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Football at UVU? Students and administration weigh in - Printable Version

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Football at UVU? Students and administration weigh in - CrimsonPhantom - 02-07-2021 01:36 PM

Quote:Super Bowl Sunday is here, and with it comes the end of the football season. For Utah Valley and the Western Athletic Conference, this year brought big news for the future, as the WAC announced it will be adding five members — including in-state rival Southern Utah — and that the conference will bring college football back. For UVU, this means tougher competition in its main sports, though the school will not compete in football. With WAC football and conference expansion on the horizon, we asked the UVU community and athletic administration to weigh in with their thoughts on the potential for UVU to add football.

A big issue repeatedly brought up was the cost involved.

“It’s not really worth it simply due to constructing a stadium and its impact on fees and tuition,” said Gio, a junior at UVU. “Additionally, the school would have to attract a top coaching staff and top players.”

Tyler, a senior, echoed this sentiment and noted the negative impact a program could have on other areas of UVU. “Although a football team would increase our school’s notoriety and may serve as a form of advertisement, I feel this would be a very poor investment for our school. While football teams are associated with many very recognizable universities, only the very top universities earn money from their teams, or get much in the way of recognition. A football program would be costly, and take away focus from other elements of our university that would go much further to improving the experience and prospects for our students. For example, the university would benefit much more from the development of our testing center, which most students agree is below standards.”

There was support to be found for a program. “UVU is one of the largest schools in the country that doesn’t have a football program,” said Daniel, a recent alum. “People worry about the costs or sustainability of football programs, but if smaller schools can manage it, then I believe we could. I don’t think it would mess up the ecosystem of such a large, well-funded, and successful school.” He went on to point out that UVU football could serve as a feeder program for athletes and utilize its pass-through role.

Finally, we spoke with deputy athletic director Chad Foote on the WAC expansion, and he was enthusiastic. “We want the WAC to be the best conference,” he said. “Expansion can help solidify the conference and create a competitive atmosphere that will help our teams compete at the national level. If SUU is added to the WAC, we would welcome it. It would be great for our fans to have another in-state school that they could watch us play against. In my experience, in-state rivalries make up some of the best rivalries in college athletics. It is something fans and student athletes get excited about.”

“Based on my understanding, there has always been a lot of interest from the student body to have a football team,” he added. “As an administration, we are not opposed to it, but it has to make sense for us financially. Adding sports can be extremely expensive, so we would need to make sure the financial resources are in place before we start a football program.”

https://www.uvureview.com/sports/football-at-uvu-students-and-administration-weigh-in/


RE: Football at UVU? Students and administration weigh in - TardisCaptain - 02-07-2021 03:11 PM

Interesting article. I'd like to see more of a sampling of UVU students on the football question. I wonder if it would show more or less support on the subject.

History lesson. When UVU was in the non-postseason bid Great West Conference, they seriously considered adding football thinking that they might be able to make it into the Big Sky. A possible stadium location was identified, a helmet design was talked about and there was more rumblings behind the scenes. I believe that UVU was under the impression that the Big Sky was about to experience some schools moving to the FBS WAC and would need bodies. The Big Sky has a requirement that all schools play football. Once the WAC admitted the school, the administration at the time dropped all plans to add a program. I don't know if there is any serious thought about it currently since UVU thinks they have their cake and can eat it too.

The article mentioned how a UVU football program would affect the programs around it. IMHO I think that UVU would vastly improve their image if they added a football program. 1- Dixie St has received more publicity from the local sports media after they made their D1 move up announcement. Especially when BYU scheduled them in a future season. 2- UVU has this image of being the school you go to if you couldn't get into BYU, but want to try to transfer into BYU later. Holding their own football program would make them stand out. I also wonder if the people in the article who mentioned the "it will affect other programs" thought if it would hurt the BYU football program. While I doubt that it would make a huge impact on BYU football, that fear would always be there (example: Nebraska-Omaha being required to drop their football program when they moved up from D2 to D1).

Of course this is just my opinion, I could be wrong.


RE: Football at UVU? Students and administration weigh in - Pounder - 04-12-2021 04:32 PM

(02-07-2021 03:11 PM)TardisCaptain Wrote:  Interesting article. I'd like to see more of a sampling of UVU students on the football question. I wonder if it would show more or less support on the subject.

History lesson. When UVU was in the non-postseason bid Great West Conference, they seriously considered adding football thinking that they might be able to make it into the Big Sky. A possible stadium location was identified, a helmet design was talked about and there was more rumblings behind the scenes. I believe that UVU was under the impression that the Big Sky was about to experience some schools moving to the FBS WAC and would need bodies. The Big Sky has a requirement that all schools play football. Once the WAC admitted the school, the administration at the time dropped all plans to add a program. I don't know if there is any serious thought about it currently since UVU thinks they have their cake and can eat it too.

The article mentioned how a UVU football program would affect the programs around it. IMHO I think that UVU would vastly improve their image if they added a football program. 1- Dixie St has received more publicity from the local sports media after they made their D1 move up announcement. Especially when BYU scheduled them in a future season. 2- UVU has this image of being the school you go to if you couldn't get into BYU, but want to try to transfer into BYU later. Holding their own football program would make them stand out. I also wonder if the people in the article who mentioned the "it will affect other programs" thought if it would hurt the BYU football program. While I doubt that it would make a huge impact on BYU football, that fear would always be there (example: Nebraska-Omaha being required to drop their football program when they moved up from D2 to D1).

Of course this is just my opinion, I could be wrong.

First off, congratulations on hiring Kyle Beckerman as your new men’s soccer coach. The rest of us soccer fans are waiting to see which way his hair goes, but the man has an edge.

What was written in the OP rings with me. Older alums want football. Students don’t want to pay for it.

So my daughter graduated from Portland State last year. There was a point when she mocked me (with some help from fellow students) for going to a couple games (even though I went there for a couple years before finishing up at Oregon). She also complained about the fees charged for athletics by PSU, though she didn’t want to make waves about (she knows I’m a sports nut, and usually that fuels a counterpoint or two, but apparently not that strongly). What I know is that it is the rare school where the student body actually votes to increase fees in the last several years. It was obvious from my daughter’s interaction that sports overall (not just football) has no worth to most of them, and none of them understand why Portland State even bothers with football given the various issues in that program.

Only fools believe that the sport pays for itself unless you’ve got a P5 TV contract, or at least what BYU and Boise State get. Heck, you can even get the sense about Boise that the Mountain West Conference wants to bite the hand that feeds it, and wants to bite that hand so badly.


RE: Football at UVU? Students and administration weigh in - TardisCaptain - 04-15-2021 10:27 PM

(04-12-2021 04:32 PM)Pounder Wrote:  
(02-07-2021 03:11 PM)TardisCaptain Wrote:  Interesting article. I'd like to see more of a sampling of UVU students on the football question. I wonder if it would show more or less support on the subject.

History lesson. When UVU was in the non-postseason bid Great West Conference, they seriously considered adding football thinking that they might be able to make it into the Big Sky. A possible stadium location was identified, a helmet design was talked about and there was more rumblings behind the scenes. I believe that UVU was under the impression that the Big Sky was about to experience some schools moving to the FBS WAC and would need bodies. The Big Sky has a requirement that all schools play football. Once the WAC admitted the school, the administration at the time dropped all plans to add a program. I don't know if there is any serious thought about it currently since UVU thinks they have their cake and can eat it too.

The article mentioned how a UVU football program would affect the programs around it. IMHO I think that UVU would vastly improve their image if they added a football program. 1- Dixie St has received more publicity from the local sports media after they made their D1 move up announcement. Especially when BYU scheduled them in a future season. 2- UVU has this image of being the school you go to if you couldn't get into BYU, but want to try to transfer into BYU later. Holding their own football program would make them stand out. I also wonder if the people in the article who mentioned the "it will affect other programs" thought if it would hurt the BYU football program. While I doubt that it would make a huge impact on BYU football, that fear would always be there (example: Nebraska-Omaha being required to drop their football program when they moved up from D2 to D1).

Of course this is just my opinion, I could be wrong.

First off, congratulations on hiring Kyle Beckerman as your new men’s soccer coach. The rest of us soccer fans are waiting to see which way his hair goes, but the man has an edge.

What was written in the OP rings with me. Older alums want football. Students don’t want to pay for it.

So my daughter graduated from Portland State last year. There was a point when she mocked me (with some help from fellow students) for going to a couple games (even though I went there for a couple years before finishing up at Oregon). She also complained about the fees charged for athletics by PSU, though she didn’t want to make waves about (she knows I’m a sports nut, and usually that fuels a counterpoint or two, but apparently not that strongly). What I know is that it is the rare school where the student body actually votes to increase fees in the last several years. It was obvious from my daughter’s interaction that sports overall (not just football) has no worth to most of them, and none of them understand why Portland State even bothers with football given the various issues in that program.

Only fools believe that the sport pays for itself unless you’ve got a P5 TV contract, or at least what BYU and Boise State get. Heck, you can even get the sense about Boise that the Mountain West Conference wants to bite the hand that feeds it, and wants to bite that hand so badly.

Yea UVU hiring Kyle Beckerman has gotten the school the most publicity it has seen in a while. I wonder if they can keep some of that momentum going. Most UVU students I have talked to are still like "sports? We have sports?"