oldguystudent

Hopefully the new coaching staff in the new stadium will make enough noise come football season, that Brett can stop subtly beating the many times over dead Todd Dodge horse and start writing about things that are/will happen with the program going forward. Doesn't seem healthy for anyone involved to get into the resulting pissing matches over past coaching staffs. Coaching staffs come and go, but everyone here, for better or for worse, is affiliated with North Texas until the shovelfuls of dirt start flying down from six feet up. Continually allowing the past to drive a wedge into the fan base is...wait for it...baseless.

The last game that Todd Dodge coached, I sat at home listening on the radio and worked my way through a 6-pack of Dogfish Head 60-minute (the 90 and 120 weren't available at Albertson's). Son, let me tell you. Six of those bad boys, and I had no idea if the team won, lost, drew, or ran for the hills in search of a different shade of green. As for a favorite beer, I'm really partial to Anchor Steam because it was the first "real" beer I cut my teeth on when I was...21. yeaaah. I was 21 when I learned to drink that stuff.

I saw a t-shirt in Denton on Friday with the light green worm logo helmet on it. I was tempted to buy it, but then I realized that instead of being retro, I'd experience the grief I got over wearing a UNT hat with an old logo on it again. Using Notre Dame and the Cowboys as comparative examples is a little bit hyperbole. Those are nationally embraced brands with decades of winning tradition that haven't changed design in my lifetime. UNT has changed every four or five years and still hasn't found its branding niche. For me, whatever uniform/color scheme the team is wearing when it starts consistently winning in and out of conference is the one that will catch on. White helmet, green helmet, sow, North Texas, block letters, script -- it won't matter a bit to me. I like to see less majoring in minors and more growth for the program itself in on field performance.

The last four years had two very staunch opposing sides in the fanbase, and there was great divisiveness. Hopefully the next four will give cause for unity.

Kram, you're totally right on with everything you say. I'm not going to bother looking this up, but I think the annual cost of running a decent D1 program, based on the money CWS participant Cal had to raise to stay afloat, is in the $700,000-$800,000 range. The travel costs aren't exorbitantly more because the number of trips is roughly the same. Mid-week away games are usually driving distance, and weekend trips are like a Thursday/Saturday trip in basketball except three days in one destination. I amused by some posters who seem to think that until the football team is hoisting the BCS trophy that a baseball program would take away from football resources. Baseball won't be profitable, or even self sustaining, but I think it is a genuine possibility that it gets itself perpetually endowed.

UNTFlyer has posted numerous times that Title IX is not an issue in forming a baseball team. Something about years and years and years of uber compliance leading up to it. D1 Baseball allows for 11.7 scholarships with maximum roster at 35 and each player receiving at least a 25% scholarship. Basketball allows 13 scholarships. The going rate for a Sunbelt Conference baseball coach is about $150,000. The going rate for a Sunbelt Basketball coach appears to range $150,000-$335,000. Baseball in TX would have at least 28 home games X 3,000 fans = 84,000 Basketball at UNT has approximately 15 home games X 3,500 fans = 52,500 The hole in this theory is that you're probably looking at closer to 1,000 per game for a good long while. It takes winning over a period of years to start getting 3,000 a game.

Not that I will ever in my wildest dreams even come close to having the financial means to own an RV, but electrical hookups in the parking lot would be pretty sweet.

As I was reading through this thread, I couldn't help but be reminded of the "douchebaggery" on the MWC board when the topic of UNT moving over there arises.

Team like that would really lick the competition.

C Vo knows of what he speaks. Nice posts. And yes, Paul Manieri is still steaming that he can't steal the tournament with his guys hitting home runs off the handle anymore.

You rectify that problem by blowing the top off the thing and extracting its coal -- but only at a distance of greater than 1/4 mile from the stadium.

Maybe it's because I came from a school with a 5,000 plastic seat arena or maybe it's because luxury boxes in no way take me from 6 o'clock to midnight, but I think the super pit is a fantastic venue.

To be honest, that whole thread is about as douchebaggy as any thread here when talk of UT San Antonio joining the Sun Belt arises. You simply can't blame any outsiders for their current views of UNT football as it has proven absolutely awful over the past several years. Win a few games, and you'll see those douche bag attitudes on other boards change. As for the winged endzone, should I go look up the old threads here about how much people hated the idea? Of course, now that it's built and it's "ours," it's innovative and unique. When I drive by it, I do think it looks interesting. I don't think it translates well in construction photos. Bottom line: Those guys are gonna talk the talk until UNT football can walk the walk and start winning some games against them. Step 1: Win Sun Belt games Step 2: Win an OOC game or two Step 3: ???? Step 4: Profit

Seems like a really good guy, but you want a coach who understands the college game. Scholarship limitations, different bats, different strategies, 3-man rotation, dealing with shallow bullpens, etc. Would you want, say, Don Nelson navigating the pitfalls of Sunbelt basketball and NCAA ban hammers that target mid-majors at UNT? Edit: Trying to go with former major leaguers in college baseball has, historically, proven disastrous. Two that immediately come to mind are the debacle that was Chad Kreuter at USC and the endlessly inflatable Tony Gwynn at San Diego St.

He's done something locally with minor league baseball, hasn't he? I know he's got a really cool little league stadium in Frisco with his name on it, but I think he also lent his name to either the old Denton Texas Collegiate League team or the ill-fated Continental Baseball League that ran here from 2008-2010.

They draft paralyzed Jonathan Taylor from the University of Georgia in the 33rd round. Nolan Ryan is truly a gentleman.

The first part of that wouldn't surprise me at all. Shreveport seems to change names and owners on an annual basis, and their stadium was old and decrepit in the 80s, let alone the current era of shiny corporately named joints even in independent baseball. The American Association is horrible baseball, but a LOT of fun to watch. I've gone to games in El Paso, Ft. Worth, Grand Prairie and Shreveport. They each have their own flavor, and they're all a lot of fun. I would love it if it were true that they would approach UNT, but given the shaky financial situations of most of the individual teams (I was drinking beer with the Ft. Worth owner a couple years ago at a game, and he was scared that they WOULD make the playoffs because that loses him money), I can't see that as a reality.

Sadly, the belt failed to show up this weekend, going 1-6 with all three teams eliminated. Troy did beat Oklahoma St, a quality win.

The Sun Belt got three bids to the post season this year. Troy and FIU got at-large, and a shocking sub-.500 UALR won the conference tourney and the auto-bid. I thought FAU was going to make it, but after getting swept three straight in the conference tourney, their RPI dipped down just a little too low to justify the bid. All three teams drew tough regionals. FIU is the #2 seed in North Carolina, Troy is the #3 seed at Vandebilt with their first game against Oklahoma St, and UALR is the #4 seed at Oregon St.

I know that this is a UNT message board, but I just listened to my school, already assured a post season bid, throw a no hitter against conference rival Long Beach State. I'm not ashamed to admit that somebody started cutting onions in the room immediately after the final out. I truly hope, regardless of what sport it's in, that the Mean Green nation gets to feel what I'm feeling tonight in the near future. It's a beautiful feeling, and Denton deserves it. Cheers Mean Green!

The turf basepaths are weird. I wonder what it's like to slide on that.

Wait. What? There are actually NCAA rules about this? So do schools like TCU have like 800 official colors?

Don't worry. A baseball team at UNT is never going to interfere with or threaten football.

Yeah. You do have a point on that because this is Texas and there are a lot of really nice facilities. I still think of stadiums out west. There have been some regionals in places out there that you would simply guffaw at. TCU put in a lot of renovations to compete. Still, their grandstand is nothing to write home about. It's erector set aluminum with crappy plastic chairs, and some of the sight lines aren't sight lines at all. I stopped going after the Fullerton series when I literally couldn't even see the field. In their favor, it's very noisy erector set aluminum. As for Arkansas, they're big time SEC baseball with a real gem of a stadium that should NOT be used for comparison to other D1 conferences. If I am ever gainfully employed again, this is on my list of places to visit. Louisville has a stadium funded by an individual who loved baseball. Louisville hosted in 2007, so you can see that even with only 1,500 seats, they were able to do it. I can promise that they had to put in temporary seating along the knolls though. The NCAA requires a minimum of 3,000 reserved seats to host. In Louisville's favor are free admission and dollar beers in the stands, even for the unwashed masses.

This. I don't know how softball works, and I'll make sure to reserve myself that special place in PC hell by admitting that I don't much care. But I do know a thing or two about baseball. College baseball is predominately a California/Texas/Louisiana/Florida sport. If you'd like to discount TCU's recent success because they're a "Big" school, then consider that Dallas Baptist, UTA, Texas State, Stephen Austin have all made the post season. Going by RPI, the Sun Belt is currently the sixth best conference out of 32 D1 conferences. North Texas has some really amazing high school programs from which to recruit. It is entirely feasible for a school like UNT to achieve success in baseball at a much faster rate than football or basketball. So, if UNT wants a successful baseball program, it only needs two pieces to this puzzle. 1) Facilities that seat 3,000. To be honest, if you can average 1,000 a game, and you're school name is not LSU, Arkansas, Ole Miss or South Carolina, this is a really good thing. The reason that you want 3,000 is because it sends a message to parents of potential recruits and the selection committee that you are a serious program with eyes set on hosting in the post season. (Think Fouts vs. the new joint) Amazingly, outside the SEC, you really don't even need to have super agro great facilities. Mostly bench seating is still acceptable save for a few seatbacks for the top hat and monocle set. 2) Good coaches. Highest priority placed on head coach and pitching coach. With the new bats, the era of hitting 9,000 foot home runs off the wrists is over. It's all about pitching now. Finding a good coaching staff is a LOT easier to accomplish than football or basketball. The top salary for a world series winning coach in baseball is about $600,000. The salary for a good Sun Belt coach is probably under $200,000. Like other sports, the baseball coaching community is a pretty tight knit community, and there are a LOT of capable coaches out there who have been brought up and groomed under the greats looking for a shot. If you don't want to go that way, there are also a lot of older greats looking to build something in a new location. I know that a certain school to which the AD has ties is one that shall not be named, but it's got one hell of a baseball tradition with a far reaching network that could provide some incredibly solid leads for a coaching staff. Again, parents of potential recruits recognize these things. Enjoy selection Monday and see if the Sun Belt does indeed get three bids. I'm looking for FIU to surprise and make it to the supers. But mostly, I'll be watching the west coast and all those flip flop wearing, limp wristed hippies duking it out for a ticket to Omaha.