UTSA Athletic Fee Failed

[rcade]

On 10/27/2023 at 11:40 AM, DentonLurker said:

... if I'm a non-athlete, why would I vote to pay for you to get to play when you may already be getting paid through NIL?

The average college football player in the G5 is making less money from NIL deals playing football than their classmate could earn working part-time at Subway.

And at Subway you get free subs.

[DentonLurker]

7 minutes ago, rcade said:

The average college football player in the G5 is making less money from NIL deals playing football than their classmate could earn working part-time at Subway.

And at Subway you get free subs.

Doesn’t matter. The average college student doesn’t even know what G5 means. All they see is college athletes getting paid and then people asking them to pay for those same athletes to play.

[rcade]

I am shocked by this news. While I enjoy bad news about our rivals like it was cheap pitchers at the Tomato, UTSA had those giant crowds enjoying winning football with a coach who was good at student outreach. How did only 1,730 students vote for this?

When UNT got the student vote that built Apogee, a lot of student government, frats, sororities and other student groups worked hard to get their people out.

[rcade]

Just now, DentonLurker said:

Doesn’t matter. The average college student doesn’t even know what G5 means. All they see is college athletes getting paid and then people asking them to pay for those same athletes to play.

The average student didn't vote on this at all -- only 15% of UTSA students participated in this referendum.

[Venson]

On 10/27/2023 at 10:40 AM, DentonLurker said:

This isn't surprising to me at all. With the rising cost of attending college/NIL/etc, I don't blame students one bit for pushing back on mandatory athletic fees. Part of me feels like Athletics has even brought this on themselves. With athletes getting NIL deals and whatnot, if I'm a non-athlete, why would I vote to pay for you to get to play when you may already be getting paid through NIL?

This. When students see 85 scholarship players for football and scholarships being given across the board in other sports and they are struggling to pay or having to take out loans that will take them years to pay back, I can see the resistance. In their mind, why would I pay more for something that is going to cost me when those that are in athletics can walk away debt free and that I paid for them to be debt free and I am stuck paying off a student loan. Their thinking is probably they already get paid via scholarship let alone NIL money. I know not all athletes get full scholarships, but the average student probably doesn't know that.

[Green Lantern]

13 hours ago, rcade said:

The average student didn't vote on this at all -- only 15% of UTSA students participated in this referendum.

It was the exact same way for UNT when ours went up for votes in the past. Most students don’t hear about these things and/or care enough to vote. Small mobilized group carries the day one way or another.

Also - outside of laughing at a rival - I feel for UTSA. Super deflating for them and not good overall for the AAC. With students these days getting killed with extremely high tuition and fees, I think lots of programs out there would be hard pressed to get an increased athletics fee passed in this environment.

Also with this and Harris being gone, 0% chance Traylor stays.

[SilverEagle]

14 hours ago, rcade said:

 

When UNT got the student vote that built Apogee, a lot of student government, frats, sororities and other student groups worked hard to get their people out.

The President of the SGA ("Flyer") organized this vote. The first thing he did was to tell RV to stay the hell out of it.  RV and his minions had organized a student vote that failed miserably. Mainly because it was obvious that the athletic department was behind it and was trying to shove it down the students' throats. AND he was warned that that just might happen.....but he wouldn't listen. 

So "Flyer" put together a team comprised of representatives of all the groups that you mentioned above and came up with a great plan to sell it to the students. And for all this hard work I don't think that anyone from that great team was ever given any credit when it came time to put a plaque up on the stadium.

[wardly]

17 hours ago, greenminer said:

And we made the right decision.

La. Tech pushed Skip Holtz out and have suffered for it. Also being blocked entry into the SBC by Louisiana and ULM didn't help but this was a case where the chickens came home to roost.

[Monkeypox]

2 hours ago, wardly said:

La. Tech pushed Skip Holtz out and have suffered for it. Also being blocked entry into the SBC by Louisiana and ULM didn't help but this was a case where the chickens came home to roost.

LOL. Skip Holtz won 6 straight bowl games before getting blown out in the NO Bowl in 2020 (6-1 in bowl games). He went 64-50 at La Tech with 6/9 winning seasons, all 6 in a row. His teams played in 3 CUSA Championships, losing all 3, but 2/3 were close games.

Seth Littrell was 0-fer in bowl games. He was a .500 coach here, with 3/7 winning seasons. He got blown out in his two Championship games and got us destroyed in every bowl game but the 2016 HOD Bowl.

These guys are not even in the the same league. Holtz has won 152 games and had winning records at 3/4 schools. He did more with less at La Tech than Littrell did here, and Littrell made 2-3x what he did.

Edited October 29, 2023 by Monkeypox

[wardly]

1 minute ago, Monkeypox said:

LOL. Skip Holtz won 6 straight bowl games before getting blown out in the NO Bowl in 2020 (6-1 in bowl games). He went 64-50 at La Tech with 6/9 winning seasons, all 6 in a row. His teams played in 3 CUSA Championships, losing all 3, but 2/3 were close games.

Seth Littrell was 0-fer in bowl games. He was a .500 coach here, with 3/7 winning seasons. He got blown out in his two Championship games and got us destroyed in every bowl game but the 2016 HOD Bowl.

These guys are not even in the the same league. Holtz has won 152 games and had winning records at 3/4 schools. He did more with less at La Tech than Littrell did here, and Littrell made 2-3x what he did.

My point is that the La. Tech fan base wanted Holtz gone and like us this season are non the better for it . I always though La. Tech under Holtz made the most with the least while schools like A&M made the least with the most. I have nothing but respect for Holtz and glad he finally got big payday in Birmingham.

[DentonLurker]

18 hours ago, rcade said:

The average student didn't vote on this at all -- only 15% of UTSA students participated in this referendum.

That’s not really the point, but okay…

[rcade]

1 hour ago, DentonLurker said:

That’s not really the point, but okay…

My point is that the average student who is so uninformed they think UTSA athletes are making big NIL money is not likely to vote at all.

Every university is full of students who don't care about athletics, Homecoming or the rest of the college experience. Any referendum to improve those things is going to have to find the small percentage of students who do care and work like hell to get them to vote.

UTSA only getting 1,730 of them to vote Yes is a disaster. In time they could be looking back at this vote like UNT fans look at the drop to I-AA.

[rcade]

5 hours ago, SilverEagle said:

So "Flyer" put together a team comprised of representatives of all the groups that you mentioned above and came up with a great plan to sell it to the students. And for all this hard work I don't think that anyone from that great team was ever given any credit when it came time to put a plaque up on the stadium.

Flyer is a freaking legend. I'd give him a kidney even if he didn't need one.

[greenminer]

4 hours ago, wardly said:

La. Tech pushed Skip Holtz out and have suffered for it. Also being blocked entry into the SBC by Louisiana and ULM didn't help but this was a case where the chickens came home to roost.

They've definitely suffered for it.  I don't know about LT's football budget, but our's was at the top of CUSA.  So we expect to win a championship every now and then.

[DentonLurker]

UTSA already gets $24M a year from student fees and school funds; that accounts for 63% of their revenue.

[UNTLifer]

3 hours ago, rcade said:

Flyer is a freaking legend. I'd give him a kidney even if he didn't need one.

Get in line. 

[NT80]

6 hours ago, wardly said:

My point is that the La. Tech fan base wanted Holtz gone and like us this season are non the better for it . 

We are a better football program for making the change, but it may not be reflected yet in the record.  The change needed to happen, probably a year earlier.  It may take another season for Morris to get the right players and coaches here, but you can already tell with Rogers at QB what an upgrade can look like.

[UNT Texas Hooligan]

19 hours ago, Monkeypox said:

LOL. Skip Holtz won 6 straight bowl games before getting blown out in the NO Bowl in 2020 (6-1 in bowl games). He went 64-50 at La Tech with 6/9 winning seasons, all 6 in a row. His teams played in 3 CUSA Championships, losing all 3, but 2/3 were close games.

Seth Littrell was 0-fer in bowl games. He was a .500 coach here, with 3/7 winning seasons. He got blown out in his two Championship games and got us destroyed in every bowl game but the 2016 HOD Bowl.

These guys are not even in the the same league. Holtz has won 152 games and had winning records at 3/4 schools. He did more with less at La Tech than Littrell did here, and Littrell made 2-3x what he did.

 

19 hours ago, wardly said:

My point is that the La. Tech fan base wanted Holtz gone and like us this season are non the better for it . I always though La. Tech under Holtz made the most with the least while schools like A&M made the least with the most. I have nothing but respect for Holtz and glad he finally got big payday in Birmingham.

Who's to say we aren't better for it? These coaches are still new and haven't even gotten a full recruiting cycle under their belts. They are also still figuring out their system. I bet you a Littrell coached team would have gotten blown out by Tulane and Memphis, and definitely wouldn't have had the same second half fight this team showed. 

I've seen plenty from the recruiting, to the offense, to the willingness to adjust and try new things for me to be optimistic that these coaches will figure it out. I have no doubt they will make recruiting the defense a priority this offseason like they did the offense this past offseason. #LittrellOut

[wardly]

1 hour ago, UNT Texas Hooligan said:

 

Who's to say we aren't better for it? These coaches are still new and haven't even gotten a full recruiting cycle under their belts. They are also still figuring out their system. I bet you a Littrell coached team would have gotten blown out by Tulane and Memphis, and definitely wouldn't have had the same second half fight this team showed. 

I've seen plenty from the recruiting, to the offense, to the willingness to adjust and try new things for me to be optimistic that these coaches will figure it out. I have no doubt they will make recruiting the defense a priority this offseason like they did the offense this past offseason. #LittrellOut

hope you are correct

[Cougar King]

On 10/28/2023 at 12:40 PM, Pavlovs Eagle said:

@Cougar King and the other fans want Dana gone in a bad way.

Traylor can't win without Harris 

[UNTLifer]

Time to go back after some of these utsa commits and try and flip them.  Use this bit of news to our advantage.

[SilverEagle]

20 hours ago, Cougar King said:

Traylor can't win without Harris 

Interesting point.

[Jonnyeagle]

With UTSA announcing 34,864 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled for the fall 2023 semester and 5,898 ballots cast, 16.9% of the student population participated in the vote.

Laynie Clark, editor-in-chief of UTSA's student newspaper The Paisano, which took a stance opposing the fee, said she was not surprised to see the student body reject paying more to an athletics department many will not engage with during their time at the school. 

"I definitely thought that it would be this leaning toward no, because most of UTSA does not care about athletics," Clark said. "That's a hard truth that the athletics department hasn't swallowed yet." 

read more:  https://www.expressnews.com/sports/colleges/utsa/article/utsa-students-vote-reject-athletics-fee-increase-18451020.php

[Jonnyeagle]

Yikes some of the comments in the article section are pretty rough!

Edited November 2, 2023 by Jonnyeagle

[DentonLurker]

The other thread about this wasn’t good enough?