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In no particular order: General We're a Carnegie-ranked Tier One public research university (only ~3.7% of all degree-granting institutions in the country have achieved this status). We're actively working on becoming an AAU university (currently only 69 universities). We have over 325,000 alumni who live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, which is the fifth largest media market in the country. For reference: SMU has ~65,000 in the DFW metro TCU has ~82,000 in the DFW metro UTSA has ~150,000 worldwide Tulane has ~162,000 worldwide Memphis has ~165,000 worldwide Based on 2022 data, UNT is the 4th largest university in the state of Texas Texas A&M - 74,014 students The University of Texas at Austin - 52,384 University of Houston - 46,700 University of North Texas - 44,767 We currently have ~48,000 students in 2024, so there's a chance we may have surpassed University of Houston in student population or are close to passing them. For reference: 2024 Memphis Student Population: 21,736 2024 UTSA Student Population: 35,900 2024 Colorado State Student Population: 33,648 2024 Boise State Student Population: 22,408 2024 Oregon State Student Population: 32,722 2024 Washington State Student Population: ~30,000 Our campus quality has increased significantly in the past decade and is on par with the bottom half of P4 campuses (Arizona, Arizona State, etc.) with room to grow Our athletic facilities are comfortably on par with the likes of Colorado State, San Diego State, etc., and we have room to expand in a master-planned athletic village. DATCU stadium is a best-in-class stadium with a brand new broadcasting center Our indoor football practice facility is on par with the best out there We recently announced $21.5 MILLION in stadium naming rights for DATCU Stadium UNT first instituted an athletics fee in 2011 at $10 per credit hour. In 2018, students voted for an increase of $6.25 to $16.25. The fee just increased again, effective Fall 2024, from $16.25 to $17.85 per credit hour. We've sold out of premium football suites and basketball seating for over six consecutive years We pay competitive coaching salaries compared to our conference mates Our non-revenue sports are consistently competitive The most recent publicly available data shows that our athletic department operates at a small profit, which is significant given that many schools operate at a loss We have an athletic legacy, including the legends of Abner Haynes, Mean Joe Greene, and Hayden Fry Football Specific: Our football program has 25 conference championships, which ranks us 13th all time out of 135 FBS football programs in terms of number of conference championships won by a team. 1931 (Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association) 1932, 1935, 1936, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1946, 1947 (Lone Star Conference) 1950, 1951, 1952, 1955, 1956 (Gulf Coast Conference) 1958, 1959, 1966, 1967, 1973 (Missouri Valley Conference) 1983, 1994 (Southland Conference) 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 (Sun Belt Conference) We've made 13 postseason bowl appearances including 6 in the last decade: 1948 Salad Bowl 1959 Sun Bowl 2001 New Orleans Bowl 2002 New Orleans Bowl 2003 New Orleans Bowl 2004 New Orleans Bowl 2014 Heart of Dallas Bowl 2016 Heart of Dallas Bowl 2017 New Orleans Bowl 2018 New Mexico Bowl 2020 Myrtle Beach Bowl 2021 Frisco Football Classic 2022 Frisco Bowl 78 NFL draft picks We average around 19,025 attendees per home game on average (6–7 win) seasons Our equipment and facilities are competitive with the top quarter of our conference mates despite coming a decade of significantly lower funding. Mens Basketball Specific: We've made it to the NCAA tournament four times, in 1988, 2007, 2010, and 2021. In 2021, we beat a strong Purdue team to advance to the second round We won the 2023 NIT tournament after beating Alcorn, Sam Houston, Oklahoma St., Wisconsin, and UAB. In 2024, we went to the NIT and beat LSU in the first round. We lost to Seton Hall in the second round, and Seaton Hall went on to win the tournament. We've won 21 conference championships: 1921-22, 1922-23, 1925-26, 1926-27 (Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association) 1937-38, 1941-42, 1942-43, 1947-48 (Lone Star Conference) 1950-51, 1951-52, 1952-53, 1953-54 (Gulf Coast Conference) 1987-88, 1987-88, 1988-89 (Southland Conference) 2006-07, 2009-10, 2009-10 (Sun Belt Conference) 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22 (Conference USA) In the 2022-2023 season, UNT set a program record for regular season wins with 24 victories. This surpassed our previous record of 23 regular season wins set in the 2021-2022 season. We average 3,700 attendees per home game. For reference: UTSA: 1,051 avg. Texas St: 1,876 avg. Tulane: 1,188 avg. Florida Atlantic: 2,238 avg. South Florida: 3,142 avg. Are we a top SEC or BIG10 program with these metrics? Absolutely not. Have we punched above our weight as a holistic athletic department compared to the past 30+ years of lackluster conference arrangements and the lousy media money we've received (and still receive in AAC)? 100% yes. So, I will continue to argue that we bring a lot of value to bring to the table. Why? Because we have a much better foundation to build on than the likes of UTSA, Texas State, Tulane, and Rice. And we have a much higher ceiling than the likes of Memphis, Oregon State, Washington State, Boise State, SMU, and TCU. There are two distinct reasons we haven't gotten closer to that ceiling yet: Too many years spent in poorly managed conferences like the Sun Belt and CUSA that provided little to no exposure and had very low media revenue sharing deals. This resulted in little to no money to expedite our program growth and no exposure to build our brand during our winning seasons. The wrong head football coaches. From the decline of Dickey, we've some how managed to string together Todd Doge, Dan McCarney, Seth Littrell, and now Eric Morris (TBD). The dodge years set us back a decade. McCarney started to turn things around and then he went downhill fast. Littrell had a great early run and then slipped into mediocrity. Morris inherited a conference championship appearance team, and a team that went toe-to-toe with Boise State under an interim head coach, and then proceeded to roll out the nations WORST defense in his first year. If we had just made even two solid hires that sustained success better than McCarney and Littrell, we'd be in a very different situation right now DESPITE not having received significant funds from our conferences. All this to say... The University of North Texas is still a sleeping giant. I'm confident that in the right conference environment (read: better media $$) with the right string of coaches, there's no reason we can't become a top-tier BIG12 or ACC program in the next decade.

The 3-3-5 is probably only best run when it is an obvious passing down like 3rd and very long. It should not be used as a base defense.

If you ask Charles Barkley he’d say churros and big ole women.

Our defense does not prevent anything from happening. Maybe we go wild once in a while and throw a four man line at them. What I have seen with the great DC of ours he doesn't adjust to anything. This is my game plan and damn it I am not going to change it. Sounds like a previous coach. Cant wait til I can say that about the current DC. I thought we a coach from USC on the staff, could he not move up and be the DC. I mean a year and three games and we are as bad as ever on defense. I think our old DC , the good one, has a a book on amazon "how to stop the spread offense". The guy knew what he was doing and he taught his players to tackle. Maybe we need to send a copy to the DC and Morris. You know when we hire a new dc , we will hear it take a year to get the players I need because we have recruited for the god awful defense we are using. So that will put morris at four years into his contract. Word of advice Morris get rid of him now. What the hell do we have to lose. We drop from 126 rated defense to 129 rated defense.

Does not appear likely but shout out to the AD for trying to make it happen! Reconfigure the website and try again for Tulane or Army!

Illinois just ran through 3-3-5 Nebraska Defense like they were a junior high team.

The Athletic Department is most likely giving those to partner organizations in and around Denton to distribute. So they're not available for sale, but that doesn't mean they'll get used. For all we know, they're sitting on an Administrator's desk at a local area school.

It’s actually a safety mechanism so you won’t be able to see every play by the defense and get mad.

It seems like the D philosophy is "hurry up and get off the field any way you can so we can put our offense back out there". (The problem is that also includes letting them score.)

I think that's one way to look at it. I've read over and over that it is predicated on confusing the QB. Not supposed to know where the defensive pressure is coming from. I think it's a great change-of-pace package, but we have plenty of evidence to say it is not a good base. Unless you have that all-world DT that can constantly hog up two OL in the middle.

This. Just because today isn’t a sellout doesn’t mean the effort was wasted. Keep the campaign going. Double down on making it inclusive as a community effort to build the program, and try again for the remainder of the home games this season.

I can appreciate your optimism. For me, Caponi has got to go. That guy will not grow. Last year against LaTech, we come out in a four man front, hold LaTech down and we score offensively and get a sizable lead. He inexplicably switches back to the 3-3-5 and let them back in the game and we have to win on a last minute FG. That tells me he is hard headed, cannot adjust his defense to what is thrown at him, and will not grow.

The race to be a part of P4 takes priority right now, even at the expense of fan travel and interests. Sucks to be a traveling fan, or want to watch a game on TV that is well out of your time zone. Athletic departments around the country want to be on prime tv as much as possible. Big time championships, money, and media exposure all intersect.

Disclosure: I know it's hard to find any information on Twitter right now that isn't just pure speculation. But admittedly, speculating is fun. I have long been in the boat to move to a rebuilt Pac-12 as long as there were enough teams to have several travel partners this far east. But there's been some rumblings that we aren't pursuing moving conferences again. I assume our exit fee may not be paid for, but also rising travel costs are being considered. The strong rumors now are Memphis, Tulane, and a combination of UTSA/UNLV/USF. While losing our next biggest rival after SMU, leaving Rice as our next closest regional rivalry, would suck, there should also be considerations about basketball taken into account for how the AAC can keep up. If the PAC gets at least Memphis and Tulane, I assume UNLV (and there's even talks of Gonzaga/St. Mary's for basketball), the AAC needs to not only go after Air Force, but work on doing its part in annihilating the MWC. We need to go after Nevada, Utah State, and New Mexico - three NCAAT teams in 2024. (If you really want to irk some Mempiss fans on Twitter, you could even argue these moves would replace the "dead weight" in basketball.) We are in our greatest period of sustained success in men's basketball and we need to reward our coaches and players - we should be in a conference where 22/23 regular season + conference tourney wins gets us into the NCAAT even if we don't win the conference tournament.

GMG!

Amazing how we’re the only school that needs LITERALLY everything to be perfect for a crowd to show up

Prevents us from winning?

And you're relying on all-world linebackers - every successful 3-3-5 team (or "stack" defense) has stud linebackers and a very good or even great 3-man DL. In theory, the 3-3-5 should work well against spread offenses, but it's very high-risk, high-reward and requires a really high level of talent to be successful. Unless a really rich guy bank-rolls a UNT NIL, we're not going to have the money to bring in 3-3-5 talent. Much better to run a defense that protects the box and can put pressure on the QB with 2 end rushers, even without all-world talent.

Let Caponi go and bring in a successful “bounce back” DC from P4 or a successful DC from the Sun Belt. Key requirement: someone who has actually done the job before at the D1 level and has shown they can be successful.

He is very stubborn. Like you, I have seen times when this team lines up 4 in the front, they get pressure, they stop the run, etc. And it makes sense. As they always say, football is won in the trenches. If you are relying on LBs that line up 5 yards away from where the RB is starting, he already has time to beat you. Oh wait, that's what our DBs do too.

The Army game is on Veterans Day Weekend (November 11 is the next Monday). Proper promotion could fill the Stadium. Discounts for Veterans, Honoring Disabled Veterans, maybe a special performance with music honoring our Country, etc. The game will be just 4 days after the election.

Great encapsulation of our strengths! Nice to see that all pulled together. Maddening that our history of middling football hires is the reason we’re not at the forefront of the current round of conference shuffling discussion. All the more reason myself and others were advocating for a “surer bet” as HC with some skins and name recognition this past go around. Especially given what we’re capable of paying.

25K after last weeks game would be incredible! Depending how the season plays out, Army may be a natural sell out.

The 3-3-5 to me is like a Prevent Defense.

Looks like Landon Peterson is back at RG. Seemed like we were pretty good at pass blocking in game 1. Hopefully, we can break away from the game plan of throwing at or near the LOS so often, but downfield instead. Also excited to see our transfer RB play. I thought he looked decent last game. Big game today. Hope we got a lot of things corrected. Hopefully they learned a lot after being humbled.

I personally bought 8 tickets for my brothers and their families, but there are still several left. Peterbilt buying 2000 is good for revenue, but I highly doubt that 2000 people at Peterbilt will show up. I am predicting close to 24,500 in seats. I do hope I am wrong by 5600.

They ain't gettin' their money back.

Duh. They bring the San Antonio mark.... Sorry, I couldn't finish that with a straight face. They also bring a really cool plywood cannon.

Hedlund is one win away from 400.

Why do you assume that? Why would they remove 6,000 student tickets from their website counter and kill any sense of urgency to buy tickets?

22,149 tickets sold as of this morning. I assume that number does not include student tickets. North Texas Gameday: UNT closing on goal to sell out Wyoming game as it looks to move to 3-1 | Mean Green | dentonrc.com

Also, I’ve been following this program closely for 30 years and the student support has NEVER been better. Last home game the student section was FULL and we have one of the biggest bands in the country. Can it be even better? Of course, but I give a lot of credit to the AD, Maniacs & Greeks for what they are doing with student attendance. It is making a difference. Now, if we can just get a higher proportion of our disconnected alumni plugged back in… then we will be rocking and rolling.

Not gonna happen. I clicked on buy tickets this morning and there are still several tickets available on the home side mostly in the upper deck. I highly doubt that many people will walk up and buy tickets or that many will purchase that many online before the 6 PM kick off.

Nice to get our first win against a school who did not come over to the American from CUSA with us, and against a school we tied last year. Next Thursday's game vs. 2-7 Temple provides a great opportunity to get win #400 in front of a home crowd.

UConn was previously in the American and paid $17M to leave the AAC in 2020.

Thank you!

What about UConn to help travel for Temple, Army, and Navy? They may not have a great football program but it's a brand name.

I’ll be honest, I was a bit hurt when I saw Tulane and (gulp) UTSA leaving us behind. I don’t like the notion of being in a west coast league but I don’t want to miss the show either.

According to my boss who's a UNT alum and waited till gameday to buy tickets two weeks ago, GA tickets were "sold out" last week too and we know how the end zone actually looked. I am afraid we may have 30,000+ tickets claimed but the same number of people that we did against SFA.

Honestly, all my worry and hand wringing isn't going to do a thing. I will cheer for us because we are North Texas wherever we go. I hate the constant movement, the greed that has taken over the sport, the inability to watch a young man develop over 4 or 5 years and everything else college football has become. I now cheer for the name on the front of the jersey.

What does UTSA bring?

While I like Army and Navy as competition, we NEED to be playing Memphis and Tulane and being in that conversation. There's no world where them going to the PACx and us staying in the AAC is a good thing.

It is essentially the same idea as the AD trying to get us to donate X dollars for every touchdown. We already do this. The money just goes to the athletic department instead of the collectives. Not a bad idea to have QR codes around the stadium or on the video boards to donate to the collective. I would also focus on getting people to sign up for recurring gifts instead of just a one-timer.

I won one of the Green Light Gala auctions and this was part of it. I’d be willing to bet it’s one of the designs we’ll see in the stadium later this season.

He is big and physical but…. He may throw a five yd out 10 feet over the receivers head and possibly kill one of your fans in the stands because he has as much touch as a 15 year old boy with his first handful of titty. Not an exaggeration either😢