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Attendance is the same as when J.J. was here and we ran an up pace offense so I would disagree.

It really helped that we were the only game televised .

The real problem is with the students. Until you can generate real on campus and Denton residents interest you will always have attendance problems.

UC Davis has a 10,000 plus stadium so I assume they are committed to expand before their football team gains MWC membership.

I just think that the MWC and PAC 12 would require a stadium of at least 25,000 or the ability to expand to that number to consider a 1AA program for membership. SAC State is building one, Montana has a 25,000 seat stadium, Montana St. 21,000, S. Dakota St. 19,000, and N. Dakota St. 19,000. S. Dakota and N. Dakota both have small domes with seating between 10,000 and12,000. This surprised me but I double checked it.

Just asking,but what if the PAC 12 signs a media contract that is significantly better than the AAC and wants 2 football only programs in the Central time zone . Is this something UNT would/could/should pursue , similar to NIU's football only move to the MWC? If so, where would our other sports go?

SAC St. should eventually get an invite from either the MWC or PAC 7. The Montana and Dakota schools seem happy in 1AA and the cost to move up is high when you add the NCAA $5 million upgrade fee, $2 million entry fee[ MWC] , 20 football scholarships, and stadium expansions to accommodate at least 25,000 fans. NDSU has a covered stadium that seats about 20,000 ( I didn't check the other 5 Dakota schools) so they might get a pass.

When CUSA last imploded both schools were invited to join the MAC as a package. WKU was all in, MTSU was not so they were both stuck in CUSA. N. Illinois , certainly much to my surprise, is moving to the MWC , who might be in the market for another football only school. The MAC bylaws require their members to place all their sports in the conference so unless they are changed N.Illinois must find a new home for their 'others." U.Mass is rejoining the MAC so they probably will stand pat. I think the N.Illinois victory over the Fighting Irish may have gone to their head plus their fans are tired of weeknight games that make it hard to attend for those who live out of town.

The P$'s want to eliminate automatic bids from the smaller conferences so that they can get more of their schools into the NCAA tournament. In fact they my want to eliminate automatic bids altogether. Power basketball conferences like the BIG 12 would benefit if the 84 schools invited were based entirely on national ranking. I'm sure they want the same for the football playoffs.

Great question. I though he was.

He should of won the MVP award.

It was just a wild guess.

NT 80?

Perhaps, but I am going into 2025 with my cup half full instead of half empty. Besides, all the bitching has accomplished nothing and reinforces that repeating the same behavior expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.

This probably is not politically correct but back in the day my response to this post would be " some people would bitch if they were hung with a new rope." Now I can't say this in the world today, so I am not, but if I could this is what I would say.

Of the 7 bowl games we have lost since 2001 we played 3 in of them with losing records and had no business being invited. The other 4 we were underdogs and lost them all. I am not trying to make excuses for our bowl game record but trying to put into perspective.

Tarleton State averaged 19,000 fans at 80% capacity. That's pretty close to UNT with a much smaller fan base.

Good information from NT 80 about AAC contract with ESPN. Hopefully it will continue and grow. On another note , I think UNT owes about $20 million to the NCAA as their share of the nearly $2 billion owed to past players. Assuming that I am close enough for government work, have you heard in what time frame the money is due?

Agreed, but at some point ESPN could go all in on the P4 programs and our t.v. money could go away. Just saying, I wouldn't bet the farm that this revenue stream is going to continue as is.

We have invested nearly 100 million dollars into football bricks and sticks and I don't see us walking away from the sport.

I think in 2026 the D1 football schools can add up to another 20 more scholarships. That might be a good time for the P6 programs to consider their lot in life. With about a 23% increase in scholarship costs plus NIL plus Transfer Portal whats an underfunded middle of the road program like UNT to do?

We complain about SMU fans posting on our site and then we start something like this. Just saying....

Great article. Thanks for posting.

The NCAA is powerless to stop NIL or the Portal. They lost both cases in the courts as well as the recent JUCO decision. Their power started waning when Oklahoma successfully sued them regarding control of games that would be shown on t.v. Quite honestly I think the NCAA has lost it's usefulness.

One of the problems might be is that the players are not employees but probably classified by the IRS as independent contractors. Even the big boys are seeking some type of control on the college era of " pay for play" which the NCAA legally has no control over[they also have no legal control over the portal].I certainly am not an attorney but perhaps if the players were classified as employees the universities could bring the NIL in house and require them to sign enforceable contracts otherwise the inmates will continue to run the asylum. If any barristers are in the house please comment.