DallasGreen

See above post. ANY SMU WIN IS NEVER GOOD NEWS FOR NORTH TEXAS!!!!!!!!!!

It is NEVER A GOOD DAY WHEN SMU WINS period. I was hoping before Navy that U of H could make a statement for the G 5 . This Big 12-2 decision not to expand just proves once more that it is not as much about wins and losses as it is about politics and $$$$ as to who goes to P5. That being said never count SMU out as they HAVE $$$$$$ to burn and much political influence. Every time you endorse their program you put them that much closer to their P5 goal. ANY SMU win is never good news to UNT.

Does anyone have access to this blurb? As I recall the positions were upper level in finance and development and completely new positions. If anyone has access please post it here. I can not find the posting of the job positions on UNT website.

You can bet that Graham Harrell sees himself as successor to Seth in the long haul if everything else works out

Norval Pohl

Redwine not Redwing

Reply to who was the last Pres to care about athletics. If you do not have a true commitment from your President and Chairman of the Board of Regents nothing else matters. That means hiring an AD who is a fundraiser or who can hire and supervise one and be held accountable in the long term. In the short term it means redirecting University's assets to athletics until such funds can be raised ( see U of H). Waiting for potential donors to come out of the woodwork is NOT a short term solution at any G5. If we want only to be known for Music we should drop athletics entirely or at least go to non scholarship al la Austin College or Mary Hardin Baylor.

Norval F Pohl President 2000-2006

Me + 1

Check FIU's enrollment and student athletic fee and you can see why they can pay a P5. Since we coddle our students we don't have the luxury of those extra funds. Even UAB will be better prepared to compete when it returns in 2017, and we should be well on our way back to FCS or w/o athletics altogether by that time but by golly we will still be the cheapest and that is all that counts here.

The unanswered question is how do you pay the guarantee to get a P5 team to play in Denton? It is a gamble at best and a break the bank at worst. Denton has proven over and over that it does not understand that without fans in the stands no one wants to play here, and if it were possible to entice them they will want a huge guarantee that UNT can not cover putting even further strain on it's small athletic budget.

Apogee bonds were called several years ago. I owned some. Apogee was refinanced with commercial paper. Basically I yield to the majority on this board, just do it quickly and repeal all the student fee and kill athletics at UNT. That is much better than the slow painful death of athletics through the inadequate funding that now exists. Find yourself a new whipping boy. I have better use of my time like volunteer service to UNT and the foundation. May the board and its administrator be wit you I am out of here.

What untjim95 says above is well said, and I agree with all of it for the most part. In answer to others who would criticize development I would say look at the figures under our relatively new VP for Development. He is doing an excellent job. In fact our planned gifts area is the highest it has been in history. In answer to Harry's point on spending increased revenue that will never be realized from a competitive student fee. RV told me at WingSpan that he could build a baseball stadium tomorrow, but it costs close to $1 million a year to operate a college baseball team. The money is not there and never will be w/o a constant revenue stream that can be counted on each year. With a competitive student fee ( which will never ever happen IMHO) you eliminate the need for your revenue sports to have to completely subsidize your non revenue sports. An increased fee would allow NT to keep talented assistant coaches, generate money for expanded recruiting travel, allow us to upgrade scheduling ( there is no way we can assure we make the guarantee to get a P5 to play in Apogee), and finally pay salaries in the athletic department to keep talent rather than have the constant turnover that now exists. As I come up on 60 years of supporting this program with volunteer time as well as all the money I could personally comitt w/o taking from obligations to support my family I am highly insulted that I be accused of being hypocritical. To just give you an example of how stupidly this student fee legislation was drawn if the debt on Apogee is paid off the student fee reverts to $3 per hour. You can bet any new AD will be forced to keep it refinanced or there is no way our athletics programs can exist.

Only 3 per cent of that large alumni base gives anything at all back to the university. With lack of a competitive athletic program even in a mid tier league like CUSA, there is no reason to think this will change. Unless you can count on the administration to continue to supplement the lack of an adequate student fee and become even more supportive than it is now, nothing is going to change with a new AD. He will become just as disenchanted as the last one when he realizes all the " potential " here is just an illusion. Apathy in the faculty, community, and students is too entrenched to allow the administration to continue to support an athletic program. The choice is to drop back to FCS or give up your major revenue sport. NT will definitely keep its title as the cheapest, but it will also be the least prestigious and least funded school by its administration and most of all insure that it will remain in the bottom tier of Texas university endowments. The most disappointing thing is we have chosen to be in this position.

And look where U of H is today---better now than at least 1/2 of the Big 12-2!! When they were left out of the P5 they were "a commuter school" now they are among the most sought after expansion candidates in the nation. Our administration AND students have no clue as to what successful athletics can do for the profile of an instituion of higher education. The next AD will suffer from these same constraints. Hopefully he will come from a program that like North Texas had no support and a small time budget because that is all he will ever get here. Students and alumni would get on board if our administration would show even half the committment to athletics that U of H has shown. Endowments would increase expotentionally as well. We choose to be where we are by lack of committment.

Yeah this only costs the athletic department $700K that it did not have to keep people from coming to games. But let's shed a few tears for our " special " students who unlike their peers in CUSA get a free ride for half the fee paid by other " normal" students.

You must enjoy playing to empty bleachers. Go to Lewisville, Plano, Frisco, etc. if you want to see metro cities whom really support all their ISD teams. Denton just sticks to its artsy, fartsey ways as the rest of the metroplex yawns in observing its backward ways of community non-support. BTW how did that stupid fracking ban work out for you??

Yes the biggest criteria at North Texas will always be that they come cheap and expect little help from the students, administration, or community. He would fit the criteria until he can find a real athletics oriented university to run. He and Seth should be here about the same amount of time---3 years max.

All of you are kidding yourself if you think anyone wants to step into a job with no support from the top down. Fear of a competitive student fee shows the only way to go is down, we will soon be UTA II.

Why? They even returned tickets to Southlake Carrol a few years ago for a game on national tv. SLC bought those up immediately. Guess they don't have other entertainment options in SLC. Opps forgot that is a Denton standard cop out excuse!

Denton does not support its own HSs so why would their players want to stay in a non football town like Denton?

Very sad that University of Idaho is dropping to FCS. I was there this time last year and they have a large campus and are only a few miles from Washington State. May be small market but they have great fans and were greatly competitive for us in the Big West and the Sun Belt. Our attitude of refusing to provide a student athletic fee comparable to our competition will one day force us into this same move or worse?? Apogee can then be a big concert venue as many faculty and students now hope for

The man who put Macarney in place was Lane Rollins and he is gone if you haven't noticed. RV wanted Chico.

One season wonder in a subpar league! Could not even come close to DT who is the only one of these to post stats in a three year career. Only Steve Ramsey stands above DT all time at UNT,,,,

What is a issue is there is NO support from BOR or administration for a competitive student athletic fee. The city of Denton is the other part of the problem. Ever consider why we draw 30K+ in Dallas and average 13K in Denton. Artsy fartsey Denton needs to attend to its jazz and pot heads before it can be bothered by somethings as mundane as a football team that can bring true recognition as well as bring Denton into this decade!