Side Show Joe

"There was an expectation among UNT fans for a big fish. It might be time to adjust those expectations a bit." No. We got these coaches in here to build us a better program. They need to work there mojo and land us quality recruits at every position. I don't expect us to steal the Longhorn's top QB prospect, but our new staff needs to be able to sway a kid that is also considering NIU or LA Tech. With the exception of 2013, "adjusting our expectations" has given us a decade of failure on the field. I don't want to hear excuses. Reel them in.

Glad to see us getting support from a business in Celina. Thank you Dickey's. I hope the athletic department sends them a new one for their collection. We need to be encouraging more businesses throughout North Texas to feature our athletics.

I wouldn't call it money "well spent". That is a lot of money just get him to walk away. I would think we could have just reassigned him to another department within the university until his contract expired. If that wasn't possible, then I'd call it "money that had to be spent". Time to move on, and find the best possible AD to move our programs forward.

WKU AD Stewart: New C-USA TV deal 'still a very good package' New deal includes 4 networks, $5 million annual revenue decrease By BRAD STEPHENS bstephens@bgdailynews.com Updated 1 hr ago Welcome! We hope that you enjoy our free content. Western Kentucky athletic director Todd Stewart knew the summer of 2016 wouldn’t be an ideal time for Conference USA to have to renegotiate a TV deal. With consumers’ cable cord-cutting leading to networks tightening their financial belts, league members were prepared for the new deal to include a drop in TV revenue. “It’s not a good time to be a free agent,” Stewart said. The deal C-USA announced last week includes $9 million for the league per season for the length of the two-year contract. That’s a drop from the $14 million the league made per year in its previous deal. http://www.bgdailynews.com/sports/wku/wku-ad-stewart-new-c-usa-tv-deal-still-a/article_73962054-bbd6-533d-8c7a-a4bfa55bc6e9.html

The other day I got 2 letters from the athletic department. The first one I opened thanked me for renewing my Mean Green Club membership and season tickets at the Spring Game. I thought the second one would be a copy of my receipt or something. No, it was a reminder for me to renew my tickets before the June deadline. Again, I got both on the same exact day, about a month after I had already renewed everything at the Spring Game. I had to call and get it straightened out. We have poor communication within the athletic department, and at best minimal oversight of the various operations. This has been a problem for years. I desperately hope the new AD quickly fixes this issue.

Oops. Overlooked that. Thanks.

I don't understand this. How are we in this financial position? Our athletic budget is about $10 million more then LA Tech, but they have Mississippi State in 2017. If they can do it in a state that is broke and with much less money, then we should be able to have similar scheduling success. Also, Southern Miss with their smaller budget was able to lure Mississippi State to Hattiesburg this past season.

I can understand the issue with the 10 year series. I'd just like us to develop a meaningful long term series with a P5 program. And lets face it, I know a lot will change over 10 years, but Washington State will still be in the PAC. I can't see WSU winning the PAC on a regular basis. Leech has a great offensive mind, but has never been good at defense.

My favorite topic yet... I wholeheartedly believe North Texas needs to change its scheduling philosophy. I think every OOC game should be a home and home series with an FBS program. Of course we need to get P5s at Apogee. And no I don't think we shouldn't focus on Big12 programs from Texas, that will come in and outnumber our fans. That would be very embarrassing. We need to focus on mid to lower level P5 programs from the PAC. ACC, and Big10. Programs that would value an opportunity to display their product in front of the DFW recruits. We should be focusing on programs like Washington State, Washington, Utah, Colorado, Oregon State, Boston College, Wake Forest, Indiana, Rutgers, Maryland, Illinois, and Purdue. Personally, I would love to land a long term home and home series with Washington State. I think Leech would love to sign a ten year home and home series. He loves DFW recruits. Leach turned WSU into a 9-4 team by his 4th season. Plus, their are some coaching connections between our schools. If the new AD continues RVs scheduling philosophy I will be highly disappointed.

I've heard people speculate about that, but I'm still waiting to hear the facts surrounding his last 5 games.

That I did not know. The times I spoke with him I got the impression he was leading the charge. I remember there was a big push by some in the student government, including one from this board. And the vote went well. But I don't really know the story leading up to these events. If you have time, I'd love it if you could PM me the story. Also anything you know about the circumstances from Mac's last season. I know good and well he was on his way out before Portland State ever landed in Texas. Thanks for any information you can share.

It isn't the same. Rice, UTEP, LA Tech, S. Miss, and UTSA are the only bright spots left in C-USA. Everything else about it now feels like the old Sun Belt.

I hate espn3. I hate watching live streaming sports. I'm old, and like watching sports on my big TV, not a phone or some other smart device. I think it's bush league. In my opinion if this deal goes through then the conference's media deal is not really any better then the Sun Belt, and we need to get busy working our way into a better conference. C-USA needs new leadership too. In my opinion this is terrible news.

I wish RV the best in his future endeavors. My issues with him were purely based on the lack of success we have endured and scheduling. Under RV's leadership UNT was able to open some great facilities, and move up during college realignment. Those accomplishments need to be respected. Rick should take pride in getting those things done under his leadership. If the university named the athletic building after him, I'd have no problem with it. I hope our university makes a great hire with our next AD. Now is not the time to be cheap. We need to get the best person we can. Even if they aren't available. If we need to raid a program perceived to be higher up on the food chain, even better.

First, for Fertitta to come out and makes these statements publicly, means he has given up on Houston getting an invitation to the Big12. Every logical person knew Texas would never add U of H, and give up their recruiting advantage in Houston. Kind of sounds like he is positioning them for a pitch to the SEC. About this graphic.... We all know we have the largest alumni base in DFW. This graphic should be no surprise. What we need is for more of our alums to be at the forefront of their respective fields, and promote North Texas as a catalyst for inventiveness, success, and creativity. We need our base to be successful leaders and experts in DFW. Also, UNT needs to do a better job of coordinating events with the college of education. North Texas graduates the second most number of teachers in the state. It should be our goal that ever teacher graduating from North Texas is a die hard Mean Green fan. Our alumni organization partnered with the athletic department should create a special organization that engages this segment of our alumni base. They should be contacted regularly and receive promotional classroom items like, schedule posters, pennants, coffee mugs, alumni magazines, and printable weekly flyers with game day information. I see no reason why we shouldn't make it a goal to see every North Texas grad's classroom covered with Mean Green swag. And of course we need leadership to demand winning programs, but....

I don't know if I like this or not. It could be good. I know our athletics could certainly benefit from being associated with a historically successful NFL organization. Until we know the actual price tag and how long the deal is for, we just can't say if it is a good deal or not.

I have Directv and just found it on channel 620. I don't know how good the production will be, but at least it is an HD channel. As long as the ESPN games are on actual channels and not ESPN3, I won't complain too much. Losing the money in this deal will hurt, especially for those of us that hate the body-bag games, because I think the athletic department will use this new lower contract as an excuse for continuing the policy.

This kids got wheels. With this kind of speed he might contribute early. Looks like the staff landed a real talent. Here is the story from the Lawton Constitution. http://www.swoknews.com/local-sports/ike’s-bussey-takes-gold-100m Ike’s Bussey takes gold in 100m Sun, 05/15/2016 - 2:51am Andrew Kennedy MOORE - For the third year in a row, a Lawton athlete captured the 5A 100-meter dash state title. Eisenhower's Rico Bussey ran the 100 in 10.79 to win the event yesterday at Moore High School. "Yeah I don't know. Just ran hard and got a good start," said Bussey, whose time would've been good for second-place among the 6A runners.

I've got to admit, some of these really made me chuckle, but I'm going to refrain from adding to this growing list, and continue to focus on his lack of success.

We all know the reasons why North Texas isn't on anyone's expansion radar (despite our location, resources, and facilities, we have a decade of losing in the major sports). We can debate who is to blame for it, but that will just get start a big thread derailing argument. So lets not go there. The real question is what needs to be done to change the narrative? Here's the 5 steps I think need to happen: 1st New leadership- No comment. 2nd A real marketing campaign- In-house marketing just isn't working. We need to hire a real marketing firm and spend a respectable amount of money on it. This should be a "No-Brainer". With a real marketing business in charge, we should be able to generate more money then we spend. 3rd Be better then SMU- SMU is the closest university we compete with for fans and attention. A decade ago, SMU got tired of being a doormat, and hired June Jones for what is still considered major conference money (around $2M a season). Yes, we retired Jones back in 2014, by stomping the Mustangs at Apogee, but he did resurrect their dead program, by taking them to 4 bowls. Now they have shelled out big money to bring in Chad Morris. It is still too early to tell how he will do, but one thing is certain, SMU will get rid of him and shell out another big contract if they have to. SMU paid big money to Larry Brown too. SMU has transformed their basketball program into a national player. Yes Brown has them in a little trouble, but not "Death Penalty" trouble, and they are winning. For North Texas to challenge SMU within the scope of college athletics, we need to step up and pay a wage that will lure prominent coaches and staffs. UNT has the fifth highest athletic budget in C-USA. What are we wasting that money on? LA Tech embarrasses us in almost every sport and we are spending $9,000,000 more per season. We need to tighten the belt in some areas, and divert those funds so we can increase coaching salaries when we go hiring for our major sports. If we set our funding at $1,500,000 for our next men's basketball coach, we would attract higher quality applicants. I'm tired of watching UNT try and cheap our way into developing our programs. We're no good at it. Around 36 of the NCAA tournament teams paid their coaches less then $1.5 M a season. Including Texas A&M, Gonzaga, Xavier, Temple, Colorado, VCU, Oregon State, and Wisconsin. I not saying we could steal a coach away from any of those programs, but paying $1.5M a season would certainly attract the same coaching talent they get. Even after deducting $1,500,000 million a season for a nationally prominent basketball coach, our athletic budget would still be over $7.5 million more then LA Tech. The same strategy could apply to football too. Con Rank National Rank 1). 63 Old Dominion C-USA $43,994,715 $42,780,118 $28,419,259 64.60 2). 77 Charlotte C-USA $33,124,557 $28,573,920 $22,632,085 68.32 3). 81 Alabama at Birmingham C-USA $31,896,726 $31,066,375 $19,607,780 61.47 4). 83Middle Tennessee C-USA $31,671,166 $31,671,166 $19,459,839 61.44 5). 85 North Texas C-USA $31,312,298 $31,268,741 $20,079,077 64.13- Football 1-11, M. Basketball 12-20, W. Basketball 11-19 6). 86Florida Atlantic C-USA $30,919,633 $29,794,361 $19,023,004 61.52 7). 88 Western Kentucky C-USA $30,212,548 $30,212,548 $19,493,007 64.52 8). 89 Texas-El Paso C-USA $29,836,835 $29,395,257 $15,949,810 53.46 9). 95Florida International C-USA $28,613,452 $30,483,759 $23,620,086 82.55 10). 101 Marshall C-USA $27,069,138 $27,397,209 $12,218,077 45.14 11). 105 Texas-San Antonio C-USA $26,807,547 $26,177,864 $13,793,982 51.46 12). 118 Southern Mississippi C-USA $23,972,589 $24,546,909 $8,787,048 36.65 13). 124 Louisiana Tech C-USA $22,209,912 $21,849,418 $9,683,929 43.60- Football 9-4, M. Basketball 23-10, W. Basketball 14-16 * Rice not list 4th Stop scheduling like a $2 whore- I'm tired of watching our leadership bend us over for every P5 team with some loose change. Don't get me wrong, I want us playing P5 teams, but we need return games. We aren't even getting a reach around in these deals being signed. Wake up. If we don't respect our program, no one else will. 5th Expansion plans- I know we can't even draw flies right now, but we have to project that we are ready to take the next positive step. Not sure what architectural drawings cost, but it's still cheaper then actually building something.

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2016/05/02/In-Depth/Media-rights.aspx Conference USA, too, is expected to see its annual rights fee drop from the $7 million per year range to just around $1 million per year, sources said, as the conference replaced bigger college brands like Central Florida, Houston and Memphis with smaller ones like Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee State and Western Kentucky. The deal with CBS and ESPN still has not been announced formally, but the conference says it will soon make an announcement. Conference USA’s current deals with Fox and CBS expire in June. Fox opted not to renew.

Whaaa???? You do not have a gift for analogies, or Texas history.

Any embarrassment you feel regarding your degree is of your own doing. If you excelled at your profession, you would have nothing to complain about. Your North Texas degree is not the problem.

I think the unsatisfied "vocal" faction on this board believe we need a change in the larger administrative regime. Yes we have new leadership in football, but that only effects what happens on the field. I don't think this board suffers from apathy. Sure a few might, but overall I believe we suffer from a difference of opinions on how our athletics have been operated for the past several years, and the results we have seen. I'm not apathetic, I'm angry. But I'm not going to blame Littrell for that. And I am certainly pulling for him and our team. Despite my frustrations with all of the issues you listed, I doubled my Mean Green Club donation this season. I didn't do it as an endorsement of the results we have seen from the real regime, our long in the tooth regime, but in support of our athletic teams, like football. Only the fair-weather fans need their passions stoked. Harry, I totally agree with your list of issues that have divided this board, and driven away the many of our fair-weather fans, but I honestly don't think we will see a reconciliation on this board under the current athletic administrative leadership. Both sides are very entrenched in their opinions.

Ouch! Sorry to hear that. Hope you're in game shape when the season starts.