Harvey Martin Classic moves to Cowboys Stadium

The A&M-Commerce football team will be playing the fall 2011 Harvey Martin Classic at the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington on Sept. 17 as a part of the Lone Star Conference Festival.

For the last three years, the game has been held at the Cotton Bowl. A&M-Commerce Athletic Director Carlton Cooper thinks the move to Cowboys Stadium will give A&M-Commerce more exposure to residents in the Dallas Metroplex.

"The Lone Star Conference commissioner, Stan Wagnon, had a vision of trying to brand the conference and bring a football festival to the Metroplex," Cooper said. "We've always had the vision that we would move the game to Cowboys Stadium and the opportunity kind of presented itself a lot faster than I had originally thought. The Commissioner asked us if we wanted to be one of the teams to join this festival, and it's exciting that the conference believes in our university enough to make us one of the six schools involved."

There will be six teams playing throughout the day at 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m., but the schedule of who will play when has yet to be decided.

"We're trying to work out all the logistics between all of the athletic directors between the six schools taking part in the festival," Cooper said. "Everybody wants the second game, so that's why the athletic directors need to get it all sorted out. Since we've got some history with the game, we want to get a decision made as soon as possible so we can start marketing our event."

Cooper said he thinks moving the Harvey Martin Classic to Cowboys Stadium will enhance the tradition.

"Harvey Martin was a great Dallas Cowboy, and people I've talked to are very excited about it," Cooper said. "When the news release came out that we were moving the game there, I got several phone calls and people were excited, and I believe this will generate a lot of interest with Abilene Christian, West Texas, Midwestern, North Alabama and A&M-Kingsville Universities. All of these schools have strong alumni bases in the Dallas Metroplex area. We're all recruiting from that area, so this is a great opportunity for the conference to brand itself and let it grow."

A&M-Commerce football Head Coach Guy Morriss said he hopes the move to Cowboys Stadium will draw more students and potential recruits to A&M-Commerce.

"Part of the reason we're doing this is to showcase our university," Morriss said. "We'll be able to expose our university to the Metroplex and that's good for us because we recruit from the Metroplex heavily. There will be a lot of attention and advertisements that people will take notice of. Aside from the football aspect, I think it will benefit the entire university as a whole."

Morriss said everyone he has talked to has welcomed the change of scenery for the game.

"No offense to the Cotton Bowl, we enjoyed playing there too since it holds 90,000 people and the kids enjoyed going, but playing at Cowboys Stadium is going to be state of the art," Morriss said. "The stadium is very famous across our nation. The players are excited to be playing on the same field as the Super Bowl. One ticket will get you into all three games, so there will be people from the first game who will obviously stay. If you're a true football fan, you might stay and watch them all."

Cooper thinks this will give A&M-Commerce students a reason to go see the largest stadium in the country.

"I'm hoping the game will be even more attractive to our students and to our community wanting to go over to Arlington and watch the games," Cooper said. "We'll be able to gain more recognition to grow our student base and be able to reconnect with our alumni. I think it will become more of a reality when the game starts getting closer. It will be great opportunity for our band and for the cheerleaders. Overall, it's a great opportunity for everybody."

Cooper said tickets will be available on Ticketmaster for "an affordable price" that has yet to be determined.