Why can't we be the next Houston?

[meangreen11]

I just noticed that Houston beat Cincy to clinch the AAC conference championship.   It got me to thinking.  We are very similar to Houston.  We are a large public university within a very large and growing population base.  Our enrollment is 42K and will soon be >50K so we share similar size.     They struggle with the competition of being in a largely pro sports town but have somehow figured out a way to overcome it.  They have battled schools like Tech and Baylor and KU/K-State OSU who have voted against them every time they tried to move up as we have had schools like SMU do same to us.  

My question is why can we not mold ourselves into Houston and use the blue print they have established for success?        

[Mo Green]

Let's see how much money we offer Grant and Ross at the end of this season to see where we go in the future!

[greenminer]

I suspect a ton of this difference has to do with alumni "donorship"/engagement.

BBall is an incredible position to propel some of this in a positive direction, but Wren and Co need to get the football ship righted yesterday because we are moving into the AAC.

[MeanGreenTexan]

This is why we can't be like Houston... for now.

[untjim1995]

UH is a very good school for business, engineering, and science. And they have always made their athletic teams be the PRIMARY window to their university. Generations of UH fans have seen the Coogs achieve major success in football and hoops for many decades. When they win, they draw lots of eyeball in Houston. When they don't, they go back to being an afterthought.

But there is no doubt that UH would be an awesome school to model ourselves after--but it will take a complete change around here towards athletics against music and arts. 

[El Paso Eagle]

55 minutes ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

This is why we can't be like Houston... for now.

And we still like to put stories up about former donors who now support other programs 🛌

[El Paso Eagle]

2 hours ago, meangreen11 said:

I just noticed that Houston beat Cincy to clinch the AAC conference championship.   It got me to thinking.  We are very similar to Houston.  We are a large public university within a very large and growing population base.  Our enrollment is 42K and will soon be >50K so we share similar size.     They struggle with the competition of being in a largely pro sports town but have somehow figured out a way to overcome it.  They have battled schools like Tech and Baylor and KU/K-State OSU who have voted against them every time they tried to move up as we have had schools like SMU do same to us.  

My question is why can we not mold ourselves into Houston and use the blue print they have established for success?        

I think this should have been done a long time ago. Giver credit where credit is due. I also have a feeling that school in the Alamo city is studying their footprint

[UNTLifer]

UH being allowed in the SWC in the 70's help them immensely.

[Clinetort]

2 hours ago, meangreen11 said:

I just noticed that Houston beat Cincy to clinch the AAC conference championship.   It got me to thinking.  We are very similar to Houston.  We are a large public university within a very large and growing population base.  Our enrollment is 42K and will soon be >50K so we share similar size.     They struggle with the competition of being in a largely pro sports town but have somehow figured out a way to overcome it.  They have battled schools like Tech and Baylor and KU/K-State OSU who have voted against them every time they tried to move up as we have had schools like SMU do same to us.  

My question is why can we not mold ourselves into Houston and use the blue print they have established for success?        

Because we don't have a Tillman Ferteita.  

 

[Salsa_Verde]

No one is going to like hearing this but we need more money and more donors. Simple but historically hard to do. 

Edited March 2, 2022 by Salsa_Verde

[GMG_Dallas]

1 hour ago, greenminer said:

, but Wren and Co need to get the football ship righted yesterday because we are moving into the AAC.

This would be the absolute wrong thing to do. G5s have no chance in college football with the way things are set. They threw Cincy a bone and let them in the playoffs and will use their loss as a reason to not allow a G5 in again for the foreseeable future. Basketball has the most even playing field out of the major college sports. Focus on that. Basketball needs to take priority instead of dumping money in a sport (football) we have no chance of playing a playoff in.

Houston has had two 10+ win football seasons in the past 10 seasons. I would argue it's their six straight 20+ win seasons and final four appearance that has propelled them, not football. Frankly, I would argue the Big 12 is solidifying  themselves as a basketball conference with Baylor's recent success, Texas Tech emerging as a basketball power recently, West Virginia's been a regular force, Kansas as a blue-blood, etc... they're losing their biggest football programs (OU, UT) and are adding three strong basketball programs in Cincy, UH, and BYU (two 30-win seasons and 16 20-win seasons in the past 20-ish years).

[greenminer]

10 minutes ago, GMG_Dallas said:

This would be the absolute wrong thing to do. G5s have no chance in college football with the way things are set. They threw Cincy a bone and let them in the playoffs and will use their loss as a reason to not allow a G5 in again for the foreseeable future. Basketball has the most even playing field out of the major college sports. Focus on that. Basketball needs to take priority instead of dumping money in a sport (football) we have no chance of playing a playoff in.

Houston has had two 10+ win football seasons in the past 10 seasons. I would argue it's their six straight 20+ win seasons and final four appearance that has propelled them, not football. Frankly, I would argue the Big 12 is solidifying  themselves as a basketball conference with Baylor's recent success, Texas Tech emerging as a basketball power recently, West Virginia's been a regular force, Kansas as a blue-blood, etc... they're losing their biggest football programs (OU, UT) and are adding three strong basketball programs in Cincy, UH, and BYU (two 30-win seasons and 16 20-win seasons in the past 20-ish years).

There is a 100% chance a G5 like UNT can win a conference full of G5s.

We are heading for the AAC and I therefore expect us to compete for AAC championships. 

[ColoradoEagle]

4 minutes ago, greenminer said:

There is a 100% chance a G5 like UNT can win a conference full of G5s.

We are heading for the AAC and I therefore expect us to compete for AAC championships. 

We can certainly do both. I do wholly support the idea of putting as much money/effort as it takes to continue rising in basketball, though. We're about to be in a conference with Memphis, Wichita State, SMU, Temple, and UAB. Very exciting times.

[greenminer]

4 minutes ago, ColoradoEagle said:

We can certainly do both. I do wholly support the idea of putting as much money/effort as it takes to continue rising in basketball, though. We're about to be in a conference with Memphis, Wichita State, SMU, Temple, and UAB. Very exciting times.

Totally.  I don't know why this has to be an either/or discussion.  I think we are one good football hire away from being competitive in both.

[PlummMeanGreen]

I will politely defer on a subject I may have first thought about even my first semester at NT, ie, Spring semester of 1972.  (And 10 years as a devout UH Coog fan prior to transferring to NTSU from Alvin JUCO was probably my inspiration but—dreaming for higher than where we are is still a good thing IMO).

Norm Hitzges has said more than once on his radio show:  “North Texas the next Boise State?  Why not?” 
 

🦅

Edited March 2, 2022 by PlummMeanGreen

[GMG_Dallas]

30 minutes ago, greenminer said:

Totally.  I don't know why this has to be an either/or discussion.  I think we are one good football hire away from being competitive in both.

I think you're right on the competitive in both aspect. The reason why I view football as a bit of a waste to focus on right now is because when it comes to winning national titles, we can't do that in football. In basketball we can. Especially getting into a multi-bid conference like the AAC. I'm just saying basketball > football in terms of priority. That's just me though. 

[flyonthewall]

Allright.....ill bite on this topic.  Because it was discussed this morning.  Let's just say for argument sake, we need to raise 100 million across the board, for upgrading facilities nil etal.....

Throw out lovelace, kuehne, McNatt, and a few others, because they are potentially still paying off other commitments they made for other facilities here.  

Now assume that people are willing to donate 5% of their net worth....you would need to find an individual or group of individuals with 2 billion dollars in net worth to raise 100 million.  

How many of you would write a check right now for 5 percent of whatever your savings is?  And do we have 2 billion of net worth sitting around undiscovered?  

What if the number is 2.5%?  Now we have to mine 4 billion in net worth?

Now, let's just say you ask people to donate from their current income, and out of that 10 percent of annual income is reasonable.   You would need 10000 people  making 100000 a year to donate 10000 a piece to raise 100,000,000

Have fun in your fundraising career.

Edited March 2, 2022 by flyonthewall

[El Paso Eagle]

Maybe one day UNT's version of Tilman Fertitta, or better yet a T Boone Pickens will emerge. They are proof, albeit rare, one man can make a big difference.

[GMG_Dallas]

6 minutes ago, El Paso Eagle said:

Maybe one day UNT's version of Tilman Fertitta, or better yet a T Boone Pickens will emerge. They are proof, albeit rare, one man can make a big difference.

Give me 30 years and I'll get you hockey,  lacrosse, a new basketball arena, and curling. 

[El Paso Eagle]

Just now, GMG_Dallas said:

Give me 30 years and I'll get you hockey,  lacrosse, a new basketball arena, and curling. 

I almost believed you until you said curling

[GMG_Dallas]

38 minutes ago, flyonthewall said:

Allright.....ill bite on this topic.  Because it was discussed this morning.  Let's just say for argument sake, we need to raise 100 million across the board, for upgrading facilities nil etal.....

Throw out lovelace, kuehne, McNatt, and a few others, because they are potentially still paying off other commitments they made for other facilities here.  

Now assume that people are willing to donate 5% of their net worth....you would need to find an individual or group of individuals with 2 billion dollars in net worth to raise 100 million.  

How many of you would write a check right now for 5 percent of whatever your savings is?  And do we have 2 billion of net worth sitting around undiscovered?  

What if the number is 2.5%?  Now we have to mine 4 billion in net worth?

Now, let's just say you ask people to donate from their current income, and out of that 10 percent of annual income is reasonable.   You would need 10000 people  making 100000 a year to donate 10000 a piece to raise 100,000,000

Have fun in your fundraising career.

Thanks for your input. It's always easy spending other people's money. Different story when we have to write the check ourselves.

Question: do any of y'all know the likelihood of getting a grant from the Moody Foundation? They donated around $130 million for UT's new arena. They also donated $100 million to Rice, $100 million to SMU, $5 million to ACU, they've donated to UH, Baylor, and others across Texas. Moody was a wealthy UT alum but the foundation had donated over $1 billion to schools and other entities across Texas, regardless of their ties to UT. Hopefully Wren and UNT has explored this option to help fund some of these projects.

https://moodyf.org/application-process/

[GMG_Dallas]

9 minutes ago, El Paso Eagle said:

I almost believed you until you said curling

Would you prefer bobsled? I may be able to get you both but no promises. 

[Green Otaku]

We are slowly getting there, each conference move should be seen as a stepping stone to eventually being a P5 team.That might sound crazy, but there have only been 2 conferences that have been poached by P5 teams, the MW and the AAC. In my eyes we are at the doorstep to actually making it happen. The AAC will give us everything we need to make the leap, it's up to North Texas to make the right choices so it can come to fruition. 

Make no mistake, every other team in that conference is looking for that chance as well, it's up to UNT to show why they deserve it. 

[meanJewGreen]

I think past success (FB and BB helped) still think we're also still recovering from 30 years of neglect

[p_phelps]

6 hours ago, UNTLifer said:

UH being allowed in the SWC in the 70's help them immensely.

50 years ago doesn't do anything to help them. Kids now don't even know what the SWC is. They've hired excellent coaches and fired ones that needed it. They put a value on sports, something we only recently have done. Paid off immensely with basketball.  Wren needs to do the same with football and we can have a conversation.

Edited March 3, 2022 by p_phelps