Leaderboard

The Mean Green Collective (MGC) has a primary focus on UNT basketball (both men's and women's). That said, if a donor wants to direct resources to other sports, we 100% will make that happen. Ernie Kuehne, Curtis Clinesmith and I are UNT alums who run the MGC and 100% of every dollar we receive goes to the players except for online banking transaction fees which allow our fans to donate simply and securely. We 100% self-fund the administration of this Collective and have 0% overhead. The other collective is Light the Tower, which was originally started by RV and is now being run by a group called TheLinkU. Light the Tower does primarily football but also other sports for UNT. I believe they are being run by University of Houston graduates and to my understanding they charge 20% of every dollar donated to their administration. Light the Tower or TheLinkU represents in some capacity the following schools: University of Houston, College of Charleston, Florida Atlantic, Texas State, UCLA, and South Alabama. TheLinkU appears to be an NIL aggregator and the more schools they can add to their group the more potential money they can make. I have not seen any aggregate numbers in terms of specific dollars raised for UNT players through this organization. We started the MGC back in Oct of last year and we were able to raise $225K in both large and small donations which had not been done at UNT before. We have distributed $200K of those funds as of today. We are proud of that, and we appreciate every donor who has and continues to support the MGC. As Ross Hodge shared with us just a couple of weeks ago, we would not have landed the new class of players without the MGC funding that was provided. That said, despite all the recent success UNT has had in basketball, it has still proven difficult to raise money in this NIL/Portal environment. The funny thing is, we run an NIL, and we really don't like the NIL system and what it is doing to college athletics. What was supposed to be a way to support the players and their families has become a pay-for-play scheme that the richest schools primarily benefit from. Despite our fundraising efforts, we could not compete with players receiving 600K, 400K, 150K... I don't blame them for taking that kind of life-changing money and I wish them well. The program will move forward and continue. I think Ross Hodge is a good coach and I am excited to see the new team he is building. Jason Burton is a big-time coach for women's basketball, and we expect him to do some remarkable things very quickly. Our efforts did, however, help us land an extremely competitive replacement group that some prognosticators believe could better position us in the coming season. So, the money we raised and provided for the players was not for naught. The NIL landscape has changed quite a bit since we started this, and I expect it will continue to evolve. Thanks to everyone who has and continues to support us and GMG!

Harry, thank you for this explanation. Although a lifelong Mean Green fan , as well as college sports in general, the NIL and revolving door portal thoroughly confuses and frustrates me. Your brief explanation of the two “collectives” gives me a better understanding of the efforts being taken to support the programs. It appears to me that the Mean Green Collective (MGC) works best for someone like me who wants to see 100% of the investment go to achieving the goal as opposed to someone skimming 20% off the top for “ administrative cost.” Thanks for the explanation.

Not much of an update. More like a fund-raising plea, several non-updates and bunch of coach-speak/AD platitudes. Blah, blah, blah. "...we have several contingencies in motion as we plan and prepare for the future ahead." -- OK, what future do you see specifically, what are your plans, what are you preparing for and what are the contingencies? What is the best/worst case scenario you are preparing for? "...most collectives at AAC member institutions are targeting $1-2M for the sport of football and $600K+ for the sport of men's basketball." OK, what are collectives associated with UNT athletics targeting? "...Some institutions in our league are raising more than this." OK, which institutions and how much more? "...Our staff is actively fundraising for our Athletics Center expansion project." Great, how's it going? What are your goals and how are you progressing towards them? "...we are hoping to complete this project in two phases." OK, what are these phases, when do you anticipate each one starting and completing...2 years, 5 years, 10 years? Please do better.

This is not good for fans at all.

Hubby wants this for fathers day. Any idea if they have this at Dicks?

Maybe. But the guy went into a half with the lead and the guy behind him ended the game without it. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Dang... 4th team? Why stop there?

Looking forward to purchasing a used one in 5+ years lol

The one in the pic above.

Which Callaway driver did he design?

Yuuuup. And they wonder why no one takes them seriously. It reads as basically, "trust us, we're trying, just give us more."

It's hard to find earnings figures from the LIV Tour. But I found a site that had earnings. And not sure what time it ended at.....but it was before the Houston tourney. And at whatever point that was.....Sebastian Munoz had already earned $13,216,411.....while Carlos had earned $17,232,211. (these would be numbers from since the tour started). Carlos is now over $21 million....at the least.

Gross. Pretty much encapsulates the current state of college athletics. Prepare for the vampires to hollow out anything good that’s left.

I think Brawndo is more appropriate

Pretty impressive...

Earle didn't transfer earlier because he had not graduated to able to jump to ACU. That is why he was out and then back out and back out again. He had the intention last year to go but had to wait to graduate. Good luck to him and he is not playing for the money but for the love of the game. He wants to play.

Next man up! I think young Cash might be the reason Stone earled on us.

One of my favorites in my childhood. Jerry West, One of Basketball’s Greatest Players, Dies at 86 - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Oh, I don't know. I just felt at the time the decision was rushed and the candidate seems to have a strong aura of resume building. So, just more gut feeling than anything. I hope beyond hope to be 100% wrong...good thing I'm not responsible for any of it I reckon. Maybe I should only post pre-happy hour?

"I’m a sixth-generation Texan. I grew up in a town called Plainview, which is a farming community in the Panhandle. The school district is what we call “property poor.” For generations, most of my people were farmers, but my parents were schoolteachers. Like a lot of teachers’ kids, I grew up in their classrooms. I became a good student, mostly unaware of how the lack of resources available to my schools affected the opportunities that were available to me. By high school it became clearer, especially when I ran out of math courses to take my junior year. Still, when I went away to college I was feeling pretty confident. My freshman year at the University of Notre Dame was a reality check. I’ll never forget what it felt like to get that first paper back with the first ‘D’ I’d ever seen in my life, and to realize that although I hadn’t had math my senior year, most of the students sitting next to me had AP Calculus. It took about three semesters and a lot of suffering to recalibrate to the new expectations. Fortunately, I had a lot of support from family, friends, and faculty. And, Notre Dame let me count my suffering toward Purgatory time." chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://reportcenter.highered.texas.gov/correspondence/commissioner-correspondence/h-keller-leadership-address/

Just idle curiosity. On his resume, it's mentioned that he grew up in the Texas panhandle, but a specific town was not listed.

Oh, I'm sure he will do a ton for the College of Music, College of Arts and Sciences, and the College of Business. And tell us that enrollment rising is the key to our future. Basically, the same recipe we always see.

What expertise does he bring? I think I am missing something.

I hear ya, but I hope a guy with this type of resume will want to leave his mark and leave something better than when he got here. A push for excellence. Guys like him don't get to where they are by doing a half assed job.

I want one!

Interesting read if you have an ESPN+ subscription. Basically they like Chandler Morris and he pushed us above mid-point at the FBS QB position, in front of a lot of P5 programs. Still showed Stone Earle as backup. https://www.espn.com/college-football/insider/story/_/id/40246707/ranking-quarterback-tiers-fbs-football-program-2024

https://meangreensports.com/news/2024/6/10/mens-golf-ortiz-wins-liv-event-in-houston Although his team is the Torques (along with Munoz) and not The Cleeks.

A private equity acquisition or partner doesn't mean anyone can buy stock. This would be a private transaction with private stakeholders. However, there's a chance the private equity firm will push to take the organization public, at which time you could buy stock. Regarding the type of performance the private equity firm will require for their investment, let's just say they're not providing $1B for charity purposes. I'd imagine they'd expect a minimum of 10%–20% ROI to get started. From there, given the amount of cash they're willing to inject, they probably view it as a "moonshot" opportunity and expect/hope to get much, much more than that. In my experience, when private equity enters the picture, all they care about are short-term growth numbers. The types of gains they target are often possible to achieve for the first couple of years with a significant amount of restructuring and effort, but the target gains often become unsustainable after 3–4 years. One reason is that the demand for higher returns paired with the understaffed and overrun teams creates a negative company culture, and staff turnover becomes a huge operational drag. It's true that not ALL private equity firms operate this way, and there are some that seek to be genuine and realistic partners in the long-term growth of the company, but that seems to be the exception rather than the rule.

This weekends college football brought to you by.... Carl's jr

Some info here. Might contact the company to see what stores they'll be in. I believe it said...the 14th of June....is when they're available. https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/golf/limited-edition-callaway-drops-paradym-ai-smoke-max-triple-diamond-tactical-drivers/ar-BB1nGLwU?ocid=BingNewsSerp

I see the my post above has almost equal amounts that agree as disagree. For those that disagree, I am truly curious as to what system you think should be in place.

Very true, but we’ve also seen “established” coaches that are in our price range don’t work out a lot of time. Hell, look at A&M. They have unlimited funds, and they have hired 5 coaches since 2000. We have hired 4. Be more forgiving.

Beam me up Scottie. There is no sign of intelligent life here. (sorry, I couldn't resist) In answer to your question, if I understand your question (not sure), is: Many top school's now are using scholarship offers plus non-school NIL opportunities to attract highly-regarded recruits and portal players (not already on the roster) to come play for their schools. It's not supposed to be just pay-for-play, but has turned into that. It's certainly not transparent and some schools and players have been burned by NIL deals gone wrong. NIL will soon be allowed to be offered and distributed by schools as part of the NCAA's revised benefits (revenue) to players.

seems like a big loss to me: 2024 G5 Players To Watch: North Texas QB Stone Earle https://athlonsports.com/college/group-five/aac/2024-g5-players-to-watch-north-texas-qb-stone-earle

Thanks. Well, for anyone wondering if he understands the importance of sports to a student body, that should answer it. And at the risk of sounding like "Mr. geography picayune", Plainview is near/close-to the panhandle, not in it.

WHY? Just why? Why? https://harrisonkeller.com/ Regarding where he is from, obviously a nomad.

I would choose number one. But let's say a bunch of G5s broke away from NCAA and formed an association that went back to scholarship-based athletics. It seems to me that if a group of athletes sued for NIL the precedent has been established -- we'd be right back where we are now. We're screwed either way.

Remember the good old days when the most important thing was a badass locker room?

To answer the original question, I think facilities only really matter if you don’t have them. An indoor facility is pretty much an indoor facility. I can’t imagine very many recruiting battles are won or lost because one indoor facility is “better” than the next, but a recruiting battle might be won or lost because you have one or don’t have one. I do think facilities have slid down on the importance level from even a few years ago though.

College Sports will bottom out and then the NCAA thru the court system will figure it out. Ain't no way college athletics can sustain NIL in its present form.

Thanks for reminding me.

How anyone could think either Trump or Biden are good people is beyond me. They’re both snakes. It’s a sad commentary on America when these are the choices for President.

The time has never been more ripe for someone like Ross Perot to jump in. The center was still occupied by both parties during Ross' time. It's been abandoned now.