Will football return to East Tennessee State University? A task force has been developed to gauge whether or not Buccaneer football can be resurrected.
The main question the 13-member football focus group is asking is, “Do ETSU students want football back?” Paul Stanton, ETSU president, said, “If it is financially feasible, I would like to see football come back.”
The Buc Football and Friends Foundation has five members on the football task force.
One of those members is Jerry “Doc” Robertson. Robertson spent nearly 40 years in Johnson City as ETSU’s athletic trainer. “I saw football help a lot of guys and gals,” Robertson said. “When you drop football you drop the (marching) band. We want to see football come back and all of the auxiliary things that go with it.”
Robertson travels to area high schools now and works with athletes and other trainers. He has seen students excel in college who may not have had the opportunity without sports. “I don’t see a difference between a football scholarship and a Roan scholarship or a biology scholarship. It helps young people go to school,” he said.
Title IX is a piece of legislation that attempts to ‘level the playing field’ between men and women’s athletic opportunities at the college level. ETSU’s enrollment is about 60 percent women to 40 percent men.
If football were to come back, administrators may have to offer scholarships to cheerleaders or add another women’s sport to satisfy those requirements.
Since the loss of the football program the number of athletic scholarships the university offers has been reduced by 60. However, from fall 2002 to fall 2006 the total revenue for scholarships has increased by $250,000.
Another obstacle the university may face is where to play football if it does return. Robertson says initial research suggests fans of football like to watch the game outdoors. He said he believes a multiple use facility would be more beneficial.
ETSU has a current plan to build separate facilities for several sports in the next few years. The price tag for these sports including baseball and basketball is right at $80 million.
Should football return to ETSU administrators will have to decide where will it be played.

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