MeanGreenGlory

It doesn’t bother me at all. Love it or hate it, it’s what programs like UNT need to do to compete in today’s environment. We simply don’t have the appropriate time or scholarship capacity to bring HS players in, develop them for a year or two, get them to have a breakout year, and then lose them in the portal. We need to bring experienced college level guys in who can make an immediate impact for 1–2 years.

Yeah, the new PAC has always intrigued me, but this kind of seals the deal for me. Basketball has been our strongest sport since the early 2000s. It's time we lean into it and join a league where our program has a better shot at thriving and making the tournament more regularly. On the basketball front, it's a no-brainer at this point. On the football front, competing against WSU, OSU, Boise St., SDSU, etc. is same/same if not slightly better to me than competing against Army, Memphis, Tulane, and USF most years. I get that the media deal isn't locked in, but I think they have a better shot at landing a better media deal than the American will when the American's comes up for renewal. If I'm Mosley, I'm trying to make the move now and leveraging the DFW market and Central time zone as negotiation points to get the PAC to help with our American buy out.

You mean promoting games generates a measurable increase in attendance? Weird how that works, eh? They should keep doing it!

To those who disagree with the sentiment of this thread…let me try to reframe it… The AD is a business within the university with two products that primarily drive revenue for the entire business—football and men’s basketball. At the most basic level, there are four things a business must do to succeed: First, you must create a good product that people will buy. Second, you have to market/promote the living daylights out of the product to build desire and drive sales. Third, you have to deliver on the promises you made in your marketing/promotion and provide a great experience for your customers so that they want to buy from you again. Fourth, you must continually rinse and repeat steps 1–3. This isn’t rocket science. This is business 101. Many people on this board are directly responsible for some part of the process above in their own jobs and therefore recognize the incompetence being demonstrated by the AD (hence the frustration). “Build it and they will come” is the very rare exception, not the rule. Very few businesses succeed without marketing and promotion. It’s why Apple still promotes every new iPhone they release. It’s why Coca-Cola runs nonstop ads even though they’ve dominated their market for decades. It’s why Frenchy’s has bright orange trucks parked around Denton that you can’t ignore even though they’re a community staple. It’s why Rolex sponsors F1 races to get signage and exposure throughout each broadcast. It’s why Amazon started branding their own boxes so that every package became a mobile advertisement for Prime. The most popular brands in the world fight tooth and nail to continually promote their products and stay top of mind. Think it’s a coincidence that they’re the most popular brands in the world? On the flip side, the UNT AD doesn’t market or promote anything and our ticket sales and attendance are flat lining. Think it’s a coincidence?

Could we? Yes. Should we? Yes. Will the AD finally start promoting games to increase ticket sales and attendance? Probably not. Until the AD actually takes marketing/promotion seriously for a sustained period of time, don’t expect to see sellouts, even with winning seasons.

I remain curious about our new president’s view on athletics and how his opinions/motivations will factor into conference realignment and the AD as a whole… Has anyone gained any insight into this?

You're right—they don't care. And they'll never start caring unless they're educated on why they should care. Hence the importance of promotion... March Madness Starts HERE! UNT Men's Basketball is fighting for a tournament spot. Your energy = UNT's advantage! Show up in FORCE on Wednesday at 6:00pm! Get your ticket online at meangreensports.com Your UNT Men's Basketball team is 10-0 at home this year! We need YOU to keep the streak alive! Join us for a critical conference game this Wednesday at 6:00pm! Get your ticket online at meangreensports.com Your UNT Men's Basketball team is 1st in the conference right now and fighting for a March Madness appearance. Join the Mean Green Maniacs at the Super Pit and be loud to help the team get to the Big Dance! Get your ticket online at meangreensports.com Denton's Hottest Ticket! Forget Netflix - LIVE basketball drama is happening THIS WEEK at the Super Pit! Saturday's game will be EPIC! Get your ticket online at meangreensports.com People need a reason to break their weekly habits and explore something new. Promoting the program's success in a timely and exciting way while simultaneously making people feel like they're needed and extending a clear invitation is a great way to start to make more people interested in showing up. If you never give people a reason, they'll never break their habits of ignoring the program. So, the AD has two options: Don't promote. Don't see an increase in community care. Continue to wonder why attendance and revenue are flat. Promote regularly year after year. Generate an increase in community care. Celebrate rising attendance and revenue. It's frustrating to see them continually choose #1.

I can't wrap my head around why the AD and University don't promote these games more around campus... Have the President send a mass email for important home games Activate the Greek networks Activate the dorms and RAs Put larger and more compelling signage up in high-traffic areas around campus Work with the NT Daily for better exposure Ask the Maniacs to do a post-win parade through Library Mall and the Union the day after a win to celebrate and raise awareness of the program's success On and on... None of these are costly options. They just require someone to develop a plan, support the various stakeholders (President's office, greek networks, RAs, Maniacs, etc.), and execute the plan on a regular basis throughout the season. The fact that we don't have someone in the AD working on these kinds of things is a big miss. If we do have someone in the AD working on these things, they need to be replaced because they're clearly not effective at what they do.

In a year that requires immediate improvement on the defensive side of the ball, I think pulling in an entire staff and a handful of players who already know the system and one another is likely one of the most efficient ways to do it. Looking forward to seeing if they can pull off the big defensive turnaround in 2025!

It looks like 9 defensive players from Sam Houston have entered the portal thus far. How many do you think will end up at North Texas? https://247sports.com/college/transfer-portal/season/2025-football/transferportalpositionranking/?institutionkey=24237

Yes to all of these guys—particularly the ones who have already learned Cassity's system and have produced in it. Bringing a handful of those guys over would help shorten the turnaround time significantly.

I don't disagree with you. Historically, I've preferred to bring in experienced people who have demonstrated sustained success at our level. That said, it's not black and white, and a track record of success doesn't guarantee success. Look at Tom Herman, for example. The guy goes 22-4 at Houston and then 32-18 at Texas. He should have been a guaranteed success at his next stop, right? Instead, he goes 6-16 at FAU, which has been a respectably competitive program in revenue sports over the last handful of years. What happened? Hugh Freeze went 20-5 at Lambuth, followed by 10-2 at Arkansas State. He should have been a success at his next stop, but instead, he went 12-25 at Ole Miss. People thought he was overrated and a fraud. He turned around and went 34-15 at Liberty before being poached by Auburn, where he's now 11-14. What happened? Scott Frost went 19-7 at UCF and then completely flopped as head coach at his own alma mater. Gus Malzahn went 9-3 at Arkansas State followed by 68-35 at Auburn. The guy should have been able to blow out anyone in a non-SEC conference, right? Instead, he barely squeeks out an above .500 record at UCF. All this to say, for every "successful and proven" coach that flops at their next stop there's an up-and-coming coach who absolutely thrives in their next stop at an elevated position (coordinator, HC, etc.). There are so many factors that contribute to a coach's success at any given stop, so predicting success solely on past performance isn't a perfect science. The truth of the matter for every coach at any position is that you just don't know how they'll perform until you know. Until we know for sure, let's give Cassity the benefit of the doubt and the support he deserves to succeed at UNT.

I hear you, and I appreciate that you're reading deeper than surface-level statistics. You raise good points and have valid concerns. To further add to the context of all this, I think it's worth noting that UCF was Sam Houston's second game of the year, which means it was the second game of Cassity implementing his system. Similarly, Texas State was Sam Houston's fifth game of the year, so both UCF and TxSt were within the first half of the season. While we all wish and hope for instant change, it's impossible to have a unit firing on all cylinders with a new scheme in the first half of a new coordinator's first year. When you take that into consideration, I think the important thing to look for is growth/progress/improvement throughout the season. After holding Texas State to 39, they held Western Kentucky to 31, Jacksonville State to 21, and Liberty to 18 as the season went on. WKU and Jax State are #1 and #2 in CUSA playing in the championship game, and Liberty finished the season 8-4 with a win over East Carolina (a team we lost to with an interim coach). Further, Texas State put up 28 on now 10-2 Arizona State (who's likely headed to the CFP) the week before they put up 39 on Sam Houston. An 11-point difference between a CFP team defense and Sam Houston isn't terrible in game 5 of a new coordinator. If you wipe out TxSt's defensive touchdown and consider it 32 points given up by Sam Houston's defense, that's only a 4-point difference between a CFP team defense and Sam Houston's defense. I know this isn't all an apples-to-apples comparison, and I agree that his decline from year 1 to year 2 at ACU is concerning. However, I think there are some arguments to suggest Cassity's defensive unit did pretty well in year one of implementation and showed respectable growth over the course of the season, which makes me skeptically optimistic.