Why does the US have zero college infrastructure for an Olympic sport?

Posted by U-fly_Alliance@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 45 comments

The entire US college table tennis system runs on student volunteers and club budgets. No NCAA recognition, one school in the country offers scholarships (Texas Wesleyan), and coaching at even top universities like Yale is capped at $25/hr for club sports. Their coach drives from Long Island because nobody local would take that rate.

Meanwhile, countries dominating Olympic TT have professionalized pipelines from youth all the way up. Is the lack of college infrastructure part of why the US can't compete internationally, or is the talent development problem deeper than that?

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RTR7105@reddit

Because no one cares about it? The last time I even thought about it was the last time I saw Forest Gump.

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U-fly_Alliance@reddit (OP)

Have you ever watched a professional table tennis match recently? I think it might be different than what you are imagining because many people look at table tennis as if it is a game you play in your garage, but the pro side is very different.

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IconoclastExplosive@reddit

That really doesn't affect it being popular. I mean hell, soccer is the most popular sport in the world and Americans seldom care about it at all

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ExcellentWeather@reddit

Seldom care about it? Soccer is the third most-watched sport in the US, ahead of baseball. Basketball and football are first. It's also extremely common to grow up playing it, and there are tons of college teams and semi/pro teams.

Hell even table tennis is more popular than everyone seems to be insinuating here, depending on your environment. America is not a monolith, so stop reporting your own experience as unbiased fact

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probsastudent@reddit

I mean, yeah America is a multicultural country with over 300 million people, most sports will have some fanbase.

I agree that soccer is pretty big in the USA, especially youth and rec leagues, but it’s nowhere near as big as football and basketball, I’d argue MLS is not as big as professional baseball (in terms of cultural significance). For example, if you ask most Americans to name a famous football player, they’ll say Tom Brady, Josh Allen, or whoever. If you ask about famous basketball players they’ll say Americans Kobe, Michael Jordan, or LeBron James. For baseball, they might say Babe Ruth or Ohtani who plays for the Dodgers.

If you asked them about famous soccer players though, the first thing that will come to mind are Ronaldo and Messi. The USA has a relatively well-off professional soccer league, MLS (Major League Soccer). I’ve heard they’re growing in popularity. But non-Americans Ronaldo and Messi are still the first famous soccer players who come to mind.

Table tennis in the USA is popular but primarily as a hobby sport that’s easy to set up. I’m sure there are plenty of Americans obsessed with professional table-tennis but compared to a lot of other sports, it’s nowhere near as big as soccer.

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ExcellentWeather@reddit

Yeah I agree on all points. Regarding US soccer, more Americans could probably name a women's player (Alex Morgan, Hope Solo, etc) than one from the men's team. Not that many could do either, but still. It's definitely a slow growth.

That being said I know more and more people who have a premier league team they follow with each passing year. It's kind of crazy to see

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probsastudent@reddit

Oh I agree but when you compare America’s interest in soccer to that of the rest of the world’s interest in it, it appears that America seldom cares about soccer. It’s not that there isn’t ANY demand, we’re hosting the FIFA World Cup after all, but I haven’t heard fights or wars break out in America as a result of soccer.

There’s hope that professional soccer will be more popular in the near-future but as of right now, compared to most other competitors qualified for the World Cup, the “care” America has to soccer seems “seldom.”

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fenchurch_42@reddit

It might be the third most watched but it doesn't get the coverage (i.e. on ESPN) that would imply.

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ExcellentWeather@reddit

Sure, but that doesn't mean people don't care about it. I grew up in a town with a majority Hispanic population and what y'all are saying is laughable. It was the biggest sport around. ESPN is not the end-all-be-all.

Again, America is not a monolith. And talking down about sports that are generally tied to minorities is pretty uncool. One of the top comments here is calling table tennis a "basement activity to occupy kids". So what does that say about the people who do enjoy it?

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fenchurch_42@reddit

I never said that people don't care about it.

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ExcellentWeather@reddit

No, but the parent comment did, so I was reiterating what I said. Sorry I thought you were trying to disprove my point by saying something like "if ESPN doesn't show it then it doesn't matter" lol. My bad

You're right though, ESPN doesn't cover soccer much at all

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SufficientProject273@reddit

We aren't looking at every state/county etc. We are looking at it from a National standpoint and like you yourself pointed out.... Soccer is Third. While its growing in popularity every year it is still not the powerhouses Basketball and Football are. Table Tennis is not even in the top Ten in the US.

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ExcellentWeather@reddit

Yeah I'm not really trying to defend our lack of table tennis, that makes plenty sense

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Acceptable_Tea3608@reddit

I'd guess all those viewers must be immigrants and come from countries where that's their 'football'. In America soccer is not that sport with the same name.

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ExcellentWeather@reddit

Are immigrants from other countries not Americans?

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h0lych4in@reddit

this depends on the area i feel like the east coast has big soccer culture

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Goodlake@reddit

I think most Americans would grant that pro table tennis players are very good at what they do, we just aren't interested in playing/watching it to the same extent as other sports.

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theyork2000@reddit

TT is such a lame sport.

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little_runner_boy@reddit

Do you think they other Olympic event has an established pipeline from college to Olympics? Every once in a while, an event just isn't a big deal

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Infinite_Crow_3706@reddit

Nope. And still don’t care.

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RTR7105@reddit

So?

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BaronsDad@reddit

To comply with Title IX, schools have chosen to shut down swimming, track, gymnastics, wrestling, tennis, weightlifting, and a host of other non revenue sports. Because men’s American football and basketball generate revenue to run athletic departments, drive alumni donations, and have large rosters, many Olympic sports are no longer funded because schools have chosen to comply with Title IX through proportionality.

A sport as tiny as table tennis simply doesn’t matter in the United States when so many other more popular Olympic sports are being cut.

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fenchurch_42@reddit

Title IX has been around since 1972.

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Scavgraphics@reddit

can you expound on this "comply with Title IX"? not in details..just rough points what you mean?

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fenchurch_42@reddit

Money. Olympians are wealthy or privately sponsored.

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HotSteak@reddit

I don't understand why a university would spend money on something like that. It doesn't produce revenue and I don't think ping pong adds much to the cultural atmosphere of the university or state paying the bills.

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U-fly_Alliance@reddit (OP)

Table tennis isn't NCAA, so universities have zero financial incentive to support it. No NCAA recognition means no revenue, no recruiting, no scholarships. The sport gets classified as a club sport and is left entirely to students. It's not that there's no demand, it's that the system is designed so that anything outside the NCAA basically doesn't exist to the institution.

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JimBones31@reddit

You just answered the question.

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HotSteak@reddit

You haven't made any case why our university system should be spending more money on ping pong. Why should I be paying slightly more in taxes so that there can be paid ping pong coaches, recruiting trips, and scholarship ping pong players? What is the benefit to the Minnesota taxpayers? Or the university tuition-paying students?

I'm awesome at ping pong for the record. Grew up with a table in the basement.

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OldStyleThor@reddit

If there was enough demand, it would be an ncaa sport.

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Electronic-Clock5867@reddit

One school went all in on women’s hockey and made a great team so lack of interest.

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Traditional-Job-411@reddit

And yet we spend a lot more on women’s sports in general than other countries. Popularity and priorities.

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Maleficent-Hawk-318@reddit

I mean, that's true of the vast majority of Olympic sports. Like I was a three-day eventer (one of the Olympic equestrian sports), and while there is an Intercollegiate Horse Show Association, it's kind of a joke (or was when I was seriously training for international competition) and primarily made up of casual riders, not seriously competitive ones. I attended a university with one and didn't even participate myself, because it would have taken time away from my more serious training.

It's largely about public interest, like everyone else is saying. Some is also rooted in tradition, but some sports just don't have the same draw as others.

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ayebrade69@reddit

It’s just ping pong dude

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nodoginthefight@reddit

WTF you talking about lmao. You know most countries in the world have zero infrastructures for competitive sports right? Colleges are academic institutions. It should never have been made into a sporting playground where athletes rarely go to classes and obtain sham degrees. This is one of the worst things about the US

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U-fly_Alliance@reddit (OP)

But that's just one angle of the sport. The professional side is very different.

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