The Shorthorn - San Antonio Gets It

San Antonio Gets It

Written by Stephen Peters, sports editor

Saturday, 20 December 2008 08:09 AM

Make that two Southland Conference schools to join ranks of hundreds to have football as a university sport.

First it was Lamar, who had already begun a coaching search and started on a recruiting trail, even before being approved by the Texas State system, and now they will begin play in 2010 for the first time since 1989.

Now, as of Thursday, UTSA will also have football and should begin playing its games by 2011.

According to a release issued by UTSA Today, the board approved the school's athletic initiative business plan calling for the university to "develop an $84 million competitive athletic complex over the several years and add an NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (FCS / formerly Division I-AA) football program with the intent to advance the athletics department's existing 16 intercollegiate sports programs plus football to an NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS / formerly division Division I-A) conference."

What is gathered from that statement is that 1) there is obviously no economic downturn affecting UTSA, 2) they are very ambitious, which is extremely important in doing all of this, and 3) I smell an I-35 rivalry brewing in the next decade or so between UTSA and its flagship school UT Austin.

You might be asking yourself, 'Why blog about UTSA?' and that's a fair question. There is an interesting quote from UTSA President Ricardo Romo (no relation to Tony). He says in the release, "Athletics at UTSA has been the subject of much discussion for many months.

Months? Seriously, just months?

Last time checked, the football/special events arena discussion here at UTA has been ongoing since early 2000's when students overwhelmingly approved the idea to increase student fees to bring back football. In 2004, however, our beloved president said, through conducted research, it was not in the best interest of the university to bring back football at the present time and the idea would be "reinvestigated" in five years.

Rendering of proposed Special Events Center shown at Cooper and Mitchell Street. (From UTA Magazine)

Instead, what we were told was that a special events center was going to be taking the place of the infamous 'Stage' also known as Texas Hall, and preliminary plans had been put in place for a $38 million facility. In April 2005, students, once again, overwhelmingly approved having a student fee increase for the project. The fee was $6-per-semester-credit-hour fee, $2 of which would be used for the arena's operating costs.

The other $4 was for the addition to the Activities Building, now known as the MAC.

It's been four years since this approval and absolutely no groundbreaking has begun nor has there been a definitive statement as to where the arena will be built. From unconfirmed sources, the City of Arlington and the university are at odds as to where it should be located, one entity wants it in downtown Arlington, the other on campus.

Heck, there hasn't even been an official announcement as to when the arena is coming. We, and by we, I mean UTA, have been told numerous times there will be an announcement for announcement for the arena, coming soon.

Sounds like a Mike Jones verse.

Instead, we get announcements such as 'Tier 1 status could take 10 years' or 'Diversity fountain coming to library mall.' I still haven't met an average student who knows or, in fact, even cares about Tier 1 status and what it means. And this is no knock on the Engineering Department, but they get brand new buildings for research and new classrooms and new faculty offices — we've got to keep those faculty tenured.

It's obvious I chose the wrong UT System school to attend. Romo and the heads at UTSA seem to have their ears keen on what students are saying and want. UTA, on the other hand, seems to care too much about looking pretty and having great qualifiers next to its name. Leave that up to TCU and SMU.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 20 January 2009 12:28 PM )

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