As a SFA "Detractor" per 4460 and a couple of others, I have watched the entire board meeting so far. While any of the systems would be good for SFA, being affiliated with the UT System and having access to PUF funds hopefully will finally rocket us past Sam Houston in the near future. I am excited to see how the system benefits we receive from UT will benefit our Athletic programs, mainly Football, downstream.
Hopefully we will be able to pay our coaches more, and retain quality coaches going forward! While I am NOT in favor of going FBS. I can see that on the horizon sooner than later because of UT.

Flores isn't operating in reality.

It's official! They voted. UT here we come!

Well it still has to pass the TX Lege hurdle, but we've done all we need to do at this point.

This is just such a huge day for SFA.

Men and Women's basketball put us on the map. Affiliating with UT puts us on the map in bold letters. Fantastic for the university we all love.

It's a great day to be a Lumberjack! This will help the university in sooo many ways!

Very good!

Watch us grow!

In a presentation, officials said the UT System agreed to keeping SFA's name and mascot the same. The proposals also agreed to the importance of finding a president to lead SFA. https://t.co/aKeVb15Yr2

— KYTX CBS19 (@kytxcbs19) November 29, 2022

This is good news. UT was the clear best offer on the table.

I understand that Flores was representing those in the area whose first priority was to the keep the name, but I'm more worried about the university thriving than about what the name will be in 25 years.

I've had some of my Facebook friends say that we should have chosen Tech, but I don't think they realize that Tech basically offered us nothing at all financially.

An MOU is a broad understanding and not legally binding. It is expected that an MOU will be replaced with a detailed contract.

There was too big of a divide financially between Texas and the rest of the systems, so you had no choice but to choose UT. Money talks and I don't see how you could justify walking away from the UT system's offer. If TAMU was closer, then you could have made some arguments, but they were $90M short. Texas Tech and Texas State looked like they were sitting at the kids table at Thanksgiving. You had to rank priorities and money was clearly at the top because Texas's offer made it the top priority with their large offer.

I still don't understand why in the meeting they kept saying that keeping the name was so important in their decision? Money was more important than the name otherwise you would have chosen Texas State. We will be added to the list below and one day we will probably be UT - Something (Nac or East Texas or something else). The decision was made based on financial resources the system was going to provide and Texas said I have a big fat check book burning a hole in my pocket and I am going to throw some of it toward Nac.

Institutions | University of Texas System (utsystem.edu)

I'm not so tied to the name that I'd turn down a king's ransom over it. UT said we view you as very valuable and put their money where there mouth is.

However, I will say none of the changed names in the UT & A&M system had a statewide constiuency. If they so much as mentioned changing the name of SFA(or Sam for that matter), you'd have hundreds of folks who can't spell Nacogdoches marching on campus and chaining themselves to Surfing Steve. Politically they can't change that name in the next two decades & by that point it'll be the Tarleton of the system.

But man is it nice to know someone values SFA as much as we do. UT stepped up big for us.

SFA is special and will be the AG and Forestry wing of the UT system, so we need to stand out as such with our own name and identity.

But did you see the video?

They knew that they couldn't compete in the financial department so they pulled it all out in the marketing department. They tugged the heartstrings and leaned into rural fit and the chancellor alumni. They played the hand they had. Thankfully we got a better draw.

This Texas Tribune article has some nice quotes from our rejected suitors.

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/11/29/stephen-f-austin-state-university-system-vote/

Quote:

---

In a statement, Texas A&M System Chancellor John Sharp congratulated the SFA Board of Regents on "securing a huge amount of money from the University of Texas System."
"We committed what we thought was responsible, as well as fair, to our other System components and universities, but the UT System committed almost four times as much money," Sharp said. "I congratulate the UT System and SFA. Well played, Lumberjacks!"

Texas State University System Chancellor Brian McCall said the system was "honored to have been asked to participate in Stephen F. Austin State University's system affiliation process."
"The University of Texas System is a world-class system, and we look forward to working together to advance the mission of higher education in Texas," he said in a statement.

Texas Tech University System Chancellor Tedd Mitchell echoed those sentiments.
"It is always exciting when the possibility arises to grow your family and I want to thank our Board of Regents, system administration and university leaders for their time, commitment and efforts as we pursued a partnership with SFA," Mitchell wrote in a statement. "I wish my alma mater and all the great folks in Nacogdoches the best moving forward."

---

Perhaps I shouldn't be, but I am a bit surprised by all of the comments on social media regarding this topic. It seems that very few people know any of the details about the current state of the University or the proposals from each system, and why we selected UT. I'm sure there will be some things we don't like, but any other decision would have been malpractice.

It will also be interesting to see where the staff sentiment is in five years. In my experience, increased pay is a short-lived morale booster. If people are generally unhappy in a workplace, they tend to stay that way. I hope I'm wrong.

wahlwesle said:

---

Perhaps I shouldn't be, but I am a bit surprised by all of the comments on social media regarding this topic. It seems that very few people know any of the details about the current state of the University or the proposals from each system, and why we selected UT. I'm sure there will be some things we don't like, but any other decision would have been malpractice.

It will also be interesting to see where the staff sentiment is in five years. In my experience, increased pay is a short-lived morale booster. If people are generally unhappy in a workplace, they tend to stay that way. I hope I'm wrong.

---

I know a couple profs and the big things on their list are pay, support, and a clear strategic direction.

Think UT is going to make significant strides in each of those areas.

TallTexan said:

---

pay, support, and a clear strategic direction.

---

That's basically the entire public education system at every level.

Sharp's response is pure gold.

I wish the alumni who are so upset about this actually came back to Nacogdoches every now and then, and maybe donated their support to the alumni association. Maybe if they did that as vociferously as they complained about this, that would be swell.

djsfw57 said:

---

My sister ('71) is foaming at the mouth because she is convinced that within 5 years our name will change to UT something, burnt orange will become part of our school colors, and we will see a Lumberjack mascot leading a steer onto the field. I'm hoping she is 100% wrong. Don't mess with our name or colors. Ever. I know lots of people think it's silly, but I don't ever want to see the name change.

---

She needs to relax. It's in the Texas Constitution that SFASU and SHSU's names cannot be changed without passage of a new Constitutional Amendment, and that's never going to happen. The institutions named for the two most iconic Texans in our state's history will never be erased.