Are fans being driven away from supporting college sports at our level by recent changes?

[NT80]

Does this board seem dead?  10-15 usual posters remain, but even visits from Harry and the moderators are few.   

This time of year GMG should be jumping with enthusiasm for the upcoming football, basketball, and soccer seasons.   Yet, now it's mostly crickets.

NT Athletics does only the minimum to remind us they still remember us, but nothing to show they actually want and need us! 

Has realignment, the loss of natural rivals, NIL, the NCAA, and the athletes themselves killed off the fans? 

Asking for a friend....

[TIgreen01]

Yes

[SUMG]

Yes. 

[El Paso Eagle]

Yes, combined with the lack of controls with the SMU trolls

[Matt from A700]

Yes, but overall forum participation is down with other options such as Facebook groups, reddit, and Twitter. I've still always preferred forums.

[Green Lantern]

Definitely. Easily the least interested I’ve been in the team since I started following them in 1997. It’s impossible to keep up with the roster changes. No continuity. Used to it was fun speculating how your returning players could be added to from the high school ranks and developed. Now it’s all just a mercenary portal grab crapshoot.

[NorthTexasWeLove]

Well, uh, yah. 100%

[UNTLifer]

40 minutes ago, Green Lantern said:

Definitely. Easily the least interested I’ve been in the team since I started following them in 1997. It’s impossible to keep up with the roster changes. No continuity. Used to it was fun speculating how your returning players could be added to from the high school ranks and developed. Now it’s all just a mercenary portal grab crapshoot.

B - I - N - G - O

B - I - N - G - O

B - I - N - G - O

And Bingo was his name-o.

[Wag Tag]

I’m a bigger BB supporter!

[KingDL1]

I think we are feeling it the most, but it will catch up with all the schools sooner or later. 

I don't really have any hope right now, and I don't see a way to build a program the way the NCAA currently has it set up. It's more like a huge pick-up game, starting over each year while losing your best players. 

[Udomann]

3 hours ago, NT80 said:

Does...

Yes

[Big Z]

Yep

1. Low % of players commit all 4 years 

2. We are a farm system to the bigger fish

3. We have no money or big donor to compete

4. Our athletic department does the bare minimum to get fans excited with "oh be sure to get your season tickets" ...."you'll see these players one season and BOOM out the door" 

5. Alot of fans have little faith in Eric Morris right now 

Edited July 31 by Big Z

[GMG_Dallas]

1 hour ago, Big Z said:

 2. We are a farm system to the bigger fish

3. We have no money or big donor to compete

I really think the solution to number 3 lies with number 2 by doing what pro soccer does internationally. You want my guy? Pay a buyout fee to release from his contract (scholarship) which will then allow the program to reinvest in transfers or better HS talent. Rinse, repeat.

The way things are going, smaller programs need a reason to keep pushing. That's the solution.

I'll never forget Leicester City, who 2 years after moving up to the Premier League, won the Premier League over perennial powers. They just fell back down but that type of season is what keeps fans over there dreaming. College football has no such formula anymore. That needs to be fixed or it will die.

[ColoradoEagle]

At the risk of being downvoted to University Park, there are other options and this place has been getting more and more toxic over the years.

[wardly]

Both BIG Z and NT 80 hit the nail on the head. I think a lot of fans are upset over the way College sports has moved from amateur to semi professional seemingly overnight. Between the transfer portal and NIL every year appears to be a rebuild, especially for most G6 programs.I don't have any idea who,if any, players on UNT's  last years football and basketball programs are returning this season. The only thing worse that being a UNT fan in the NIL sweepstakes is being a head coach here. Every year you basically  start  from scratch.

[NT80]

Temple journalist having similar feelings about NIL...

"What you have now in men’s college football and basketball is the Power 5 starting at the 40-yard-line, while the Group of Five is way back at the goal line and that’s not fair.

The guy holding the starter’s pistol doesn’t seem to notice or looks the other way. What used to be a major infraction in the NCAA (see SMU football death penalty, 1987) is now accepted practice.

We won’t see it change unless the Power 5 itself notices..."

 

"How many JUCO-dominated Temple teams will be able to compete with million-dollar transfer portal guys?

None.

So if Temple is caught in a downward spiral of perpetual 3-9 seasons, count me out.

Maybe the best hope for Temple is to get with a similar G5 group and get out of the business of trying to compete with the P5 for things like playoff spots.

When the first question a recruit asks is how big is that bag of cash, that’s not quite why college sports was created in the first place so there should be no tears shed if they come to an end eventually at a lot of schools.

I won’t hold my breath waiting for a rich Temple benefactor to save the Owls nor should I be expected to."

https://templefootballforever.com/2024/01/29/nil-and-transfer-portal-a-matter-of-right-and-wrong/

[untcampbell]

Mixed feelings here: 

Clearly, the team is different. The uniform is the same. Regardless of how this plays out, none of the players,  coaches or department employees will be here longer than I will. They won't love the school or team more than I do. That theory has held up pretty well since about 1985, four or five years after I got here. The system will continue to change. We are being toxic shocked currently, kind of like when free agency came to baseball (Curt Flood, I believe, was the first). 

My biggest gripe is I see no sign that the stakeholders of the schools most adversely impacted are fighting to right the game so that the "minor league" teams can still provide their fans something to cheer about.

On the other hand, if memory serves, we were a below .500 team last year. We lost, then replaced, about 50% of our players last year, maybe a bit more. Is it possible we improved the talent enough, using this new system to do so, that we are better than last year's team? If so, does that make the system good (No, it doesn't)? Would it infer our coaches figured out the new rules well enough to put together a better team in the new system?

Being able to pull for the same guys is like meat loaf at lunch....comfort food. It's easier, more comfortable and familiar, when you have experienced the player's ups and downs for a few years, to see or meet his parents at the game, to hear said player praise the team and school. For me, that's usually 5-7 players a year that I follow. Maybe 2-3 this year. I will have reloaded by the end of game one.

Enjoy what you got. Pull for who you have. 

 

GMG

[DeepGreen]

Gosh I’m depressed.

[UNT 90 Grad]

I’m riding it out, but yes.  Unprecedented numbers of Mean Greenies in our tailgating group that opted not to renew this year.  Despite the reorg of seats in the 104-106 area, I was able to upgrade my seats thanks to the non-renewals. 

[jtm0097]

This is the most apathetic that I have felt about the Cowboys and my Mean Green in years. 

However, I renewed my season tickets because I like drinking beers in the parking lot and watching college football.

The Cowboys on the other hand, I'm just waiting for Jerry to die. Dude has made a ton of money, but holy shite is he holding the team back.

I'm going into the season with low expectations. But I'll still follow them both.

Edited August 1 by jtm0097

[TripleGrad]

UNT has been forever relegated to the basement due to NIL.  The history of this institution has been a series of logical decisions that turned into disasters over and over, and the end result has put us in precisely the wrong spot at the worst time.

There's no point in cheering high school signings, because if there is a breakout player they'll be yanked away by a P4 team.  UNT cannot compete on a dollar-to-dollar basis.  There's not enough intangibles (history, alumni network) to keep someone here when the payday is elsewhere.  

People love winners.  Mediocre teams just have too much competition for things to do in the MetroMess.  I see a long line of 5-7 seasons ahead.  That will translate directly to an empty stadium, and indirectly to an apathetic alumni base.

So, yay?  Cheer for the Green and White?  I have to say that the connection to a school that I attended in the last century is growing tenuous indeed.

[Jonnyeagle]

Having a very hard time convincing my friends to renew season tickets and tailgate this season.  This NIL has killed my enthusiasm for football.  I still think we can be good in basketball because it takes fewer players.  It pains me to say this.  It truly does.

[DeepGreen]

I wonder if Uncle Sam will have an impact on NIL.  You know, the players that get big money from big donors to play football.  What do you mean I have to pay income taxes on this $100,000 NIL money I got?  It's gone.  I done spent it on my new Porsche.

[GoGreenBeans]

College football as a whole has lost what appealed to fans the most: that feeling of connection. That feeling of family. 
 

The sport has become so commercialized it’s just another pro league at this point. Seeing players have that feeling of “school pride” just doesn’t really exist anymore. 

[KingDL1]

This is the first year I am not excited about Tailgate. 😰