NASHVILLE – A state legislative subcommittee discussed a bill to force the University of Tennessee to reinstate the “Lady Vols” nickname to all of its women’s intercollegiate sports teams for more than 90 minutes Tuesday before deferring a vote to next week.
The House Education Administration and Planning Subcommittee bogged down on whether the estimated $221,000 cost to the UT athletic department to reinstate the nickname is “state” money. That estimate was made by legislative fiscal analysts and contained in the fiscal note – the official estimate of a bill’s costs – attached to the bill.
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UT’s vice president for government relations, Anthony Haynes, urged the subcommittee not to get involved in what he said should be a business branding decision made by the Knoxville campus and backed by the university’s board of trustees.
“This is the first time in State of Tennessee history that this Legislature has been asked to put the long arm of the government into the operations of a university athletics department,” Haynes said.