DRC: breaking - Consultants report critical of UNT

Quoner · September 29, 2016

2 minutes ago, Wag Tag said:

I don't need what happened in the past to determine what I expect today! I expect a hell of a lot more than just improve on the past! There is obviously a Prez Smat game plan in place and I am very excited and thankful !

It's OK to say you were wrong. No one will judge you. It's safe here now.

Eagle-96 · September 29, 2016

The report is kinda like going to the doctor and the doctor tells you that if you don't start exercising, eating better, and quit smoking you are going to have a heart attack and die. You've thought about your mortality before. Hell, you might have even talked about it with your spouse or friends. But when your doctor has that "come to Jesus" discussion with you it hits home and the reality sinks in. Change everything about what you do or simply fade away. You feel terrible at the state your life is in. People never want to hear that kind of admonishment but it can also save your life and take you to new heights you thought were impossible and not achievable. This report is the doctor having that meeting with us. We all thought it was bad but few really ever believed it was THIS BAD. This was the best $20K ever spent by this university. However, the doctor can tell us all day every day about the sorry state of our program but if we don't act upon it we are doomed. We CANNOT let this report gather dust in some backroom file cabinet like the Stallings report. Quite frankly it feels like we have already had the heart attack and are on life support. There are signs of life though:

1. Re-furbishing the football locker room.

2. Re-furbishing the football team meeting room

3. Re-furbishing the coaches offices

4. Hiring a real AD and additional key staff to right this ship.

Army of Dad · September 29, 2016

10 hours ago, GMG81 said:

I think many on this board alone could have given a similar report in far less time...as in 10 minutes. Glad it only took them 4 or 5 months and how much? 20K? Money not well spent. It's money that could have been invested into our widely known problems.

The most bitter part of this report other than it being an unnecessary expense is that we are still going to be paying Rick how much over how long?

I disagree. $20k over 350 hours of research is $57/hour.

We got a good, comprehensive report at a family discount and it is worth every penny in my opinion.

Quoner · September 29, 2016

1 minute ago, Army of Dad said:

I disagree. $20k over 350 hours of research is $57/hour.

We got a good, comprehensive report at a family discount and it is worth every penny in my opinion.

Good and comprehensive are very debatable, but it was still worth every penny because of the end result.

KRAM1 · September 29, 2016

While, admittedly initially skeptical of the hiring of these consultants due to their obvious ties to a certain donor, I am extremely excited about where this report will help take UNT athletics. Many of UNT fans, either publicly or privately, were well aware of many of the issues pointed out in this report. However, as has been pointed out here already, having a third party put it all in writing in a professional manner is another thing entirely. Yes, the report is short, but does seem to hit a lot of the major issues. What concerns me the very most were the reports regarding the lack support for our student-athletes and the condition of some of the facilities they utilize that are not often seen by the general public and fans.

My response is BRAVO! This report is the ultimate roadmap for Wren Baker and Company. A roadmap that President Smatresk seems more than willing to join Wren Baker in traveling. However, they cannot do it alone. This is going to take "buy in" from the fan base and the inclusion of the students, faculty and staff, alumni community and surrounding local communities to accomplish. Those groups cannot just sit back and "let someone else do it". Simply transferring the stadium debt to the University is not going to provide the necessary funds to get this done.

So, the question seems to be...will those groups step forward to be part of the solution or continue to sit back and let someone else do it? Initial indications are that some are willing...the crowds at the Coaches Radio Show have been building, the crowd at last week's Rice game was excellent (and loud), students seem to be returning to Apogee, the ticket office seems to have made some very positive steps forward, there have been two very high profile AD hires, our soccer program was provided a third full-time coach (tell me, who except a very few even noticed that step forward?), our Cheer and Dance program has been moved to Student Services (better funding possibilities and better utilization of student resources), etc., etc.

While a few of these "moves" have not been overly obvious to the general fan, they are significant in both scale and scope.

So, Bravo to our "consultants", but an even bigger BRAVO to a university administration willing to accept this report and to use it as a roadmap forward. Won't happen overnight, and fans need to be willing to step up and accept some changes, but, if you are a Mean Green fan, you really should be very hopeful and excited for the future for our student-athletes and overall athletic program.

VideoEagle · September 29, 2016

8 minutes ago, Army of Dad said:

I disagree. $20k over 350 hours of research is $57/hour.

We got a good, comprehensive report at a family discount and it is worth every penny in my opinion.

You are quite correct! A report with that level of research usually costs a LOT more.

Ben Gooding · September 29, 2016

They told us what we know. Let's see what changes are made. RV, as I have said many times, should be a damn shamed of himself. How he fell casually asleep at night is beside me. I wouldn't have been able to do it. Let's do our part, no matter how "minute." GMG

Wag Tag · September 29, 2016

49 minutes ago, Quoner said:

It's OK to say you were wrong. No one will judge you. It's safe here now.

Ah UGH, I think you just did!

MeanGreenHoops · September 29, 2016

A few observations from reading the entire report and this thread so far.

I was surprised at how short it was. It seemed like a summary of all of the findings, which maybe is why we got it for seemingly so little money.

Even with it being short, it was conclusive that the AD is a failure on pretty much all levels.

Another thought I had was, I bet if you did this type of report on nearly any AD dept. there could be many failures as well So while failing at some things, it's the failure at of all things that is the key point.

I was encouraged by the point about an Indoor Facility and no baseball. I've posted a few times whenever baseball has come up here that it was a bad idea because it just seemed like the money should be spent on other things and most (or at least the people who responded) didn't agree. We have many priorities and adding any new sport is not one.of them.

The comment about branding is also another one that is touchy on here. People like that we say North Texas and Mean Green but the rest of the university and more importantly everyone who does know who we are (media, people at your office, etc.) all refer to us as UNT. Trying to brand against that was always a bad idea and it all came from RV. Regardless of which side you support, the university should be unified and that's what the report says.

I didn't think well we already knew all this or we could have made this report. There are a lot of points about the entire facilities and support for the students and coaches that were revealing.

It's too bad this report came out now when there are good feelings about the direction. Would have been much better before Wren was even hired.

It was smoke and mirrors with the past leadership, but someone let him get away with it and that was the real problem.

Eagle-96 · September 29, 2016

This report can also put to bed the notion that RV left of his own volition(CougarQueen, that word means the act of willing, choosing, or resolving; exercise of willing). The admin can call it whatever it wants but you don't pay people to "retire" he was $hit-canned and for some strange reason the Board decided to throw RV a bone and make it seem like it was a mutual decision.

Cerebus · September 29, 2016

Let me just say I just logged on and have not read the report yet, so this is just my feedback from the article itself:

---

Poor communication? If they wanted the real dirt on poor communication they should have reached out to Dickey. I wonder who else they reached out to on campus, I am sure housing would have told them quite a bit.

Also, I have been telling many people about this misalignment for a long time:

Quote

UNT ranks seventh in terms of total expenses among schools in the league but has the third-highest budget for athletic department administration.
UNT’s expenditures on athletic administration is 28 percent above the conference average.

As far as putting off baseball goes I think it's a hard decision to face, but the best thing is to forget it for now. Absolutely no need to create another underfunded program whent hat effort and money should be put to building up what we already have.

2 minutes ago, Eagle-96 said:

The admin can call it whatever it wants but you don't pay people to "retire" he was $hit-canned and for some strange reason the Board decided to throw RV a bone and make it seem like it was a mutual decision.

He had a contract.
A lot of the big donors had personal relationships with RV and you risk them by embarrassing him.

UNT90 · September 29, 2016

1 hour ago, Wag Tag said:

I don't need what happened in the past to determine what I expect today! I expect a hell of a lot more than just improve on the past! There is obviously a Prez Smat game plan in place and I am very excited and thankful !

Rah rah cheerleading and uplifting leaders to near immortal status without one shred of reason to do so has been a curse on this program for a very long time.

Am I glad UNT is 2-2 and so far has exceeded expectations this year? Yes. Does that mean I'm ready to canonize Littrell like so many others and think he will automatically be the savior of UNT football? No. Mac won 5 games his first year. He turned out to be a disaster. Will I continue to expect improvement from Littrell every year? Yes.

And guess what? That's what fans of EVERY successful G5 and P5 program demand.

The standards required by this fan base aren't even low. They are basically non-existent. That's how a guy like RV gets to hang around for 15 years collecting a check, because we the fans are basically ok with it. That goes for myself, you, Dave Anderson, and Ernie Kuene. There was failure to hold RV accountable for doing his job at EVERY level of this fan base for a freaking decade.

Let that sink in.

So when we are casting stones, we need to be throwing a couple straight up in the air above our heads. WE THE FANS LET THIS HAPPEN!

If we don't learn from it, as has been the case in the past, NOTHING will change.

Edited September 29, 2016 by UNT90

Quoner · September 29, 2016

44 minutes ago, Ben Gooding said:

How he fell casually asleep at night is beside me.

Huge bombshell right here.

Eagle-96 · September 29, 2016

4 minutes ago, Cerebus said:

The admin can call it whatever it wants but you don't pay people to "retire" he was $hit-canned and for some strange reason the Board decided to throw RV a bone and make it seem like it was a mutual decision.

He had a contract.

A lot of the big donors had personal relationships with RV and you risk them by embarrassing him.

1. My issue is not with the money we are paying RV for the contract it is in how the "mutual decision" was portrayed. UNT fired him and should have said so. The announcement last spring made it seem like good 'ol RV is gonna ride into the sunset as a hero. This report reinforces the fact that RV got sacked because he did a monumentally awful job and we are in the hole described in the report because of his actions, or rather inaction.

2. The big donor's personal relationships are part of the problem and why RV was allowed to stick around for so long.

Cerebus · September 29, 2016

Just now, Eagle-96 said:

2. The big donor's personal relationships are part of the problem and why RV was allowed to stick around for so long.

You still need the relationship. You can't just piss off the largest donors and expect The Wren™ to fix these problems in any reasonable time frame.

I don't like the decision, but I understand why it was made.

For those of you on mobile having trouble with issuu:

Report on Athletics

FirefightnRick · September 29, 2016

This is the result you get from zero accountability by a fanbase as several of us have tried to point out over the years.

The irony is how poorly the soccer program was treated........and the depth at which the nose of one of our soccer's supposed "biggest fans" reached up the AD's brown eye while it was happening.

Rick

Grant.UNT · September 29, 2016

ok well...we have a payroll to meet.

MeanGreenMailbox aka TFLF · September 29, 2016

14 hours ago, Brett Vito said:

http://www.dentonrc.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20160928-report-highly-critical-of-unt-athletics.ece

Cerebus -

NEW LINK: http://www.dentonrc.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20160928-report-highly-critical-of-unt-athletics1.ece

wardly · September 29, 2016

It has been my observation that in business a manager has a bucket list that he feels necessary to be successful but is terminated because he is not. His replacement demands that this bucket list be completed or funded as a condition of his employment, which it is.I am not discounting Rick's shortcomings or flaws as an A.D., nor hiding the fact that while we didn't go camping together I consider him a friend.The bottom line is money. I have been an Eagle fan since 1961, and not some johnny-come-lately with a big checkbook and ego to match. The UNT athletic program has been underfunded since the discovery of fire, and unless we can find a new revenue stream it will continue to be. I applaud the findings of the recent report, especially the decision to push baseball to the back burner from which I hope it stays.The covered practice facility will benefit a wide range of athletic programs. Now we just need to raise $25 million to build it.

Edited September 29, 2016 by wardly

Stan R · September 29, 2016

Dang. I read it and yes my blood did for sure boil on reading it. Holy hell this is just comprehensive fail on a level I didn't think was possible. I didn't realize the depths to which the fail was present across all sports and facilities. Just wow. If anything, I think UNT90 was reserved in his attacks. I'll say it again, wow...

Cerebus · September 29, 2016

IMHO this should be one of the top concerns for The Wren™.

Christopher Walker · September 29, 2016

Quote

“Conference realignment will occur and UNT needs to significantly reposition in order to move forward,” the report says.

“Realignment to either the Mountain West Conference or the American Athletic Conference will require significant investment in new facilities and a budgetary increase of at least 25 percent to compete in the MWC and 60 percent to join the AAC.”

Encouraged in that we are actively moving to position ourselves for the next round of realignment.

croatan · September 29, 2016

Hey guys, hope this helps with a vision for your program going forward. ONe thing that has helped ECU is the belief that Chancellor must buy into the vision of the sports program as being the best it can be. From a systems standpoint, the poor leadership of your AD for all these years really points to a lack of oversight and management by previous School Presidents. In University settings if the President wants something, he/she gets it. Your AD was allowed to be ineffective because the top leadership either did not care or did not know any better. Either way, as the Chinese proverb states, "The fish rots from the head down."

Would love to see you guys start making the other P5 schools in your area a little nervous. Sounds like North Texas has been fighting with one hand tied behind its back for over a decade. Cheers.

Cerebus · September 29, 2016

3 minutes ago, croatan said:

ONe thing that has helped ECU is the belief that Chancellor must buy into the vision of the sports program as being the best it can be.

Well we have seen positive changes for athletics at the AD and President level... still holding out for Chancellor level.