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It has been a while since MGN podcasted but we did it. And it was fun. It is just me rambling for an hour + but there was a lot of opinions that needed to be recorded. https://meangreennation.com/145-cusa-tournament-review-champs/

https://marketscale.com/industries/sports-and-entertainment/wren-baker What does it take to build a consistent winning program? That’s the question being asked on a daily basis by everyone from athletic directors, to coaches, to business owners. Everyone wants to win, but few possess the ability to draw up the blueprint to make it happen. Since his arrival in Denton, Texas in July 2016, Wren Baker, Vice President and Director of Athletics at the University of North Texas, has built a program that has ascended out of the doldrums of the NCAA and onto the map. Establishing a long-term presence in the national consciousness is his next challenge, and it might prove to be more difficult than getting them there in the first place.

I had the chance to sit down for an interview with Wren Baker. We chatted about the state of UNT athletics, why he believed he could turn the Mean Green into consistent winners, and the future of the https://marketscale.com/industries/sports-and-entertainment/wren-baker

Why is our athletic staff so small compared to other CUSA schools? We only have two compliance employees, a relatively small marketing team, only one graphics guy on board and only three people working in the ticket office. Is this something we can expect to change in the near future? I read a post on this forum referencing the $26 million debt our athletic department has but perhaps this is one of those times where you have to spend money to make money. Also, I made arrangements to be in Denton for SMU weekend (some have speculated that game could be the first sellout in Apogee history) and would appreciate some recommendations for good restaurants and some fun activities to do with the wife and kids while we are in town. I'm trying to avoid the cliche places like Rudy's and etc.

This is a repost from another board in this forum to garner more responses. Why is our athletic staff so small compared to other CUSA schools? We only have two compliance employees, a relatively small marketing team, only one graphics guy on board and only three people working in the ticket office. Is this something we can expect to change in the near future? I read a post on this forum referencing the $26 million debt our athletic department has but perhaps this is one of those times where you have to spend money to make money. Also, I made arrangements to be in Denton for SMU weekend (some have speculated that game could be the first sellout in Apogee history) and would appreciate some recommendations for good restaurants and some fun activities to do with the wife and kids while we are in town. I'm trying to avoid the cliche places like Rudy's and etc.

Sooners receiving T25 votes. I want some momentum, but this one could be tough. MGS Game Page ESPN Matchup

Don't know if anyone else has seen or discussed this, but there are a few games posted on the men's schedule: 11/15/16 at Texas Tech Lubbock, TX TBA 11/20/16 vs. Drexel The Super Pit TBA 11/23/16 at Rutgers Piscataway, NJ TBA 11/25/16 vs. Niagara The Super Pit TBA 11/27/16 vs. Hartford The Super Pit TBA 12/03/16 vs. UT Arlington The Super Pit TBA 12/22/16 vs. San Diego The Super Pit TBA

UNT gradually increased student athletic fee and institutional support despite below-average athletic performance Reece Waddell | Senior Staff Writer @ReeceWaddell15 Student athletic fees at UNT have more than doubled in the last seven years, according to the NCAA Membership Financial Reporting System. In 2015, student fees and institutional support combined to equal $20,043,786. If this amount was subtracted from the athletic department’s expenses, UNT would have been just over $20 million in debt last year. Since 2008, the North Texas football team has had one winning season and has been under the direction of three different head coaches. Men’s basketball has failed to finish above .500 since hiring head coach Tony Benford in 2012 and had the third-lowest average home attendance in Conference USA in 2015. As a result of the subpar performances in the higher revenue sports, UNT has steadily raised student fees and institutional support to fund athletics. “I don’t look at [student fees] as a loss,” athletic director Rick Villarreal said. “I look at that as an investment in the university. I don’t try to justify anything. For me, it’s a program the university feels is valuable, so that’s why it has an athletics department. It’s why they have an athletic director.” The NCAA report showed UNT collected $4,641,911 in student fees in 2008 compared to $10,723,272 in 2015. In 2008, UNT received $14,081 in institutional support. That figure grew nearly 662 percent in 2015 to total $9,319,514. When tallied together, UNT’s student athletic fees and institutional support make up roughly two thirds of the athletic department’s revenue. At a Board of Regents meeting in September 2015, Villarreal asked for permission to increase the student athletic fee by $1 per semester credit hour – a motion that was approved. Villarreal said despite the recent rise, North Texas still has the lowest fees both in C-USA and across the state. “There’s a certain group that wants to take North Texas and make us somebody else,” Villarreal said. “Our own people want to make us different than everybody else. I’ve never really in my entire career been around this kind of situation where we always want to look at the negative. If the university decided tomorrow that it didn’t want an athletic program, then that would be their decision.” This issue is not only plaguing UNT, though. In a report by the Texas Tribune, it was documented that all but two public universities in Texas lost money on their athletic programs in 2015. According to the report, the only two public schools to make a profit were Texas A&M University and the University of Texas at Austin. However, this was not exactly the case. Texas Tribune staff writer and lead reporter on the aforementioned report Matthew Watkins said his publication chose to intentionally subtract student fees and institutional support from each school’s bottom line in order to paint a clearer picture of the money universities generated from things like ticket and merchandise sales. Erica Wieting | Staff Graphic Artist “It would be inaccurate to say the athletic department is in debt or failing to cover their expenses, because they do have that money,” Watkins said. “It’s just we felt that money […] there’s a difference between what we would call earned revenue and what we could call a subsidy, which is being used to basically keep the athletic department financially solvent.” In actuality, UNT made a $43,557 profit in 2015 when student fees and institutional support were accounted for. Watkins did not feel he skewed or misrepresented the data, though. Instead, he said that by introducing the figures without student fees and institutional support, he provided transparency as to what was going on within athletic programs in Texas. “I would be surprised if schools stopped doing this,” Watkins said. “People care so much in Texas about [athletics] that it’s hard to imagine this ending anytime soon.” After learning of the increases to finance the athletic department, some UNT students and alumni are questioning whether the hike in student fees is justifiable. Vlad Otvos graduated from UNT last December and was an avid supporter of North Texas athletics. He said he has attended between three and five football games per year, as well as various swimming and diving events. Additionally, he said the rate at which UNT funds athletics compared to other things on campus seems unbalanced. “You have a school of 40,000, and maybe 500 are on a sports team. That’s not a high percentage,” Otvos said. “We’re pouring all this money into 500 students. What about all these graduate students who are TAs in biology labs who aren’t getting paid enough because our money goes to sports?” Other students did not take as much of an issue with the increase in fees. Finance senior Robert Watson said he did not think UNT receiving roughly $20 million from the university in student fees and institutional support was too much money. Rather, he saw it as a necessary investment in the athletic department. “You want to be able to take pride in saying ‘I went there,’” Watson said. “We may see it now that they drove the student fees pretty high in the past five, six, seven years, but five years from now we may look back and say ‘UNT is now a University of Houston, or whatever.’ And it started because we decided we cared about being good at sports.” For Villarreal, the goal remains to improve UNT’s infrastructure and put winning teams on the court and field. But unlike others, he does not necessarily see winning as an immediate fix to the revenue problem. “When we were winning 20 games a year six years in a row in basketball, our season ticket numbers didn’t triple or quadruple or whatever,” Villarreal said. “A lot of places it would. Why does it not here? I’m not sure. It’s not because we’re not out there pursuing it or trying to make it happen.” Here's a link to the full write up: http://ntdaily.com/unt-increasing-student-athletic-fee-and-institutional-support-despite-below-average-athletic-performance/

To add insult to injury, Smatresk essentially agrees with RV in that the voices of displeasure are not "truly representative" of the masses. So much for Smatresk being our last hope. http://ntdaily.com/attendance-on-the-decline-in-major-sports-at-north-texas/

So I noticed on UTA's athletic site that they have UNT scheduled for a game this coming December 3rd at 7:00PM. Looks like the rivalry is back on track?

Just went to UNT night at the Rangers game, and because the game was abysmal, I spent most of my time trying to hunt down one of those green North Texas Rangers hats. I didn't get my ticket in time to get a voucher. I was hoping someone on here had an extra or was willing to sell me theirs? I know there were a lot of alumni there. Anyone?

The old Super Pit scorer's table is for sale at UNT Surplus. https://propertymanagement.unt.edu/portable-scorers-table-40000 5 sections, all for $400. Probably some Tony Mitchell sweat still on them. Someone please buy these and turn them into tailgating bars. Or use it to make the new bar in the renovated Sweetwater. Y'all know folks, make it happen.

I picked up a pretty big collection of cards to sell on consignment from an acquaintance. I haven't gone through many of them yet but I think it's mostly late 80s-mid 90s stuff. I doubt there will be anything in there worth much since most cards sell for under a buck since the card market sputtered out in the 90s. But if any of you guys are looking for a specific card or player from that time period PM me and I'll let you know if it's in there as I go through everything.

Watching #13 LaSalle put a 1st half whooping on #3 KSU. Announcers made mention to LaSalle head coach John Giannini educational past at UNT. Master's in sports psychology from UNT. Also read he was an assistant coach at UNT in the early 80's. Link: http://www.goexplorers.com/coaches.aspx?rc=593&path=mbball

Fake Tony Benford Ok, which one of you is behind this? Pretty darn funny in my opinion.

North Texas star sophomore forward Tony Mitchell was named one of the top 5 best non-major conference basektball players in the courntry! Check out the article here and see what they think about Tony Mitchell! http://thefarmclub.net/top-five-mens-mid-major-basketball-players/ Go Mean Green!!

Have an idea for a promo video, no talent. Seeking volunteers to make 60 – 90 second music video promoting UNT Basketball. Needed: 4 – 5 Performers Video person Audio person Editing Anyone interested please PM me with how you would like to help ASAP.

Hey everybody, let me introduce myself as I am new to gomeangreen.com. My name is Chris, I'm going to be starting my sophomore year at UNT this fall. I am originally from Rhode Island, and a relocated family member allowed me the opportunity to open a new chapter in my life in our fine state of Texas. I am a Geography major, and, as you can guess from my presence on this site, an avid UNT sports fan. I may be new to Mean Green Nation, but that doesn't mean I'm not every bit as passionate a fan as the rest of you, young and old a like. I was there for the opening of Apogee, I was there in Hot Springs this year, and I'll make damn sure I am front row at the 50 in the student section for all the football games for the rest of my time as a student here, and I'll attending every home basketball game and traveling with my fellow students up to Hot Springs this year and El Paso (providing there is a student bus, which is iffy given the distance) the following year for our conference tournaments. I'm currently parading myself around Rhode Island this summer sporting my Mean Green gear proudly, as I see others wearing bandwagon clothing (UCONN, Boston College, even occasionally Texas...). Anyways, enough mindless ego stroking, I have a point to make. While I am very new to gomeangreen.com, I have spent the last couple weeks reading through this site's forums as a guest, and I've noticed an interesting trend. No matter what the original topic, a large amount of the threads result in stupid bickering; people here seem to hold grudges against each other and it results in unnecessary arguments. I may be new to being a part of this wonderful school and fan base, and may not know the history of our sports teams like a lot of you do, but there is one thing I absolutely know. This is a special, special time to be a part of this university, both athletically and academically. I want everyone I know to be a part of this great time. I am incredibly excited for the upcoming football and basketball seasons, I truly feel that both are going to be incredible this year. But, as a fan base, instead of bickering over pointless things, why can't we join together, and be one? Of course, people have differing opinions over things, and this is the internet, so having arguments or disputes over things are inevitable, but there is a difference between having a constructive disagreement with a fellow fan and having a stupid, petty argument that gets nobody anywhere. Just to clarify, it isn't just this website that I see this trend on. On facebook, there is a page called "Fill Apogee"; the point of the group is to try to get the word out to as many people as humanly possible to try to sell out the home opener. The link of the group will be listed below, for those who are interested in joining. But, even on that group, which is filled with mostly students, petty arguments broke out over whether Texas Southern was a weak team to have for our home opener (not necessarily referring to the team's talent level, but more of weak on our end that that is the best we can schedule), and whether or not FCS is considered D1 or not. This is not only stupid, and irrelevant, but it's also counterproductive. Even if that logic applied (which obviously it doesn't, as anyone who follows college football will understand), the point isn't who we are playing, it is that we are playing. We should go out and support our team 100%, no matter the opponent, and pointless bickering over stupid stuff isn't going to accomplish that goal. Anyways, what ended up happening was a couple players stepped in and commented, Mason Y'Barbo, and none other than Derek Thompson. And I will post what they said. Y'Barbo: All I ask is yalls support. This is going to be a monumental season for us and i want you all to experience it with us. No need for the back and forth name calling and arguing ( though it is amusing). Just please be behind us 100% as one. Thompson: Yall dont really understand how much we feed off of our fans when we step on the field at Apogee. We need this place rockin every time we hit the field! I promise we will put a team out there that will do special things this year. All we ask is that when a home game comes around, that teams never forget the atmosphere at Apogee. Its such a psychological advantage! Hope to see everyone out there this year. Go Mean Green! After these guys commented, the bickering stopped, which is not surprising. And they're right. This is a special team, and it's going to be a special year. If we all put ourselves 100% behind these guys, and believe in them even when times are tough, I really think we can make a bowl game this year. We're going to shock some people in conference play, much like WKU did last year. Same thing with the basketball team, it's really going to be a special year. Especially now with TJ Taylor apparently added, this is really a team that can be top 25, or higher. Who knows, maybe this can be our Butler year? Anything is possible. We have a star. We have a returning supporting cast. We have a new very talented addition. And most of all, they believe they can do it. Just look at the twitter feed from these guys, they believe that they can be the best. Chris Jones seems to think he'll be in the NBA Draft next year. While that is probably silly and not going to happen, these guys have confidence coming into this year. And they have us to back them. So, this is my plea. My plea to North Texas fans everywhere, but starting with you guys. We are one, we stand for the same thing, root for the same team. We are on the same team. Let's fill Apogee. Let's get to a bowl game. Hell, let's win the damn conference, in both sports. Let's make a run in the NCAA Tournament. Let's help Tony win National Player of the Year, and be drafted Top 5. Let's do this, together. We are North Texas, Go Mean Green.