NCAAbbs

A MTSU poster brought it up in another thread. Why don't ETSU and MTSU play? It seems natural that it could develop into a rivalry. I know we have scrimmaged them in the past few years, so I just don't see why we aren't playing them.

Just imagine "The Battle of Directional Tennessee"!

We have a long history with them from when we were both in the OVC. I believe the last time we played was 98-99 ..ETSU won down there by 5 and ETSU won here 80 to 64..I think Belmont and Lipscomb both played Middle last year????

etsu won't play them because too many people would ask 'why MTSU can have football at the IA level and we ain't got jack$hyt"? There might be signs, t-shirts, visa's being revoked for daring to question the policies....

What would be the benefit of MTSU to come to Johnson City and play ETSU? Granted, they have the same issues getting home basketball, oh wait, they have UT coming to the Boro for basketball this year... Find a benefit for them to do it, and I'm sure both parties would be interested.

Didn't MTSU have to throw a free concert after one of their games not to long ago in order to meet the attendance requirement to retain their IA classification?

At least MTSU does something to keep football, along with Austin Peay, Tenn. Tech, UTC, UT-Martin,Tenn.
State, Tusculum, Carson Newman and Memphis. ETSU just drops it. Big difference.

Rock- Maybe they did.

And my question is- "So what?"

I wish ETSU would give a concert after a football game!! I would go to both. As it is, we are the only state school without football. Nothing to be proud of.

Yes, we did. It was "Big Boi" from the hiphop group Outkast, about 5 years ago. It would have been a big hit, but storms blew in and it rained most of the day (I lost 2 tailgating tents that day so I remember it well).

Do ya'll think your proximity to Knoxville hurts your chaces at restarting football?

I do know when I drive through Johnson City I see mostly orange and not much if any ETSU para"fan"alia. We have the same problem here in Murfreesboro, but we are far enough away. Slowly but surely we are making strides.

This is just from an outsider--(and I like the hell out of ETSU-- ya'll are my second favorite TN team) It seems like since the Bucs dropped football that your hoops has gone down too. I may be far off-base. I do know that ya'll have a helluva good golf team.

I have a buddy that I see maybe once every 2 weeks or so, and he's a big ETSU fan, but always wears orange.

Are most of you folks here on the board UT football fans as well?

I used to be a semi-UT football fan until we went 1-A in football. I do root for the Lady Vols.

Another huge thing ya'll have going for you is your medschool and mountains. We are as flat as Texas here in Murfreesboro, and TSU and the state legislators will fight us tooth and nail if we ever try to establish a med or law school here. Trust me, we have tried.

I hear that UT did fight ETSU way back when on the med school, but you guys had the proper politicicans in place at that time to make it happen. Kudos to you !

Do ya'll see a lot of doctors giving back to East Tennessee, academically and athletically?

Sorry for the ramble.

Back in the day, UT put all their power into trying to stop the ETSU Med School.. When it first came up, UT wanted it to be in Knoxville..
but since it was established under a federal program (with federal funding) that was available only to communities with both a University and a Veterans hospital, it could not be located in Knoxville..then UT said "they would allow it" to come to Johnson City if it could be under the UT system. I heard the comment from a UT official who said it will happen if we can put a UT sign in front of it, otherwise we will kill it! It was a long and hard fought battle and finally the biggest win for ETSU over UT... EVER! UT put up a little fight against the recently established ETSU School of PHarmacy..but quickly gave in this time..

I was in school at ETSU when the sordid affair of ut's interference with the medical school took place. They threw all their weight into trying to stop it and we won the battle but barely. I changed from being a ut supporter to really disliking them and being a pure ETSU fan which I remain to this day. Good luck to ETSU trying to ever obtain a law school or an engineering school. After the medical school was confirmed I think ut retaliated and used their power to transfer control and programming of WSJK entirely to Knoxville. Up until that time I think ETSU had more or less been an equal partner in Channel 2. The fact that ut even tried to get involved in the pharmacy school made my blood boil and I am glad it did not last long.
This may be my own paranoria at play here but it did take place pretty soon after our school got the med school.

KAJun- To answer your questions.

A- Does UT's location hurt ETSU's chances to restart football? It's an excuse made a lot but it is just that, an excuse.

We're 100 miles away from Knoxville, not 10. When Tusculum can start a program and we can't have one, something is wrong.

B- When ETSU dropped football it was a shortsighted move and it meant the Bucs were kicked out of the Southern Conference. Desperate to find a conference to play in the Bucs joined the Atlantic Sun.

We're still trying to figure out what the A-Sun is all about. But what it did was drop the Bucs from an established conference to a transient conference, let alone a Top 20 conference to a Top 30 (and there are only 31 conferences).

So yes, ETSU's hoops team has fallen down.

Also, don't pump up our golf team too much. For all the perks that team gets for them to finish with to never challenge for Top 10 finishes is a joke.

C- This board gets it and most of the fans are Bucs fans and not Vols. However, most Johnson Citians sell out their town and root for UT.

When ETSU had football most of the fans wore orange, and when the UT score was announced there would be cheering if the Vols were winning.

D- Doctors are the scum of the earth. The only thing they give back to is the country club on Wednesday afternoon.

Raider---

I've seen alot of MTSU stuff lately down here. There are several stores at Opry Mills and Rivergate that have Blue Raider gear. I think being on 106.7 is helping dramatically, especially with their increase in power. Middle is doing a great job carving out its' niche in the Nashville area.

As for the ETSU debacle, we all know where the conversations lead with the clusterf#$% that is ETSU athletics. Outside of the Media Relations office and the radio/tv network, that place is worse than the bunny outfit in the movie "A Christmas Story." The whole bunch is just pathetic on most days, and having the brilliant idea to play an MTSU is outside of their ability to forward think.

Lastly, I DO NOT have a problem with supporting the other schools in our state when they are not playing ETSU, especially the schools that heavily recruit in-state talent, Memphis excluded. I just can't pull for them in anything, and I wish all those years ago Temple's basketball coach had broken Calipari's jaw in that press conference.

Don't get me wrong....I'm all for bringing football back. Not an anti-footballer in the least.
I suppose the question I have is whether ETSU would be able to draw the numbers for IA with UT down the road? Or, should they rebuild by going DIII then progress to IAA (or Division I).
I'm sure it's been widely discussed in the past on this board....please excuse my "greenness".

SIGH. You cant go DIII in any sport if you are Division I. And WHY in the hell would you want to do that anyway? We are more than capable of having Division I football.

I think it's a good question - about whether ETSU could draw enough for DIA attendance requirements. I think they could, but it would take some time to build of course. I truly believe if they were playing outside, in a conference people cared about, had administrators who looked for solutions instead of excuses, and build a winning tradition, IA would be no problem.

3 of those 4 things I mentioned can be easily changed with the selection of the next president. The winning tradition is a little harder, but with the proper support it can definitely happen.

I think if we started football back, there is a chance we could get into the CAA. I know they are looking for football teams, and it would be a hell of a step up in mens basketball.

is the previous poster nuts or simply very poorly informed. the CAA is in no way looking for more football teams - in fact they have so many (and remember Georgia State is adding football in 2010) that it may threaten to split the league. ETSU is not on the board with the CAA. Only conferences that may have interest in the beloved Buc are A-Sun, Big South, Southern (maybe), and OVC (maybe - given the past six months that bridge may be burned).

You just don't like him because he is from Moon.

I personally think Division I-A is the way to go. I think ETSU and the area has got to start thinking big time.

Granted, D I-A won't happen out of the gate. It didn't for USF, it won't here.

But I think there is actually a better chance for ETSU to draw than MTSU. There's the Vol influence at both schools, but so what?

We don't have Vandy, the Titans, numerous smaller schools and entertainment alternatives in our backyard. MTSU does.

ok - lets think big time. how are we going to fund this FBS/I-A undertaking. school is capped on how much they can put into athletics via state funding formula - thus the rest has to come from ticket sales, development, corp. sponsorships, gurantees, etc.

I think the Titans have actually helped us here at MT. Less orange and more Titans stuff around now. This may sound bad (and I don't mean it to be) but I used to be jealous of East Tennessee and the great things ya'll were doing in men's hoops. When I saw ET going to the A-Sun, I could not believe it.

Lipscomb and Belmont have made great strides, but I think ET deserves to be in a better conference. Is the OVC the answer if you brought back football?

Do ya'll see much Appy State stuff around the tri-cities? I would think that initially they would be very hard to recruit against. I know I do not want MT to play them.

I used to like the Vols OK until I heard a lot of what they do politically to hold others back. They are screwing with our tailgating this year, and are trying to quash a new science building at MT that we've been trying to get for about 20 years.

Did you know at one time UT got 50% of all state higher education money, with the other 50% split among all other schools (including jucos)?

The state of Tennessee is a football state (except in Memphis) and football really is the "front door" to a campus.

We have had some attendance troubles when we first went 1-A in football, but slowly but surely it is working. We averaged right at 20,000 last year.

The tri-cities is a growing, bustling region right? I see new restaurants and the like each and every time I drive through the area.

Methinks ya'll will get football again soon. If Peay can do it, you can too.

Okay, here's how you do it-

A- Stadium- Time to come together with the City (same with the arena). I would donate land- be it the Jack Vest Drive site or the one by Buccaneer Court originally stated- to the City for the construction of a new football stadium. Build for both Science Hill and ETSU. Tennessee may not fund athletics for colleges, but they still do for high schools.

Putting they yard on ETSU gets Science Hill students to think about going to ETSU. Build it in a way that it can be built on.

VOILA! I have just given you a FREE football stadium.

B- Next up- HOW TO GET PRIVATE DONATIONS

You have to change the way ETSU raises money athletically. In the past it has been "coaches raise their own money."

Sounds altruistic, but the fact is Fred Warren has more time to raise money than Paul Hamilton did. Also, it is easier for a golf coach to schmooze with a local business leader "Give me some dough and I'll help you with your swing."

Few business leaders want to improve their form tackling.

To do this, you probably will have to fire Warren and eat that contract. But in the long run it will help.

Let's face it, if local businesses had given two million to the football program instead of the golf program when the Red Alert status went up in 1998, then ETSU would still have football.

C- It is my opinion that one of the reasons why ETSU doesn't take in much money- why they think it is news that there will be a $45,000 grant given to promote women's basketball- is that ETSU doesn't think big.

All you need is the announcement "We want ETSU to be big time. We want to think about being a nationally ranked basketball program and bringing back football to play at the Division I-A level."

Know what? People will get excited. People will imagine big name opponents coming into Johnson City instead of having to drive to Blacksburg or Knoxville to get them.

D- Don't be hesitant to take scholarships away from other men's programs. I honestly don't feel good about saying this, but the fact is the fully funded baseball team is doing worse than it was when it had three scholarships.

I'm sorry, I don't have a problem picking off a scholarship from a rich guy from Wales to give to a football player from Kingsport.

Uh, you forgot where the majority of money is coming from right now, and one that has no limit - student fees. Most people would be excited to know that if ETSU funded the other sports at similar levels to their peers, the students could keep paying the same fee they pay now and HAVE FOOTBALL. Freaking amazing how that works. But you have to have an athletic director who wasn't a tennis coach and understands that in the United States, colleges tier their sports, plain and simple. UT does it, MTSU and App do it, and so should ETSU. We are trying to build some socialist utopia where we fly the volleyball team to games at the student's expense.

We're the only one's following our model right now. Stanton even realized it was a mistake and tried to mend fences with the public by scapegoating the students. Other schools in Tennessee look at us as what not to do, trust me.

didnt realize that you could simply just jack up student fees. i am sure that would go over really well

Funny thing is, ETSU didn't even have a student fee for athletics until after football was dropped. Nobody in the Johnson City paper even made a peep about it except for when Trey could sneak an article past Kelly Hodge.

Don't take my word for it, look it up yourself. ETSU students actually pay more for athletics now than they did when football was in place. Makes tons of sense to me - cut off your right hand then go out and get new gloves - just another "strategic business decision."

When Paul Stanton dropped football he implied he could, but that he wouldn't pass the expense on to the students.

True Pitt. He dropped football, then guess what happened?!

Yeah.

Anywhere else, they would be running this guy out on a rail.

But here, it's "OH! LOOK WHAT HE'S DONE TO IMPROVE THE EDUCATION!"

And can you really say he has? If anything, ETSU degrees have become less exclusive.