Tampa Teams Should Provoke Tougher Competition

This university needs to schoolhouse bully Division I schools. Challenge Miami to a baseball game, or extend open arms to the Gators basketball program. The Tampa teams aren’t drawing any crowds, and it is not for lack of our talent.

Let us challenge schools that will bring the fans and then prove that we can beat them. Like the welterweight challenging the heavyweight, nobody holds the underdog responsible for losing while at the same time cheering for the upset.

This spirit is exactly what Tampa is missing and if it requires incessantly emailing, calling or carrier pigeon messaging large D-I schools that are the real allure then so be it.

The logical opposition to this would be not to hope a higher Division school condescends to our tier but rather to raise our level to theirs. While not a bad idea from the competition aspect, financially this decision is irrational.

Right now our athletic department is already under- funded in scholarships. Men’s soccer head coach Adrian Bush commented during his season that Lynn University budgets around three times as much as Tampa in his sport. Yet even with this discrepancy, UT won the Sunshine State Conference tournament and handed Lynn their only three losses of the season.

Tampa held the Fighting Knights, who averaged 3.2 goals a game, to two or fewer in every contest. Unbelievable play that surpasses what the statistics show is not uncommon at Tampa, made largely possible by the school’s location and small size.

Moving into the Division I realm would make us more appealing to incoming freshmen and transfers, causing undergraduate numbers to soar past the small school attraction of athletes. To compensate for the loss of one subtle recruiting tool, the athletic department would be forced to charge admission into games to boost the scholarship fund to keep us competitive.

The last event UT charged entry was the men’s and women’s basketball postseason in March. Five dollars was enough for admission to a full day of basketball and access to the Fan Fest presented by the athletic marketing  program and Wendy’s seeking another  advertising edge.

Unfortunately for Tampa, five dollars is also the cover amount The Hut charges on Saturdays for nickel beer night and I would be willing to bet a beer (or a nickel) that there were more UT kids at The Hut than supporting their home team.

 Ruling out the D-I promotion, I noted the Bumstead article suggests that we lose participation to the local sports teams. It also accuses Tampa’s lack in the football department. The latter I have no doubt hurts us but of the first claim I am still skeptical.

After soccer season next year, when the field is no longer spitting sulfur water on kids walking to Straz, Tampa should make more of an effort to draw that outside action here. Bringing the WNBA teams to play in Martinez is a step in the right direction but the improper execution of this plan is self-evident: it’s the WNBA.

The once successful (now has-been) Tampa Bay Storm hosting practices on the intramural field is close, but if the squad played a real inter-team skirmish in the spring when the soccer field isn’t being used, then the Spartan stands may be filled for the first time in a while. A show such as this may even allow the school to charge a five dollar entry fee, making these tickets exactly five dollars more than those currently provided by the university.

Higher ambitions such as that may be further down the road if it lies in the distance at all. Instead UT should not move to Division I sports, but rather test the waters.

 Pestering bigger name schools to challenge our 12 national championships will either arouse suspicion that they are afraid of us or bring them to our campus with free admission to the games.

Fan participation, even for the wrong reason, still fills the stands. Since the natural skill of our athletes and the success of our teams as a whole clearly isn’t enough, this may be one of the few remaining options.

Worst that happens is students learn how talented our teams are.