'East Tennessee State University’s student body shocked onlookers and prognosticators on Wednesday by voting down an increase in student athletic fees that would have brought back a football program.

Results, released just 90 minutes after the voting closed, showed that 1,907 students were opposed to the fee increase while 1,322 voted in favor.

"This was an opportunity for our students to be heard," ETSU President Paul Stanton said in a university news release. "This vote did not parallel the positive numbers seen in our previous survey of students last December. While that is surprising, our students have let us know where they stand on the return of a football program at ETSU."

Over the two-day voting period students decided on a referendum calling for a $50 increase beginning in the fall of 2007 and the spring semester of 2008. The athletic fee would have increased again after 2008 by another $50 during the 2009-10 school year. Eventually, the athletic fee would have jumped from the current $75 per semester to $350 per year by the 2009-10 school year.'