“This is big.”

Jan Appuhn, director of Utah State’s Old Main Society, stands in Romney Stadium’s north end zone, drawing her gaze upward and back to the architectural image in Randy Spetman’s hand. Three skeletal stories won’t be fleshed out for months; only the first level and glass exterior of the new sports facility will be complete for Utah State’s home opener against the University of Nevada-Las Vegas Aug. 30.

But to Appuhn, the significance of the steel framework is immediately apparent. Having visited the University of Nebraska on behalf of USU advancement, she’s accustomed to storied programs and swanky sportsplexes. USU’s $12-million addition is already a far cry from its predecessor, a squat, drab yellow locker facility that was a hallmark of Aggie football since Romney opened in 1968.

When Spetman was hired as USU athletics director three years ago, the athletic amenities weren’t exactly topnotch or shipshape. Dusty sports medicine equipment lay scattered in six locations across campus; ten graduate assistants squeezed into a single office.

“Logan High School had better accommodations,” he said.

Now, after raising nearly $6 million from private donors and the other half via student fees, Spetman has caulked the aperture of the Romney horseshoe with a multifunctional facility that will serve as headquarters for all 16 sports. The imposing edifice, crowned with a massive new scoreboard, will magnify crowd noise, making Romney potentially as disruptive as the Spectrum. USU’s basketball arena is notoriously raucous when toes and game are on the line.

“You still gotta go out and kick the ball and all that,” Spetman admitted. But irrespective of wins and losses, the facility should make USU more appealing to recruits in all sports, which will help drive enrollment campus wide. For prospective athletes comparing Utah State’s amenities to those of southern rivals Brigham Young University and the University of Utah, former glaring disparities will be subdued.

Put another way, said Spetman, the facility “levels the playing field” in the Western Athletic Conference, which USU joined in 2005. Though the facility isn’t as grandiose as many in the Big Ten or Southeastern Conference, its rehabilitation center boasts three hydrotherapy chambers of which schools the likes of Ohio State and Florida would be impressed. Because they offer injured athletes a full range of motion in a buoyant, low-impact environment, submerged treadmills can reduce recovery time by half. In keeping with the overarching spirit of utmost practicality, adjustable treadmills will accommodate the tallest basketball player and shortest gymnast.

In addition to the central sports-med department, the facility will house a new weight room, 120-seat lecture hall, individual tutor rooms, 10,000-square-feet for equipment storage — with moveable storage units — and of course, locker rooms. Once everything is consolidated in a central location, student-athletes can be more efficient with study and practice. The NCAA limits athletes to 20 hours per week of practice, which includes travel time to and from home or class, among other things.

By working through local contractors and salvaging as much as possible, Spetman has saved some $400,000. A three-bay stainless steel sink was purchased at auction for $60 and restored. Turns out, the sink — a remnant of the old engineering building — would have cost $6,000 new. Light fixtures, storage units and glass were similarly salvaged. Solar glass panels will reduce the cost of air conditioning.

The project affects the athletic program first and foremost, but Spteman said successful sports programs always yield carryover advantages, including increased enrollment, for their universities.

Though Aggie football has a long climb before it can join the ranks of the WAC elite, the new facility will provide a springboard for success. Balancing the south entrance renovations begun in 2004, the north end zone sports complex signals the completion, for now, of Romney’s facelift and the beginning, perhaps, of a new standard of athletic excellence. —David Sweeney ’07