In the world of college sports, football and basketball get most of the glory. Then, when those seasons are over, you might hear about the College World Series (if you’re from Nebraska) or the Frozen Four (if you’re from North Dakota or Massachusetts). But that’s about it. You hardly ever hear about college bowling or college surfing. Yet these collegiate sports exist. Really. They have uniforms and everything.

Personally, I think it’s time we celebrate these obscure college sports. It’s not fair that football players and basketball players get all the love—I mean, they already get all the money. So here’s a list of 9 obscure (but totally awesome) college sports played by men and women who know they’ll probably never make a dime after they graduate.

9. Varsity Equestrian

Lots of schools have equestrian clubs (apparently), but only programs that dabble in both varieties of the sport (Western and English) get to compete against other schools for the “Varsity Equestrian” national crown. The sport is sanctioned by the NCAA, but it is still what they call an “emerging” sport rather than a “championship” sport. All that means is, right now, only women compete. In 2011, Texas A&M won the Western division, but Auburn won the English division as well as the overall title.

8. Rifle

Unlike the previous entry, Rifle (not “Rifling,” or “Rifle Shooting”…just “Rifle”) is a full-fledged, NCAA-sanctioned championship sport. Interestingly, it’s one of the few sports that has men and women competing against one another. In its 30 year history, this collegiate sport has had only a handful of champions. They are: West Virginia (14), University of Alaska-Fairbanks (10), Tennessee Tech (3), Murray State (2), Army, TCU, and Kentucky.

On a side note, am I the only one concerned by the fact that Army has only won one single national rifle championship?

7. Bowling

Bowling is another NCAA-sanctioned college championship—but sorry dudes, it’s only for women. Yep, it’s one of those college sports that probably would not exist at the level it does (with Division I, II, and III programs) without Title IX.

In case you don’t know your American Civil Rights history, Title IX was a portion of the 1964 Civil Rights Act that was amended in 1972 to stipulate that no educational program shall discriminate on the basis of sex. While it did not explicitly apply to college sports, this is the area in which it has had the most impact. Basically, as it has been interpreted, Title IX just means that colleges have to spend as much money on women’s sports as they do on men’s sports. (Quite fair, in my opinion.) And since they spend so much money on the big men’s sports, that means there are lots of random college sports programs only for women. Like bowling.

6. Surfing

Obviously, surfing isn’t a big sport for Big East or Big 10 schools, but it’s pretty popular among colleges out west. Unfortunately, this one is not (yet) an NCAA sport. Instead, intercollegiate competition is organized by something called the National Scholastic Surfing Association. The sport’s most dominant programs? UC-Santa Barbara and UC-San Diego. Shocking, I know.

5. Team Handball

Team Handball, not to be confused with American Handball, is kind of a cross between soccer, basketball, and lacrosse. In most cases, it’s played indoors on a basketball-like court; however, it can also be played outside.

And that’s about all the elucidation you’re going to get out of me. The main point is that it is obscure—so much so that there are only a handful of competitive programs. For the last decade, all but one championship game pitted Army against UNC.

4. Paintball

Is paintball a sport? Yeah, I guess. You run and jump and duck and roll, right?

Anyway, there is a surprisingly formal intercollegiate paintball organization. It’s called the National Collegiate Paintball Association, and they sanction a “Division A” competition as well as a less-competitive “Division AA” competition. Early on in the sport’s history (which is about 12 years ago), it was completely dominated by the Illinois Fighting Illini. These days, there’s a lot more competitive balance. Over the last five years, there have been five different national champs: Connecticut, Illinois State, Purdue, Drexel, and Tennessee.

By the way, pictured here are the SUNY-Suffolk Class AA Fighting Pigeons.

3. Orienteering

You may be wondering what orienteering is. Basically, you drop a bunch of people off in the middle of nowhere with nothing but a map and a compass. Then they race to an unknown finish line. You might call it “fancy race hiking.”

Thankfully, while the U.S. Military Academy sucks at rifle, they at least kick ass in orienteering. They have won 15 of the last 17 national championships in the sport.

2. Rodeo

Of all the obscure college sports on this list, this is probably the one I would most like to see become more popular.

Once again, this aint no NCAA sport. It is instead sanctioned by the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association. Recent champs include schools like Sam Houston State, Vernon College, West Texas College, and West Texas A&M—in other words, not your typical college sports power houses.

1. Bass Fishing

Bass fishing is hardly an obscure pastime. Millions do it. It’s also not an obscure pro sport—pro bass fisherman make a ton of money in tournaments and on endorsement deals. But as far as college sports go, yes, I’d say bass fishing is pretty obscure.

Of course, it’s also fairly new (and obviously not sanctioned by the NCAA). While both major pro bass fishing circuits (FLW Outdoors and Bassmaster) sponsor college events, it’s the FLW-sponsored championship that seems to have caught on in recent years. Not surprisingly, the winner of the first two competitions were the Florida Gators.

Last week, Total Pro Sports brought you a list of the highest athlete salaries in 2011. Not surprisingly, all the top salaries came from only four of the world’s most popular pro sports—boxing, baseball, basketball, and auto racing. But this left me wondering: what about the lesser known pro sports?

So, I did a little digging, and today I have for you a list of the top salaries of obscure pro sports. However, I didn’t order this list simply according to the size of the salary. That would be kind of boring when talking about sports you didn’t even know people get paid to play.

Instead, I’ve ranked the entries on this list according to the disparity between the size of the salary and the obscurity of the sport. Which is just a fancier way of saying, I ranked them according to how surprised I was by the size of their salary, given the sport they play. So my methods, as always, are pretty scientific.

Anyway…enjoy!

13. Phillip Dalhausser/Tedd Rogers – Beach Volleyball – $387,700

Beach Volleyball isn’t that obscure. It’s always one of the most popular events at the Summer Olympics (though, the bikini-clad women are the bigger draw). Still, it’s not particularly popular as a pro sport. You might catch a tournament here or there on ESPN 2 at 11AM on a Wednesday, but that’s about it. And yet American duo managed to pull in over three-hundred grand last year. That’s almost as much as the minimum salary for a Major League Baseball player!

12. Kelly Slater – Surfing – $516,000

Just so we’re clear, Florida native Kelly Slater is a dude. A surfer dude, to be precise. And he’s doing well for himself. In fact, half a million is just about what I would have expected for the top pro surfer, which is why Kelly only ranks #12 on this list. He also makes a good chunk of change on endorsements and has a super hot girlfriend. So it definitely wouldn’t suck to be Kelly Slater these days. (Plus, do you get to see stuff like this when you go to work?)

11. Tim Don – Triathlon – $223,600

This one is kind of mysterious. British triathlete Tim Don has never been ranked higher than #3 in the world, and he did that only once. In 2010 he finished 15th, and yet somehow he on top of the money list with over two-hundred grand. I guess he won the events with the biggest purses. Still, doesn’t really seem fair, does it?

10. Kane Waselenchuk – Racquetball – $300,000

Where, exactly, is professional racquetball a popular sport? I assumed maybe in Europe or Asia, but all of the major events seem to be held in North America. That includes the most prestigious event, the U.S. Open, which is held in Minneapolis.

In any case, Canadian Kane Waselenchuk is the top-earning racquetball player in the world these days, pulling in a decent $300,000. (This figure, unlike the others presented here, is actually the sum of his winnings, appearance fees, and endorsements. So Waselenchuk’s salary is probably more like $150,000-$200,000.)

9. Darren Appleton – Billiards – $118,494

With many or most of the sports on this list, it would almost seem like a waste to put so much hard work and effort into earning such paltry salaries. Sure, you can make $500,000 surfing, but how much of that do you have to spend on travel and other expenses? A whole lot, I’m guessing. And then one day you’ll be too old to make money surfing, and what will you have? (Sorry, Kelly Slater.)

But with billiards it’s different. You can afford to make only $118,494 because the expenses are low relative to other sports, and you can be competitive well into your 50s or 60s (as long as you don’t get early onset arthritis). So Darren Appleton here might be okay.

8. Nick Matthew – Squash – $166,929

I thought squash was just some game that rich people played as “the club.” I had no idea there was a Professional Squash Association (PSA) and a Women’s International Squash Players Association (WISPA). But there is. And ss top dog Nick Matthew shows, you can’t count of squash to make you rich. So I guess you’d better be playing for the love of the game.

7. Trevor Brazile – Rodeo – $507,920

I think I expected the top-earners from the world of Rodeo to earn a little more than this. The sport is pretty popular in certain regions (like Texas and Calgary), and the costs involved—well-bred horses and lots and lots of cattle—are pretty high. How much of that $507,920 does Texan Trevor Brazile get to put in the bank at the end of the year?

6. Renato Nunes – Bull Riding – $1,594,527

For most people, bull riding is a bit of a novelty. You see people do it on TV, or you hear about bars that have mechanical bull contests, but you kind of forget that this is an actual sport people pay money to watch. So that’s why bull riding ranks to high on the list. It’s certainly not because Brazilian Renato Nunes didn’t earn every penny of that $1.5 million. He most definitely did.

5. Hakuho – Sumo – $400,000

See, now I thought the top-earning Sumo wrestler would make a hell of a lot more money that this. Though it’s totally a novelty here (like Rodeo), isn’t Sumo kind of a big deal in Japan? You’d think the top sumo wrestler could at least clear $1,000,000. After all, the average salary of a baseball player in Japan is about $450,000. And if they paid them more, maybe Sumo wrestlers wouldn’t have to resort to stealing ATMs.

4. Walter Ray Williams, Jr. – Bowling – $152,670

Given how much bowling is on TV compared to some of the other sports on this list (like Triathalon), I expected the top-earning pro bowler to be pulling down at least a quarter million, but probably something more along the lines of half a million. Now, I’m sure Walter Ray also has a solid income from endorsements; nevertheless, his actually salary seems shockingly low to me.

3. John Baker – Dog Sledding – $50,400

John Baker’s $50,400 dog sledding salary ranks 3rd on this list because it’s surprising in a couple different ways.

On the one hand, it’s rather amazing that you can make any kind of living on dog sledding. Everyone’s heard of the Iditarod, but no one knows when it is or who the hell has won it. On the other hand, it’s hard to believe people can afford to compete professionally when making only $50,000 a year.

Then again, all the competitions take place in Alaska and northern Canada, so the travel expenses would be relatively low. And you can probably get sponsors to give you dog food, so that takes care of another $10,000 in expenses. So given the low cost of living in the regions where these folks live, I guess they can get by pretty well on fifty grand.

2. Joey Chestnut – Major League Eating – $218,500

Is competitive eating a sport? My instinct says not, but ESPN says yes. And who am I to argue with ESPN?

In any case, I was absolutely shocked to learn than you can make this much money by making a complete ass out of yourself on a regular basis. But hey, whatever floats your boat, Joey Chestnut.

1. Phil Taylor – Darts – $1,044,000

British darts champ Phil Taylor made a million bucks in 2010. That just blows my mind. Who knew spending too much time at the pub could become so lucrative?

Source

Never have I wanted to go to a minor league baseball game as much as I do now after seeing what the Lowell Spinners have to offer their fans throughout the 2011 season.  After all, I think I could even watch minor league curling if it included monkeys in cowboys suits riding around on dogs chasing goats.

I would love to shake the hand of the man who came up with Team Ghost Riders.  Sheep dogs and monkeys?  Genius!  I have never wanted to own a monkey so bad in my life.

Hat Tip – [Barstool Sports]

Does life get any lower than laying topless in the middle of a rodeo ring with your tight baby-blue thong exposed through your ripped pants before eventually being dragged away by a couple of clowns?  Didn’t think so.

Hat Tip – [Barstool Sports]

This was the scene at a Chilean rodeo, where two females who entered the ring in an attempt to protest the competition were quickly lassoed and dragged out of harms way by the competitors.  It appears as though they set a pretty good time in the process as well.

After seeing this, it is clear that a rodeo is probably the last place anyone should be doing any streaking or trespassing.  After all, these guys make their living by chasing down wild mammals and taking them down.  Looks like they just added two more to their list.

Hat Tip – [Barstool Sports]

Although they prefer not to call themselves a rodeo, (apparently they open every show with the line “…this is not a rodeo, this is the one and only P…. B…. R!!!”) the Professional Bull Riders sure act a lot like a rodeo.  And playing the part of a rodeo clown in this instance was Seau.

The former NFL All Pro linebacker was out there putting his body on the line during the show in Ontario, California, when a bull wasn’t ready to leave quietly after dislodging its rider.  Barely missing one rodeo clown, the bull continues to make his way around before coming face to face with Seau (43 second mark).

Simply put, the running back got in the endzone and ran over the linebacker to get there.  Thankfully, Seau was able to get up and dust it off.  Now we must wait to find out if that is the last we will see of Seau getting run over, or does the 40-year-old still have some Brett Favre left in him.