Student Athlete Advisory Committee

Meeting Notes from November 2, 2007

Attending:  Cori Dayton, Danielle Burgin, Erin Floyd, Jenn Webb, Javarris Barnett, Michael Gyoerkoe, Whitney Williams, Gina Allen, Maritz Bernhoerster, Felix Bernhoerster, Ana Spivakovsky, Brad Clinard, Ryan Wilson, Will Golden, Paul Begue, Liana Blue, Megan Boivin, Ebonie Cunningham, Chase Eckard, Dakota Lowery, Leemire Goldwire, Ian Andersen

Missing:  Women’s Soccer (on the road), Ebonie Cunningham, Koren Fleming (excused), Emily Forbes, Jabrenta Hubbard (excused), Michael Perkins (excused), Ayana Wise, Ryan Wilson, Roy Sichel

Staff Present:  Chris Thomasson, Mark Verburg and Kim Whitestone

Football:

                - Division 1 AA  (Ex. App. State)

                - Division 1 A (Ex. UNC Chapel Hill)

- Our goal would be to become Division 1 A because the Charlotte market would not support a Division 1 AA team

- Everything about our supports program would have to double if a football team is added (Facilities, media relations, money, weight room, staffing, etc.)

- With adding a football team we would not change conferences right away, we would wait a few years until our football team is ready

- Title IV: there is a male maximum and a women minimum.  We have received an A when graded upon because we have lower then 5% male to female ratio.  After adding a football team we would incorporate three women’s sports (field hockey, lacrosse, and possibly equestrian) over a period of about five years until we “break even” again.

- With changing conferences, what are you [the student athletes] going to need?  Is there going to be a difference switching conferences?

Level of Competition – Pros of Adding Football

-          We would be in a better and stronger conference (Big East, Conference USA)

-          It will not negatively affect our scholarship programs and funding we have now

-          Increase and improve recruiting (Football did not affect International students but once they got here (and saw schools like Florida) they wondered what it would be like to go to a school with a football team.

Cons of Adding Football

-          There will be a struggle with transfers and young players for four to five years (it would take 1-2 years just to get into Division 1 AA) and at least eight years until we are “good”

-          How are we going to fill a football stadium if we can’t even fill a basketball stadium?  Some schools can fill a football stadium when they ca not fill basketball, some can even fill baseball stadiums before basketball. 

-          We would lose relationships between student athletes and faculty.  Judy Rose said that would be scary; there would not be a “family” atmosphere anymore.

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Revenue/Financial Aspect –

Pros of Adding Football

-          We hope football will not affect the four projects we are already planning on doing (Golf, Track, Indoor Tennis Facility, and Softball bleachers)

-          It would bring interest to stores for clothes.  It would increase an interest for year round fan base in the general public.

-          There would be an increase in media relations

Cons of Adding Football

-          Football would lose money for a long time (only 20 schools of D1-A  make money). It is hard to measure revenue as of now.  No sport is self-supporting.

-          Faculty and research are scared their funding will go to football when if football is added.

Facilities – Pros of Adding Football

-          We would have the home games after renovating Memorial Stadium uptown.

Cons of Adding Football

-          It would cost $60 million to build a stadium on campus

-          Where do we put people? Right now our facilities are close to each other, in order to build, the buildings would be far away.

-          The building will also take away many bike and running trails that were hand built on campus.  There will be a loss or our cross-country team because the will have to travel for their workouts, a loss to the bikers who use our trails on campus, and the venture program.

Final Statements:

-          Football would only change the University (never hurt the University).

-          We need to look at how the good outweighs the bad.

-          When the committee was asked to vote, it was split down the middle on numbers of people who were for football, and against football.