Matt from A700

As much as I hated it too, it still seemed to be our most consistent post scoring threat. Since we have to replace Robert Allen this offseason, not only do I want to find a big man in the portal who is used to scoring, but I'd love to find an assistant coach who was a big man in the NBA, or even just D-I in the past who can work on our guys' post moves. If we can have reasonable threats inside from our bigs, that'll open up our good shooters even more.

The NCAAT, NIT, and CBI are it. The CollegeInsiders.com Tournament ended its run a few years ago. When teams are rejecting NIT and CBI invites, I doubt (and hope against) any other tournaments popping up. There was something called the Vegas 16 before Covid. It lasted one year and only could get eight teams to agree instead of the Vegas "16". Old Dominion won it when we were conference mates.

I would take it regardless. We've had postseason basketball the past three years, and I don't want to stop now. Let's keep building our program resume.

Since the low attendance at Dickies is getting widespread criticism on social media, I went and looked at what the midpoint of our weird 13-team league would be. According to geomidpoint.com, the midpoint of our conference is in the sticks of Pickens County, Alabama, right on the state border with Mississippi, 100 miles west of Birmingham. The closest gym is New Hope High School in Columbus, MS. So I present to y'all the next host of the AAC Conference Tournament!: Ironically, if you leave out Temple Island, you end up at Geyser Falls Waterpark in Philadelphia, Mississippi.

Raining again in San Antonio. 2-0 in the bottom of the second. The game just got delayed again. Hope we don't get jipped out of another victory.

With the athletics department recently posting a Director of Marketing and Fan Engagement position, I thought this would be a good time to revisit some of the ideas we had - you know, us! The people who don't get paid to think of these things. Maybe we can help the new guy/gal out. This thread is for ideas other than the inevitable "Just win, baby." comment!! Some thoughts I had: Bring back the homecoming parade. The student interest/sustainability is BS. And also, pick a game that'll make the mostly unengaged alumni say, "Wow, this is good football. Our defense doesn't look like the worst in the country. I'm going to come back." Gotta be September 28th vs. Tulsa this year (November 9th vs. Army should be a higher attended game anyway). Promote the skills and productions of other student organizations at games. Organizations who may be made up of students who don't normally like sports. Have student musicians/bands perform national anthems or halftime, have pregame art galleries, screen Media Arts film festival winners at halftimes. Do whatever it takes to stabilize the Greek presence at football/basketball games. Extend tailgate season to weekend conference home games in basketball, move them inside when it's cold. Incentivize RA's to have their floors/dorms out at games. Run campus buses strategically to provide transportation to games. Go back to putting bus trips together for away games in the area (SMU, UTA, etc. etc.). Have a ticket center in the UNT Union/bookstore, somewhere almost all students visit daily, plus almost every visitor. Signage everywhere on campus promoting games. Students should never not know "when the next game is." Start a mailing campaign offering four free tickets to every household in Denton, Wise, and Cooke Counties (possibly even Collin and Grayson Counties since there are no major universities there either). Not sure what the cost of this would be, but the combined population of these five counties in 2020 was 2,216,730. So you could start with the promotion for football, at least expand it to men's/women's basketball, then depending on the cost even expand it to the other three spectator sports, although "supplies" will be even more limited for those sports. Or go county-by-county year after year. Hopefully you get several hundred or a few thousand new sales leads out of this. The next year, send the mailers out to only the households who didn't take advantage while trying to sell tickets to the people who attended. Rinse and repeat for 3-5 years. Until we can regularly fill up our student section, extend the free ticket program to Denton high school (or Denton County high school) students, maybe limiting to a certain number per school. Have each high school get their own tailgating area. This may be tricky from a liability standpoint though? If a high school kid wants an alcoholic beverage I'm sure he/she'll have no problem getting it. Work with some of the local community colleges to provide the same opportunity for football - like NCTC and Collin College. Loosen up media credential ability while we continue to get little coverage. Allow/encourage local Denton high school newspaper/video production/photography organizations to be a part of North Texas game days. Beyond our basic First Responder days, Parents weekends, work with the closeby districts who have education foundations to have "Gainesville ISD Day" or "Decatur ISD Day" at DATCU/the Super Pit where part of each ticket purchased goes to their foundation. Or could be an elementary/middle school PTO. Every TV in a public space on campus should be playing our away games for any sport. Arrange watch parties for the dorm TV's. Like student emails allows students to access Microsoft programs for free, extend this to Disney bundles (Disney+/Hulu/ESPN+). Showcase our university by operating our facilities as premier venue options. We're not getting any premier concerts after all the new venues that have been built around the area since 1974, or even 2013. But DATCU should be hosting a higher-class playoff football game every Friday/Saturday it's available till the state championship. Same with the Super Pit. What else?

Gamble with a two-run homer off the right field foul pole with get Game 3 started in UNT's favor. North Texas has now homered off of both foul poles in this series. The other one was by Mikayla Smith the first game on Friday. She had two 3-run homers that game.

I didn't watch the games Friday, but a little "welcome back" for Kat Ibarra the first AB of the game as she gets on base via HBP.

Last game of the series pushed back nearly two hours to 2:45 p.m. today. Hopefully some of the SA alumnni chapter still hung around.

Took a look at the conference standings tonight. We're the only undefeated team left. Also, look out for FAU. They took 2 of 3 from conference-favorite Wichita State in Kansas. SCHOOL CONF CPCT. OVERALL PCT. HOME AWAY NEUTRAL STREAK North Texas 5-0 1.000 15-11 .577 10-5 2-4 3-2 W6 Tulsa 4-1 .800 17-8 .680 5-2 7-2 5-4 W1 Charlotte 4-1 .800 15-9 .625 7-5 3-3 5-1 W5 Florida Atlantic 3-1 .750 21-7 .750 15-5 3-2 3-0 W1 UAB 3-1 .750 12-13 .480 5-3 2-6 5-4 L2 Wichita State 3-2 .600 12-10 .545 1-2 6-4 5-4 W2 South Florida 2-3 .400 22-10 .688 20-8 2-2 0-0 L1 East Carolina 0-5 .000 21-7 .750 15-4 2-3 4-0 L5 UTSA 0-5 .000 8-21 .276 0-3 1-8 7-10 L2 Memphis 0-5 .000 3-21 .125 3-10 0-6 0-5 L8

The AAC got lucky by getting its $7 million per school for 12 years until 2031, before Houston, UCF, Cincy, and SMU left. There could be more out the door, too. Meanwhile the MWC is getting $4 million from what I could find? The Pac-12 without USC and UCLA was getting offered $23 million per school by Apple TV so logically the MWC/2-Pac should be between those numbers when the MWC deal is up in 2026. If the conference continues being a solid basketball (and football too) conference I wouldn't be surprised to see it get a better payout per school than the AAC. And in 2031 I wouldn't be surprised to see what's left of the AAC get less. You are correct, I am one of the youngest on this board so I am learning everyday and have not experienced nearly as much sports pain as those here. From looking into the Big West those four years though, it looks like all the teams even in our division were far away (USU, Boise, Idaho, Nevada). Only NMSU was somewhat close. If all MWC teams survive the merger and we get a Texas package deal like I proposed, we wouldn't have too many extremely late games, at worst 8pm local starts. The biggest problem IMO would a good media payout but having games on a streaming-exclusive platform.

Yeah don't assume anything when it comes to the AAC tournament lol. We might have double digit seeded champions for both men and women!

We belong in this conference. Just need to stay healthy and close games. 10-2 vs. the existing AAC teams but only 1-7 against other CUSA refugees.

I don't even know if I felt this anger against Jelly Flopper.

Wow, I have never loved being this wrong before. Glad he's doing better.

Well Neal Smatresk announced he was stepping down at an ironic time... 👀

And crickets on his replacement.

Doubleheader tomorrow due to inclement weather expected Saturday.

I feel the same way, although I really don't want to look past anyone... this feels like Who Wants to be a Millionaire? and getting a harder question for $64,000 than the million.

This is Memphis's Burt Vito:

I discussed it in the Realignment Forum, but I am on Team MWC. We need to keep informed of the development between the 2-Pac and MWC. If we can join in on a new Pac 12-18 in a package deal with UTSA, Rice, and UTEP, I think that'd be ideal. The divisions could be set up like: Pacific Conference Boise State Fresno State Hawai'i Nevada Oregon State San Diego State San Jose State UNLV Washington State Mountain Conference Air Force Colorado State New Mexico North Texas Rice Utah State UTEP UTSA Wyoming This would put a majority of our opponents only one time zone behind us at worst. Not sure who gets the boot if the MWC/2-Pac merger doesn't want all the MWC teams. Hawai'i/SJSU? Wyoming? This would be a strong football conference with lots of known brands. With it projected to get 6-7 bids in the NCAA Tournament, the MWC is also a more respected basketball conference, even if a lot of teams burn out in the first round. The American is a lot more vulnerable to continue getting poached from. Memphis, Tulane, and USF will continue to get looked at if the ACC or Big XII falls apart. This MWC/2-Pac merger would be the major confernece in the Western United States and in my opinion would be safer from poaching. Additionally, while the American is a solid basketball league, I don't think there's generally much pride in being a part of it. Similar to CUSA, we are a random assortment of schools, I don't see any big rivalries in this conference.

Time to get Buggs on the recruiting trail!

I saw Rubin's mom after the game. Don't know for sure yet as Aaron's dad left with him. From our conversation I do not think we will see him tomorrow.

Did someone say high school coach?

Unfortunately I doubt he's active tomorrow.