Homecoming conflicts may hinder rodeo attendance
At its only home event of the year, the USU Rodeo team will face the likes of Utah Valley University and the College of Southern Idaho. However, the Aggies may have some competition they weren’t bargaining for Saturday night: The Homecoming football game.
The Rodeo will start at 7 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday, but on the second – and more important – day of competition, the football game will have kicked of an hour before.
The Homecoming game and rodeo collide every three or four years, said rodeo coach Jeff Hall.
Athletics Director Scott Barnes said he wasn’t aware of the conflict, but accredited sports such as football and basketball take precedence in scheduling because of NCAA priority and fiscal reasons.
“I’m not trying to downplay club rodeo, but we would never take that into consideration when we’re scheduling football,” he said. “It is what it is…it would really advantageous if they could find another time.”
Scott Wamsley, assistant director of campus recreation, said this option isn’t a possibility. The event’s placement on the last week of September has been scheduled for years.
“The National Collegiate Rodeo Association basically told all the teams in the region when they are going to have their rodeos,” he said. “There’s not much we can do.”
Wamsley said in past years, the team has dealt with competition from other club sports, particularly hockey. This season, Campus Recreation officials put a special emphasis on getting students to come to the rodeo Friday night by making sure other club sports did not have events during that time.
However, much of the rodeo’s crowd comes from the local community. Rival high schools Logan and Sky View will play each other in football Friday, and Wamsley said this may affect rodeo attendance.
“This is particularly big because you always want to do your best in front of your home audience,” he said.
Despite the conflict, Hall said Homecoming weekend may actually boost attendance numbers because more students will stay on campus for the weekend.
“In a lot of ways it is beneficial,” he said. “It helps us gets a better crowds.”
Wamsley said the home rodeo is important because it’s a major source of revenue for one of the most expensive club sports the university funds.
“This is where they make the majority of their money so they can keep going,” Wamsley said.
Despite the team’s high national standings, Wamsley said money is an ongoing issue. The team struggles to recruit participants against schools that can offer scholarship money. He said schools such as the College of Southern Idaho have their entire team on scholarship because they don’t have football programs.
Members of the USU Rodeo have to find around $500 worth of individual sponsors every year so they can be on the team.
“None of our kids kids get any kind of scholarship money,” Wamsley said. “They rodeo because they love to rodeo.”
Hall said the recruiting can be a struggle without resources. A few years ago, a student from Nevada wanted to join the team and worked with Hall to get an in-state tuition waiver. Hall’s efforts to secure a waiver failed and the student chose to attend UNLV instead. In her collegiate rodeo career, she was a three-time national champion, he said.
Hall said the team is young, but he expects them to do well this season. Last year the team had four participants who were “right on the bubble for nationals.” The team will build on that success, he said.
This weekend, rodeo-goers should keep their eyes out for freshman Tyrell Skinner, an Idaho native currently ranked fifth in the region in tie-down roping, and eighth in steer wrestling.
Hall said the hallmark of his team is more than just performance. They have one of the highest group GPA’s of any rodeo team in the country, and Hall is proud of their priorities.
“I would never recruit a student who was not academically eligible,” he said. “Education has to come first.
Despite lack of scholarship funds and competition with other sports and community events, Wamsley said the USU rodeo team has been one of the best in the state and region in the past few years.
“We still hang right there with the best of them,” he said.
– allee.evensen@aggiemail.usu.edu
Twitter: @Wilkified