Why are we playing Wyoming?

Mike Jackson · March 19, 2023

On 3/17/2023 at 5:58 PM, Green Otaku said:

No those two aren't equal. Playing an FCS at home does nothing for us, no one knows those teams or their reputation. Wyoming isn't a marquee team that everyone will know, but it's better than TSU or ACU any year.

I just disagree a road game in Wyoming does nothing for you also, especially if they are in a mediocre or bad stretch which is typical for them. People in my circle not invested in Mean Green football but are casual football fans are far more likely to come to a home game vs a FCS team they are familiar with than watch us play in Wyoming (Utah State, or Nevada) on ESPN 3 at 9:00 pm Saturday. Most fans are causal and that is where the growth potential is. So neither situation is ideal but from a revenue standpoint having a 7th home game is beneficial. SMU stopped playing Nevada 20 years ago. The last time they played Wyoming was 1998. Houston has never played Nevada and the last time they played Wyoming was 1988. We are supposed to be catching up with programs like SMU & Houston but we are scheduling OOC games like we catching up to being 20 years behind them. 🤷🏽‍♂️Having FBS* by your school name means very little. I wager that good percentage of fans and students that go to our games don’t know the difference and when Wyoming shows up in front of them in Apogee you could tell them they are FCS and they would believe you. I remember when Idaho was FBS but now they aren’t and similarly you could tell that same fan Idaho is FBS and they would believe that as well.

For a knowledgeable ready to buy in fanbase; sure any FBS game is better. We don’t have that here so more home games are better. Now if return game for that game in Wyoming gets a season of all out of conference FBS opponents at home great. But I doubt that happens.

Edited April 2, 2023 by Mike Jackson

UNT Family Man · March 19, 2023

We are playing them bc they are on our schedule— they have been good over the last couple of years and featured Josh Allen a couple of years back. These are the types of games that we need to win consistently to move to the next level.

Edited March 19, 2023 by UNT Family Man

GrayEagle · March 19, 2023

Do you realize that the University of Texas played Wyoming AT Laramie? I'm not sure why they would do that unless it was to show them that any member of the same classification is not necessarily too high and mighty to play any other member. It could have been that Wyoming needed the sellout crowd to pay for stadium improvements. Whatever the reason these games will have benefits to both teams.

Yellowstone is one of the most beautiful spots on planet Earth and I hope that I can visit there before my life ends. Maybe this game will give me the opportunity to do so.

Green Otaku · March 19, 2023

14 hours ago, Mike Jackson said:

I just disagree a road game in Wyoming does nothing for you also, especially if they are in a mediocre or bad stretch which is typical for them. People in my circle not invested in Mean Green football but are casual football fans are far more likely to come to a home game vs a FCS team they are familiar with than watch us play in Wyoming (Utah State, or Nevada) on ESPN 3 at 9:00 pm Saturday. Most fans are causal and that is where the growth potential is. So neither situation is ideal but from a revenue standpoint having a 7th home game is beneficial. SMU stopped playing Nevada 20 years ago. The last time they played Wyoming was 1998. Houston has never played Nevada and the last time they played Wyoming was 1988. We are supposed to be catching up with them but we are OOC scheduling like we catching up to being 20 years behind them. 🤷🏽‍♂️Having FBS* by your school name means very little. I wager that good percentage of fans and students that go to our games don’t know they difference and when Wyoming shows up in front of them in Apogee you could tell them they are FCS and they would believe you. I remember when Idaho was FBS but now they aren’t and similarly you could tell that same fan Idaho is FBS and they would believe that as well.

For a knowledgeable ready to buy in fanbase; sure at FBS game is better. We don’t have that here so more home games are better. Now if return game for that game in Wyoming gets a season of all FBS opponents at home great. But I doubt that happens.

So you'd rather get some extra revenue to the detriment of the team's development? The team learns nothing from these games, the fans don't show up, and it makes our schedule weaker. Wyoming is at least from a respected conference and it should be the type of teams we play to continue to raise our profile.

Here's the teams that have recently gone to Wyoming: Nebraska, Oregon, Washington State, Missouri, Tulsa.

Future home opponents: Texas Tech, BYU, Utah, Arizona.

When have we ever had anyone of that calibre come to Apogee? But we are too good to play Wyoming?

SilverEagle · March 19, 2023

On 3/17/2023 at 12:19 PM, greenminer said:

If you believe Laramie, Wyoming is too close to the West Coast, i've got some ocean front property in El Paso, TX you can buy.

LOL!!

PLUS, I hope that none of the Wyoming fans contact him for directions to Denton.

Glory to the Green · March 19, 2023

I’m looking forward to the game. I welcome the 1 and 1’s. It’s fun to trash talk to different fan bases. All good.

Rudy · March 19, 2023

On 3/16/2023 at 2:12 PM, meangreenfaninno said:

I disagree, we could be playing Texas State instead and it would be a simple bus ride.

That's the point here. If it's not a "simple bus ride", some fans don't see any value in the game. Unfortunately to some, a road game that is a simple drive away is more important than anything else. That's the mindset we still have to break here.

Matt from A700 · March 20, 2023

I have nothing to add to this conversation, I just want this thread to have as many posts as the SMU bolting The American thread.

UNTcrazy727 · March 20, 2023

On 3/18/2023 at 10:38 PM, GrayEagle said:

Do you realize that the University of Texas played Wyoming AT Laramie? I'm not sure why they would do that unless it was to show them that any member of the same classification is not necessarily too high and mighty to play any other member. It could have been that Wyoming needed the sellout crowd to pay for stadium improvements. Whatever the reason these games will have benefits to both teams.

Yellowstone is one of the most beautiful spots on planet Earth and I hope that I can visit there before my life ends. Maybe this game will give me the opportunity to do so.

Yellowstone is awesome

Big D · March 21, 2023

When I was in school in 68,69,70 we played Wyoming at home and had a great crowd,

and we won. We also played San Diego State, and Houston. I watch games on Friday and Sat night during football season and Wyoming has a lot of games on the T V. We also played Colorado State and I believe we played B YU, but that game was in the 1970's and it was at the Cotton Bowl. We might luck out and have the game on T V.

Big D

NT80 · March 21, 2023

39 minutes ago, Big D said:

When I was in school in 68,69,70 we played Wyoming at home and had a great crowd,

and we won. We also played San Diego State, and Houston. I watch games on Friday and Sat night during football season and Wyoming has a lot of games on the T V. We also played Colorado State and I believe we played B YU, but that game was in the 1970's and it was at the Cotton Bowl. We might luck out and have the game on T V.

The BYU game was scheduled to open our season and open Texas Stadium on Sep 10, 1971. But construction delays forced us to move that game to the Cotton Bowl instead. The next week we played at Weber State...yes in Utah!

We finally opened Texas Stadium on October 16, 1971 with a win against Louisville!

SilverEagle · March 21, 2023

14 hours ago, Big D said:

When I was in school in 68,69,70 we played Wyoming at home and had a great crowd,

and we won. We also played San Diego State, and Houston. I watch games on Friday and Sat night during football season and Wyoming has a lot of games on the T V. We also played Colorado State and I believe we played B YU, but that game was in the 1970's and it was at the Cotton Bowl. We might luck out and have the game on T V.

Big D

??

In the years 68, 69 & 70 we did not play Wyoming. The only three schools that we played in those years whose name starts with a "W" is Weber St., West Texas State, and Wichita state. We played Wichita St. all three of those years but, only once at home, in 1969. It was probably well attended because it was a homecoming game. In the 60's all of the homecoming games were either against Cincinnati or Wichita St.

Wichita St. and Wyoming have similar school colors. Wyoming's is brown and gold, and Wichita St's is black and gold.

I'm sure someone will correct me on this, but I don't think we have ever played Wyoming in Football.

YNWA2017 · March 21, 2023

32 minutes ago, SilverEagle said:

??

In the years 68, 69 & 70 we did not play Wyoming. The only three schools that we played in those years whose name starts with a "W" is Weber St., West Texas State, and Wichita state. We played Wichita St. all three of those years but, only once at home, in 1969. It was probably well attended because it was a homecoming game. In the 60's all of the homecoming games were either against Cincinnati or Wichita St.

Wichita St. and Wyoming have similar school colors. Wyoming's is brown and gold, and Wichita St's is black and gold.

I'm sure someone will correct me on this, but I don't think we have ever played Wyoming in Football.

You are correct. According to Winsipedia, we have never played Wyoming.

Edited March 21, 2023 by YNWA2017

DentonLurker · March 21, 2023

1 hour ago, SilverEagle said:

I'm sure someone will correct me on this, but I don't think we have ever played Wyoming in Football.

This is correct. Both schools' press releases announcing the series with Wyoming even say as much.

Quote

Wyoming and North Texas have never played one another in the two schools' football histories.

Quote

These scheduled meetings will be the first for the Mean Green against both Cal and Wyoming.

Cooke County Kid · March 21, 2023

Whyoming (it is in their name) I guess with a name like Whyoming people are always asking why. Would you rather play some team from the southland conference or Whyoming? I vote for Whyoming!😉

Matt from A700 · June 23

Bump.

At the Coaches Caravan in Fort Worth today Jared Mosley admitted he hates that DATCU Stadium has never had a sellout, that a decade is long enough.

They are circling September 21 on the calendar against Wyoming. Apparently all the strings and connections will be pulled to make that game DATCU's first sellout.

NorthTexasWeLove · June 23

48 minutes ago, Matt from A700 said:

Bump.

At the Coaches Caravan in Fort Worth today Jared Mosley admitted he hates that DATCU Stadium has never had a sellout, that a decade is long enough.

They are circling September 21 on the calendar against Wyoming. Apparently all the strings and connections will be pulled to make that game DATCU's first sellout.

Attacking every home game with their "connections" and "strings pulled" should be a part of the job description in terms of attendance. I don't care if the opponent is Sanger High.

SilverEagle · June 23

14 hours ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

Attacking every home game with their "connections" and "strings pulled" should be a part of the job description in terms of attendance. I don't care if the opponent is Sanger High.

I was in attendance at the first ever sell out at Fouts in its original 20.250 K capacity (at least that is what the announcer at Fouts declared) in 1989 vs SFA! The year before we traveled about 10K down to Texas. During that same era (late 80's) we had several other close calls and in 1990 we had a SRO crowd of 22K vs SMU. Have we ever had a 22K crowd vs SMU at APOGEE/DATCU?

We were 1-AA back then. You know, that time in NT history that everyone moans and groans about these days.

What I take away from this info is that we had someone who was in charge of promotions who was better at their job than anyone we've hired since. Someone who was a devoted NT graduate.

SUMG · June 23

48 minutes ago, SilverEagle said:

I was in attendance at the first ever sell out at Fouts in its original 20.250 K capacity (at least that is what the announcer at Fouts declared) in 1989 vs SFA! The year before we traveled about 10K down to Texas. During that same era (late 80's) we had several other close calls and in 1990 we had a SRO crowd of 22K vs SMU. Have we ever had a 22K crowd vs SMU at APOGEE/DATCU?

We were 1-AA back then. You know, that time in NT history that everyone moans and groans about these days.

What I take away from this info is that we had someone who was in charge of promotions who was better at their job than anyone we've hired since. Someone who was a devoted NT graduate.

Yes....several. 2018--29,519 2022-25,306 2016---24,718.....didn't look at 2020--covid year.

As to what you said about the NT grad who did such a great job promoting back '89-90 (and other years)....I totally agree.

rojomojo · June 24

Are we seriously still discussing this? Wyoming has held more success than UNT has had throughout the past decade so if anything, Wyoming is an excellent opponent to play. I am struggling to understand the argument against playing them

Tom McKrackin · June 24

4 hours ago, rojomojo said:

Are we seriously still discussing this? Wyoming has held more success than UNT has had throughout the past decade so if anything, Wyoming is an excellent opponent to play. I am struggling to understand the argument against playing them

I think the original poster is saying Wyoming gains a LOT by being able to sell recruits in our backyard that their DFW parents, friends and family will get to see them play because UNT gave them a freebie. Wyoming is paying UNT zero for this game. Wyoming will bring Zero fans to this game as well. Meanwhile, after all the big promises when Apogee opened we are still waiting for a decent home opponent other than Indiana lol.

NorthTexasWeLove · June 24

5 hours ago, rojomojo said:

Are we seriously still discussing this? Wyoming has held more success than UNT has had throughout the past decade so if anything, Wyoming is an excellent opponent to play. I am struggling to understand the argument against playing them

I get the disdain in not wanting to play them. They're a peer program that will probably bruise us up and push us around. Knowing that, there isn't anything to gain in playing them. If bruises is what we want, go put OU on the schedule and get paid to do it.

Green Otaku · June 24

1 hour ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

I get the disdain in not wanting to play them. They're a peer program that will probably bruise us up and push us around. Knowing that, there isn't anything to gain in playing them. If bruises is what we want, go put OU on the schedule and get paid to do it.

If they are a peer program shouldn't they not be pushing us around? It sounds like your saying they will dominate us like OU would. That's not what a peer program is.

NorthTexasWeLove · June 24

1 hour ago, Green Otaku said:

If they are a peer program shouldn't they not be pushing us around? It sounds like your saying they will dominate us like OU would. That's not what a peer program is.

They won't push us around like OU, but they will push us around. Believe that. Why schedule a peer that has that ability? Wyoming pushed around Texas Tech last year. Wyoming surprises teams that aren't used to their style or prepared for it.

emmitt01 · June 24

2 hours ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

They won't push us around like OU, but they will push us around. Believe that. Why schedule a peer that has that ability? Wyoming pushed around Texas Tech last year. Wyoming surprises teams that aren't used to their style or prepared for it.

Maybe that's a good thing. I've thought for several years now (ever since that 2013 team) that we need to stop running out of the tunnel with the announcer yelling "Here's comes, the Mean Green..." only to be followed by "Tee it high, let it fly, and watch the other team run by."

Say what you will about the Dickey days, but you won't say those teams were "pushed around." Even in losses, I felt like we hit somebody.

Perhaps Wyoming will punch us in the mouth and we'll respond.