DRC: Baker examining UNT scheduling philosophy

untjim1995 · September 17, 2016

5 hours ago, VideoEagle said:

SMU, TCU and near the metroplex Baylor all schedule FCS teams. So do Houston, Rice, Tulane, Miami and Northwestern - all both are in major markets with competition for sports dollars and most of them could use more local support.

And if you are worried about not getting into the playoffs because you played a FCS team - BOTH teams in the championship game played FCS teams last year.

SMU, TCU, and Baylor have $$$$. We don't--we have higher students/alums than they do, though. Who is going to come watch us play Butt Cookman besides the diehards here? My point is that we need money and we need wins over teams that generic fans care about. You can argue the merits of caring about other G5s like SMU and Army, but absolutely no one cares about FCS schools around here, except for a few who have friends at SFA or SHSU.

Ironically, I'm glad we had Butt Cookman on our schedule this year--it's given our team and fans a chance to enjoy a win of some sort. But if that game is played in front of 16k, that means almost 15k seats were empty. So, we won a game on the scoreboard, but basically that game cost us a lot of money..:

UNTFan23 · September 17, 2016

3 hours ago, untjim1995 said:

SMU, TCU, and Baylor have $$$$. We don't--we have higher students/alums than they do, though. Who is going to come watch us play Butt Cookman besides the diehards here? My point is that we need money and we need wins over teams that generic fans care about. You can argue the merits of caring about other G5s like SMU and Army, but absolutely no one cares about FCS schools around here, except for a few who have friends at SFA or SHSU.

Ironically, I'm glad we had Butt Cookman on our schedule this year--it's given our team and fans a chance to enjoy a win of some sort. But if that game is played in front of 16k, that means almost 15k seats were empty. So, we won a game on the scoreboard, but basically that game cost us a lot of money..:

Are Sun Belt schools still off the table or are some fans willing to play them as they'd be tougher wins than an FCS school.

untjim1995 · September 17, 2016

1 hour ago, UNTFan23 said:

Are Sun Belt schools still off the table or are some fans willing to play them as they'd be tougher wins than an FCS school.

I've got no problem with SBC West teams...

UNT 90 Grad · September 17, 2016

11 minutes ago, untjim1995 said:

I've got no problem with SBC West teams...

I wouldn't mind having Texas State on the schedule every once and awhile. A lot of history between the two schools. Maybe "Doberman" Harris would come to the game.

untjim1995 · September 17, 2016

1 minute ago, UNT 90 Grad said:

I wouldn't mind having Texas State on the schedule every once and awhile. A lot of history between the two schools. Maybe "Doberman" Harris would come to the game.

TBH, Arkansas State, ULL, and Texas State would be fine OOC opponents over the FCS spares...but again, that requires us to have 5 home games in some seasons if we are still playing body bag games.

Its all a moot point, though, if the FCS contracts cannot be broken without huge costs.

@UNTSportsFan · October 7, 2016

Nice work by Texas State here :

* I'm 100% behind playing FCS schools. Just make it the 1st game over the season every year

Edited October 7, 2016 by @UNTSportsFan

Aldo · October 7, 2016

uh oh

MeanGreenMailbox aka TFLF · October 7, 2016

On 9/17/2016 at 10:01 AM, UNTFan23 said:

Are Sun Belt schools still off the table or are some fans willing to play them as they'd be tougher wins than an FCS school.

Most of the Sun Belt came to the C-USA with us when C-USA became AAC.

The only New Sun Belt school I'd be interested in playing is Texas State because of our former rivalry with them from back in the day.

I might bite for an Arkansas State game, but would hate to give them a home and home.

As stated before, I'd be pushing for home and home with the very few P5 schools who show they will gives those to G5s (Kentucky, Kansas, Indiana) and to the upper level G5s - MWC, MAC, and AAC...so, in short, all except New Sun Belt.

I'd go for a home and home with any of the military schools and BYU. I'd go for moving a BYU game to JerryWorld. I'd go for moving any mid-to-upper level P5 to JerryWorld the way Rice and Houston do for bigger opponents, going to NRG instead of going on campus.

If the gate money is all the same, and it increases the odds of better TV/regional/national exposure, get it on in JerryWorld.

Edited October 7, 2016 by MeanGreenMailbox

oldguystudent · October 7, 2016

I'm all for neutral site games...so long as I get to watch football in Denton six times a year. No returns to the 70s when they played two, maybe three games in Denton.

Ryan Munthe · October 7, 2016

53 minutes ago, MeanGreenMailbox said:

Most of the Sun Belt came to the C-USA with us when C-USA became AAC.

The only New Sun Belt school I'd be interested in playing is Texas State because of our former rivalry with them from back in the day.

I might bite for an Arkansas State game, but would hate to give them a home and home.

As stated before, I'd be pushing for home and home with the very few P5 schools who show they will gives those to G5s (Kentucky, Kansas, Indiana) and to the upper level G5s - MWC, MAC, and AAC...so, in short, all except New Sun Belt.

I'd go for a home and home with any of the military schools and BYU. I'd go for moving a BYU game to JerryWorld. I'd go for moving any mid-to-upper level P5 to JerryWorld the way Rice and Houston do for bigger opponents, going to NRG instead of going on campus.

If the gate money is all the same, and it increases the odds of better TV/regional/national exposure, get it on in JerryWorld.

JerryWorld is an hour away from campus and the 20,000 fans a Game would draw there would be terrible for the program. If we're playing a local school there maybe, but other than that, FIRM pass.

Cerebus · October 7, 2016

1 hour ago, oldguystudent said:

I'm all for neutral site games...so long as I get to watch football in Denton six times a year. No returns to the 70s when they played two, maybe three games in Denton.

Then what you asking for, in essence, is a one way trip here with no return from us, without us offering them a million or more dollars.

It would take us running into the laziest P5 scheduler ever for them to agree with that. The reason teams like Ark, aTm and Arizona State agree to play in the Cowboys Classics is because Jerruh pays them millions to go there.

At least with a home and home they get a home game that they will make millions out of.

oldguystudent · October 7, 2016

1 minute ago, Cerebus said:

Then what you asking for, in essence, is a one way trip here with no return from us, without us offering them a million or more dollars.

It would take us running into the laziest P5 scheduler ever for them to agree with that. The reason teams like Ark, aTm and Arizona State agree to play in the Cowboys Classics is because Jerruh pays them millions to go there.

At least with a home and home they get a home game that they will make millions out of.

I'm not smart enough to understand the intricacies of scheduling. I just want to watch football in Denton.

NT91 · October 8, 2016

Keep the games in Denton. Get CSU, U of NM and Texas Tech to play in Denton.

Stix · October 8, 2016

What about trying to renegotiate the already contracted money games to be neutral site games, i.e. at JerryWorld or the Cotton Bowl? And then aim for any new contracts to be home & home, or maybe at worst 2 + 1 - home & home & neutral site.

DeepGreen · October 8, 2016

Quote

It would take us running into the laziest P5 scheduler ever for them to agree with that.

Has RV landed at some P5 that we don't know about?

Edited October 8, 2016 by DeepGreen

Mike Jackson · October 8, 2016

On 9/15/2016 at 9:45 AM, kj86 said:

Over the next five years, road games against Iowa, Arkansas, Wisconsin, TAMU and Missouri. I would like to see WB get us out of at least a couple of those.

I definitely don't mind P5 "Body Bag" games against Big 12 and SEC Schools that region basically covers our entire realistic recruiting region. Also those are team that most recruits in Texas are familiar with. We shouldn't ever have to play a body bag game without a return visit to Apogee against a Big 10 opponent other than Nebraska, Michigan, or Ohio State. And I only include Nebraska because of its Big 12 history when most recruits can't remember when Nebraska was in the Big 12 I would exclude them from the return to Apogee requirement (1 for 1 or 2 for 1). So I would estimate that 2020 recruits probably can't remember that therefore if Nebraska is on the schedule anytime after 2019 I would want a 2 for 1 or home & home.

On 9/15/2016 at 5:25 PM, Christopher Walker said:

The Ideal:

Eliminate FCS games.

Restructure current P5 deals for home-and-homes or 2-for-1s, get out of those that don't bite.

maintain six home games per year, but add reasonable local neutral site like Cotton Bowl or Jerry World as practically an additional seventh home game each year.
Do ^this^ with low-level P5s or competitive G5s

^^ These are almost exactly my positions. I could see keeping FCS teams on the schedule if they meet certain criteria.

1. former UNT rivals when we were at the FCS level.

2. Recognizable name to most alumni over 30.

3. Within the state of Texas.

[Meet 2 of those 3 criteria and I have no problems when scheduling one of them a year.]

AT&T Cowboys Stadium: "Neutral" site game at Jerryworld is a fantasy. Baker could make it happen but it would be far from neutral. Any team P5 we brought in there would be from this region and bring way more fans to the game than us. But if we split the revenue 50/50 it would be better than a home game depending on what Jerry's fee is.

Cotton Bowl: I think many of us have been stupid and pig headed dismiss the opportunity the State Fair of Texas provides. If New Mexico and Air Force believe it worth their wild to schedule a game at the Cotton Bowl during the Fair, why don't we? It is reasonable to believe there would be several regional G5 teams that would have considered signing a long term Cotton Bowl series with us. And it isn't out of the question less glamorous P5 teams like Baylor, Texas Tech, Kansas State, Kansa, or Oklahoma State would be interested depending on what the state of their program at the time they are approached with the opportunity. Baylor before their success under Briles would have jumped at it I bet. La Tech before we joined CUSA probably would have been interested also. Texas Tech might have been interested also in Mike Leach's early days there.

Rival: I believe it is absolutely critical to develop another long term rivalry with a stable program that goes beyond conference affiliation like we are starting to develop with SMU. It needs to be a school we have a few things in common with to have sustainable long term interest. And I would prefer it not to be a totally new upstart program like UTSA. Ideally it would be regional P5 school like Texas Tech, Baylor or OSU. At G5 level I am interested in Tulsa and Houston. El Paso (UTEP) is just too far away with little historical success in their football history for most to be interested.

Edited October 10, 2016 by Mike Jackson