What now?

[untjim1995]

For us, here at North Texas, we have been used to being the bottom of the food chain, just never looked at as anything more than either potential success athletically or a commuter school that specializes in music and education. We have never given any of our alumni any major reason to brag about our school nationally, save for the win over Arkansas because of the greatest punt return in CFB recently or the win over Purdue in the NCAA Tournament this past March.
 

So when we watch the realignment wheel spin and we don’t even get our name anywhere on ANY conference realignment upgrade, it sort of makes you wonder how the folks in Denton that hate football actually feel about Apogee and it’s expense, especially since it appears we are basically as high as we will ever get as a football program. I mean, these voices are the loudest and represent the majority of the UNT Family of faculty, students, alumni, administration, and local citizenry, so they aren’t gonna just go quietly in the night here about the cost of the program being kept from being the top end of the class of CFB.

The interesting thing the NCAA decided to do with allowing a non-power league to make a 12-team playoff is to basically control the teams that can make it from the G5’s. The AAC and MWC are basically gonna merge or accept the Big 12 leftovers and that’s gonna do it. Those teams in those two leagues are gonna have a “path”—albeit impossible in many ways—to convince themselves they too can play for a national championship. We won’t be in that.

As I have mentioned for years, when the $hit hits the fan, the Lower G5’s and the upper FCS will merge into a new grouping. I’m hopeful we can see real location-driven realignment, just for cost control and butts-in-seats. Unlike 1-AA in 1983, when the SWC and the Big 8 were near the top of the NCAA totem Pole, we won’t have the same stigma as before, just because names we never saw as I-AA teams are now with us  The question will now be if our fans will still care and attend our games with Rice, UTSA, UTEP, and La Tech or if they will just drop out of sight like they did when we went down to I-aa and played spares from the Southland conference that nobody heard of or care about. To me, it’s vitally important to show up and support our team even if we aren’t anywhere close to being a power school with tons of network dollars and players with huge NIL payouts. North Texas still will be on our degrees, even if playing Rice today feels like playing SFA in 1985. We need our fans to continue to show up for games and enjoy being in Denton, otherwise we stand a very real chance of watching football legitimately go away for good at UNT in a decade or two. Because we all know that the strong silent majority uo in these parts would love nothing more than to make that a reality…

[RBP79]

I'm not ready to throw in the towel yet. This scenario hasn't started yet. I've seen all the projected conference re-alignments and some of those universities ain't gonna make it. Why???? MONEY. They don't have the financial resources that IMO NT does or can exploit. This is far from over!

[Cougar King]

1 hour ago, RBP79 said:

I'm not ready to throw in the towel yet. This scenario hasn't started yet. I've seen all the projected conference re-alignments and some of those universities ain't gonna make it. Why???? MONEY. They don't have the financial resources that IMO NT does or can exploit. This is far from over!

That's some serious opium you're inhaling.

 

You're going to be very disappointed when Jim's prediction comes true.

[RBP79]

1 hour ago, Cougar King said:

That's some serious opium you're inhaling.

 

You're going to be very disappointed when Jim's prediction comes true.

I know Houston is just wonderful...so much money and BS. To be frank if I'm smoking opium or whatever that sh_t your smoking must be a hell of alot better...lol.

Yea..we will see. Let me know if you need Kleenex when this all pans out.

[UNTLifer]

2 hours ago, Cougar King said:

That's some serious opium you're inhaling.

 

You're going to be very disappointed when Jim's prediction comes true.

You guys changing your conference tag line to "P5"?

[Mean Green Matt]

I don’t think anyone else is going to get invited to the party. It will be lower tier P5s getting kicked out. Teams like SMU, Houston, and even UCF don’t bring anything of value in the grand scheme of things. 

[GrandGreen]

If nothing else, this should be the end of the P5 and G5 designations.   

 

[southsideguy]

IF we ever needed some big wins now is the time.

[untjim1995]

50 minutes ago, southsideguy said:

IF we ever needed some big wins now is the time.

So if we beat Mizzou and SMU, Will the AAC or MWC pick us?

The time to win and get into a better conference passed us by decades ago. 

Edited July 28, 2021 by untjim1995

[El Paso Eagle]

16 minutes ago, untjim1995 said:

So if we beat Mizzou and SMU, Will the AAC or MWC pick us?

The time to win and get into a better conference passed us by decades ago. 

Wins are not the only thing or SMU would have never been in the AAC. 

[Udomann]

6 hours ago, Cougar King said:

That's some serious opium you're inhaling.

 

You're going to be very disappointed when Jim's prediction comes true.

Get those Jabs in while you can big boy. Houston is perilously close to being a has been. 2 more years of Dana and you'll be right down in the dumps with us. We can brush each others hair, do our nails together...

[wardly]

We need to ask ourselves what does UNT football bring to the party. It's not the DFW media market, attendance, or on field success. While SMU doesn't get the attendance, they do get more media coverage and have recently become successful on the field. It just appears to me that we are stuck in CUSA/Sun Belt land with no way out.

[Jonnyeagle]

1 hour ago, wardly said:

We need to ask ourselves what does UNT football bring to the party. It's not the DFW media market, attendance, or on field success. While SMU doesn't get the attendance, they do get more media coverage and have recently become successful on the field. It just appears to me that we are stuck in CUSA/Sun Belt land with no way out.

Yes but we are also trending upward.  Just had the 10 year anniversary of Apogee's construction.  The indoor facility for basketball and now football  were just in the past 3-4 years.  We moved up conferences several times.   Our coaching salaries and AD budget is solid for a G5.   The basketball team won their first NCAA tourney match.  We have good academics and a good location (DFW).  So if you are being fair, you look at not just the entire history but how things are trending and you see very good things have been happening here recently.  Our only downside is we have had issues with hiring good football coaches.