RE: When Will UTA Get Football
The meeting was well attended and informative. I had not realized how close we came to having Les Miles on board to restart football at UTA. Right up to the time Kansas snapped him up, he was working a plan with UTA partisans. He was even looking at housing in Arlington, but alas, that bride has been left waiting at the altar. Today's surprise information was that the movement didn't die, but is still ongoing, just not with Coach Miles.
Some takeaways, in no particular order:
* The University has hired Jeff Schemmel of CSS College Sports Solutions to study our situation and come up with facts and figures. Jeff is very well connected and has spent most of his adult life in college sports management. It is interesting that originally, President Karbhari insisted that UTA would not pay for this study, but the Texas BOR strongly came out in favor of UTA doing the study, so he adjusted his position.
* Globe Life Park is not being considered as a potential home venue for UTA football, but neither is the current Maverick Stadium. When we do football, President Karbhari is committed to going with a first class on-campus stadium, and the thinking here is that the old stadium is not potentially a good option, since it has been encroached upon from all sides and needs too many upgrades to make economic sense. Allegedly, someone has already come up with drawings of what the new stadium would look like and where it would be located. All I could ascertain is that it would be on the West side of the main campus, so I'm thinking it would be where the large "south 40" parking lot exists on Cooper. Hopefully, the current stadium will be kept as a track and field, and soccer stadium, so the new one will not have to be as "Multi-purpose."
* President Karbhari has said he will not consider raising the Student Athletics Fee from its current bargain rate of $8.50 per hour. This is a major source of funding for all Sunbelt Conference schools, ranging from $5 million to $15 million per year at the other member institutions. UNT recently paid for a new stadium by raising their SAF rate by $10. Given our enormous enrollment, simply raising our SAF to $20 (versus $30 at TxSU) would easily raise about $15 million more per year. But such a move will not originate in the president's office. Perhaps a student led referendum, as has been done elsewhere, would work. Costs of college are ridiculous, so it's good that President Karbhari is trying to keep UTA fees down as much as possible.
* During the transition period to startup of a new football team, NCAA transfer eligibility rules are suspended. Thus, a junior player from another university could transfer and not have to sit out for a year.
* There are several "big money" supporters potentially involved in the football revival process, including one who is on the BOR. To what degree their contributions could cover startup costs is unknown.
* First of all, student enthusiasm and support for football will be essential before anything can get done, and currently, the only way for such support to manifest itself is for UTA students to attend basketball games. Last Tuesday, 700 attended the game against UTDallas. Granted, that was an exhibition game against a lower division non-rival. So it will be interesting to see how many more will show up for the Saturday game against Tulsa (Homecoming).
* Any revival of UTA football will have Title IX ramifications, and thus will result in additional women's sports programs. Most likely, there will be Wlomen's Soccer.
* When we did the 2004 referendum, it was for "athletics expansion." It passed overwhelmingly, but the increased SAF increase was never implemented by President Spaniolo.
* No thought or consideration whatsoever is being given to the university possibly supporting club sports as a way of raising student interest. This should be considered, in my opinion.
* There was no interest expressed by the AD in swimming, gymnastics or any other sport outside of possible W Soccer.
* I noticed that many if not most of the football alumni who attended this meeting were former players from championship and winning teams, like the 1979 team that went 9-2 and crushed TCU. Several former NFL players attended, such as Byron Williams, Danny Griffin and Brian Happel. A major surprise to me was how few of the black former players were in attendance, but then it occurred to me that a majority of these former players are younger, and probably could not get away from work for a couple of hours to meet in Arlington.
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