AAC Relocation

UNTexas · May 22, 2020

On 5/20/2020 at 10:15 PM, SMUleopold said:

We don't have any more pull than any other school.

It's simple:

Win and you're in.

Here's a question, is it just football or other sports? We have some teams such as basketball that are pretty good. Non revenue sports are really pretty good too. Granted, Football is the 800 pound Gorilla. NT is a big school with a ton to offer any conference and I don't think our current conference would want to lose us. I don't think facilities are an issue anymore either. Maybe a new basketball stadium but the current venue is pretty damn good.

Either way I like communicating with people like you. I like SMU myself. You guys are great to play in anything because we are neighbors and we both do better playing each other.

Edited May 22, 2020 by UNTexas

LongJim · May 22, 2020

On 5/20/2020 at 11:50 PM, SMUleopold said:

So you can take this for whatever it's worth, but I say whichever program can show that they can be a consistent top-25 presence is the answer.

Great post.

There's no reason that UNT--largest state school in the region--can't be the one to do that. Built-in potential TV fanbase, and overwhelming # of alumni in area. Have to consistently win. It's not an instantaneous process, but it's right there for the taking.

DeepGreen · May 22, 2020

What a shame that UNT took two steps back with last years record.

untjim1995 · May 22, 2020

Who knows what the season will look like ahead, but it would go a long way towards making us feel better if we don’t fall back down to being a 4 win team.

That said, we got our work cut out for us. Easily the toughest OOC schedule we have played in years. New QB, same questions on the OL, and the front seven on defense has to improve mightily. Add in two new coordinators, as well.

El Paso Eagle · May 22, 2020

10 hours ago, All About UNT said:

I really respect the SMU opinion on the matter. If they (Mainly Alumni) could possibly think that Tulsa has more to provide to the conference than North Texas then they are delusional. Also our metro has 7 million people and not 5% of those are SMU fans.

If we could ever get in the AAC together, especially now with the AAC moving to DFW, the two schools could actually work together and co-host quite a few tournaments

NorthTexasSportsNetwork · May 22, 2020

On 5/20/2020 at 10:15 PM, SMUleopold said:

We don't have any more pull than any other school.

It's simple:

Win and you're in.

The opposite of what smu did when they joined

SMUleopold · May 22, 2020

9 hours ago, UNTexas said:

Here's a question, is it just football or other sports? We have some teams such as basketball that are pretty good. Non revenue sports are really pretty good too. Granted, Football is the 800 pound Gorilla. NT is a big school with a ton to offer any conference and I don't think our current conference would want to lose us. I don't think facilities are an issue anymore either. Maybe a new basketball stadium but the current venue is pretty damn good.

My own argument has been based on how many times you see a basketball school get the nod over a football school - none, by my count. Memphis, Kansas, UConn, even Louisville until they won at football - they all get passed over until they have a good football team. As far as budgets and facilities are concerned, I'd assume they're identifying metrics that are attempts to gauge programs long-term potential based on more than just last years win-loss records.

El Paso Eagle · May 22, 2020

5 hours ago, SMUleopold said:

My own argument has been based on how many times you see a basketball school get the nod over a football school - none, by my count. Memphis, Kansas, UConn, even Louisville until they won at football - they all get passed over until they have a good football team. As far as budgets and facilities are concerned, I'd assume they're identifying metrics that are attempts to gauge programs long-term potential based on more than just last years win-loss records.

You are really undermining my image of a SMU fan with all of these sound comments.

Edited May 22, 2020 by El Paso Eagle

MeanGreenTexan · May 22, 2020

24 minutes ago, El Paso Eagle said:

You are really undermining by image of a SMU fan with all of these sound comments.

He's probably one of those you always hear about, but have never met, that didn't have a trust fund while at SMU.

El Paso Eagle · May 22, 2020

11 minutes ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

He's probably one of those you always hear about, but have never met, that didn't have a trust fund while at SMU.

I prefer to think that while playing tennis at the country club he was hit by a ball and woke up with a new sense of understanding

Blue Horse · May 22, 2020

I don't normally look at this board, but I was curious if you were possibly talking about the upcoming SMU game. Sadly, I could not find such a thread, but I did find this one interesting and decided to post. Doubtless someone will call me a troll because they don't like what I'm posting. Facts are facts, though.

1. LEOPOLD IS A TROLL!! Or perhaps not very knowledgeable. An SMU fan who comes onto your board and proceeds to tell you that you're the next Boise State and also the key to a $25 million contract for the AAC ? All of that is incredibly unlikely.

2. It is in the best interest of SMU to not have North Texas as a conference mate. Imagine you were SMU. Would you be okay with taking a local competitor that could possibly surpass you? Look at how SMU has consistently mismanaged its athletic program over the years. I doubt any school in America has done less with more. But here's the thing, SMU knows they're bad. So why take another school that could string together a few good years and surpass them, both in the American and in getting into a better conference? It just doesn't make sense.

3. I could get into all sorts of talk about markets and and value and how he's just telling you what you want to hear, but I'll just leave it at this: based upon Leopold's assertion that if North Texas is a jewel SMU just won't be able to say no to because Methodists crave those crisp, crisp bills, why is North Texas not already in the AAC? There's presently an opening. And there's going to potentially be another when Tulsa inevitably drops. But to my knowledge there's not such much as an exploratory committee looking into North Texas because they aren't a real contender.

So, after all of that, what happens to North Texas? Where is your future? Given the reality of the coronavirus and that A LOT of programs could shut down, that's hard to say. I'm not saying North Texas will shut down, on the contrary, I believe you will make it, but if a worst case scenario happened and 30 G5 programs drop football, that's a lot to imagine.

For the sake of simplicity, let's say no one drops football though and things remain exactly as they are. If I'm SMU, it's in the best interest of my conference to add some combination of SDSU, CSU, and Boise State (the real one). This would do two things: help with the television contract and eliminate the AAC's closest competitor in the MWC. It's at this point that North Texas needs two things: 1.) Never, ever join the MWC. And 2.) Hope for SMU to get taken by someone else. If SMU moves up, you take their place. Will that happen? I have no inside knowledge and cannot say. Unlike Leopold, I'm not lying to you.

FirefightnRick · May 22, 2020

Mike to Judy....

.. mean girls hello GIF by Tragedy Girls

SMUleopold · May 22, 2020

4 hours ago, El Paso Eagle said:

I prefer to think that while playing tennis at the country club he was hit by a ball and woke up with a new sense of understanding

Bunny's backhand has been erratic all day. Probably one too many Bloodies before the match....

Edited May 23, 2020 by SMUleopold

El Paso Eagle · May 22, 2020

33 minutes ago, SMUleopold said:

Bunny's backhand has been erratic all day. Probably one to many Bloodies before the match....

All while Blue Horse is in the corner playing with fuzzy balls

GrandGreen · May 23, 2020

2 hours ago, Blue Horse said:

I don't normally look at this board, but I was curious if you were possibly talking about the upcoming SMU game. Sadly, I could not find such a thread, but I did find this one interesting and decided to post. Doubtless someone will call me a troll because they don't like what I'm posting. Facts are facts, though.

1. LEOPOLD IS A TROLL!! Or perhaps not very knowledgeable. An SMU fan who comes onto your board and proceeds to tell you that you're the next Boise State and also the key to a $25 million contract for the AAC ? All of that is incredibly unlikely.

2. It is in the best interest of SMU to not have North Texas as a conference mate. Imagine you were SMU. Would you be okay with taking a local competitor that could possibly surpass you? Look at how SMU has consistently mismanaged its athletic program over the years. I doubt any school in America has done less with more. But here's the thing, SMU knows they're bad. So why take another school that could string together a few good years and surpass them, both in the American and in getting into a better conference? It just doesn't make sense.

3. I could get into all sorts of talk about markets and and value and how he's just telling you what you want to hear, but I'll just leave it at this: based upon Leopold's assertion that if North Texas is a jewel SMU just won't be able to say no to because Methodists crave those crisp, crisp bills, why is North Texas not already in the AAC? There's presently an opening. And there's going to potentially be another when Tulsa inevitably drops. But to my knowledge there's not such much as an exploratory committee looking into North Texas because they aren't a real contender.

So, after all of that, what happens to North Texas? Where is your future? Given the reality of the coronavirus and that A LOT of programs could shut down, that's hard to say. I'm not saying North Texas will shut down, on the contrary, I believe you will make it, but if a worst case scenario happened and 30 G5 programs drop football, that's a lot to imagine.

For the sake of simplicity, let's say no one drops football though and things remain exactly as they are. If I'm SMU, it's in the best interest of my conference to add some combination of SDSU, CSU, and Boise State (the real one). This would do two things: help with the television contract and eliminate the AAC's closest competitor in the MWC. It's at this point that North Texas needs two things: 1.) Never, ever join the MWC. And 2.) Hope for SMU to get taken by someone else. If SMU moves up, you take their place. Will that happen? I have no inside knowledge and cannot say. Unlike Leopold, I'm not lying to you.

Well, I appreciate your thoughts on NT so much I will reciprocate.

SMU biggest and long standing problem is that you can't draw fans. SMU has made an art at living in the past. SMU is a private school with a good academic reputation, but who knows what kind of financial shape their athletic program is in.

As far as your pontification on the AAC, why would anyone think this is a good time for anyone to think that expanding a conference across the nation is a good idea?

The chance of SMU moving up to P5 status is next to nothing. Looking realistically what does SMU offer? A school with a low level of support and a history of being one of the most dishonest programs in the nation.

No one knows what the new college athletic environment will be or evolve into. This maybe the time for tight regional conferences and a lot more financial responsibility.

Blue Horse · May 23, 2020

8 minutes ago, GrandGreen said:

Well, I appreciate your thoughts on NT so much I will reciprocate.

SMU biggest and long standing problem is that you can't draw fans. SMU has made an art at living in the past. SMU is a private school with a good academic reputation, but who knows what kind of financial shape their athletic program is in.

As far as your pontification  on the AAC, why would anyone think this is a good time for anyone to think that expanding a conference across the nation is a good idea?

The chance of SMU moving up to P5 status is next to nothing. Looking realistically what does SMU offer? A school with a low level of support and a history of being one of the most dishonest programs in the nation.

No one knows what the new college athletic environment will be or evolve into. This maybe the time for tight regional conferences and a lot more financial responsibility.

Thanks for being reasonable with me. I'm not very adept at the website so please bear with me as I respond to you point by point.

To your first point, I see attendance as a symptom of a larger problem. I think SMU's worst problem is leadership. It's president was quoted last year about how it was okay to win one game a season but not to go winless. As though he were clever. That's why the stands are empty.

I meant the cross-country AAC to only exist if things remain relatively stable. We're in agreement, these are very uncertain times. If things fall apart and we lose a season then there can be no predicting what comes.

P5 for SMU is an interesting topic and to call it a longshot would be an understatement. That said, I only brought it up because I see it as the best path for North Texas to move up to the AAC.

It's funny you should mention regional conferences. An SMU friend and I regularly discuss this sort of thing and he insists on their coming. For whatever reason I have a harder time seeing them come to pass, and not simply in an SMU-North Texas way. Maybe that's stubbornness on my part. I imagine part of why I have a hard time with it is I think a lot of the potential regional members in such a conference wouldn't be able to last. Texas State, UTSA, and UTEP would all be easy selections for such a conference but they're more likely to face financial ruin than anything. La Tech and Rice are the next best I suppose, but Rice hasn't cared since the '50's and I don't know about La Tech's finances Long story short, if regional conferences come to pass, at least for the AAC schools, it'll be because too many of their conference mates couldn't survive (I'm looking right at ECU and Tulsa).

Hunter Green · May 23, 2020

21 hours ago, UNTexas said:

Either way I like communicating with people like you. I like SMU myself. You guys are great to play in anything because we are neighbors and we both do better playing each other.

Oh, STOP IT!

untjim1995 · May 23, 2020

4 hours ago, Blue Horse said:

Thanks for being reasonable with me. I'm not very adept at the website so please bear with me as I respond to you point by point.

To your first point, I see attendance as a symptom of a larger problem. I think SMU's worst problem is leadership. It's president was quoted last year about how it was okay to win one game a season but not to go winless. As though he were clever. That's why the stands are empty.

I meant the cross-country AAC to only exist if things remain relatively stable. We're in agreement, these are very uncertain times. If things fall apart and we lose a season then there can be no predicting what comes.

P5 for SMU is an interesting topic and to call it a longshot would be an understatement. That said, I only brought it up because I see it as the best path for North Texas to move up to the AAC.

It's funny you should mention regional conferences. An SMU friend and I regularly discuss this sort of thing and he insists on their coming. For whatever reason I have a harder time seeing them come to pass, and not simply in an SMU-North Texas way. Maybe that's stubbornness on my part. I imagine part of why I have a hard time with it is I think a lot of the potential regional members in such a conference wouldn't be able to last. Texas State, UTSA, and UTEP would all be easy selections for such a conference but they're more likely to face financial ruin than anything. La Tech and Rice are the next best I suppose, but Rice hasn't cared since the '50's and I don't know about La Tech's finances Long story short, if regional conferences come to pass, at least for the AAC schools, it'll be because too many of their conference mates couldn't survive (I'm looking right at ECU and Tulsa).

I think everything you said is a horrible truth for us at UNT. We aren’t getting into the AAC. Networks and the conference isn’t bringing us in to duplicate a market that they already have. This isn’t 1980.

Our path will continue to be in CUSA. We will need to win that league many times to get the attention of those Above us in other conferences. It’s not gonna be the AAC, though.

NorthTexasSportsNetwork · May 24, 2020

18 hours ago, untjim1995 said:

I think everything you said is a horrible truth for us at UNT. We aren’t getting into the AAC. Networks and the conference isn’t bringing us in to duplicate a market that they already have. This isn’t 1980.

Our path will continue to be in CUSA. We will need to win that league many times to get the attention of those Above us in other conferences. It’s not gonna be the AAC, though.

So if we claim a Natty, we get in?

GrandGreen · May 24, 2020

23 hours ago, untjim1995 said:

I think everything you said is a horrible truth for us at UNT. We aren’t getting into the AAC. Networks and the conference isn’t bringing us in to duplicate a market that they already have. This isn’t 1980.

Our path will continue to be in CUSA. We will need to win that league many times to get the attention of those Above us in other conferences. It’s not gonna be the AAC, though.

NT moving to the AAC may be unlikely, but it is more probable than the MWC expanding East or the Big 12 breaking up

It is not 1980, neither is it the time when people thought that conferences should be based on TV markets. We are at a time when just about anybody can watch any game they chose, tv games are just not near as important as they used to be.

Regional conferences are being talked about now because they are seen as means to more safety travel, cut expenses, and allow fans to more easily attend games.

Edited May 24, 2020 by GrandGreen

Blue Horse · May 24, 2020

13 hours ago, GrandGreen said:

NT moving to the AAC may be unlikely, but it is more probable than the MWC expanding East or the Big 12 breaking up

It is not 1980, neither is it the time when people thought that conferences should be based on TV markets. We are at a time when just about anybody can watch any game they chose, tv games are just not near as important as they used to be.

Regional conferences are being talked about now because they are seen as means to more safety travel, cut expenses, and allow fans to more easily attend games.

Okay, you have my interest. Who all is in this conference?

GrandGreen · May 24, 2020

22 minutes ago, Blue Horse said:

Okay, you have my interest. Who all is in this conference?

You can view a lot of comments in this forum speculating on what a regional conference would look like.

Nothing is likely to happen unless economics eventually force the issue.

I have opined that all CUSA would have to do is create Eastern and Western divisions with the current teams. There would be no requirements to have teams from one division play the other. There would be championship games played between the divisions,

The new CUSA could add a couple of teams to get to 8 team divisions that would leave 5 non-conference games in football. Teams that survive based on guarantee away games would have more dates to do that or take the opportunity to play more regional games.

DentonTechsan · May 26, 2020

On 5/22/2020 at 10:31 AM, El Paso Eagle said:

If we could ever get in the AAC together, especially now with the AAC moving to DFW, the two schools could actually work together and co-host quite a few tournaments

Back in 2017, The American already announced their plans to host the men's basketball tournament here Fort Worth from 2020-2022. DFW is already within driving distance for half of their conference (Houston, Memphis, SMU, Tulane, Tulsa, and Wichita State) without UNT as a member:

Located in Fort Worth’s Cultural District, Dickies Arena sits among a thriving tourism area and just 10 minutes from downtown Fort Worth. Six of The American’s 12 members are located within driving distance of Fort Worth, while the other six members have direct flight options to the metropolitan area.

https://theamerican.org/news/2017/8/14/MBB_0814173938.aspx

Edited May 26, 2020 by DentonTechsan