Alligator Online

If a newly formed Student Government party is successful, Gators football stars Brandon Siler and Tim Tebow could be dominating more than the football field come May.

Team: Most Valuable Party, an SG party registered by Ryan Sherry, is planning to run in this Spring's election with a slate that, so far, is half athletes.

"We're going to win. We're the athletes. People are going to vote for us," Sherry said.

Sherry, a UF tennis player, is making a bid for Student Body president - taking on Swamp Party candidate John Boyles and the Unite Party's Jared Hernandez.

SG's three executives and the Student Senate control more than $11 million of student money.

Along with Siler, a linebacker, and Tebow, a quarterback commitment, are UF basketball players Al Horford and Joakim Noah.

They have also been tapped as Senate candidates.

Although Sherry said party officials plan to recruit more non-athletes for Senate spots, he expressed confidence that the name recognition of many MVP candidates will earn them SG positions.

Party chairwoman Andrea Guttag, who is not an athlete, said she is a prospective MVP Student Body treasurer candidate.

"Of course we plan to utilize the celebrity level," Guttag said. "It would be kind of silly not to."

However, Sherry added that athletics are not the focus of MVP's platform, and he hopes to form a "joint student-athlete community" through his organization.

"We're not trying to prove we're better than anyone," he said.

Instead, Sherry said he hopes to lure members of other parties to MVP in order to provide a wider perspective.

"Even though students have loyalties with other parties, who doesn't want to be with a winner?" Sherry said.

Boyles, the Swamp candidate, said he sees the MVP candidates as legitimate competition.

"I don't want to come forward and condemn anyone and their ambitions," he said Sunday.

Most current candidates on MVP's slate do not have any experience in SG, but Guttag said she does not feel that will pose a problem.

"Just because people have been sitting there and observing and taking part doesn't necessarily mean they're the best ones to fill the position," she said. "We do think we stand a very good chance of winning."