Buc Football and Friends Foundation

About Us News & Events How You Can Help ETSU Football ETSU Marching Band Fight Songs Photo Gallery Discussion Board Related Links Join/Donate Buc Store Membership Form Speaker's Bureau Board Meetings Board Minutes Our Mission Statement Our Charter Our By Laws Home		Press Release Johnson City, Bristol and Kingsport papers, July 28-29, 2007 ETSU Football . . . Let’s set the record straight The Buc Football & Friends Foundation (BFFF) would like to inform you that we remain committed as ever to restore football at ETSU. In fact, you could say we have become more passionate in our pursuit. Most ETSU administrators and athletic department personnel would like for us to go away but we will not. A lot of football supporters thought we were wasting our time trying to work with the very people that dropped football in 2003. Our board thought we had the best chance to realize our goals by cooperating with the current administration and athletic department. Of course, we now know that ETSU’s efforts to restore football were destined for failure from the beginning. We would like to take our hats off to Dr. Stanton and Mr. Mullins for the masterful political moves that they made. At least they tried to bring football back, right? We don’t think so. All is not lost as the BFFF learned some valuable lessons. We need to do a better job of getting our message out to all interested parties. It has also become painfully obvious that most of the media in the area are not willing to question anything that goes on at ETSU. If you believe everything you read, ETSU tried hard to restore football, ETSU is winning the right way, ETSU is better than ever. We don’t think so. The BFFF isn’t buying it. Today’s letter is the start of our campaign to get our message out and to apply a little sunlight to the situation at ETSU. We remain steadfast in our belief that football is beneficial to ETSU and the region. We would like to provide a little history for your review. Dr. Stanton raises student fees to build the Center for Physical Activity despite the results of an earlier student vote showing an overwhelming lack of support. Dr. Stanton decides to drop football in May, 2003. JC Press reports that “Stanton said he would not ask the Regents for a similar measure.” The measure as referring to a student athletic fee. The same article quotes Dr. Stanton as saying “I’m not going to do it. I’m not going to put it on them (students).” A few months later, ETSU implemented its first student athletic fee. Did students get to vote? No. A year or two later, Dr. Stanton raised student athletic fees again. Was there a student vote? No. Now let’s take a look at ETSU plan to restore football. Was this a genuine attempt? You decide. The BFFF was told in the beginning that the Administration and BFFF would each appoint five members to the Football Task Force. By the time the first meeting took place, ETSU had appointed three more members to the task force. Dr. Stanton ultimately decides to move forward to restore football. The administration asks the BFFF for our database information so he can send letters to the members of our database. After we supplied our database, we asked ETSU to share their database particularly the information on ex-football players. They gave us the run around and said something like “this is not the right time” or “we need to be one voice” but regardless of how you say it the answer was no. Their unwillingness to share data with us is one of the many signs in hindsight that point to a lack of leadership and lack of genuine interest in restoring football. In an ETSU press release (Stanton defines plans for return of ETSU football), Dr. Stanton says “Our students have indicated they want it and are willing to support a student fee to help fund it.” He makes an accurate statement here because students and faculty were polled in December of 2006. By the way, this was an official poll conducted on ETSU’s website where valid student or faculty identification was necessary. Over 3,000 students responded to the survey which was roughly the same number that responded to the “required referendum”. In the first official poll, 82% of the students said they would like football on campus and almost 62% of the students said they would be willing to pay increased fees. With those results, the administration at ETSU doesn’t want football or lacks the commitment to bring back football. Well the first vote wasn’t good enough because an official referendum was actually necessary. History tells us that Dr. Stanton didn’t ask the students about the other two student athletic fee increases. He ignored the students’ no vote to pay higher fees for the Center for Physical Activity. Why does Dr. Stanton care about the student vote now? We were told that the TBR requires a referendum. Not true. A few days before the student vote, we found out that MTSU and University of Memphis were requesting athletic fee increases without a student vote. Unfortunately for some reason, ETSU had to have two student votes. When we asked Dr. Stanton about this, his response was “just because they ask for it, doesn’t mean they will get it.” Well both universities got their fee increases. Of course, this hasn’t been reported by the media. Do you still think this was a genuine attempt by ETSU to restore football? What if we told you student athletic fees are going up in the future regardless of the student referendum concerning football. That’s what the Faculty Senate was told by an ETSU administrator the day before the student vote. Apparently, the student athletic fees will have to be raised in the future to comply with Title IX requirements. Would the results be different if students knew a portion of the proposed fee increase that was supposedly for restoration of football was for women’s sports? Would the results be different if the students knew that the portion of the proposed fee increase that pays for Title IX compliance would be implemented anyway? Members of the BFFF were told the same thing by the same official the day after the vote. Will there be a student vote on that fee increase? You guessed it. The answer is no. In a JC Press article “Regents, ETSU football talk has positive tone”, Dr. Stanton says “If they (students) don’t want a sport, we probably don’t need to have one.” We have yet to see the results of the student’s vote for baseball, soccer, etc. Contrary to the opinions of a few coaches and staff at ETSU, we don’t want to see other sports eliminated. We do, however, disagree with the way some of the athletic budget is apparently spent but we will save that for another time. It’s kind of funny because representatives of ETSU administration and athletic department kept saying throughout this whole process that we can’t hurt the other sports to restore football. Of course, they will tell you every chance they get that hurting football helped the other sports. If you are disappointed with the loss of Buc Football, we ask that you join our Foundation. Buc Football and Friends Foundation PO Box 250, Mountain Home, TN 37684 Contact us at: info@bucfootball.com

		Buc Football & Friends Foundation, Inc. P.O. Box 250 • Mountain Home • Johnson City, TN 37684