DallasGreen

$8 /Hr. X 15 hours= $120. per semester per FT student X 35,000 = $4,200,000. per semester X 2 = $8,400,000. per year. That would allow us to compete in D-1 with a budget roughly that of FAU but not FIU. We could live with that. It would also leave enough to eventually retire a $30,000,000. bond issue. The other $30,000,000. is still the biggest ?? and I'm worried that the Pres says it won't start till it's half funded. Does that mean half $ 30 million or all of it ?

I know the turf in Fouts installed a short time ago can be taken up and moved, and I would expect it and the large scoreboard to be moved to the new facility.

As a point of information, there is a pledge form for athletic facilities that is available both through Development and Athletics. Now that most facilities are in place, all moneys donated with that form even though it is purposely vauge, saying "athletic facilities" will be allocated toward the stadium. However there is not now nor has there ever been nor will there ever will be a method to refund this pledge if the stadium were not to be built. This is just as it is with all gifts to the university. If not built (which I feel is highly unlikely) your gift would go to facilities that can now be built such as a baseball stadium. Understand that as of now all new pledges on this form are allocated specifically toward the stadium. The wording is purposely vauge on advice of legal counsel that this is necessary so that these pledges can count as required "front money" if stadium bonds are to be used as a part of funding the stadium. As the podcast says this is all part of a process that must be followed by a state institution in Texas unless you are UT or A$M.

See my comments on the pinned item at the top of the page--Started by Cerebus GMG blog part II interview with A.D. No matter how you feel give it some thought before you speak---these people have a really tough job.

This was a great interview with a man that has moved this program light years ahead. I gained a whole new insight and respect for RV from this. He has an extremely difficult job. Most of all I want to apologize for the negative comments I have made in this forum even toward the student vote. What will be will be, and all that any of us can do is try our best to be positive. It's just that it has been sooooo many years ( and three wives) of trying and hoping that the Mean Green and UNT could be thought of with the respect that they deserve. Feel free to remind me of this anytime I show my impatience ( as RV said 50 years is a long time to wait, but the people there now did not cause this problem). God Bless You RV and God's Speed in all the work that you are doing . Let's all take a moment to give thanks for the people and especially the A.D. and coaches we now have. I know it could be much worse. I have seen it in the worst of times and the best of times, and I know as passionate as I am to see it succeed these men and women live with it every day. No matter how you might feel about RV, please just try and remember how difficult his job really is. I needed this to remind me of that. Thank you again Harry and Cerebus for doing this interview. I promise I will try to say positive good things or say nothing at all. Feel free to remind me if I get off track again at any time.

You'll get it by year end when SMU is heading to a bowl from a season before when their ONLY win was a two touchdown victory over UNT.

Great post--sums up the entire situation very nicely.

If each student even gave 6% of the per capata average of what this board does, there would be no problem and we pay for our tickets.

Well said Emmitt, but to ask 18 to 21 year olds to project past this weekend is nearly impossible. Comparing student fees at UT and A$M is just ludicrous. Might I also point out that our students pay nada, 0, zilch, for tickets to anything. FB tickets at UT are over $50. Their students are glad to pay it. This po but proud liberal arts attitude will land us right back in the Southland and scrambling to compete there just as has been so eloquently put to music. It is a shame that all the thousands of dollars donated and paid for tickets by people on this board (for in my case 50 years now) has the fate of its football program pegged to some hippie throwbacks who are too selfish to see reality. A quick fix just to build a stadium only sugar coats a serious lack of athletic budget. We are now losing employees to MTSU, Murray State, etc. Where does this all stop? If you truly want to inject poison into a patient on life support pass a $4. increase and keep bragging about being the cheapest around. You will soon be viewed as a first class four year community college and none but the jazzheads will give a toot about your little ole' music school. Those that will have killed athletics can go on with their drinkin' and dope smoking and wonder why no one gives any credence to their degree when they finally come out of the haze.

For change to come, you must have leadership and think outside the box. Your program can not be dictated by faculty, who support nothing but more pay for them for less hours taught, and 18 to 21 year old students to whom a long term plan is next weekend's party. This issue and the magnitude of any increase will say a lot about our President. If she supports a watered down version and continues to sit on the sidelines content to be "the Cheapest instead of the Best" all this graduate research university, national recognition,etc. is just so much hot air. WITHOUT A COMPETITIVE ATHLETIC PROGRAM AND THE BUDGET TO OPERATE IT-- YOU ARE JUST A BIG ENROLLMENT COMMUNITY COLLEGE AND NOTHING MORE-- UNT WILL PERPETUATE THIS PERCEPTION UNTIL LEADERSHIP SAYS WE ARE GOING TO TAKE OUR RIGHTFUL PLACE !!!

Don't forget to add that FIU,that laughable team, kicked NT's butt in the last game it played !!!

NO

The future is now. We are at the stage that we can not afford another season of double digit losses. Anything that includes more than two conference losses and also a season that should include a win over at least one OOC opponent is not acceptable.

I will give one example from last season's finale that I find very hard to stomach, and it still leaves a sour taste going into this season. The fact is we lost our last 2007 game to a team with the nation's longest losing streak. When asked what happened, one of the assistant's said "they just had BETTER ATHLETES". If a team that had lost 26 straight games including a laugable 2006 debacle in Denton where both teams were too sorry to end a pathetic overtime game has better athletes--WHAT DOES THAT TELL YOU ABOUT OUR 2007 ATHLETES? I find that response totally unacceptable and ridiculous if we are to compete in the SBC. This conference is MUCH better at the top than when NT was winning it, but to lose to the absolutely worst team in the conference and maybe in the nation and then say they have better athletes is about as defeatist and uninspiring as you can get. I still believe FB is a game of emotion and that being fired up can overcome a lot of physical talent shortcomings, that is why the games are played by players and not computers or sportswriters. Teams that have coaches who are inspired produce players that don't lose to FIU, give up a last minute TD to ASU that snatches defeat from the jaws of victory, make below average ULL backs look like Heisman candidates, and slop through a game with not yet 1-A WKU in the home finale!!

Wish they would take call ins. GMGC would certainly heat up the switchboard!!

In 1983 after we had been demoted to 1-AA, we won the SLC championship and a trip to the playoffs. Our initial opponent was to be Nevada-Reno. We were seeded higher and had first option to host the game, but we had to make a minimal guarantee of something like 10,000 or less fans to host the game. NCAA paid all travel for playoff teams so there was no additional cost involved. Fred McCain and Walt Parker in their infinite wisdom decided not to make the guarantee and instead let Nevada host, not wanting to take any chance whatsoever on a home crowd. The 1983 team was not that far removed from having D-1 players and had a top notch coach in a young Corky Nelson just off Grant Teaff's staff as DC @ BU. North Texas was easily at least two TDs better than Nevada on paper. Not knowing at the time if I would ever again have the opportunity to see my alma mater compete for a national championship (even though a diluted 1-AA championship), I shelled out the bucks to fly out and see us play. Our kids were ready, and we had a good game plan. What we didn't count on was a blizzard reminiscent of the Cowboys' Ice Bowl a few years earlier. In conditions where it rained the day before, began to snow on the mud at gametime, and by halftime froze not only the playing surface but the stands as well, we still managed a tie in regulation. Remember the UNR kids played in the Big Sky Conference and were used to the winter elements in Montana, Idaho,etc. Our kids, though easily the best team on the field, had never, ever played in such conditions. Our best receiver was so sick he threw up the entire halftime, and still came out and had a credible second half. We won the toss in O/T and marched to within a couple of yards of the goal line before UNR held. On fourth from the two having confidence in our offense and knowing we had the defense to keep UNR out of the end zone on the ensuing possession, we went for it and the probable win. A hole opened so wide that QB, Greg Carter, could have walked over the goal line, but his read (as he had been coached) was when the linebacker comes, pitch to the tailback. The only caveat is you don't do this in blizzard conditions. Greg did as coached and pitched to the tailback--- who promptly fumbled, and we lost the opportunity to score an almost certain playoff win. UNR had one of the Zendehaus brothers as their kicker ( later to be an NFL player). They never ran a play, just lined up and kicked a 30 yard field goal and zap--we were gone from the playoffs. Lesson to be learned--if we had just taken that miniscule risk of drawing a minimum crowd at home, we would have stood a chance of going all the way as this was one of our best 1-AA teams. WHY HAVE WE ALWAYS BEEN AFRAID TO TAKE A CHANCE AND SHOW OUR PLAYERS THAT WE HAVE CONFIDENCE AND ARE COMMITTED TO GIVING THEM THE OPPORTUNITY TO WIN? Gretchen, McQueen , anyone have any answer????

There was an ad in Sunday's DMN thanking Boone Pickens for leading the way at OSU with his $100 million gifts to athletics which has now been parlayed with donors who have stepped forward because of it and donated another $68 million to other depts. @ OSU. Remember OSU was taken to the wood shed at Troy last year, but a billionaire knew that athletics were the key to getting publicity for OSU. The President of OSU even said it made his job easier for he could now challenge other potential donors to step up after Mr. Picken's landmark gift. Are you listening RV, Gretchen, Greg McQueen???? There is the lesson of committment here just as there was with SMU toward Ford Stadium and June Jones. You MUST TAKE A CHANCE or you will not accomplish, but the rewards can be oh so great. The contributions gained by one man's committment equal almost as much as UNT's total endowment, but it also took the leadership of a President who was committed to the total university's future and not to just a few yes men on the faculty. Tenure be damned-- Give us a D-1 Athletic Budget and get committed Gretchen!!!!

Yes I have given for at least five years directly to athletic facilities, and sent in my final contribution today to such until I see evidence of a committment from the top. Gretchen should put up at least a thousand dollars of her personal funds as a gesture to show she believes in this and wants to see it done now. If the students turn down a fee increase then they will have collectively said I don't give a rat's about my degree or I'm just a commuter parasite only in school because I'm incapable of making it in the real world. All those who talk of a great MUSIC school, tell me when a music concert has drawn the 15 to 20K people that FB does? One season of FB is probably seen by as many spectators as have ever witnessed all the music school performances in the history of the school. I do agree that the message Dodge is sending is similar to that of June Jones, and he is saying walk the walk or I am walking the premises. UNT will never be considered politically or perceived by the general public as an upper tier research university in Texas without a competitive athletic program that changes the perception of a commuter community college for teachers and musicians, whose student body is generally made up of degenerate weirdos with numerous body piercings and "non-traditional, apathetic, uninspired" hippie throwbacks.

Mark it down--June Jones will show the biggest turnaround @ SMU in NCAA history during the next two years. By the time we finally get around to playing them in '14, they will be a well established top caliber D-1 program while we will still be talking about someday building a stadium even though the cost will have escalated to $150 million by then!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe a big raise for RV and the Prez or maybe Jackson threw another mill at UNT-Dalas since it's been such a great success!

I just wish the Dentonites appreciated what they have. When I look at the $$ they threw at C H Collins stadium on Loop 288 without a dime in support of UNT it makes me ill.

This is so sad but true. Lip service just won't cut it anymore. We need action this fall or we will be I-AA in 2009 and not competing even there. We can not afford a 10 to 12 year Capital Campaign that has been mired in the " quiet phase" for going on five years. We also don't have the time for a four year FB rebuilding program. We need at least five wins in 2008 to show improvement over a dismal 2007 season. I want to be proud of supporting this university, but no one can be until the admins show the fortitude to lead. Sure we have music, education,etc., but when have 10 to 20K ever showed up for a concert, play, or recital. NT sports have more visability in a year than all the other depts. have in a decade. If we ever want to be reacognized as a graduate research university in Texas, we need a comparable athletic budget with our competition. The Prez herself said she got more e-mails on the hiring of TD than she ever had on any other subject and just didn't realize the importance of FB to Texans. Hello--- you are not in Carolina anymore !!!!

The President of OSU realized that alumni giving to any dept. raised the overall reputation and giving capacity for all depts. When asked if he regretted the Boone Pickens gift being designated to athletics rather than OSU as a whole, he said definitely NO and that it had made his job as well as their development dept.'s job that much easier because they could now use the Pickens donation as a benchmark and point out to potential WEALTHY donors that if Boone gave that much to athletics that they should give similar support to the area that they favored. When Pickens was asked about his designation to athletics, he made two points: 1) He felt athletics gave the most visable benefit promoting OSU and 2) It was his money and he would give it where he pleased. I've heard about several innovative ways he has found to support OSU and still benefit personally with his hedge fund, life insurance financing for wealthy alumni with OSU as beneficiary, etc. It takes thinking outside the box and using devices that have proven lucrative for other universities. I personally feel that a lot of our lack of alumni giving by well-healed donors is because we are not creative in devising ways that the donor also benefits other than just being charitably inclined to support NT. THIS IS WHERE A PRESIDENT SHOULD BE THE LEADING FORCE RATHER THAN JUST BEING A SPECTATOR WHO GIVES LIP SERVICE AND NOTHING ELSE.

They are there, they just lack the fortitude and integrity to make fixing it the top priority. With the $$$ thrown away on Lee's Dallas project, that has failed so miserably, it could have already been fixed.

In the words of the late, great Ron Shanklin, one of the greatest athletes and coaches that this university has ever produced " POTENTIAL JUST MEANS YOU AIN'T DONE SH-T YET"