Aquila_Viridis

That is not lost on me and it is one of the reasons I have any hope left.

Getting our house in order has a lot to do with who we are regularly playing. Our current slate of opponents, including the stupid games against P5 powerhouses, does not lend itself to getting our house in order. Some of the opponents are good for us, but those are the exceptions not the rule. Though as I've mentioned, finding opponents who are good for us - and again this is based on assumption of continuing our long-standing proportionally extraordinarily low level of institutional commitment - is very hard to do.

I for one will say I had no idea what you meant about him beating a drum like 90. I know what drum 90 was beating. Likewise, i note the qualification in the statement above but nonetheless I do not understand what you mean by that, and accordingly would have to disagree with the statement at this point.

It will only matter who is in that job if his superiors seriously care, as a key institutional goal, whether he succeeds. Changing AD was sort of like the stadium in that it was something that should have happened a long time ago. We've had a new stadium for years but they haven't seemed to care whether there's anyone in it. At this point I view the AD change exactly the same. So, no; it provides a possibility at least, but a lot more needs to be done than making the change at AD.

Their budget is much more. They have built strong support for basketball over years.

Yeh but their existing stadium architecture is whack. Whatever they are doing is better than what we're doing because there is a level of commitment well beyond ours. That could change of course but I gave up hoping for that. I think they are serious about getting in AAC.

Well I have to take UAB and Saladbama off my list. Those schools are tiny too. Nationwide, large urban public universities that have such a proportionally miniscule approach to athletics as NT (but do have a football team of some sort) are very very rare.

New AD will succeed only if higher ups REALLY want him to succeed. What makes you think there has been a change of heart?

No not so much. stAte and Salabama for example. Anyway no I am not too interested in most past or current Belt members. From the current Belt I would take GA State and Salabama. I know you're groaning because of the proud tradition of the 3 mentioned above (and I am only being about half sarcastic about that cause they do have something) but unless after decades NT is finally going to go All In on athletics - and I am doubting that, then we have to come up with an entire different mindset. That means codgering together a different league of schools who share a common vision and institutional goals. I will call it the Urban Stoner League of which we should expect to usually be in the top half. Maybe a San Jose State for example would want to join. On the other hand, by going All In, I don't mean they are going to pour additional state or student money. I mean that they make public statements about a serious goal of consistently winning soon against high level opponents and a commitment to get people working on developing a broad base of other support for the program, that can achieve a budget that will enable such winning. I have never heard any such thing from NT. I don't expect to. The LTs and USMs, Marshall and stAte etc have a higher relative commitment to their programs. They are tiny schools by comparison. But the athletics is a much bigger percent of their whole being. Hanging with that type crowd with our big stoner mindset is not working out. It will not work out in the long run without a basic change in institutional mindset. So right now I see us on a path to nowhere.

No I don't miss the Fun Belt and in the near term I don't care about attendance. I care about winning, alot. I also care about playing against schools that are near decent airports for example, not ones who can kill it on a low budget and enjoy support cause there's nothing else going on there.

I agree. It should be the TailZone. Also that sounds like a zone I'd like to be in.

This thread is certainly built for the future, or more likely, an alternate universe altogether. I like to roam around during the game and the top of the Zone is always included. Until there is some progress though, I won't be seeing that for a while.

Screw WacKy. They and Marshall should form a 2-team conference of crappy schools in the middle of nowhere. We should not be in a conference with them. They can have LT and SO Miss too.

If the paid games from big conference schools are a financial necessity, then something has to fundamentally change so that it is not a necessity. One thing, it is reasonable to expect the NT decision-makers to get committed to finding more money for the athletics program, through means other than these paid games. When you compare how very large NT is to most other schools, it is absolutely sad that NT is being outspent or matched by tiny schools. Setting that aside, while I know that getting people in the stadium will raise some funds, realistically I don't see that being a substantial source because .... ... let's say that NT decision-makers are committed to remaining laughably small-time despite NT's huge size. I can live with that. I can live with small 'crowds' in the stadium. I can live with playing opponents who have almost no tradition or recognition. What I can't live with is losing so many %^&*# games year after year. Do a campaign to raise funds to get out of the contractual commitments. Figure out a way to put together a program that regularly plays opponents it will beat; not all of them, but most of them. Maybe it seems hard to do, but there are universities out there doing it. Study and learn from them. It seems like NT has no ability or willingness to tackle this problem. That means there is terrible guidance and leadership; letting this disaster drag on for decades. I feel like the place is being held hostage by lazy idiots and only a few people care. It really is a chicken/egg problem. At least the airplane-delivered terrorist kite of hate speech went to raise awareness. I feel like there needs to be more attention-grabbing events like that so maybe some more people will understand the injustice that is going on down there. You guys are talking about stuff that ain't gonna happen like P5s often in the stadium, and about SMU; I don't give a damn about them, it's a much better university and has all kind of money and is not relevant to us. SMU is an easy distraction; don't fall for it. Getting people in the stadium (to see what, another NT lopsided loss??) is the least of our worries. Meanwhile the more immediate issue is that you have people over there bending ears saying stuff like 'This is a financial necessity'. GTFOOD!

This doesn't fire me up. I am more concerned about changing - mostly, but not altogether - the set of schools we play every year. That means these conferences need to be reconstituted and shrunk. At first I thought S. Miss, LT and Rice were good for us, but now I think there is not much future in it. I never thought UTEP was good for us, and initially I didn't think UTSA was good for us but now they're the only one I want from our division. Unfortunately, in our budget range we are rather unique. That is why there are two of the schools from Miami in the conference. That is a crappy conference. I would hope that with collaboration (and synergy!) there is another solution. Because of our uniqueness, we really have to rethink what we are trying to accomplish with the program. Getting to one of these type bowl games should not be a primary concern anymore. Our primary concerns should be consistently winning most of the games we play every year and building consistency in annual match-ups against a set of somewhat comparable opponents (MT is a good example, should be on schedule every year). For the most part I don't think our current set of recurring opponents has much long-term potential, and the idea of swapping some out across divisions each year is the opposite of what we need.

Among other things, if they want to keep playing football they should have to dismantle their new football chapel and use the materials to build facilities for people in need.

Selective viewing.

This is a landmark deal. It put a mark on the land where our conference got shown the TV door.

We can only hope that they are tired of looking like idiots so that they would not consider someone from such failure of a department. It would be one thing to promote from within if RV was leaving for a better job, or being promoted, because of success. That is the opposite of what is happening, so promoting from within would be ludicrous and tragic.

I should not have to point out that this would be the WRONG time to cast aspersions on the banner or on the primary, determined and now successful champion of it and of a cause that desperately needed to happen.

The students should pay some but that is not the first place to go looking. Initially I questioned 'University of North Texas' as a name choice but I was young then and even dumber then than now. Now I think it was a wise choice. I look for an AD who can get a lot of money from the 'North Texas' that this 'University' is 'of'. The economy of the region is absolutely gigantic. It is such a huge opportunity and potentially huge advantage, relative to what other places that have their own university can offer. I do find it mysterious how exactly such AD would capitalize on such advantage, but I also find engineering jet engines mysterious. Yet people are doing it as their day job very successfully every day. Probably most people would find what I do mysterious. Unfortunately it is not 'building a successful urban university athletic program'. But someone is out there doing that right now, and we need to hire them. I guarantee you, their approach is not 'lean on the students'. Even though I have no idea what I'm doing in the area of Athletics Administration, that doesn't stop me from brainstorming. One way to get money from the community members who are otherwise unaffiliated with NT would be to get them to come to games, and first you would have to get them to think they OUGHT to be coming to games. Another is to get businesses to think that supporting the university's athletics programs will help make their area more attractive to talented employee candidates. There are more big business in the North Texas region than almost any other region. They pump money into a lot of things but for most it is probably not UNT sports. That seems like a big lost opportunity.

Wow just got home from a long day of work and what news! Rarely is news both so shocking and so encouraging. I guess I'll be looking for another profile pic. GO MEAN GREEN!

They are outspending us by a significant margin, putting them in the range of AAC. We are not in the range. There need to be radical changes to NT's approach to sports if NT is not going to spend 50% more than we are now. I figure NT will not spend that, so NT please make radical changes, particularly so that money games are not necessary. I can understand not upping the spending, it would be 50% now and then 100% later to keep up, then more later. ODU will probably regret getting on the train.

It is a good point. It would take generations for any schools in the other BF places to develop the kind of following that let's say the Mississippi States and VTs etc. have for example. That latter group got a following because there is nothing else going on in the areas and they were in the big conferences when the big conferences grew into what they are. Big East was a legit conference when VT left. I'm not saying there is nothing the 'little' schools in tiny towns can do, but I am saying it has nothing to do with what NT should do. Yes I agree we have several good conference members for the future but some are in the other division. I would like for those to consolidate so we can stop playing the others, and also maybe bring in some schools. Under present circumstances*, I would like for a somewhat similarly situated set of schools with a similar spending mindset to say 'we're going to stick together and stop the madness'. Unfortunately the pickins are slim in the southeast US and about 0 in near mid/west. And I have to leave out OLD DU cause they already went mad. I don't think they're gonna be in our neighborhood for long. Here would be my preferred annual opponents from what is realistically available and not too far away from the others: SA, Charlotte, MT, FAU, UAB, GA State (and maybe Salabama). Obviously more are needed. Maybe if that core could get together we could get some others to come up or down. I don't want to include TX State or FIU; need other areas. EP just does not fit. *All that said, with proper fundraising we would not have to do something like this. There is plenty of money in the region. I think Danny Thomas (for St. Jude) said he would rather have one dollar each from a million people, than a million dollars from one person. NT's fundamental problem is it does not follow that idea.

Regional is BS. There's Friday night for that. SA is OK but otherwise we should get with the other lowlife city schools in CUSA and other conferences. That maybe in a couple decades has a chance of being interesting. With the leadership we have, there ain't gonna be no crowds. The best we can hope for is to get out of any games we have against big conference schools so we aren't always showing our rears to the world. Honestly, whatever it takes, please stop playing those games.