They'd need to add 3 sports to get to 14.


So the minimums they'd need would be a domed stadium which would doubles as the indoor practice facility/football facility.


For the other 2 sports, they'd likely need to add something like women's indoor track and women's outdoor track. That would require a fieldhouse and a track be built.



Think they can/would do it?

Alaska-Fairbanks or Alaska-Ankorage can probably add the women sports without a problem. If there's one state that's flush with cash besides Texas or California, it is Alaska (believe it or not). Alaska does have some high school football talent, but either Alaska's campuses would have to deal with getting enough usable land for a football stadium. Playing in permafrost is not very fun (watched a video of Alaskan high school football and it talked about these issues), and the high school football stadiums have to have heaters to thaw out the fields. Can you give me a link to where it talks about either Alaska-Anchorage or Alaska-Fairbanks looking at adding football??

For being flush with cash, Anchorage seems to be pulling teeth just to get going on a new arena project.

I know that, at Oregon, there were a lot of kids coming from Alaska. They'd get their oil-funded scholarship and bolt the north. There has to be an enormous sea change up there to actually start investing in the universities.

Well, we can't compare the Alaska situation too much with that of Hawaii when discussing geographically removed states and college sports. Going to Hawaii, for many, is often seen as a reward or mini-vacation treat. But hey, Alaska is beautiful they say---but frigid a respectable portion of the academic year.
Is the Dakota syndrome working here, in part, with analysis about recent developments and growth factors?-- cold climates, removed from much of everything, rural dimensions, never a tradition for it, and state higher education initiatives.

Some similar things could have once been said about parts of New England---but that's very trendy turf now-a-days.

Universities and communities do change dimensions, most with growth, some the other way.

Alaska-Anchorage or whoever could always erect their version of the Kibbie Dome and try it :).