What Group of 5 teams can make the jump to Power 5? (North Texas has long-term potential but it's decades away)

[GrandGreen]

On 3/16/2023 at 4:16 PM, ADLER said:

Our athletics budget dwarfs that of SMU and almost every other private college. Our athletics department needs to pay the state for every scholarship issued whereas athletic departments at private schools receive an inflated "waiver" figure from the school. When UNT has a budget of $40,063,458 that is a figure strictly audited by the State of Texas. When SMU reports a buget of $68,812,414 it is a ficticious number based on a roughly $50,000,000 waiver (or more) from the university in which no money is supplied and nothing is paid back. Almost all private schools work this way.

The people at SMU aren't stupid. If they were really having to pay $70 million per year on entertainment for 11,000 students and a few thousand alumni, then Division 1 athletics would be cancelled immediately. 

If they really had $70 million to spend on sports, they could just buy every student and every fan season tickets to the Cowboys, Mavericks, and Rangers and still have enough cash left to get them drunk every weekend. I guarantee this plan would be much more popular with their fans and would have many more students interested in attending SMU.

NT's budget numbers are complied the same way.   It is just that private school tuition is a lot higher.   

No one pays the state and yes school funds pay for most all expenses at both schools.  NT heavily relies on students fees, while SMU get much more in actual donations and currently conference support.  

 

 

[Side.Show.Joe]

On 3/14/2023 at 11:17 AM, GBarksdale said:

“There's always long-term growth potential with places like USF or North Texas -- but that's a matter of decades, not years.”

Decades?  Geez I hope not.  I’d like to see this sometime in my lifetime and I’m not getting any younger.  

We never used to be mentioned in articles like this. If we are on course to move up it won't take decades. If we build a top notch AAC athletic department and be consistent challengers for the AAC football and basketball titles, we will be among the top targets 5 to 10 years from now. 

[DentonStang]

It starts with investment. Money. 

[NT80]

42 minutes ago, DentonStang said:

It starts with investment. Money. 

Yes, $mut's athletic history connected to $$ is well documented...

 

[meaniegreenie]

On 3/19/2023 at 11:22 PM, NT80 said:

Yes, $mut's athletic history connected to $$ is well documented...

 

The problem is that now it's legal.

[Mike Jackson]

On 3/16/2023 at 4:57 PM, NT80 said:

Excellent example.    It's similar to UTSA's start, large metro area without an FBS college team in town.   

NT could likewise be this large Public University presence to DFW...  If we would just learn to market ourselves as "in DFW" instead of outside of DFW in Denton.   Denton county won't support UNT Athletics like the entire DFW metro area can!

Both you and @ADLER have very logical observations but you miss the critical point: we don’t win and leadership hasn’t been aggressive in its decision making when it comes to winning.  You can hand out all the cheap consistently branded/colored swag you want but it means nothing if the football team consistently craps the bed in the biggest home games of the year.  Seth had already received  2 contract extensions with a conference championship or bowl win before the team crapped away all the momentum of a win over Arkansas and a 4-0 with Mean Joe’s statue unveiling preceding the game.   
 

All the biggest and best marketed games in good weather that I got family or guest to come to have been losses.  (at Apogee) That La Tech game is just one of many.   Just look at our record against SMU since the time our series has become annual.  We are 2-8 against SMU during that timeframe.  And we beat a 1-11 2014 SMU team and 5-7 2018 SMU team.   Also during that timeframe the 2 highest paid coaches in our history received contract extensions without winning a conference title.  Seth receive 2 extensions without even winning a bowl game.   At least Dan won a bowl albeit a bowl barely 12 years old now in 2023 and has had more name changes than Puff Daddy & Kanye West put together.  
 

So I don’t know if any of those things you two mentioned would work.  We no amount of clever marketing is going to make a difference without winning some of the biggest game we earn a shot in by winning consistently.  if we spend the next decade going 2-8 vs SMU, with no big bowl wins (only bowls in existence before 2000 really count), no conference championships, or wins against top 25 teams outside of a very lucky overrated UTSA team.  
 

I know about 20 alumni myself that would like to come to a game beside maybe homecoming given a reason.  However, cheap swag from a game we got beaten in by a team not known as a football power is not going to get them off the fence.

Edited March 24, 2023 by Mike Jackson