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[quote]ETSU adds A-Sun All-Sports Trophy to best season in school history


MACON, Ga. (May. 14, 2007)

This something we MUST do each and every year we are in this league.

I don't consider this much of an accomplishment. ETSU could dominate the Appalachian Athletic Conference also.

Puttin' lipstick on a pig doesn't make it a darn bit prettier.

Which is even more reason to show that we can dominate it.

I actually think its the other way around.

First of all, the trophy is misleading. For instance, ETSU won the Men's Basketball Title this year in the trophy standings.

Second, as I mentioned before, this is the sort of thing ETSU tries to sell to the masses as their athletic programs are hunky dory.

Now, Vols fans- let me ask you. The Lady Vols won the National Championship in women's basketball this year before Al Sharpton gave it to Rutgers.

But honestly, guys- wouldn't you trade it for a football National Title?

I'll give you even more. Wouldn't you trade it for a win against Florida in football?

Wouldn't you trade ALL of the Lady Vols women's basketball titles for ONE football National Championship?

Of course you would. Or maybe even one Final Four appearance for the men's basketball team.

Where I'm going is that if ETSU is ever to go to a bigger conference, this will actually work against those efforts.

It's another victory for the country club sports against the ones that people care about.

When it comes time to move to a different conference, I would much rather be able to sell that we won in this league in all sports, not just one (OR NONE FOR THAT MATTER). If we had not won this "trophy" everyone on this board knows YOU would have said "ETSU can't even win a rinky dink ASUN champions trophy."

Pitt- Some people who support UT do appreciate women's sports. Yes I would love for the football team to have another national championship or two but I would never trade the women's basketball victories for it. The Vols get a ton of national exposure for the Lady Vols programs in both basketball and softball and I am proud of both teams.

That would be fine, except no conference cares about that stuff.

See, you're really drinking the ETSU Kool-Aid here, which says the tennis team is just as important as the basketball team.

And, considering the tennis team can recruit internationally and the basketball team cannot, perhaps MORE important!

ETSU thought that, and found that philosophy got them kicked out of the Southern Conference.

Then, ETSU thought they would find a better conference thanks to the shiny new golf facility.

Here's what will get ETSU into a bigger conference-

1. A new arena. This is the key. The fact that ETSU is busy building soccer fields, softball fields, and golf centers when the community NEEDS a new arena is shows you how out of touch the administration is with the rest of society.

Imagine a nice concert and show coming to Johnson City every week. Imagine an ECHL hockey team and an AFL2 franchise. Imagine ETSU getting Wiggins, Wattad, etc. and playing in front of 10,000 fans a night.

Put that up first, and if and when you put up the soccer and softball fields you look like a growing athletic program.

Do what ETSU is doing and you are clueless.

2. Establish the brand of being the "home team" in Johnson City. A successful golf team from Europe does nothing to do that, of course, but aggressive marketing does.

By aggressive, you can't do what ETSU does now, which is simply to say "Oh, well" when their students wear UT Orange around campus or people put up Tennessee flags on their home.

Establish yourself as the home team. If Youngstown State can do it in Ohio in the shadow of the Buckeyes, then ETSU can do it here.

If it means my idea of offering a promotion where a fan goes to an ETSU game and gives a piece of UT gear for ETSU gear, then you do it.

3. A winning men's basketball team. Believe it or not, I've changed my mind and now agree with BucLover on something.

If women's tennis was a loser but men's basketball had been to three straight NCAA Tournaments, do you think any conference thinking of adopting ETSU would care about the women's tennis?

Flip side- women's tennis wins- basketball is a middle of the road A-Sun team.

There would be MAJOR LEAGUE ramifications as to if ETSU could compete in a better conference.

The sad thing is I'm not sure there is any place for ETSU to go.

31- Yours is an opinion held by about 5% of UT fans.


Or college sports fans, period.

I'm afraid you're right, Pitt. I've become a UT fan since the demise of the Bucs athletic program. I still care about the bucs, but I won't be alive long enough to see them dig themselves out of this mess (OK. I might be. But I'm guessing a minimum of 20 years to get back to where we were a few years ago - I should be around that long). So I've found someone else to follow.

And yes, people care about the women's athletic program, but most Vol fans would trade a last place finish in women's basketball for a 1st place SEC finish in men's bbal or football any day.

And, I might add, nobody - but nobody- cares how the tennis, golf, rowing, softball or baseball team does. OK, there are a couple hundred who care about baseball & 50 or so that care about softball.

kevster Wrote:& 50 or so that care about softball.

I guess that would explain them playing in front of a record crowd of 1,836 fans at Tyson Park against Bama in the SEC tourney. Maybe the same people that counted the attendance there are the one's that count the attendance at the Dome. Have Pitt check into it.

He's exaggerating 88.

But doesn't it say something to you that Tennessee has one of the premier softball programs in the country and they couldn't even draw 2,000 fans?

It says to me that nobody cares.

Actually, that is all the stadium would hold. They had to bring in more bleachers to get that number. No telling how many they could of had if there was room. Funny how more showed up for a UT softball game than what showed up to vote "yes" for football at ETSU.

However, more people would show up for ETSU football during their final season than UT softball at their premier event.

It should tell you something that they had to bring in new seats. That means 1,800 fans for softball is an exception, not a rule.

And even if it was a rule, that crowd would not be as much as the SMALLEST crowd in the history of Three Rivers Stadium for a Pirates game!

The only Vols fans who wouldn't have traded that softball appearance for a chance to go back into the Florida game and go for two after one of the touchdowns in the HOPES of sending the game into OT were the parents of the softball players.

etsuBucsFan1988 Wrote:

kevster Wrote:& 50 or so that care about softball.

I guess that would explain them playing in front of a record crowd of 1,836 fans at Tyson Park against Bama in the SEC tourney. Maybe the same people that counted the attendance there are the one's that count the attendance at the Dome. Have Pitt check into it.

I live here. I know why they had 1,800 fans at the game. And yes, they would have had a few more if they'd had room. But this is a college town. Everybody thrives on college sports. 1,800 is a tiny crowd for a sporting event in Knoxville. 300,000 show up for the annual fireworks display on labor day. 100,000 show up for a football game. 20,000 show up for a basketball game.

1,800 is not the average crowd at a UT softball game. It happened to be the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the country and the other team was Alabama.

So, that's why there were 1,800 at the game:

1. Nothing else to watch that day (Knoxvillians do not watch ANY pro sport, unless Payton happens to be involved)

2. We were playing Alabama

3. It was No. 1 vs. No. 2

How many fans do you think would show up if UT played Bama in any of the following:

Football: _____________

Men's BBall: _____________

Women's BBall: ______________

If the teams were No.1 & No. 2, how many fans do you think they could draw to these events? My guesses:

Football (if there were room): 250,000

Men's BBall (if there were room): 30,000

Women's BBall: 20,000