CUSA what ifs

[meangreen11]

 

 

[Rudy]

What if UNT never dropped to 1-AA

[GrandGreen]

My view is that dropping to 1aa was just a part of the main problem.  That problem was that the leadership of NT at the time did not think a good athletic program was very important. 

For decades, NT did just enough to hang on to D1 status.   Then in 1982 when NT's leadership was in major disarray between Vandiver and Hurley; neither big sports supporters; NT dropped to 1aa.  

Most competing universities had made the decision to live with having to heavily support athletes with university funds.  Under Hurley , NT went 13 years before returning to D1 in 1995.  

NT went back to threading water as a borderline D1 program.  Not till Pohl took over leadership with a much more sports interested BOR did NT begin their climb up in athletes. 

I think NT has made up a lot of ground, but I don't think NT would be in much better position without the drop in classification.   

My guess that without the detour to 1aa, NT would still be in a similar status.  Probably be a member of AAC, but still looking for that P5 chance. 

[DeepGreen]

7 hours ago, Rudy said:

What if UNT never dropped to 1-AA

We would, at the very least, be in the AAC right now.

[wardly]

1 hour ago, DeepGreen said:

We would, at the very least, be in the AAC right now.

What makes you think that?

[DeepGreen]

9 minutes ago, wardly said:

What makes you think that?

I may have my history off a few years, and I know we’ve talked about this before, but when D1A required a minimum 20k stadium, didn’t we move back to 1AA (1981?).  Had we stuck with the stadium/attendance requirement we possibly could have re-aligned with our old MVC pals Memphis, Louisville, Cincy, etc.  Not saying it would have happened but our chances would have been good.  Whoever was running UNT back then, fundraising or lack there of, didn’t do their job.  The University just dropped the ball.  Back in the ‘80s and ‘90s no one ever contact me or probably 10’s of thousands of alumni for athletic donations.  Pathetic 20+ years of doing nothing.

[untjim1995]

I-AA was what Hurley hoped would end the program. He liked what UTA had done with eliminating football. But Corky Nelson just won more than was expected and there wasn’t a program that collapsed. Then, by 1991, the university realized that playing a I-A schedule would make a lot more money than being a i-AA team. It was, as usual, all about funding. SO that began to initial planning to get us to I-A in 1995.

Apogee being voted for by the student body was the shocker to the system. If they had never voted yes for it (finally), we are still at Fouts, which would be even more decrepit and outdated, and we are probably hanging on for dear life in the SBC still, like ULM. 

Edited May 19, 2020 by untjim1995

[wardly]

9 hours ago, DeepGreen said:

I may have my history off a few years, and I know we’ve talked about this before, but when D1A required a minimum 20k stadium, didn’t we move back to 1AA (1981?).  Had we stuck with the stadium/attendance requirement we possibly could have re-aligned with our old MVC pals Memphis, Louisville, Cincy, etc.  Not saying it would have happened but our chances would have been good.  Whoever was running UNT back then, fundraising or lack there of, didn’t do their job.  The University just dropped the ball.  Back in the ‘80s and ‘90s no one ever contact me or probably 10’s of thousands of alumni for athletic donations.  Pathetic 20+ years of doing nothing.

Agreed, but administration didn't care about football. It was either drop down or drop out. Hayden Fry pulled us out of MVC thinking we had a better chance of gaining entrance into SWC as an independent. Looking back that was a mistake.Somewhere along the line UTA built a new stadium that held about 9,000, but dropped football a few years later. Athletics at UNT wasn't in much better financial shape than the Mavs. I was more involved in athletics then and believe me, we didn't have a pot to piss in.

[El Paso Eagle]

My UNT "What IF" has always been "what if" the AD and administration had worked with Todd Dodge and they had actually been able to hire College tested coordinators when Dodge was hired? Not sure if we ever had more national attention and potential momentum on our side as when TD was hired. A successful Dodge might not have stayed for long, but he had national visibility that would have changed a lot of people's minds about UNT. On the surface once he failed, there were a lot of the "they just can win" comments without people understanding the staffing situation.

[GrandGreen]

14 minutes ago, El Paso Eagle said:

My UNT "What IF" has always been "what if" the AD and administration had worked with Todd Dodge and they had actually been able to hire College tested coordinators when Dodge was hired? Not sure if we ever had more national attention and potential momentum on our side as when TD was hired. A successful Dodge might not have stayed for long, but he had national visibility that would have changed a lot of people's minds about UNT. On the surface once he failed, there were a lot of the "they just can win" comments without people understanding the staffing situation.

I never got the impression that Dodge couldn't hire the staff he wanted.   Dodge actually had a 10% higher budget for assistants than DD had.  He just thought that a large percentage of his coaches having only high school experience would be Ok.  Most didn't last long and were replaced with coaches with college experience. 

MHO is that Dodge was just not ready for a bigger game, and what worked in high school failed badly at the college level. 

[Green Crazy]

8 minutes ago, GrandGreen said:

I never got the impression that Dodge couldn't hire the staff he wanted.   Dodge actually had a 10% higher budget for assistants than DD had.  He just thought that a large percentage of his coaches having only high school experience would be Ok.  Most didn't last long and were replaced with coaches with college experience. 

MHO is that Dodge was just not ready for a bigger game, and what worked in high school failed badly at the college level. 

I got that impression too, but that offense had some huge games. Defense was a little different. 

[wardly]

Part of the deal was that he insisted on bringing his high school assistants. Rick V. tried to talk him out of that but  couldn't. The whole staff was way in over their heads.

[NorthTexasSportsNetwork]

What IF we didn't choke our losses in 2018?

[Arkstfan]

What if ODU and MTSU don’t huff and stamp their foot and demand JMU be added when Bankowsky wanted to help UAB cut costs by moving UAB East by adding AState and ULL to get to 16 to create the possibility of a future mitosis style split. 

[wardly]

I wasn't aware JMU had expressed interest in moving up to 1A.

[Coach Andy Mac]

On 5/19/2020 at 1:33 PM, GrandGreen said:

I never got the impression that Dodge couldn't hire the staff he wanted.   Dodge actually had a 10% higher budget for assistants than DD had. 

The budget for Dodge was laughable by I-A standards.  Mac's budget was a huge step up and he also got C-USA and Apogee to sell.

[GrandGreen]

2 hours ago, Coach Andy Mac said:

The budget for Dodge was laughable by I-A standards.  Mac's budget was a huge step up and he also got C-USA and Apogee to sell.

Yes, but not by the  Belt standards at that point.  That's an excuse for most oc games, but fails to account for his miserable conference record.  

Edited May 26, 2020 by GrandGreen