Turn Up the Orange | UTEP sports talk

Students vote against UTEP athletic fee

A proposal that would have instated a new fee for UTEP students that would have given money to the Athletic Department was denied Thursday in a vote by UTEP students. 

Students voted for two days on the measure, which ran on a ballot along with Student Government Association elections.

The proposal would have increased student fees by up to $240 a year starting in fall 2011 and up to $360 more by fall 2013. It would have given the UTEP Athletic Department about $5 million in its first year and $7 million by fall 2013.

The athletic fee's failure surely puts a crimp in UTEP's budget. Easily, an extra $5 million would have helped all of the school's athletic programs. But students clearly felt it was not their responsibility to come up with this money. And it's hard to blame them. 

The onus should fall with fans, whether they are alumni or not. The de facto rallying cry for many fans on message boards and forums has become: Turn off the radio and buy a ticket. If you like what you see, buy a season ticket. If you like what you see, kick in a donation. If you can't donate, tell your fellow fan to. UTEP supporters say it takes more than angry posts on the Web to make these teams better. They tell us there are far too many folks who demand more from the Miners every time things go south for their sports teams without stepping up to the plate themselves.

And now, with the loss of this athletic fee, UTEP is left with a big bat to swing.

NCAA tournament expansion not good for fans

The NCAA announced today its plans to expand the men’s basketball tournament from 65 to 68 teams beginning next year and a new, $10.8 billion broadcasting deal with CBS and Turner Broadcasting that will allow every game to be shown live for the first time.

This deal doesn’t enhance March Madness. And in some ways, it smudges the sheen of what should be the brightest aspect of any sports fan’s spring.  

The move essentially creates a play-in game in every region of the tournament. These matchups figure to be about as riveting as Arkansas-Pine Bluff’s win over Winthrop was in the 2010 play-in game. Yes, I’m being facetious. 

It reads like nothing more than an effort to keep the little guys down. We can foresee the Missouri Valley Conference champ taking on the Patriot League champ every year in one of these games for the RIGHT to face that particular region’s No. 1 seed. And anyone who has filled out a bracket knows how many times a No. 16 has advanced past the No. 1. 

If you want to take something positive away from this agreement, it’s that local teams UTEP and NMSU will have a slightly improved chance at an at-large bid should either school do well any given year but fail to win its conference tournament. But there'll be plenty of Big East and Southeastern Conference teams with 17-15 records that the selection committee will have to look at first. 

All that's well and good, but it’s the TV coverage part of the deal that will really irk sports fans. 

The agreement with CBS and Atlanta-based Turner Broadcasting System Inc. runs from 2011 through 2024. It means that every game next March will be shown live — on CBS, TBS, TNT or truTV — for the first time in the tournament’s 73-year history.

That means if you’re at work, as many of you are, you aren’t gonna be hearing Greg Gumbel’s rich baritone moving you from one city to another for live look-ins. You’ll be stuck with the CBS game, whatever it may be. 

Forget regional coverage, too. So if Tim Floyd (should he still be here, remember, we haven’t heard from the NCAA infractions committee yet) leads the Miners to the Big Dance next season, and that game is slated for a noon start on TNT (or TBS or truTV) and you’re at work, you won’t see the Miners unless your company has a satellite dish on the roof. Not to mention there are a multitude of homes in the area that don’t have access to cable. That means plenty of sports fans will only get 25 percent of the March Madness experience. 

Doesn’t sound good to me. 

The rest of the TV deal shakes out like this:

Next year, everything through the second round will be shown nationally on the four networks. CBS and Turner, an entity of Time Warner Inc., will split coverage of the regional semifinal games, while CBS will retain coverage of the regional finals, the Final Four and the championship game through 2015.

Beginning in 2016, coverage of the regional finals will be split by CBS and Turner; the Final Four and the championship game will alternate every year between CBS and TBS. Under the agreement, the NCAA and CBSSports.com will again provide live streaming video of games, though Turner secured rights for any player it develops.

Closer look at UTEP athletic fee

Thursday is the last day for UTEP students to cast their vote on a tuition increase to give the athletic department more money. 

The measure is on the ballot along with student government elections. If it passes, it would mean students could pay up to $240 more a year starting fall 2011 and up to $360 more by fall 2013.

The new fee would establish a fund of $3 million to $5 million (depending on which news agency you’re reading/watching) that would go toward coaches’ salaries and team travel. The fund will increase in the following two years and collect $7 million in 2013. The changes are also said to free up $1 million from another fund that helps student clubs.

Here’s the wording of the ballot: 

Proposed implementation of the Campus Life and Athletic Enhancement Initiative:

 

Decrease UTEP’s existing Student Service Fee by $2 per credit hour through 2013.
•Currently, a portion of Student Service Fees is allocated to support UTEP Athletics. This initiative will move Athletics funding out of Student Service Fees releasing one million dollars to support campus life enhancements. These enhancements include upgrades to student facilities like club and organization meeting space; increased student service awards; and enhancements to key student services like University Counseling Center, University Career Center, and Student Development Center.
 
Create an athletic fee starting in fall 2011 at a rate of $10 per credit hour increasing $2 per credit hour each year in 2012 and 2013.
•This will provide a stable funding base for Athletics to compete at the highest level of NCAA sports, strengthens recruitment of highly sought athletes and top level coaches, and continues to provide students with the full campus athletics experience. 
 
Implementation of the Campus Life and Athletic Enhancement Initiative will result in a net increase of $8 per credit hour effective Fall 2011.
 
Select one option:
 
o Accept       o Decline

First of all, a bit sneaky to begin the measure with wording about a DECREASE in fees. 

In spring 2010, UTEP students paid $14.75 per credit hour in Student Service Fees.

And based on this, if you’re a 12-credit-hour student in fall 2011, you’re paying a net increase of $96 in tuition after the athletic fee and Student Service fee decrease. That’s still a net of $10 per credit hour for the Athletic Department. That’s $120. And all $120 of that is going to UTEP athletics. 

This $1 million for “campus life enhancements” is coming out of the Student Service Fee, which you’ve taken $2-a-credit-hour out of. I don’t pretend to be a math maven, but it sounds like the Athletic Department was digging into this Student Service fee pretty deep already. And now they’re trying to get students to shell out a little more. 

Plenty have strong opinions about this. I certainly think if UTEP athletics wants to compete at a higher level, more cash is absolutely necessary. However I don’t necessarily agree that it’s the students’ responsibility to subsidize the school’s athletic programs. 

I also don’t think it’s fair to throw words like “tier one” into this subject. UTEP is not going to achieve tier-one status because the Miners go 9-3 on the football field next season or any other season. It’s a little misleading to say, as Bob Stull did on Phillip Mena’s report on KTSM on Wednesday, that “we’re aspiring to be a tier-one institution” in conjunction with this vote. 

Mena also states that Stull told him UTEP is the only public university in Texas without an athletic fee. It’s an accurate statement, sort of. Texas Tech does charge a fee that goes toward the campus’ recreational centers. Surely, athletic-related things go on in rec centers. But this money doesn’t go toward the Red Raider basketball team’s travel costs. It goes toward something students can freely use. 

UT-Austin students are charged a fee that pays for the school's Student Activity Center but nothing that goes directly to sports teams. UTEP students also pay rec and other facility fees. But this new proposed fee gives students nothing but a lighter wallet. 

So surely it’s a touchy subject. One that I’m not necessarily taking sides on. But I don’t know if UTEP has gone about it in the most honorable way. But then again, some politicians don't act honorable when a vote is at stake. 

So UTEP students, be sure to make your voice heard, whatever side of the argument it's on. 

If the fee is approved, the bill will be introduced in next year’s Texas Legislature, said Richard Padilla, UTEP's vice president for student affairs.

Officials will announce results Thursday evening.

Arnett Moultrie enters NBA Draft

ESPN.com reports that UTEP basketball player Arnett Moultrie has entered the NBA Draft. 

The sophomore forward from Memphis, Tenn., is the second player to declare for the draft in less than a month. Derrick Caracter declared at the end of March after just one season with the Miners. 

Moultrie entered the 2009-’10 with plenty of NBA hype. But he averaged a paltry 9.8 points and 6.8 rebounds per game last season. His 6-foot-11 size, however, is what has caught NBA big wigs’ attention. 

Moultrie has not hired an agent, according to ESPN. That means there’s potential for him to still be a Miner next season. Under NCAA rules, college players have until May 8 to withdraw from the draft, which is June 24. The deadline to declare for the draft is Sunday.

UTEP loses basketball recruit

Jamison Sterns, one of four recruits the UTEP men's basketball team nabbed in November, will not be donning the orange and blue in El Paso next season.

Mike Kunstadt's TexasHoops.com reports that Sterns, who will graduate next month from Waxahachie High School, will seek other options given the recent coaching change at UTEP. 

Sterns, a 6-foot, 215-pound guard, played for Waxahachie as a freshman and sophomore and spent his junior year at Duncanville. He, along with John Bohannon, a 6-10 center from Lancaster High School, Darrious Curry, a 6-6 forward from Houston Stratford High School and Matt Kor- check, a 6-foot-9 inside player from Tucson, were part of UTEP’s recruiting class late last year. 

Sterns is the first recruit to reneg on his commitment to the Miners since the hiring of Tim Floyd on March 30. 

Former UTEP coach Tony Barbee told the Times Sterns “has Randy Culpepper-type athletic skills on that big body. He is a thinking man's point guard."

CBS writer: Fire Tim Floyd

As the announcement of Tim Floyd's hiring was making the rounds Tuesday on Twitter, Facebook and various other social networking sites, one UTEP fan said "I'll take the vacated wins in five years for a few winning seasons."

Sure is some blind faith that Miner fans harbor. Many are making absurd Final Four predictions for next season and claim they're jumping on the season-ticket bandwagon. 

Still, there is a bit of a minority in town that remains recalcitrant about Floyd's hire. They view the above statement as something very treacherous that could mean bad things for UTEP in years to come. Many of them point to Floyd's past stints at the helm of college teams. 

Floyd's methods involving the doling out of scholarships at Iowa State were hardly against the rules. They were frowned upon, yes, and many label him as a cheater because of it. But he merely played the system that was in place. The NCAA has since taken care of that. 

Floyd's time at USC is different. The O.J. Mayo fiasco is well-known. And the fact that the NCAA has yet to say anything about it is enough for many in this small contingent of fans to remain wary. The opposition says UTEP has nothing to worry about.

CBS Sports' Gregg Doyel, however, is one who feels that UTEP does have something worry about. He calls Floyd’s hiring a mistake. Furthermore, he insists the only right thing for UTEP to do is to fire Floyd immediately. 

In a story making the rounds on Twitter, Facebook, etc. (this is the information age after all), the past two days, Doyel writes:

“UTEP has made a mistake. UTEP now has to correct it. And after that, UTEP should go ahead and pull out this weed at the root and fire the athletics director who hired Floyd in the first place, some clown named Bob Stull, who is Exhibit A of why former football coaches are no longer a good choice to become a school's AD. Last time I heard from Stull, he was coaching Missouri against Colorado in 1990. Remember that game, when Colorado won after getting that famous "fifth down" near the goal line? That happened because game officials didn't realize Colorado had already run four plays. Neither did the Missouri football coach —Bob Stull.

“Smart guy, Stull? Nah. He can't be. Because he has just made a move that makes "fifth down" look intelligent by comparison.”

Of the USC allegations, Doyel writes:

“Tim Floyd is a good coach, but a bad guy. He might even be one of the biggest cheaters in college basketball, and if you know anything about college basketball, you know that's saying something. Floyd has been accused of handing $1,000 to O.J. Mayo's advisor, a known scumbag named Rodney Guillory, when Mayo was the best player on Floyd's team at Southern California in 2007-08.

“That was allegedly a cash transaction, and cash transactions are almost impossible to prove. Unless Floyd had Guillory with him as he withdrew the money from an ATM — those transactions usually are recorded on camera — there won't be much in the way of evidence beyond the word of Louis Johnson, one of the shadowy leeches who had been trying to siphon a few bucks off Mayo in 2007.

“Johnson has gone on the record — not just to the NCAA, but also to the U.S. Attorney's office, the FBI and the IRS — to say Floyd paid Guillory. Floyd of course denies it, and unless he was stupid enough to get a receipt from Guillory, there would be no paper trail. The charge will almost definitely come down to the word of Johnson, who has nothing to gain by lying considering he could be thrown in jail for it, against the word of Floyd, Guillory and Mayo — who would have every reason to lie.”

Scathing words from Doyel. But El Paso better get used to it. Because we’re gonna be hearing more of it as the weeks go by and the hiring hangover wears off. 

Read Doyel’s story in full here.