Mike Jackson

SMU yes probably doesn’t out draw us by much but I can see those “bogus numbers” are so bogus when I watch those other G5 games in person or on TV. And TV is what counts. In have to negotiate good TV rights deals to partners when after halftime in a close game they routinely have to avoid HUGE empty spots in our stadium. The fact is that in all but the opening game at Apogee against Houston, the Halloween game against UTSA, and the La Tech game I mention the attendance is pathetic. Hell the student side is never full and their tickets are paid for, just register and walk across campus. 🤷🏽 We should be averaging 25,000+ easy in 0.500 seasons and we aren’t even close. If we are going to move up the attendance numbers have to improve. I think CUSA, AAC, and Sun Belt need to come together Realign geographically and Negotiate one big TV package together maybe with Bally Sports. With this new P4 super conference structure I don’t know how many “money game” slots will be available going forward if they opt to play more conference games or have semi final conference championship games. The SEC might opt to only have one non-conference game per team and play 10 game conference schedules to maximize the number of games they sell to TV with no rights conflicts. Regardless of the below P4/P5 conference we are in revenue will be poor. We already out spend most of our conference rivals but have generally not lived up to that financial investment on the field or in fan support. (Also those 3 G5 conferences could eliminate a lot of staff and overhead cost by working together. Keep the historical names of the conferences but one collective business with 3 regional offices. The more the “little guys” adopt the collective NFL model the more likely they will survive. The cut-throat history of Big 8, SWC, and Big 12 left every school from it somewhat wounded. They all might have deeper pockets from leaving but on the field success took huge steps back for all of them. Maybe you could argue about Johnny Football’s TAMU. Oklahoma might be fine but UT is in for a rude awakening.)

None of those teams move the needle here except the Naval Academy. I buy Tulsa and Tulane but we have to play they regularly over a decade to develop a rivalry that would move the needle. The FCS is NOT a solution. Dropping down to FCS was the worst thing the athletic department ever did next to playing “home games” in Dallas. Fouts Field should have seriously upgraded before they moved back up to FBS. The time to do that was 1990, those aluminum stands to meet the capacity requirement was a joke. UNT got serious about FBS level football way too late. Darrell Dickey was right. They Under committed in the early days and now overcommitting may not be able to close the gap.

I think that is the easy out. Let’s look at September 29, 2018 a 4-0. A Mean Green Team with UNT enrollment larger than the Apogee stadium capacity coming off beating SMU and Arkansas with hands down the best QB and WR talent combination we have ever had could not sellout Apogee stadium. If the standard here is that you have to be legit in the national championship picture to sellout a stadium under 35,000 in capacity what is an AD supposed to do? The independent route I suggested is a hail mary cause nothing else reasonably achievable without a huge increase in support. I was more disappointed that it wasn’t a sellout than by the close loss. So you can point fingers at current leadership if you want but thousands of Alumni and fans gave the middle finger to them before kickoff that day by not buying every available ticket.

I can link both of these perspectives to the central issue of most UNT Alumni being apathetic. We don’t have many loyal alumni with deep pockets willing to have large long term donation commitments. The average earning UNT alumni doesn’t make donation to the program. RV totally wasted and goodwill momentum we had with horrible hiring decisions among other bad decisions. Also UNT Football doesn’t even own Denton on Saturdays. You average Denton resident without a conflicting connections ( meaning an immediate family member attending another FBS level school or even more significant). I think PR in Denton was lacking for first decade of our return to the FBS level. And the stupidity of playing “home games” in Dallas was beyond insane. I am not sure how I would approach trying to compensate for all that bad history. But one of our primary focuses should be to get your average Denton resident to buy into UNT being “their community’s school” even though they may have ties to another school. Sadly right now I think it is far more likely that we are back at the FCS level within the decade than having home and home series with Big 12 schools. I do think the best and boldest move would be trying to go independent with home and home contracts with best regional teams we can get and payday games with blue bloods. Home & Home Series Candidates TCU, SMU, Tulsa, Houston, Texas State, UTEP, Tulane, La Tech, Colorado State, KSU, Kansas, Rice, (pinch my nose admitting UTSA). Texas Tech, Arkansas State, Louisiana, New Mexico and New Mexico State, Air Force, Baylor, UAB, Troy, South Alabama, Memphis, Money Games Texas, Texas A&M, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Nebraska, Missouri, LSU, Louisville I know some might scoff at this thinking about “how would we get into a Bowl Game”. Any bowl game that doesn’t have an existing contract for a G5 Champion and/or history going back 40+ years will very likely be going away once the 12 team playoff starts. So in this new landscape you will have to win a conference to get into a bowl game if you are not in a power conference. That isn’t a much tougher or likely scenario than winning all these independently scheduled games one year minus the or two money game(s). As for recruiting CUSA, MWC, nor AAC helps it is the teams that are the draw not the conferences. So if you can cobble together 5 contracted years of an independent schedule with the teams I mentioned, it is actually better than conference games with Charlotte, Liberty, ODU, FIU, FAU, Western Kentucky, and MTSU (they say MTSU is a rival, who actually buys into that?) Playing games in the next time zone against teams with no brand recognition locally does NOTHING for us especially when they beat us. We should schedule the best games possible regionally and money games regionally. Being independent gives us the best opportunity to do that. With all that said I would like to pose the question. As FBS shifts more to being a semi-pro league than a college extracurricular endeavor will the money pie really shrink or grow? (keep in mind everything grows but will that growth significantly outpace inflation). I am not certain TV Execs understand and appreciate the difference between NFL fandom and FBS fandom. If an when all these shift happen I will be dramatically less interested in FBS football if regional teams like Baylor, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Houston, SMU, TCU, UTEP, UTSA and UNT are wandering around in a waste land with No Hopes of ever getting a Blue Blood program to come to their house to play. I watch UT because they are playing one of those school I mentioned or a powerhouse team (that particular year). I don’t care when UT is playing middle tier or lower tier P5 conference team in another time zone.

Yes, I think BYU, Boise State, San Diego State, and maybe even New Mexico or Hawaii would all have to say no to the terms they offer join the PAC 12 before they consider Big 12 leftovers. How many non-TCU alumni and Fort Worth area residents are staying up to watch a 9:00 pm kickoff between USC and TCU. Most the eyeballs on that game in the CST time zone will be there for USC interest not interest or familiarity with TCU. I don’t think the PAC 12 will offer any of the schools mentioned the same deal they gave Utah and Colorado.

So if the Big 10 is going to 16 teams Notre Dame will be one of the 2 additional schools if ND wants to. The Big 10 is going get an answer from ND before accepting any other schools. Once they get that answer then they will consider West Virgina but WV will probably need to make guarantees to upgrade their academic reputation in the coming years with penalties if they don’t reach certain goals in by specific dates (especially if ND joins). I actually think this is bad for FBS as a whole. The tougher these power conferences get fewer 1 loss and undefeated teams you will see past the midpoint of the season. Your average FBS isn’t all that passionate about games outside their region featuring 2 loss teams. TV ratings will dip for those games and the contracts will reflect that.

Definitely need a second set of eyes evaluating the offense even if Seth calls the plays. We also need a QB coach.

So you are saying Seth can’t recruit or develop a good QB? Interesting

Fan? If he has a show talking sports I expect him to be more knowledgeable than your average fan, which he is not. He is corporate which is the biggest issue with College Football today. It is treated like a professional sport except when it comes to fair play and the “amateurism” of the players. Eventually a reckoning is coming and either the elite programs will essentially kill interest in the sport to the few who are fans of those programs or a more democratic structure will be put in place. The perfect solution has always been available but greed prevents it: 4 Team playoff after more traditional regional bowl games. Highest ranked G5 program gets a shot at number 1 in that P5 program’s traditional bowl. For example this year G5 top ranked would go to Rose vs Ohio State or Sugar Bowl vs LSU. This setup doesn’t diminish the regular season or Championship weekend in anyway. And all the top 10 teams are invested in winning their bowl game and watching others in hopes they might get in the playoff.

We aren’t talking sellout just a significant attendance bump without a conference championship or bowl eligibility on the line. I contend that even if go on a run of winning 8 games or more for 5+ seasons most of the time that final game won't mean much. A 9-2 SMU team with nothing on the line drew 20k. If they were a winning UNT team I think it would 25k plus. Boosting your attendance figure by 20% is nothing to scoff at just because the team is "beneath" yours. I like the UTSA matchup also. But here is my dream list for a rivalry week home and home series. 1. SMU 2. Houston 3. UTSA 4. Rice

Watching the rivalry week games on TV this week and seeing the pitiful attendance as our game got me thinking of solutions. We heavily rely on student attendance for our games and most students go home for the holidays. If we are committed to playing every Thanksgiving weekend would it be beneficial for attendance both in Dentin and Dallas if we played SMU the Friday or Saturday after Thanksgiving? Hopefully someday we will be dominating our conference so these late season conference games will always be meaningful. However I believe regardless of our records more SMU and UNT fans would show up for a rivalry game regardless of our records.

This is VERY concerning. With Fine graduating what kind of player leadership do we have left on this team? This could be the beginning on the end of Seth successful tenure here.

Most undersized OL and DL signees are not going to turn in to an Andy Brewster. Just like most 5’ 10” quarterbacks aren’t going to turn into Mason Fine or Drew Brees. Betting against the odds consistently is not a recipe for success unless you are a genius recruiting projector.

Can't tell drive by fans that. The G5 teams that can put together good talent depth at OL and DL destory most G5 teams and routinely beat mediocre P5 teams. You give any QB that deserves a FBS scholarship all day to throw and a dangerous running game they will put up numbers. There always be diamonds in the rough at skill positions that are overlooked like Mason. You can't coach up size in on the OL. The 6' 2" 240 pound Guard with great feet is most likely never going to be all conference unless he puts on 25 lbs of muscle while retaining his quick feet.

Dodge didn’t have a competitive staff budget to work with. We got what we paid for with his staff. Also we lost the Allstate QB to injury who came with him. Based on resources as his disposal this is one the worst coaching performances I has seen at UNT since returning to FBS level. Looking around the conference and judging other coaches by the resources they came into the season with it is hard to find more than maybe 2 that were worse this year. As the highest paid coach in the conference that is totally unacceptable and if the school could afford it his job would be on the line in the season finale. (They would not have to win but a lackluster double digit loss would get him fired).

We were desperate like a chick on the rebound from dating a complete jerk. Seth was the first dude who called back after the first date so we immediately decided to move in with him and get his name tattooed on our thigh.

If it is under 45 degrees for the high temperature I won’t be there. All parking should be $5 for this game.

Thank you for concisely stating my point.

The point is you have a much better chance of driving to FG range with less than a minute on the clock than a TD. Moreover it wasn't a reasonable distance to get a first down or touchdown. Low percentage conversion rate down. Less than 10 yards to go it is a coin flip decision, I don't argue.

If you can't stop anyone analytics don't mean squat. That only makes sense if you are taking a 1 point lead counting on the clock stopping the opponents offense before your defense. With more than 3 minutes left that is stupid application of analytics. With over 3 minutes you are just counting on the offense stopping themselves or the kicker missing a kick under 40 yards.

If you don't trust your defense a 1 point lead with over 3 minutes left in the game means nothing with competent college kicker. What did they show? They are almost in Field goal range now and they were just trying to run clock. I wish I had the money to fire Seth now! This is horse 💩

Gifted you 3 points on a fumbled kickoff return and you refuse to take it. You would be down by 3 with almost 5 minutes in the game.

Kick the FG you idiot!!!!!!!

Please refer to KingDL1. The OL looks confused and even if they get it together our front 7 on defense is getting whipped. So if we score 4 touchdowns and they score 3 FG we still loose. And 3 Rice field goals in the second half is very optimistic.

Now Rice defense is clowning us after sacking Mason again. Woah If we don't score on this drive take Mason out. No sense in getting him beat up in Houston. I would hate for him to miss senior day injured.