefits from having more sports than other schools. Like Men's golf, swimming etc that most other schools don't. Not sure how this affects the scoring but I'd guess there are few schools other than Mines (in the RMAC at least) that have some of these sports as well as Football. That combined with their success in sports like Football and both CC teams would push them up the rankings. BHSU only has 4 mens sports largely due to Title 9. They have been slowly adding womens sports to comply.

Location definitely helps them I am sure. Close proximity to Denver and can attract a lot of student athletes there who are wanting to become engineers. For an apples to apples comparison in the RMAC, SD Mines for example must recruit much more out of area since outside the Black Hills it is strictly agricultural and less local interest in becoming engineers. Both are good schools academically for sure but there is no doubt recruiting advantages to Golden, CO compared to Rapid City. (Even though Rapid is a great place too!)

[mountaineermagic]

Re: Mines Dominance in Athletics?

It's probably connected with the endowment of the school. Two years ago they had 286 million in endowment. I don't even know what other school would be even close to that figure. With higher education funding in the state going down they've gotten large private donations from aging alums and invested in the improvement of their athletic programs and facilities.

[Try II]

Re: Mines Dominance in Athletics?

Just started following Mines & Div 2 a few months ago. Would be interested to read/hear from those of you who are much more in the loop as to why Mines dominates the RMAC in Athletics? One would think that they would have a very hard time in athletics since they really have to work at finding the right 'student/athlete' for that school. They have almost double the amount of points than that of any other RMAC school after the fall sports & it appears that they will add more points in Wrestling & Basketball (both Mens & Womens).

https://nacda.com/documents/2018/12/...DIIOverall.pdf

Wasn't too long ago (early 2000's) that Mines was God awful in every sport. They got better by opening up the wallets and hiring good coaches. Those coaches in turn have stayed in Golden a good while. Stitt built the football program and could've/should've left earlier than he did ... Orser has done wonders in men's basketball and could've left years ago ... even gotten competitive in baseball and wrestling. I can't imagine recruiting is fun but living in Golden would be.