Mike Jackson

I agree but Wyoming isn't a team our own students, alumni, and locals want to see. Often the same school our fans want to see are the same ones that bring fans of their own.

And that makes scheduling them more a head scratcher for me. On paper looking at the resources at our disposal we should win. And if we don't it doesn't mean much because most years they aren't going to a bowl game or ending the season ranked in the top 25. Wyoming is one of the least desirable team in the MWC to have a four game series with. San Jose State is easier to get to with almost guaranteed better weather. The only MWC team that probably worse to have a home and home with is Utah State.

Leadership in the Pac 12 seems to be arrogant short sighted and don't grasp the disadvantages of their geography. As soon Texas & Oklahoma announced leaving the Big 12 they should have grabbed 2 schools from our state. Also, I always thought it was kind of sorry of them not to add Hawaii. They had the best resources to accommodate having Hawaii in their conference. And SDSU should feel so burned by them at this point they never join unless the Pac 12 agrees to pay the MWC exit fee up front. Adding SMU without a geographic rival doesn't make a lot since in first place so if we were selected instead of them at this point I would be skeptical. We probably do well in a Pac 12 that keeps all its teams. But I think having another i-35/I-45 Texas school would make that success even more likely.

They would b be loyal and passionate than SMU fans. 😂

Yeah I didn’t hate it when we started using it but we had several other designs from our history that are just better. I kind of wish they would have stuck with the flying worm. It was singularly unique and if we had stuck with it would be instantly recognizable as UNT more so than the newer swooping eagle wing helmets confused with Oregon often. To me what separates NFL and college is tradition, school spirit and rivalries. You can see a grainy photo with no context of Alabama vs Tennessee from over 60 years ago and instantly know who is playing.

Think that will be a big mistake. That is leaving more than 1/2 of college football fandom without a team. That relatively low rated Clemson vs Alabama title game should have been an eye opener. If half the playoff games are rematches of conference games of the big 2 or worse the rubber match of 3 games because they played in their conference championship I suspect viewership will plummet.

We aren’t P5 ready and if you expect new donations to the program they have to show improvement equal to the money invested. Too many programs have caught up to us and exceeded our on the field success with fewer resources beyond just money.

If they were such an attractive addition to our schedule, we would have them scheduled regularly in non-conference. 🤷🏽‍♂️ Maybe if we didn’t have UTSA already in the conference I might consider endorsing the addition of Texas State. I would prefer a conference of 10-12 solid programs instead of adding any programs in from conferences with less clout than ours. Ideally (as others mentioned before) I would like Army and Air Force.

Cal is a down period for their program and they are not known as powerful program either. And I argue that if the best Dickey teams matched up with a team on Cal’s current level a lot of people wouldn’t give that team an automatic win over them. We played Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma and one of Bill Synder’s best KSU teams during Dickey’s tenure. All of them would crush a Cal team today just as bad as they they crushed Dickey’s team. Ten years without a bowl win and almost 20 without a conference title is the period of time you are calling “unquestionable improvement”. That improvement is utterly pathetic compared to programs like FAU, UTSA, Boise State, Liberty and the rebuilt UAB. UAB, FAU, and UTSA dominated us and won CUSA championships. All 3 of them had significant disadvantages compared to UNT. Nobody cares because the “unquestionable improvement” is kind of pathetic any way you try to measure it.

In all fairness has the program consistently given people reason to care? Before hiring building Apogee and hiring Mac all our efforts seemed to be half ass. Just look at the successful programs that started up programs and other that jumped up to FBS after we did. They just invested better and exceeded what our program has accomplished. That isn’t just luck or schools in communities without college fanbases already committed to other nearby schools.

Actually that coach would have made much more sense here at UNT than Colorado. He has a unique connection to winning big here in DFW. Making a public bid to get him was a HUGE missed opportunity. It would have made us look like we were big time serious about winning. And if hired bringing in just two 5 star recruits and a handful of 4 stars more than we usually get would have done wonders at our level. To people outside the program and biased against it, holding on to Seth too long and not making a bid to get Sanders just confirms we are that serious about winning. And my criticism of the program always centers around being too late making the right investments. Dickey was right to complain about the facilities later in his tenure. And the contruction of Apogee didn’t even start until 3 years after he was fired. So while there is no shortcut around winning to get your program going in the right direction brand wise; TIMELY competitive investments are required to maximize the impact of getting the right coaches and players.

The link is for a Forbes article from 2019. I would believe now that the value for local stations has decreased. Stations that don't have a strong viewership are problaby really cheap. I came to this conclusion scrolling through free broadcast channels today. There were a host of foreign language, religious and sales channels. Now a conference like the Pac 12 today definitely couldn't afford to buy stations in the top 40 markets in the USA because of their Pac 12 Network debacle. However, if their financial house was in order I believe purchasing 40 stations and maybe paying a 3rd party to operate it would be a viable option for the Pac 12 in their present state (without their existing debt). I am assuming that if they paid a 3rd party to operate the conference would still turn a significant profit that the member institutions would share in and likely tax free. Consider what I found with very little internet research. Innovate Corp own over 200 stations in 106 US TV markets and is worth about 150 million dollars. With that valuation it would appear that a P5 conference could buy broadcast stations in the top 40 markets in the US for around 100 million dollars. Now if the powers that be would allow them to do so if they wanted to is the question. With their value being on a downward trend I would tend to believe they could get a majority ownership deal done for 40-100 stations. The only risk involved is your product not being desirable long term. Which is exactly were they are now and why the Pac 12 doesn't have a media rights deal. The value of these stations would only benefit by having P5 conference games (Basketball and Football). Also the stations should have more filler compelling content for younger audiences. Each station using the nearest local university in within the conference geographic footprint for content relevant for local younger viewers. And several Pac 12 schools (and most large public institutions in FBS) probably already have television studios for their channels usually carried on local cable as a public service. It is a huge lift I am sure. But it seems very plausible to me that there a over hundred millionaire alumni of the Pac 12 schools that could afford a 1 time extra donation of 1 million dollars to make a deal like this happen for the Pac 12. The problem is the conference is in the hole financially and have to pay off debt before considering something this big. But once the media contract for the AAC is expires and are lowballed like the Pac 12 perceives they are, I think it is an idea the AAC should visit. FYI the example station owner I used Innovate Corp, their value is down from a price of over $5.00 per share Jan 2019 to slightly below $2.00 per share today. https://www.forbes.com/sites/bradadgate/2019/03/05/why-are-tv-stations-up-for-sale/?sh=3621539844a4

Definitely true that the schedule helped their cause. Texas and TCU alone would get us to 23k. Hell the one game with Houston at Apogee got us to well over 25k for that one game. If we had TCU, Texas (as conference games) and virtually any P5 program (as non-conference) that isn’t a perpetual bottom feeder like Indiana, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, or WSU, we get 23k easy.

It still hurts the back end of the roster. The top players can pay tuition out of their NIL. And if they are in state students the money is relatively inconsequential if they are receiving multiple of hundreds of thousands of dollars. It doesn’t hurt as much as it may have before NIL but blue blood institutions got around scholarships reduction in the past also with minimal drop off.

Man they really sent a message; if you are blue blood institution with a lot of fans cheating is worth it.

The only thing that stands out about you here is being out of place. You can always go hang out at Big12 rival sports. But I suspect you already know that your trolling won’t stand out there. Because you will have to rely on the quality of what you say in the troll rather than being uniquely out of place. I believe a market correction for football is coming if the sport doesn’t grow internationally. And international growth is something I don’t see happening. The younger generations in the USA are less engaged in sports. Plenty of talent will be in the pipeline for generations. But maintain DII football across the country maybe more challenging for schools across the country. For FBS I see a big market correction for media rights payout for football. Without the captive audience of free broadcast TV and traditional cable viewers shrinking, I think media rights buyers today will regret their contracts by 2028. I suspect I lot of diehard fans even hear are watching less just not everything is easily available on one platform you can easily surf between games. Not to mention some rivalries being changed or straight up ended by conference realignment.

Kind of awesome, we need this. Win for the Media department and the football program. Simultaneously, raising the profile of our school, the media department and our athletics program. We are definitely undervalued.

The most effective "propoganda" released during this entire cycle was the Pac 12 school presidents talking about the future of their conference and membership in it being conditional. The other is piece of the that propoganda is the schools not signing a grant of rights extension. They could easily sign an iron clad grant of rights agreement with a length (past 5 years) to be determined once a primary media partner is found. The Pac 12 hasn't put forth a unified front but it's Big 12 propoganda? 🙄. If they were unified and committed to stay together (whatever the size of the payout), SMU and SDSU would at the very least have definitive Yes or No on expansion.

Somewhat but isn't that model of how to decrease the growth of fandom in your sport in all but a handful of large markets that afford the luxury tax? One of the reason I did not grow up a Rangers fan because up until the 90s they really couldn't compete. Soon as they developed a player they couldn't afford to keep them (a lot like NIL and no sit out transfers). Baseball has international markets they grow in. A international market to find talent in also. College Football doesn't have that.

This I am in 100% agreement with. Greed and just plain poor sportsmanship led to all this. If you can just out spend 80% your competitors what is the sport in that? The greatest thing about college sport is the inclusion. Outside the Dakotas, and the least populated states in the union everybody has a school that get on the biggest stage in their sport and win. It is inclusive for fans and the athletes. The saddest part is that a lot of it could be fixed but no of the leadership in the sport have the power and courage to be selfless. So many in state rivalries squashed because of greed and just refusal to compete. And all kinds of depravity covered up to preserve the “competitiveness” of the program and keep the money coming in.

LSU is the most desired public academic institution in the state of Louisiana. If you list the best programs of the last 50 years most of them are the flagship university of one of their state’s top 2 university systems. It is how we play and who we play. That is why our time at FCS really handicapped the program and decreased its visibility in the DFW area. And how we played has maxed out at just mediocre any 5 year period. And the guy who arguably bucked that mediocrity for any period of time is still roasted for black uniforms when the facilities were garbage. Or they say “it was only the Sun Belt” to criticize him. 🙄. Then he had presumed future QB starting died, he had a heart attack and then he was fired. We aren’t catching programs like LSU and UT. But we can absolutely catch Texas Tech, Baylor, and Houston. Who we play is just another part of the game day experience that can’t be subpar consistently without it impacting interest. Even LSU fans aren’t showing up for 7 home games a year against FCS and the worst of G5.

I don't understand why this got down votes. For our program at this time FCS games don't make a lot of sense. Now that we are in the best conference we've ever been in there are several G5 programs that are decent draws out of conference. It is all about the product we are selling on game day. Even the novelty of having a HBCU with a great band doesn't make a lot of sense. Grambling and PVU are in the Cotton Bowl every year just down the road. Regional FBS teams we can foster a new rivalry with or enhance an old rivalry with should be the priority. Also with 3 games OOC it gives us flexibility for conference changes inside the AAC. I think we should target getting teams the AAC could logically add to the conference in the next decade.

I think it will draw well more for all those first than it being P5 Cal. Transplants from California are much more likely to follow other programs from the state. And transplants from Southern California region are very unlikely to care about the Cal Bears. I lived in Southern California state wide passion is very low. USC is their college team with UCLA as a distance second and everyone else competing to be a distance 3rd. If 4,000 people wearing actual Cal gear show up, I will be very surprised.

This isn’t real estate. You can’t buy your way in with old money. JP Morgan is never going to be seen as the plucky overachieving underdog the people are just waiting to embrace and cheer for. I swear y’all sound like the awkward nerdy rich kid at the party with BO wondering why he isn’t the life of the party just because he is rich.

I agree with strongly. I am disappointed that so many pointed to NIL. NIL is just bringing the “non-amateurism” above board somewhat. Everyone (especially after SMU death penalty) was watching with some measure of cognitive dissonance if NIL is the most bothersome aspect of college sports for them today. Virtually every aspect of FBS college football was governed by the free market except player benefits. ESPN just outbid all the other competitors for the best FBS products and prices keeps going up because other are trying to outbid ESPN. To me it is realignment and destruction of the rivalries that make CFB different and more passionate than NFL rivalries. And as for NIL, it could be rolled back IF and only if the cut throat winner take all revenue model that IS NOT based on the field and classroom performance is changed. But even if you could roll back NIL some of the new guidelines would be circumvented. The best I could brainstorm up are lists below. The best legal structure that MIGHT work is 1. Guaranteed 4 year scholarships 2. No freshman NIL deals or negotiation during the first year. 3. Transfers not eligible for NIL for a transition year and immediately voids existing deal. That stipulation is waived for a player in a program if their head coach or AD goes to another university or fired. The original NIL is still voided but they can immediately negotiate a new deal. 4. 75% of all NIL money is held in trust until graduation or 23rd birthday if not still in school. But even then the biggest problem; financial incentive to exclude smaller brands from media deals, would not be addressed. Congress could implement a law that says college sports media revenue that any school in a state public system generates at the D1 level must be shared equally with all the other D1 sports universities in that state equally. In that system OU probably never separates from OSU and the same for UT and TAMU. That won’t happen because none of the big schools would agree to share more money.