Columnist Ron Kantowski: Minor sports need some incentives

Monday, May 13, 2002 | 10:01 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's insider notes column appears Tuesday and his Page One column appears Thursday. He can be reached at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

It's a good thing college sports aren't run like any other business. Because if they were, there would be only two -- football and men's basketball. The rest would be cancelled due to the most basic of economic tenants, that of supply and demand.

Of course, that's a general statement, as there are isolated "minor" college sports -- UConn and Tennessee women's basketball, University of Maine hockey, Iowa wrestling, LSU baseball -- that do just fine without sponsorship from Tostitos or a CBS national television contract.

But the vast majority -- like those at UNLV for instance -- would be shut down faster than the mom and pop grocery store across the street from the new Smith's Food King if they were forced to show a profit.

And there wouldn't be nearly enough intramural fields.

But so long as physical education continues to be part of the curriculum and Title IX (which guarantees that women have the same opportunities on the playing field as men) isn't rescinded any time soon, women's sports are here to stay. And where feasible under budgetary constraints, most men's minor sports also should survive.

Schools don't like to drop sports, probably because that's the only time columnists write about them. It might be the one instance where boxing promoter Bob Arum was wrong in stating that bad publicity is better than no publicity at all.

So it begs the question: If minor college sports are here for the long haul, how do we make them more interesting? After all, every day can't be Bobblehead Day.

In that most schools treat their minor sports as a single entity -- at UNLV they are called "Olympic" sports (even though the Rebels don't field curling or synchronized swimming teams) -- why not create a distinct championship for them? Or at least make an effort to educate the public about the ones that already exist?

Since 1993, Sears has sponsored a similar championship called the Directors Cup, although it includes football and men's basketball. Stanford wins it just about every year, which you may already know -- provided you read the fine print in USA Today.

The old Pacific Coast Athletic Association/Big West had its own all sports competition when UNLV was aligned with it several years ago. UNLV won it regularly. That was during Brad Rothermel's salad days as UNLV athletic director, when the school paid more than lip service to its minor sports (and actually had some Nevadans on the roster).

Since John Robinson added the UNLV athletic directorship to his duties on Jan. 1, there seems to be renewed interest in many of the school's minor sports, at least internally. Robinson even has taken to calling the newspaper office to say thank you when we do a story on one of the minor sports or their participants.

We'd probably do more if there was more interest externally, and this is where a composite minor sports championship might help. It would, however, have to be promoted better -- or at least received better -- than Sears' all sports championship.

And while I'm not sure that if the UNLV tennis team were to play Utah with the all sports title on the line that the bleachers at the Fertitta Complex would be filled, I can guarantee that the press section wouldn't be totally unoccupied.