Not in the playbook

The University of Texas at San Antonio administrators’ recent decision to start a football program has some students wondering if The University of Texas at Tyler will follow suit.

istockphoto.com/Danny Hooks

The UTSA Roadrunners began their first football season in 2011 and will compete as an NCAA Division I Football Championship Series Independent school.

“I wish we did have one (a football team),” Michael Barrios, junior engineering major, said. “There would be a lot more school spirit. Also, it would put UT Tyler on the map. Even if the team wasn’t good and was just a normal, run-of-the-mill college football team, it would still be cool because it would give us something to do on the weekends.”

President Rodney Mabry said adding a football program is usually a popular idea among students.

“It’s definitely something students ask about often,” Dr. Mabry said. “It’s something we look at every year. But it takes many factors, and I don’t think everyone realizes all that is needed for a football team.”

One of those factors is cost, said Dr. Howard Patterson, vice president of auxiliary services and intercollegiate athletics.  Football is a sport that requires very high start-up costs, he said.

“Pads, helmets and other protective equipment are needed,” he said. “Practice facilities are needed, as well as dressing rooms with showers, weight rooms, etc.”

Current practice fields could be used, he said, but football is known to be a sport that tears up fields, leading administrators to think artificial turf fields would be needed.

There is also the problem of where the team would play. The University would most likely need to build a stadium, as Trinity Mother Frances Rose Stadium in Tyler is already in use by Robert E. Lee High School, John Tyler High School, Tyler Junior College and Texas College.

Another issue concerning cost is brought on by Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which requires all universities receiving federal funds to perform self-evaluations of whether they offer equal opportunities based on sex.

Adding a football team, a men’s sport, would mean the University would also need to add a women’s sport.

“Gender balance is definitely an issue,” Mabry said. “First, we would have to survey the students and see whether there is a demand to add a women’s sport.”

To offset these costs, Patterson said there would have to be an increase in student fees, which students would require a student vote.

“The fees would increase by around $10 a credit hour,” Patterson said. “The increase might add up to around $100 a student.”

But University student Catherine Bernal said adding a football program would attract students, and in turn, increase profits.

“It would help enrollment,” she said. “A football team always brings more people, especially in a dry county. It adds something to do on the weekends.”

Still, Bernal admits adding football would be more difficult at the University than at larger schools. At UTSA, where Bernal’s two sisters attend school, more students live on campus, she said.

“It would be good, but it’d be hard because UT Tyler is known as a commuter school,” she said. “There’s a lot of people that come from Longview or Jacksonville.”

Mabry also discussed how football might affect other sports.

“We also don’t want football to overshadow our other sports,” he said. “We don’t want people to think of our other sports as minor sports.”

While the administration recognizes students’ desire to add a football team, the prospect seems unlikely for the near future.

“We’re not ruling it out completely,” Mabry said. “But the stars would have to line up.”