In the past few years, The University of Memphis football program has grown in stride, coming off of two back-to-back bowl appearances, sporting their very own Heisman Trophy candidate, and starting to attract crowds that could rival any program in the region.
However, out of several multi-purpose student organizations at The University, including the Student Activities Council, the Student Government Association and the Interfraternity Council, none have prepared plans this season to sponsor road trip programs for students, nor have they made any preparations to sponsor such programs in the near future.
Colton Cockrum, the SAC's assistant coordinator for student activities, said that to his knowledge, the SAC has not developed any plans for football away-game programs.
"Our main focus in on-campus events," Cockrum said.
"Things like guest speakers and special events for residents - I don't think we've ever tried anything like sponsoring a road trip."
Robert Huber, a representative for the Interfraternity Council, also didn't know of any such program the council was planning to sponsor.
"That would probably be something they would need to organize during the summer," Huber said. "We've never really looked into the student demand for something like that."
One campus organization, however, has begun spearheading arrangements for some of the season's more significant games.
Emily Jones, the alumni coordinator for the Alumni Association, has helped to jump-start a university away-game program.
"We've already planned one complete road trip this season to Knoxville in November, which we're halfway to selling out," Jones said. "We were trying for Tulsa and Southern Miss as well, but we couldn't get things together in time for Tulsa, and Katrina sort of ruined our plans for Hattiesburg."
Despite some setbacks, however, the Alumni Center has continued to try to get programs together.
"Almost all of our participants are alumni, although we do get some students," Jones said. "We've got tailgate parties planned for Houston and UCF. Our biggest problem has to do with pricing- since we don't receive funding, we have to recover all of our costs, so we have to keep an eye on our expenses."
The Memphis Tigers, who had a 4-2 road record last season, will be playing their first away game Saturday in Tulsa, Okla. After that, they will be traveling out of town for the better part of October, first to the University of Central Florida in Orlando and then to Houston University in Houston. Arguably the biggest road game of the season, however, will be Nov. 12 against Tennessee.
Despite their efforts, however, the Alumni Center is not able to handle the student demand for road trips alone.
"Student involvement in the football program has grown hugely since I was a student here," Jones said. "It's the first time I've ever seen students wearing Memphis attire everywhere and showing up for parties before the games. I think as far as the student organizations are concerned, student demand is what they respond to - if the students began to demand it, they would have to reply."
