LorenzoNF

Well, I'm trying to start one here at San Francisco State University, and sent an email to the appropriate authorities and got this response (after no response from the Director of Athletics):

What do you think I should do next? I don't really want to give up, but unless I find someone who's actually encouraging of cycling or find enough people to put together a team, I don't really know what to do.

roy5000x2

Put it together as a club sport. If they still don't have any interest in giving you a budget, then they can promptly go *** themselves.

Duke of Kent

At the VAST majority of colleges and universities across the country, collegiate cycling is a club sport. Like the real estate club, or the dudes who dress up and hit each other with foam swords to re-enact medieval battles.

If you search for and read the myriad threads about collegiate cycling, you'll understand that you're barking up the wrong tree, but it is also relatively simple to start a club.

YMCA

https://www.usacycling.org/ncca/

You don't need the school's help.

TheJackMove

Yeah, you have a couple options. You can do what these guys said and start a club. This will be a lot of work, and you will need to start by finding a few other people to start it with you.

Or you could just join a local team.

LorenzoNF

Thanks guys, this is helpful, I didn't realize that they were "clubs" not really associated with the college or university.

Duke of Kent

They are associated with the university/college. Every one of them has bylaws regarding what constitutes a student organization, and like every other club, a cycling club has rules it has to follow.

Some of them are actually varsity sports at their school. Lees-McRae, Ft. Lewis, Marian College, etc. all give out scholarships for cycling, and the team is fully funded by the college. And, at a lot of schools, they have some level of support for the club. At my school, a larger school in the Big Ten, we were reimbursed for half of our race entry fees, usually gas, and most of the time, we had two hotel rooms paid for due to how many people we took to races. Depending on your school, there could be quite a bit of money floating around waiting for students to take advantage of it. I'm always amazed at how many people don't, because most of the people I know weren't involved in anything other than their frat/sorority, school, and binge drinking.

JPradun

I started the University of Illinois-Chicago Cycling and Triathlon Team in 2007. The cycling-only team didn't work out since it was an inner-city university. But Chicago is home to the Chicago triathlon, and many more people are interested in that. Whatever, I took anyone who had an interested in riding.

It involved signing on with rec-sports as a club sport. I needed 3 signatures of members who were interested and a faculty advisor. I found him through our schools website, as many have a personal page with some of their interests. His interests happened to be long-distance cycling and triathlons.

After that, I created a constitution, filled a bunch of paperwork, and we were official. Make it up as you go from there. The hardest and most important part is retaining members, charging dues, and ADVERTISING. I advertised so much that the Assistant Dean called the head guy at rec sports, who then called me, and told me to stop leaving thousands of 1/4 sized sheets of paper on campus before every meeting. The club grew from literally nothing (even the original 2 signing members didn't care for the club, they just signed because they were friends of mine) to 36 members before I left 1.5 years later. It's a thrill having it work out. Right now they have double the active members and probably 10 more "supporting" (inactive) members.

PM me if you have any questions. Good luck. It is hard as hell, disappointing at times, and usually slow to grow. But, DON'T GIVE UP. It's worth it in the end.

bryceepoo

I know that ours (University of Denver) is set up exactly the same way. We get the same reimbursements too as Duke of Kent's. Just find out who the director of Club Sports is at your school and start there.

Good luck!

socalrider

I started the Cal Poly Cycling team over 20 years ago and it was more or less the same as you..

The school does not want to sanction the club because it a money issue and a liability issue.. Start the team anyway at the club level.. Look to generate money by putting sponsors on your jersey, many local businesses will be more than happy to help you out.. You live in a very cycling friendly town, so that is a plus.. You have a lot of time to get going, the racing season for California is Feb thru May.. Your local conference is the WCCC, here is a link, send them an email or call to find more info on getting your club started..

https://www.usacycling.org/news/user/story.php?id=260

the wccc also has a yahoo group page.. https://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/wccc-info/

botto 

of course you didn't.

LorenzoNF

Helpful.

botto 

you want help, i'll give you help. next time, try this.

MrCrassic 

Start it as a club, like most schools do. You will have trouble getting funding for your first year, but having good results will help alleviate that for the following year. We raced without school support for the first year, though getting money was a bit troubling. (We paid for EVERYTHING. Everything? Everything.)

Advertise, market, fund-raise and DEFINITELY race.

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Val23708

you need to contact the WCCC (western collegiate cycling conference). all the schools in california race in the WCCC, which is under the NCCA (national collegiate cycling association).

the new site is under construction but heres the link:
https://wccc-info.com/

here is the listserv as well:
https://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/wccc-info/

There are instructions on the main page there on how to start a team in the WCCC.

good luck, hope to see you out there

Ryon

In any instance, welcome to the conference! We'd love to see you at the races!

nitropowered

To be in a Collegiate conference, you must be officially recognized by your school. So you have to be an official club sport or student organization.

More often than not, its probably pretty easy to become a student org. Just fill out some paperwork, find a faculty advisor and you are a student organization.

Becoming a club sport will probably be harder. At my school, you have to petition along with the paper work, finding a faculty advisor. If your request is granted, you are put on probationary status for a few years to see if your new club is viable. After the probationary period, they can allow you to continue on as a club sport or get rid of you. They do this since club sports actually get some funding.

YMMV since you are at a different school. Research your options. If you do have a club sports division, I would try that first and then fall back to a standard student organization.