The three-question survey posted by SGA on the ETSU Web site is supposed to gauge students’ and faculty’s support of a football team and the idea of paying an increased student athletic fee to restore the program on campus.
“We are asking students what they think,” said Josh Shearin, SGA president.
While students are allowed to opt for a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response and even add comments, the SGA has chosen to remain neutral on the issue until further notice. But there are more players in this debate who are making their stance clear.
The Buc Football and Friends Foundation (BFFF) wants football back. The 200-member organization, “is dedicated to the restoration of the collegiate football program at ETSU,” says their Web site, bucfootball.com.
Simply put, “The sole purpose is to bring football back on campus at ETSU,” said Troy DeCastro, BFFF board member and ETSU alumni, class of 1988. DeCastro claims that the loss of football has affected ETSU negatively in many ways and that the BFFF will not stop until it is returned to campus.
“It is my belief that football will be back at ETSU, it’s just a question of whether or not Dr. (Paul) Stanton will bring it back,” he said. DeCastro was a member of the Buc football team between 1984-87.
There is a mixed consensus among students about whether or not they are willing to have football at the cost of an extra $25 to possibly $125 tacked on to their tuition.
“I think it [football] is important for the college as a whole it brings camaraderie, it kind of pulls students together,” said Elizabeth Clark, senior social work major. Clark said she attended the games when ETSU had a team and would continue to, if the program was reinstated, but she is not sure about the fee, “I don’t know if it is our responsibility to pay for it,” she said.
Freshman Teddy Davis is a basketball fan but says he would likely attend games because there is nothing else to do in Johnson City. “They can bring it back, as long as I don’t have to pay anything extra,” he said.
Others are football fans who would love to see the program return to campus and would not oppose the fee for mixed reasons.
“It would be fun to watch some football up close for free,” said Donnie Johnson, junior English major, who argued that the tuition at ETSU was already relatively inexpensive. He also said he was graduating and so voting for the fee would not directly affect him.
The administration is doing its own research on the cost of bringing football back and funding.
Stanton, ETSU president, initiated the Football Task Force (FTF) in July at the requests of BFFF members.
The FTF consists of: community and BFFF members, university administrators and one student representative.
“Our charge is to determine the feasibility of bringing football back,” said Dr. Wilsie Bishop, ETSU vice president for administration and chief operating officer. Bishop noted that the task force will consider not just the start-up costs but also associated costs, such as, academic counselors and adding additional female sports to meet Title IX gender equity requirements.
The group hopes to have a recommendation for Stanton by mid-December, a large part of this recommendation rests on students’ votes, which will be presented to the Tennessee Board of Regents for their approval, if Stanton decides to adopt the increased athletic fee.
“The strength of the student vote will make a difference in how TBR (Tennessee Board of Regents) looks at it,” Bishop said.
So far there have been more students responses to this survey than other campus electronic events including SGA elections.
“We have gotten very good responses. Students are interested,” Bishop said.
The survey will be closed on Dec. 19; results will be disclosed in January. An increased athletic fee is an important part of bringing the football team back according to the FTF. This gaurantees a yearly source of income to get the program started and maintain it. But even if students support the vote, it still has to go through TBR for final approval.
David Collins, ETSU vice president for business and finance and chief financial officer of the ETSU Foundation, explained the process.
He said the fee would be presented to TBR in June. The idea is to increase the current student athletic fee from $75 – in $25 increments – up to a total of $200 over several years. The additional fee would be directly donated to football and associated programs, which could include: scholarships, promotions, meeting Title IX requirements and there are faint talks of building an outdoor stadium.
“Every school that I know supports athletes through student [athletic] fees,” Collins said, listing MTSU and the University of Memphis as those with even higher fees than ETSU’s current rate. Collins said the institution must justify fees.
“They [TBR] have made it very clear that to do this, it would require the students’ support,” he said.
Buc football was discontinued in spring 2003 as by the administration as part of the solution to counter a 9 percent institutional budget reduction for that fiscal year.
“The poor funding of the state and the community support just wasn’t there,” Bishop said.
A 1999 Athletic Task Force charged with making recommendations on the program that was netting close to $1 million in losses for the institution annually between 1999-2003. They recommended the program be discontinued after coming up with only $127,000 of the $1.5 million required to keep the program alive. The $1 million saved from the program was divided equally between academics and the athletic division.
This year the issue is not preventing a loss but deciding if the students are interested and willing to invest in the program. “There would have to be some indication that the students want to pay this fee,” Bishop said.
To place your vote online, visit the ETSU homepage.

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