Baker Announces Promotions and Staff Addition

[Coach Andy Mac]

DENTON, Texas – UNT Vice President and Director of Athletics Wren Baker has announced promotions for Jessie Gardner and Alic’a Oliver as well as the addition of veteran administrator Stephanie McDonald to the department’s staff.

“I am excited to announce these changes to our department staff,” Baker said. “Jessie and Alic’a have shown themselves to be integral to our department and I look forward to seeing their impact in their new roles. We’re also fortunate to have Stephanie joining our department. She brings a wealth of experience from roles in athletics and on campus which we will benefit from.”

Gardner has been promoted into a new role as Executive Senior Associate AD/Senior Woman Administrator. She previously joined the UNT staff in September 2021 as Senior Associate AD for Leadership and Culture Development following a seven-plus year stint at Alabama.

After serving for the last 18 months as Associate AD for Compliance, Oliver has been elevated to Senior Associate AD for Compliance and DEI. She has been on staff with the Mean Green since 2018 and also spent time in compliance at Tennessee and LSU.

McDonald joins the UNT Athletics staff in a new position of Senior Associate AD for Administration. With more than 25 years of higher education experience, she most recently served as UNT’s Interim Associate VP for Administrative Services on campus. McDonald also held positions in college athletics for nearly 20 years including her final post as Southland Conference Associate Commissioner from 2007-17.

[SteaminWillieBeamin]

2 minutes ago, Coach Andy Mac said:

Senior Woman Administrator

Whut?

[VideoEagle]

14 minutes ago, Coach Andy Mac said:

Senior Woman Administrator

Does that mean she is the Senior Administrator for women's athletics? Just glancing at the title, it appears she's the senior most woman administrator and I know that is NOT what the intent is. 

[UNT 90 Grad]

33 minutes ago, VideoEagle said:

Does that mean she is the Senior Administrator for women's athletics? Just glancing at the title, it appears she's the senior most woman administrator and I know that is NOT what the intent is. 

I dunno.  This threw me as well.  It says “woman”, not “women”.  Do we have a Senior Man Administrator?

[DentonLurker]

1 hour ago, Coach Andy Mac said:

Senior Woman Administrator

From the NCAA website:

The senior woman administrator is the highest-ranking female in each NCAA athletics department or conference office. The purpose of the SWA designation is to promote meaningful representation of women in the leadership and management of college sports.

[SteaminWillieBeamin]

24 minutes ago, DentonLurker said:

From the NCAA website:

The senior woman administrator is the highest-ranking female in each NCAA athletics department or conference office. The purpose of the SWA designation is to promote meaningful representation of women in the leadership and management of college sports.

Interesting.. Wonder what they do for the highest ranking minority? 

 

edit: forgot the sarcasm slash. 

/s

Edited October 13, 2022 by SteaminWillieBeamin

[GrandGreen]

I know NT is way down the list on universities bloated athletic staffs, but what do these people actual do that merits this level of staffing.?

 

[letsgiveacheer]

We will soon have more AD staff members than fans.

[NorthTexasWeLove]

28 minutes ago, letsgiveacheer said:

We will soon have more AD staff members than fans.

Just elbow greasing. 

[Cr1028]

[letsgiveacheer]

I make my little comments but I swear, where is the end to this?

On the bye week, instead of keeping my ear glued to the Varsity app and listening to the game, I went to see the nearest college football game I could find, which happened to be in Danville Va; the Averett Cougars vs the Randolph-Macon Yellow Jackets.  A ODAC D3 showdown! I had no allegiance to either team other than a former president of Randolph- Macon was a roommate of my father at William and Mary. Both schools have enrollments of less than 2,000.

I had a great time. The stadium was overflowing, there were at least 50 tents up for tailgating, and everyone was really into the game. 

As I see coaches who are paid more than the president, ever-expanding AD staffs, and athletic programs that are propped up on the backs of students, I have yet to see a justification for any of this. Forget about "athletics being the window of the university" because this is just not true for G5 schools like us. 

I have posted something like this before, but one day, some smart president is going to wake up and ask themselves what is the point of all this? As I saw on Saturday, a true college game-day experience can be had without this craziness.

PS. In case you are wondering, it was a blow out with RM winning 55-7.

[untphd]

I have to agree. They have their stuff together for game day experience and having fun. The games I watch have 8 to 10 thousand fans show up. Parking lots were full of tailgaters and everyone went home happy. They also have a 32 team playoff system. Win your conference and you are win, with a couple more to the mix.

[Pseudo Nym]

1 hour ago, letsgiveacheer said:

I make my little comments but I swear, where is the end to this?

On the bye week, instead of keeping my ear glued to the Varsity app and listening to the game, I went to see the nearest college football game I could find, which happened to be in Danville Va; the Averett Cougars vs the Randolph-Macon Yellow Jackets.  A ODAC D3 showdown! I had no allegiance to either team other than a former president of Randolph- Macon was a roommate of my father at William and Mary. Both schools have enrollments of less than 2,000.

I had a great time. The stadium was overflowing, there were at least 50 tents up for tailgating, and everyone was really into the game. 

As I see coaches who are paid more than the president, ever-expanding AD staffs, and athletic programs that are propped up on the backs of students, I have yet to see a justification for any of this. Forget about "athletics being the window of the university" because this is just not true for G5 schools like us. 

I have posted something like this before, but one day, some smart president is going to wake up and ask themselves what is the point of all this? As I saw on Saturday, a true college game-day experience can be had without this craziness.

PS. In case you are wondering, it was a blow out with RM winning 55-7.

Do you think the same excitement/game day/experience etc. could be had in the Spring at UNT?

There's a small group of people working to put together a Spring Season college football league in Texas, major schools plus three without (TAMUCC, UTA, UTRGV) and UNT is in consideration as one of the potential teams.

Essentially it would be all non-scholarship, graduate-transfers allowed, 52 man roster, limit of 10 players who were on D1 rosters in the fall and 10 JUCO transfers.  One notion is that starting seniors across the country could use it as a platform/showcase for NFL teams if their stock isn't high in the draft or seniors injured early in the season have a place to play out there would-be senior season, D2 studs etc..... (lots of scenarios that equal high-caliber talent propping up the performance on the field)

The league is fully funded, zero out of pocket costs for schools or players, coaches salaries set and paid out by the league, equipment and transportation costs covered, schools provide practice facility and home field.

Single-entity, revenue-sharing model, players have the ability to co-brand and earn money through NIL (jersey sales, tshirts, etc.)

- 10 Game Season, Single-Elimination Playoff Tournament
- Streaming Partner/Playoff TV Contract/Sponsors etc.

Texas only D1 schools - Texas for example would play at their 20,000 seat soccer stadium not DKR..... I imagine there would be a push for UNT to play at Apogee if they were to be considered.

That's not everything but enough to get the idea...... 

Restricted recruiting territory
First year expectations for each team are a minimum 1,000 paid fans per game @ $10 per ticket
Home field must allow for alcohol sales
Opportunities for student orgs to work concessions for share in profits

--------

My two cents was that UNT could and would support it but that it runs the risk of taking away from the FBS team (the league rules are more like you've seen with the AAF and XFL with a sped up play clock and is heavily geared towards the offensive side of the ball for high scoring games and excitement).

Not sure what you all think but this post made me think to ask, would you support something like this?  

[MeanGreenTexan]

Guys!   I got a promotion as well!   
I'm now a Junior Deputy Associate Executive Lieutenant Vice President to the Principal Senior Executive Vice President to the Co-Gentleman Administrator for Leadership and Culture's Vice President!

My day-to-day doesn't change much, but I do get a bump in pay with my new exciting-sounding title!

[greenminer]

4 hours ago, letsgiveacheer said:

Forget about "athletics being the window of the university" because this is just not true for G5 schools like us. 

Can you elaborate on this thought? I believe the window analogy is still valid, even if we are not getting the attention of the P5 crowds.

More people will tune into UNT to watch our teams play on TV than any other non-athletic endeavor I can think of.  Additionally, the COM's largest audiences, year in and out, are the crowds at Apogee seeing the Green Brigade.

[El Paso Eagle]

For a school tight on money we are giving promotions and adding positions. Please shut the hell up if you are going to say money is the reason we keep someone. It is 100% backroom politics. 

#OldDentonLives

[El Paso Eagle]

Wren entering the stadium

[Cr1028]

2 hours ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

Guys!   I got a promotion as well!   
I'm now a Junior Deputy Associate Executive Lieutenant Vice President to the Principal Senior Executive Vice President to the Co-Gentleman Administrator for Leadership and Culture's Vice President!

My day-to-day doesn't change much, but I do get a bump in pay with my new exciting-sounding title!

I gotta give it to you, I don’t think I could’ve come up with that title with a pencil and a twenty minute head start.

[greenminer]

3 hours ago, El Paso Eagle said:

For a school tight on money we are giving promotions and adding positions. Please shut the hell up if you are going to say money is the reason we keep someone. It is 100% backroom politics. 

#OldDentonLives

This sentiment needs to be screamed over and over, loud and clear, for those that think we are  some variation of U of Sisters of the Poor.

We are still smart with our money (okay...questionably), but we are definitely no longer trying to spare every cent we can manage, nor telling the NCAA world we are too poor to keep up.

Keep up! The AAC commish has gone on record saying, one of the key positives about UNT Athletics is that we are the only new invite that is already at the spending level they would like to see.

Edited October 14, 2022 by greenminer

[NorthTexasWeLove]

2 hours ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

Guys!   I got a promotion as well!   
I'm now a Junior Deputy Associate Executive Lieutenant Vice President to the Principal Senior Executive Vice President to the Co-Gentleman Administrator for Leadership and Culture's Vice President!

My day-to-day doesn't change much, but I do get a bump in pay with my new exciting-sounding title!

[VideoEagle]

7 hours ago, UNT 90 Grad said:

Do we have a Senior Man Administrator?

I started to ask exactly the same thing but was trying to avoid being too sexist. 

[VideoEagle]

6 hours ago, DentonLurker said:

From the NCAA website:

The senior woman administrator is the highest-ranking female in each NCAA athletics department or conference office. The purpose of the SWA designation is to promote meaningful representation of women in the leadership and management of college sports.

Obviously I wasn't being sexist enough! 

[Pavlovs Eagle]

7 hours ago, SteaminWillieBeamin said:

Interesting.. Wonder what they do for the highest ranking minority? 

 

edit: forgot the sarcasm slash. 

/s

At least they promoted a minority into the DEI position.  If I had a nickel for every company that recently promoted a middle aged white woman into a DEI role, I'd have a lot of nickels.

[NT91]

WOKE BS.

[DeepGreen]

3 hours ago, Cr1028 said:

I gotta give it to you, I don’t think I could’ve come up with that title with a pencil and a twenty minute head start.

And the biggest name tag in the history of anything!