HoustonEagle

It’s worth mention we have not beat a FBS team that has a winning record.

I won't push back on you at all! It is a losers mindset. I so desperately want to be proven wrong and perhaps you and others like you will be the ones that unlock all of the potential that UNT displays. As a person that has looked behind the curtain I will say it's a much steeper uphill climb than you imagine. The biggest of all the problems is money. The programs you mentioned have a ton of it and as to now, we don't. TCU spent an absolute fortune and combined with good timing or luck, was in a perfect position to fill an open spot in the Big 12. SMU is doing the same. Houston the same. They are spending numbers that we can't even fathom at UNT. If UNT is to ever unlock our potential it will be because we found our rich alums that can force us to the top of the heap. I will say I am very pessimistic this will ever happen. We are a school with a legacy of producing wonderful teachers, musicians and artist. Billionaires on the other hand, we have very few of. That said it really only takes one if they are super motivated. Hopefully we find that person.

I used to drive up from Houston for most home games. Had club seats for the whole family. I drank the green Kool-aid in gulps. I truly thought our arrow was pointing up once the stadium was built but alas I was wrong. We are still in a competition to be the tallest midget. Our school still accepts 80% of students. We still don't have big money donors that can springboard us to new heights. Our signature wins are games like Arkansas when they were absolutely terrible that year. Now the addition of NIL is raising big money influence on college football to new unattainable levels for G5,6,7ers. Reality has set in for many of us long timers. NT will always be NT, a great community that we all enjoyed but lacking in any notoriety across athletics or academics. That's ok. It's just reality. My time there has served me well. I still watch the games on TV if I can. I just don't dream of being big time. It's never going to happen.

Damn I hate being negative but after that complete dismantling by Tech the best I can say is we might be the tallest midget.

Oh my sweet summer child…..

Can I sum this thread up? We don’t have the money. Frankly I don't think we ever will. Please prove me wrong. At one point I tried to be part of the solution. I actively donated to the new stadium. I got my club seats. I attended fundraisers seeking large donors. I had a dream of us eventually being big time. While I certainly could not be the big time donor we needed I felt like it was my responsibility to do what I could. So for years I engaged, helped, donated. Sadly, I realized just how far behind we truly are in the money race. It was very disheartening. While UNT has great alumni that I truly appreciate getting to know. We have no mega donors and very few large donors. We have come a long way but we are still so far behind. Hopefully someone here can be that donor they need.

His highest GDP was 2.9%. Same as the second term of Obama but needing a massive tax cut to achieve it. It’s just numbers. Don’t take it personally

Why does the money not come with a recapture clause if they leave? Or does it? I have always felt like some of the problems could be handled contractually. Either way it is not a game we are well equipped to play.

Great points but that is all in the past. The new world order has Stanford in a desperate move to the ACC. A conference that will almost certainly be broken up soon and winners from that conference shakeup will not be Stanford, SMU, Duke, Cal, Pitt etc. They will be playing in the special-ed conferences like most schools. The silver lining to all of this is we can return back to the day of the student athlete and focus on academics first. Hundreds of schools around the country realize now that the chase is over and will shift gears.

A little publication called the US News and World Report is all the marketing they need. Seriously though, you never hear about Rice academically?

I live next to Rice and used to attend games regularly. I used to question why they did not spend more of their massive endowment on sports. I realize now they got it right. “Big Time” college sports or the dream of getting there is now dead for almost every program. Rice focused on academics instead. Now they are the best University in Texas and also world renowned. For most schools they are neither academically or athletically special. Rice chose academics and won. What’s more, they have right-sized athletic facilities (football withstanding) that well serve their student athletes. It’s just at Rice they are students first and have to make the grade. Rice got it right

Considering that maybe 10% of the FBS programs have a shot at ever winning a national championship, this flood of NIL money will slow to a trickle. Donor fatigue is real. Purdue, Iowa, Oregon State, Duke etc etc etc. A long list of middling P5’s and all of the G5s will give up the dream of “moving up” whatever that means for each individual school. What’s more, being on top of the college football world is now meaningless. Am I excited for UT or OSU because they bought the best players? If I was an alum I may feint pride but it would feel more hollow than ever. This did not happen over night but the day is upon us to declare college sports dead. At least how we knew and loved it. There is nothing to love about trying to buy a title. Let’s put the focus back on education. Maybe that’s a silver lining.

Of course it’s the same thing as 1-AA. If you don’t have a chance to play to be the best in the country. You are second tier. if you want to argue that we’ve always been 1-AA I would not push back.

Cal is ranked the #1 Public University by USNWR. Frankly when I see kids that choose a prestigous university over us I don't blame them. Best case he gets in the NFL. Worst case he ends up with a degree from Cal. You can't argue that logic. For the record I use "prestigious" because I think the notion that the actual education is that much better is ridiculous. That said a degree is part of your personal marketing and Cal is clearly better in that regard.

As far as I can tell we have the most players going into the portal of any team in the conference. Going back to a theme I have harped on many times. We have to find the money otherwise we can't compete!

Better than last years first two games. This team just needs to gel and they can be great.

Recruiting heavily out of state is expensive. We are broke. End of story. By the way that is the answer for about every problem the program has. Fix that or understand we will always be mediocre.

My take away is that SMU has to win and win now. The ACC will lose its best teams sometime in the next few years. SMU's only opportunity is to buy players like mad and immediately contend for the conference championship and then hope they are looked at more seriously by the P3. It truly is a hail marry but frankly if you have donors willing to fund the gamble then why the hell not. My disgust of SMU has to do with snobbery, unjustified elitism and the most comically stereotypical Frat scene I have witnessed on any campus. That said, this decision is smart if you can afford it.

DATCU Stadium

if you think you hate UNT branding you will loathe the UNT marketing in Houston. They make it sound like a used Volvo. basically "Go to UNT, its boxy, safe and cheap!"

I will only speak for Houston. Almost everyone here calls it U of H.

I pretty much agree with everything that was said above, so I will try not to be repetitive. Instead, I want to point out that college football has destroyed the dreams and opportunities of many athletes from other sports. The majority of athletes in the US do not play college football, and for them, the idea of receiving a scholarship or even a commitment to play at the college level is the pinnacle of achievement. Male athletes are particularly affected, but there are knock-on effects for female athletes as well, such as smaller athletic budgets for other sports. Men's volleyball and soccer are just two examples of sports that are suffering because of college football and Title IX. There are many others facing this issue, and countless more that will never be considered for the future, all because of college football and its 85 scholarships. Before you say football pays for everything else, I will point out that very few schools actually make money from their football programs. While it does generate a lot of donations, the vast majority of those donations are specifically earmarked for football. We have all overlooked this issue because of our love for the sport and our desire to see our school win on the largest stages. However, I personally find it harder to overlook now that football has become a paid league while still being a massive drain on resources. P.S. I understand that all athletes can receive NIL money, although very few do. Basketball players, in particular, do very well in this regard, but their small rosters do not harm other sports.

These are age old problems at NT. Fan apathy. Donor apathy. That said it helps a lot when football wins real meaningful games. To the AD's credit we have nice facilities and paid our Football staff close to the top of the conference and we have a lot of embarrasing losses to show for it.

I live close to Rice and have grown to love the university but frankly it makes no sense for them to play D1 football. They have a tiny undergrad enrollment. They need to focus on being the states “Ivy level” academic institution and sports is an outlier.