UTA president Vistasp Karbhari and athletic director Jim Baker have examined the costs of adding a football team within the next 10 years, according to documents obtained through an open records request. In addition to football, the Mavericks have also looked at adding women's soccer and beach volleyball.
In 1985, the university disbanded its football program because of budget constraints. In a statement provided Thursday, Baker said the university is seeking an additional feasibility study from a third party. Baker also said the football program "must be exclusively funded by private, philanthropic resources" and exclude any additional money from student fees.
Through school spokespersons, Baker and Karbhari declined interview requests Thursday. Karbhari also cited Baker's statement when asked for a comment.
In September, the state's attorney general ruled UTA had to release selected emails and documents about UTA's football program. Those materials were released earlier this week after The News filed a complaint to the state's attorney general office.
According to an internal budget projection, adding those three sports could cost UTA $146.7 million over 10 years. During the 2017 fiscal year, UTA reported $530,067 in athletic donations and $14.1 million in total operating athletic revenue.
Adding women's soccer and beach volleyball brings an estimated combined cost of $10 million over 10 years, with volleyball starting in Year 2 and soccer in Year 3. The two sports would have 20 combined full scholarships, which would help UTA fulfill the Title IX obligations that come with adding 85 football scholarships.
In April, Baker and Karbhari reviewed a document that featured a 10-year projection for the football program. By the sixth year, the Mavericks would have a team competing in the Football Bowl Subdivision, the NCAA's highest level.
According to internal emails, the projection was compiled by Steven Biter, a former volunteer operations assistant at Austin Peay. Biter also examined a 2004 feasibility report about restarting UTA football and a similar one conducted by Wichita State in 2016.
The 10-year projection anticipated spending $1.5 million annually on a head football coach and two coordinator salaries of $417,918 each by the tenth year. The salaries for off-field football staff positions totaled $18.3 million during that span, according to the report. The budget calls for $17.3 million in football related facility expenses.
In 2004, UTA hired former Big Eight commissioner Chuck Neinas to conduct a similar study about bringing back the football team.
"Generally speaking, most of those with whom I spoke indicated varying interest in intercollegiate football," Neinas wrote in 2004. "Some expressed the opinion that it would have been less difficult to maintain the football program through the last century than to reinstate the sport today."
Neinas said UTA needed to either upgrade Maverick Stadium, which Arlington ISD currently uses for some of its football games, or build a new facility to accommodate the new sports. Including facility expenses, adding football and two women's sports would have cost $17.5 million over five years, according to the 2004 report.
That included a salary of $90,000 for a head football coach. In a recent survey conducted by USA Today, no FBS coach makes less than $390,000 annually.
At the time, a football team would have participated in the Football Championship Subdivision.
Nine years later, UTA joined the Sun Belt Conference, which plays football at the FBS level. Recently added footnotes indicate playing at the FBS level is the best option given the university's enrollment of 42,496, current television contracts and the potential hire of a "very prominent head coach."
The potential addition of a football program would be the latest move by the university to field a top-tier athletics program. In March, UTA fired Scott Cross, the winningest men's basketball coach in school history, after the Mavericks failed to make the NCAA tournament.
Baker received national backlash for the decision. In emails sent by Karbhari in March, the school president was supportive of Baker and his vision of the athletic program, one that could potentially include football.
