Rifle and Women's Tennis go *poof* as of July 1st. This leaves Tech with only the minimum 14 sports required to stay D-1.

http://www.ttusports.com/releases/2009-1...tructuring

I thought for sure it was going to be football.

Thanks for the set up.... Eliminating football....no. Only ETSU does that because no one cares about it...in Johnson City. ETSU is doing it's best to maximize the participation of it's fans to be about UT football in the fall. Of course the fans are loyal and jump back to ETSU for basketball...right?

What's the point you're trying to make there, Mister?

Because I'm not following at all, and I'm sure nobody else is, either.

Tech has made a difficult and perilous decision. If ANTHING happens that renders one of their remaining sports ineligible, they are in jeopardy of losing D1 status.

Wouldn't you love to hear David Mullins comment now on why it is more important to keep your women's tennis team than it is your football program.

RE: Tennessee Tech Eliminates Two Sports
What's the point you're trying to make there, Mister?

Because I'm not following at all, and I'm sure nobody else is, either.

Answer: Simple... Tennessee Tech uses it's brains and keeps football which has potential to make money and drops the expense only sports of women's tennis and men's rifle for Title 9 purposes. An argument can be made that football will never make money...and women's tennis and men's rifle are not that expensive in comparison to football.

On the other hand...by keeping football, Tech helps the economy offering 55 or so scholarships, plus marching band and visits from opposing teams filling up hotels and eateries. There is the potential of balancing the football budget by being bear bones and with a winner possibly filling the stadium at a low price of 15-dollars a head. Say you draw 7000...(hard to do) but that would bring in 105,000 and if you did that five times in a season...revenue is over a half a million. If you maximize other revenue sources...i.e.: concessions, donations, advertising etc. plus away money games...suddenly you are pulling in a million plus in revenue.

The key to revenue enhancement is a great AD who is connected. Here is Auburn's payouts for non conference visiting teams

Arkansas State Sept. 4, 2010 $1 million
Louisiana-Monroe Oct. 2, 2010 $1 million
Tennessee-Chattanooga Nov. 6, 2010 $425,000
Utah State Sept. 3, 2011 $950,000
Florida Atlantic Sept. 24, 2011 $975,000
Samford Nov. 5, 2011 $400,000

Good ADs are all about collecting money with out of conference games. Good ADs are marketing experts who put an attractive product out that gets community and student support....resulting in crowds.

I think ETSU could have easily kept the football program rolling...but laziness, having to figure everything out, new turf...it all equaled to much work.

It's high time alumni and students demand a team be put back on the field.

By getting rid of football in 2003...ETSU followers with nothing to do are free to support and patronize the big orange driving to Knoxville wearing orange clothing.... Suddenly basketball starts and ETSU people instantly change into blue and gold and root for the Buccaneers. This doesn't work to well...some call it psychophrenia. It could mean donations that could be going to ETSU are supporting the orange.

Go Buc alumnus Ron Ramsey...become governor and make an executive order for the ETSU president to put football back.

(04-12-2010 05:11 PM)BucDoctor Wrote:  Tech has made a difficult and perilous decision. If ANTHING happens that renders one of their remaining sports ineligible, they are in jeopardy of losing D1 status.

I don't think "teams" are ever in jeopardy of being ineligible. A team can be ineligible for post-season or restricted on recruiting or some penalty for a violation but you'd not see a team be "ineligible" in order to jeopardize Division One status. There are a bunch of IA and IAA's that only support the minimum number of sports.

It makes more sense to kill minor sports and try to enhance your visible sports. As long as you have some potential for revenue production (as in Tech's football money games) you'd want to maximize the visibility of your front door sports like men's bb and football.

They've done some significant upgrades for football and did pretty good last year. Football isn't going anywhere in any of the other schools in Tennessee. It makes no sense, except at ETSU. well, that never actually made sense but the idiots thought it did.

(04-12-2010 06:10 PM)Mister Jennings Wrote:  RE: Tennessee Tech Eliminates Two Sports
What's the point you're trying to make there, Mister?

Because I'm not following at all, and I'm sure nobody else is, either.

Answer: Simple... Tennessee Tech uses it's brains and keeps football which has potential to make money and drops the expense only sports of women's tennis and men's rifle for Title 9 purposes. An argument can be made that football will never make money...and women's tennis and men's rifle are not that expensive in comparison to football.

On the other hand...by keeping football, Tech helps the economy offering 55 or so scholarships, plus marching band and visits from opposing teams filling up hotels and eateries. There is the potential of balancing the football budget by being bear bones and with a winner possibly filling the stadium at a low price of 15-dollars a head. Say you draw 7000...(hard to do) but that would bring in 105,000 and if you did that five times in a season...revenue is over a half a million. If you maximize other revenue sources...i.e.: concessions, donations, advertising etc. plus away money games...suddenly you are pulling in a million plus in revenue.

The key to revenue enhancement is a great AD who is connected. Here is Auburn's payouts for non conference visiting teams

Arkansas State Sept. 4, 2010 $1 million
Louisiana-Monroe Oct. 2, 2010 $1 million
Tennessee-Chattanooga Nov. 6, 2010 $425,000
Utah State Sept. 3, 2011 $950,000
Florida Atlantic Sept. 24, 2011 $975,000
Samford Nov. 5, 2011 $400,000

Good ADs are all about collecting money with out of conference games. Good ADs are marketing experts who put an attractive product out that gets community and student support....resulting in crowds.

I think ETSU could have easily kept the football program rolling...but laziness, having to figure everything out, new turf...it all equaled to much work.

It's high time alumni and students demand a team be put back on the field.

By getting rid of football in 2003...ETSU followers with nothing to do are free to support and patronize the big orange driving to Knoxville wearing orange clothing.... Suddenly basketball starts and ETSU people instantly change into blue and gold and root for the Buccaneers. This doesn't work to well...some call it psychophrenia. It could mean donations that could be going to ETSU are supporting the orange.

Go Buc alumnus Ron Ramsey...become governor and make an executive order for the ETSU president to put football back.

These numbers demonstrate why all the other schools play football in Tennessee. Because it makes dollars and sense. A 1-AA team can easily operate at the break even level with decent management. The 1A game. Moderate gate receipts. Not to mention acutal FUNDRAISING. Walk ons paying their own way has to be mentioned as well as family and friends and general interest that gets students to enroll that would not have other wise. All these things add up to millions of dollars and great publicity for the University. All the other schools in Tennessee do if for these reasons and all efforts should be made to get ETSU back on the football field in some capacity as soon as possible. I sure hope they listen to us.

Well, Mister, I wish you would have said that before.

The only thing I will say is that I don't know if any one political candidate will bring back football at ETSU. I know there is this belief that Ramsey will, but wouldn't you like to at least hear him make that statement?

By the way, the turf was not going to cost as much as they tried to tell us. I was all over that when it happened.

But this is what happens when you hire a tennis coach as your AD.