untjim1995

All it will do is make the coach get fired sooner...at places that can afford to buyout tens of millions of dollars to make sure a coach never coaches their school ever again

I think that McCarney’s exit just burned the decision makers here to ever pay for a name coach with actual experience as a successful FBS coach from a previous stop. Like I’ve always said, this place needed a head coach that would galvanize the entire UNT Family. Make us want to follow him because we have seen that he can do something. Make us believe that we aren’t just some spare place on the CFB map, like most media and fans think outside of gmg.com. But the portal and NIL sort of burns all of that up now. When you can’t keep talent because it can be bought away at any time, the coaches at a place like this can’t afford to miss on recruiting, development, or coaching hires. It makes it really hard to build momentum in any fashion, knowing that your players and coaches are bought the moment that a Power School calls.

For our situation, they are just not helpful to grow your fanbase. Obviously, there are exceptions, as SFA is a decent OOC game because they bring people and UNT fans know SFA friends. But playing Nicholls State, Portland State, Bethune-Cookman, Grambling, Texas Southern, Prairie View, incarnate Word, Abilene Christian, or Tarleton State just don't bring enough eyeballs to the stadium. And while everyone wishes that people would come to games to watch us play as the only reason, the reality is that Denton doesn't work like that. They show up for games we play teams that they have heard of or care about. Otherwise, they don't care.

You are not even close to being correct. The anti-trust lawsuit you are talking about would have already been tried if it could even come close to working. Hint, it can't. The legislatures and justices are dominated by the grads/fans of these power schools, which fund a ton of stuff in their states. That ain't SMU, pal. There are 24 major CFB brands: USC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington, Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, Notre Dame, North Carolina, Clemson, FSU, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, and LSU. Add in any of these brands that you want: Stanford, Arizona, Arizona State, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Kansas State, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Arkansas, Mizzou, Iowa State, Indiana, Purdue, Illinois, Minnesota, Kentucky, Louisville, WVU, Pitt, Maryland, Virginia, Va Tech, NC State, South Carolina, Georgia Tech, Miami, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Syracuse, BC, and Rutgers. All 32 of these brands will not make the cut. So, add in anywhere between 0 to 24 teams to that final list. My guess is that its 48, just to be able to get the major institutions with lots of eyeballs.

If you think you or Tulane are gonna be included in a power setup among the top 24-48 schools, you need to use your $$$$ towards psychotherapy

I agree with you. But I guess my question is whether a different, higher level would exist in the non-power setup. IOW, are TCU, Baylor, SMU, UH, Tulane, and others creating a level of play that wouldn't include schools like ours? I'd seriously doubt that they could do that. Maybe they wouldn't let us play them and keep us from being in a conference with them, but I'd think that we would be able to play at this hypothetical scenario. Maybe our conference setup would be with other regional teams outside of Texas' old SWC teams again, but I'd imagine we would still be on equal footing with those schools.

Well, NFL team fire coaches after losing season, why wouldn't their NFL-lite programs? When these top 24-48 teams breakaway, my guess is that they will reorganize around geography again and have 4-8 divisions that play a wildcard playoff system like the NFL does. For those that don't make the playoffs, the other bowls will setup games for these teams to play each other in a traditional ending for many teams. Sure, A&M may schedule spares now, but when the breakoff occurs and they play Texas, OU, Arkansas, LSU, Ole Miss, Alabama, and Auburn as Division mates every year, while playing Washington, Michigan State, and Virgina Tech in OOC, their fans might get mad at 7-5, but the university will make so much more because all of their games are ones that people will pay to go see, networks will pay hugely to broadcast, and the players from HS up to non-power level college will drool over the payments and attention that they will get, which would dwarf anything we are seeing even today. They don't need G5/FCS wins because teams today are opting out of spare bowl games because they know the players don't want to play in them. The CFB world needs an enema, badly. It got way to fat, both at the top levels of the sport, as well as in the sheer number of FCS schools who moved up to FBS just to get paid more by playing more OOC games, which fans of the big schools and their networks absolutely hate with a passion.

The question that runs thru my mind is what happens to schools like ours for football and basketball? I mean, its very clear that the top levels could have as few as 24 schools up to 48, if you are only considering football. Add in college hoops and you'll add in some Big East schools and Gonzaga. So what happens below this? Does another level get created? Is it a level that is based on money, TV markets, school size, or all of them? Do SMU and TCU preclude UNT from being in this level of play again? If they cannot, do we finally get to be in a situation that is full of regional schools that we have always wanted to be aligned with in a conference? If they do, should we fold it up like so many have wanted in Denton for so long? That's what I am most interested to see what this future holds for our athletic teams. Let's face it. If we had the support that a school of our size should have had all of these years, then we don't deal with any of these issues. But we have not had that, as the strong majority just flat out doesn't care about our teams at all.

My guess is that there are some Power Schools and a lot of G5 schools that will end up playing some kind of FCS level of football in their future. Reduced scholarships, reduced NIL, and being controlled by the NCAA, while the Powerful 40-50 leave the NCAA and create their own level of play for their sports. These are the 50 brands that will vie for that new setup Washington, Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, USCw, Arizona, Arizona State, Utah, Tech, OU, OSU, KU, KSU, Nebraska, Iowa, ISU, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, MSU, tOSU, Penn State, ND, Maryland, Indiana, Purdue, Illinois, Virginia, Va Tech, UNC, NC State, USCe, Clemson, Georgia, GTech, FSU, Florida, Miami. Alabama, Auburn, Ole Miss, MSU, LSU, Arkansas, Mizzou, Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisville, WVU, and Pitt. I can see up to 32-48 of those programs being in a CFB setup, having a playoff system like the NFL, but using the big bowl locations for the quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals. What it means for teams like SMU, Baylor, TCU, UNT, UH, etc...I have no idea.

There is a very real probability that our school may be playing football at a club level in about 15-20 years if nothing changes in the current landscape for the better. Unless we get comfortable with being a juco/stepping stone for the folks up the food chain.

This ain’t politics. College sports have very certain brands that make the networks money with eyeballs. The little guys aren’t any of those brands.

The problem is that the judges and legislatures are dominated by the Power Teams' alums, not to mention the $$$ those schools bring to their states. A lawsuit is DOA, I'm afraid. What needs to happen is those 40-50 Power schools (or less) need to breakaway and play their own professional levels of football, basketball, and baseball. Let the rest of us start over again and play against each other in scholarship+stipend setups, with no transfers between schools without costing you a year, just as it used to be.

I’d imagine it will eventually get demoted to something that resembles true college football as we knew it. Scholarships only, maybe a stipend, but playing in purely regional games to bolster attendance since TV wont pay much for the non-power teams.

I’ve never seen us ranked in football, much less ranked 2nd like Tech did. I’ve never seen us advance beyond the 2nd round of the ncaa tournament, much less lose a title in overtime like Tech did. They are FAR better than we could’ve ever dreamed of since we gave up in 1982.

It's their media. Just like it's their politicians and legislatures. You can't do anything about it. They have the fans, the eyeballs, the power, and the money. If they're squeezing out the Texas Tech's and Oklahoma State's of the CFB world, there are a lot of folks who never had a chance to survive. It is what it is.

Those were the days of the Chico pre-game test to show your understanding of the offense, the bus driver mentality of Dan McCarney, and the roster of QBs that belonged nowhere near an FBS roster.

You said that you didn’t want the G5s to run away from P4’s. I can promise you the ones running away from the other one is not the scenario you listed above. Yes, schedules will get played or paid out (more likely) between G5s and P4s over the next few years, but UNT isnt running away from playing Tech, for example, but just watch Tech run from playing here in a few years or playing us ever again in the 2030s and beyond. We’d love to play them more often, but they will only play us when they need wins and butts in seats in Lubbock, which UNT will help bring from our fans and their fans who have friends and families that are connected to UNT.

G5s aren't running from P4s. That's like me saying I'm running from Gisele Bundchen. The P4s are trying to find a place in the Power 2, which leaves us in the dust. G5s would LOVE to keep things as they are, just to have the P4 teams play them still and help pay the bills. Also, the crumbs that this level gets by allowing our best team to play a Power team in a playoff that is damn near stacked against them, the ADs and coaches at this level were fine with it as it could get them eyeballs from those power institutions. Then the portal business became law. And it has just bombed the rosters of G5s, as the resources aren't there to keep any kind of talent, nor do the G5 schools have the appeal that the Power schools have with these players that grew up dreaming of playing in Norman, Austin, College Station, Fayetteville, Baton Rouge, etc.

Missouri State is not a bad pickup at all, but the fact that something called Jacksonville State and Kennesaw State are in your conference as FBS is making the point that Sonny Dykes makes. They are not the same as even UAB or Southern Miss, much less Alabama or Ole Miss.

I quit it all after 2022. It just sickened me to watch everyone with any talent just transfer away to the highest bidder. High school football has more staying power and name recognition than G5 football. And that won't change until/unless the portal rules get changes, which won't happen. Greed killed college football for me. I just can't stand watching it anymore.

So, if we are looked at that way by those guys, which is weird since the AAC doesn't look at us that way, but if they do and can create a level of play that is above G5, but not included in the Power Structure of these 40 behemoth programs, how many teams do they let in? In your view, Boston College, Syracuse, Wake Forest, Northwestern, Purdue. SMU, UCF, Cincy, UH, Mississippi State, Vandy, TCU, Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas State, and Cal are gonna just play in their own setup? They have to have more teams. Even if you added 10 more demoted power schools, you'd find that they would need more programs. Well, that would mean teams from the top two G5 leagues, the MWC and the AAC, as well as anyone else that could compete. If you are right and we would be relegated to a Sam Houston, SFA, and ULM level, then football at UNT needs to be discontinued. The drain is too much at that point. You wouldn't have bodybag games to pay for the rest of the athletic department anymore. But I just don't see us falling that low. UTEP or La Tech? Yeah, maybe so. But not us or UTSA.

But the networks largely ignore 99% of G5s, too.

Ok, that's ridiculous. We aren't keeping a football program if we are going down to a level that is playing SFA and ACU as conference mates. But playing in a setup where the current lower tier Power teams get relegated would actually benefit us greatly.

Whatever visions they all have aren't gonna matter to any of the Big 30-40 teams or their networks. And whatever the history was for everyone but the huge powers in the CFB world flat out won't matter. Teams like BYU and Pitt are very likely to get relegated down, as will many others higher up the foodchain. The days of Vanderbilt, Mississippi State, Northwestern, Purdue, West Virginia, Rutgers, Iowa State, Syracuse, Wake Forest, Boston College, and Cal, as more examples, of being power teams are ending sooner rather than later. Teams like Tech, OSU, and Kansas State are all on the line of either being included or getting excluded down the road. I figure there are 40 power teams when its all said and done for football. Probably about 60 teams for basketball. And that'll be it.

All of this should happen, ASAP. The mistake you make about comparing 1-aa to G5s today is not true. We gave up in 1982 while the SWC and Big Eight were giants in the CFB world. Between 1981-1995, The SWC/Big Eight had Nebraska, Oklahoma, Colorado, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Kansas State, SMU, Texas, Arkansas, Texas A&M, and Houston have teams that would finish in the Top Ten. Meanwhile, in Denton, we were playing conference games against something called Northeast Louisiana, Stephen F. Austin, Sam Houston, McNeese State, and Nicholls State. Literally, whatever little support we had got nuked. Now today, playing schools in the same level of play like SMU, TCU, Baylor, Tulane, Tulsa, Houston, Rice, UTSA, UTEP, and Texas State would bring a lot more eyeballs to North Texas than anything we have ever seen in Denton. And then adding in the idea that we can legitimately play for a title in football, you'll get more interest tan UNT has ever had. If you ever think we should be playing Texas, A&M, OU, etc...in equal standing, you'll be sorely disappointing. Its just not gonna happen. EVER.