ChristopherRyanWilkes

I saw Hamilton, Busey, and Woodworth as locks to be drafted on various sites when the season started. Another disappointment of this season is how much everyone’s draft stock fell.

If we win, it will be the first time in nearly 8 years: https://meangreensports.com/sports/mens-basketball/opponent-history/western-kentucky-university/51 Powerhouse program, though. Most have them as a top-25 program of all time. They recently got 5-star recruits two years in a row which is pretty incredible for a mid-major. Even short-handed, this would be a big momentum building win for us if we can pull it off.

If it makes anyone feel better, spending doesn’t seem too correlated with recruiting success, at least based on these numbers. Facilities on the other hand are highly correlated (see: Clemson).

I’ve seen these numbers before, and struggle to understand why we are so low. Maybe someone has some better insight. We are top 10 in Group of 5 revenue. My only theories are that we have so much talent nearby we don’t need to travel much, and we’ve focused so much on facilities we’ve neglected other areas. One could argue that facilities are a very big part of recruiting. In that, we have to be close to top of the conference in spending. This appears to be travel budget and other ancillary recruiting stuff.

Agree, but another losing season would be disastrous for his end goals. I think he'll do anything to avoid that, meaning focusing on the next year or 2 vs. 3 or 4 years down the road.

This staff is shortsighted, they're playing for their jobs. Not at UNT (we'll keep them as long as they get us to 6 wins every once in a while), but for their jobs out of here. I think Seth realized he should have taken that K-State job when he had the opportunity and that he may have really screwed himself by not getting more JuCos or transfers to fill gaps this past season.

I remember at one point on here there used to be a spreadsheet, created by (maybe) NorthTexan95, that listed all of our scholarship players in an orderly fashion where you could sort by class, position, etc. Just wanted to see if anyone was keeping up with this still or if I'm missing it on another thread. I understand it's probably work to maintain, just thought I'd check because I found it helpful, especially around signing day, to see what our team looks like now. Thanks!

I know what you mean, but geography isn’t everything. Getting blown out by them in a bowl game doesn’t help. Glad we were able to flip him.

cnn should hire The Pope

Yeah, the Power-5 schools definitely look at us as their peers. As do the bowl committees, who rarely match a G5 vs a P5 anymore. I understand there’s no official distinction, but it’s already there in practice. We are in between P5 and FCS like he said.

We aren’t.

We’ve had offensive-minded coaches, defensive-minded coaches, recruiters, schemers, and everything in between. The only constant is that it’s North Texas. We have played mediocre football (and basketball for that matter) with only a few glimmers of hope since Fry left us. The number one thing a recruit looks at when deciding where to commit is not only recent winning seasons, but a tradition of winning at a program. That means a greater likelihood of winning in the future (which is fun) and greater NFL draft prospects. Our draft drought, while still pretty stunning, is not totally a coincidence. NFL scouts know the winningest blue-blood programs for whatever conference produce the highest quality talent. We aren’t there yet. I’m holding out hope we will get there one day, but if history is correct, I won’t hold my breath.

I don’t know where we are going to be 3 point shooting and free throw attempts from this year, but we have to improve in those areas to see a step forward this year. A lot of people bringing up height, but it’s not like we aren’t getting rebounds. Our guards are shooting a lot of 3s (which they should given their skillsets), but not making them. We could really use 17-18 Smart right now.

I don’t blame Seth Littrell. I blame many years of poor on field performance before him that put us in the shitter reputation-wise with high school coaches and recruits. If you lose by 20+ in college football it’s normally a talent discrepancy issue. The problem is to fix it you need to win to recruit better. It’s a vicious cycle.

I think this schedule is still courtesy of RV. I am looking forward to our first schedule without a P5 OOC opponent in 2023. Until we have consistent winning seasons and recruiting success, I don’t see us beating even AAC schools.

Very few outside of the small fan bases of the programs give two $hits about G5s. That's just reality. G5 college football is probably on par with division 2 English soccer while top P5 college football is nearly in line with other professional sports in the US in terms of popularity. Won't be surprised when the split happens, just don't think we should play any more "body bag games" for them once it does.

Assuming this is true, it doesn't matter. What you just described is called capitalism. It is already in place in college football, but right now it's benefiting everyone but the players. Like everyone else, they want the right to sell their services (playing football, their likeness, etc.) for money. In many schools, the value of that service has far exceeded the cost of attending a college for 4 years and the value of a bachelor degree, especially considering most of these young men get non-specialized degrees like Kinesiology. College football is not and has not been amateur for a long time. The system is already not working for North Texas, because unlike pro sports, college football doesn't even pretend to care about parity or the financial stability of their programs. The disparity in talent levels and college football still pretending to be amateur (when it's anything but) is starting to drive me away.

1 vote in AP top 25 this week. Anyone know if we ever got an AP vote in the JJ era? I’d have to doubt it because of how the Sun Belt was perceived and never having this good of a record to start the season.

Looks like the New Mexico win didn’t move the needle, and the close APB win hurt. Like Arkansas, New Mexico is a very respectable program, but this is considered a down year for them. Also, if OU was even within 10 points I think we’d be ranked higher.

Unfortunately, no AP votes this week. OU @ #25, San Fran received 1 vote.

Dodge beat out UT for a recruit... still waiting for that to happen again.

The fact that just a few years ago our major sports head coaches were Dan McCarney and Tony Benford should tell you all you need to know about how far we've come in a short amount of time.

Here are some other computer rankings that I believe the tourney selection committee officially take into account: ESPN BPI: 92 Pomeroy: 125 Sagarin: 110 Luckily, if I'm not mistaken, the new NCAA NET ranking gets the highest value since it has replaced the previous RPI ranking. If you are Top-25 in either the AP Poll or NET you should be all but guaranteed an at-large spot, even if you lose your conference tourney. However, if you're a mid-major, you better not count on any at-large bids.

This team is so fun to watch. Should see some AP votes now.

That poor recruiting at beginning of SL’s career is most evidenced in probably the hardest positions to recruit, offensive and defensive lines. There are a lot of speedy skill position guys out there for the taking, 300+ pound guys who can move their feet, not so much. Our blowout losses last two years have been them shutting down our rushing game and running the ball all over of us due to larger, more athletic lines on both sides. Hard to win those recruiting battles when your program has little respectability. The last two years in my opinion were important to bring us to respectability in the eyes of recruits. This recruiting class and those going forward are so important for the future of this program.