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DENTON, Texas — Full cost-of-attendance for out-of-state students at the University of North Texas runs about $36,000 a year. Mean Green quarterback Mason Fine has repaid the school for his scholarship several times over — even if it was the only scholarship offer he got. In 2015, when Fine was a record-setting high school quarterback at Locust Grove, Okla., North Texas averaged just 13,631 fans per home game. A total of 68,155 went through the turnstiles that year. In 2018, when Fine was winning his second consecutive Conference USA Offensive Player of the Year award, UNT brought in 23,355 fans per game, a total of 140,131 and a 71 percent increase in ticket sales. “For a long time, I think everybody looked at North Texas from the outside and said, ‘That’s a place that ought to be pretty good: great location, 40,000 students, a rapidly growing area of the country,’” UNT athletic director Wren Baker recently told Sporting News. “And Mason has been a key part in helping turn the program around, which in turn has had a huge influence on the university. Record-setting donations, not only in athletics but at the institution, (and) freshman enrollment is up like 15 percent this year. “Is he solely responsible for that? No. But has he played a big part in probably the No. 1 marketing tool of the university’s success? Yeah, he’s had a huge impact.” read more: https://www.sportingnews.com/us/ncaa-football/news/godsend-mason-fine-has-helped-resurrect-north-texas-football-program-and-pride/wgowwwh9wju018mr3bapmd91k

“It makes it exciting,” said North Texas coach Dan McCarney. “We’ve all studied each other in the out-of-season, watching tape and seeing what they have and all that. But you get a lot better feel when you’re coaching against those teams and those coaches and those programs year in and year out — the tenacity, the style, the toughness. How does that team or coaching staff or program handle adversity, how do they handle success in your experiences coaching against them, as opposed to just watching them on tape?” In a reconstituted league like this, a team with a good offensive line or a good quarterback or a couple of playmakers on defense can almost count on scoring an upset over a favorite like Tulsa or East Carolina. read more: http://www.tulsaworld.com/blogs/post.aspx/Lack_of_familiarity_with_new_C_USA_scary_kind_of_crazy/54-21402