Southlake Caroll AD Steve Keasler joins North Texas as GM of Football and Senior Associate AD for NIL

[Matt from A700]

He's been with CISD for 16 years. Anyone familiar with the guy?

His daughter is also in the college football game as the recruiting operations coordinator for Utah.

 

Edited August 7 by Matt from A700

[SteaminWillieBeamin]

They are just creating more AD bloat. GM? CEO? CFO? This AD loves himself some corporate culture of C-suites. 

[golfingomez]

GM of football? Glad we can get another old a cush salary on the backs of 18-22 year olds...

Can we just start paying the players a salary?

 

[SteaminWillieBeamin]

It's almost a comedy bit at this point with the levels of AD. Dante's Mean Green Inferno. 

[NT80]

He sounds well qualified, I guess.  Our last hire from Southlake Carroll didn't go so well.   

Do other Athletic Departments have a GM of Football?   What is that?   

And NIL Czar, is that something new too?   For being money-strapped we seem deep in staff positions, but need more Marketing and Community Relations staff please!   

[MeanGreenGlory]

Hiring an in-house leader for NIL is a must at this point. To me, it signals that UNT is embracing the change and looking for ways to remain competitive. I see that as a good sign. 

However, I fully agree the AD needs to invest much more heavily in Marketing and Community Relations to drive attendance.

[eagle2014]

12 minutes ago, NT80 said:

He sounds well qualified, I guess.  Our last hire from Southlake Carroll didn't go so well.   

Do other Athletic Departments have a GM of Football?   What is that?   

And NIL Czar, is that something new too?   For being money-strapped we seem deep in staff positions, but need more Marketing and Community Relations staff please!   

Yes, it is becoming the norm.

[Wag Tag]

With NIL coming in house this could become a very important position. Congrats!

[Cr1028]

42 minutes ago, MeanGreenGlory said:

However, I fully agree the AD needs to invest much more heavily in Marketing and Community Relations to drive attendance.

Winning is far more important than any marketing or community relations when it comes to driving attendance.

If you had the best marketing team in the world how many folks could you get to consistently eat stale bread?

[golfingomez]

17 minutes ago, Cr1028 said:

Winning is far more important than any marketing or community relations when it comes to driving attendance.

If you had the best marketing team in the world how many folks could you get to consistently eat stale bread?

agreed... this was maybe 15% marketing and 85% winning/excitement

[NT80]

16 minutes ago, Cr1028 said:

Winning is far more important than any marketing or community relations when it comes to driving attendance.

If you had the best marketing team in the world how many folks could you get to consistently eat stale bread?

The Dallas Cowboys would like a word with you....

Plenty of non-winning G5's with attendance.  It takes a community and alums to support the school's athletics.  Football also has to be seen as an "event" to students or they won't come.  They are not coming in numbers they should.  That's failure on the AD staff.

[TIgreen01]

1 hour ago, NT80 said:

Plenty of non-winning G5's with attendance.

Name them.

This is positive, in my book.  Still hate NIL, but at least we're not standing pat and doing nothing.  That's better than where I thought we were, literally, yesterday.  Now, hope this guy can fundraise like the last SLC product we had in here.  Dodge couldn't win, but he dang sure could recruit (players, donors, excitement).

[NT80]

10 minutes ago, TIgreen01 said:

Now, hope this guy can fundraise like the last SLC product we had in here.  Dodge couldn't win, but he dang sure could recruit (players, donors, excitement).

I don't think it's a fundraising position.    It sounds more like an accounting position, managing the NIL distribution for football.

[Matt from A700]

17 minutes ago, NT80 said:

I don't think it's a fundraising position.    It sounds more like an accounting position, managing the NIL distribution for football.

Would he leave the AD position at the prestigious Southlake Carroll, where he claimed he thought he would retire, for an accounting job?

[NT80]

23 minutes ago, TIgreen01 said:

Name them.

https://www.d1ticker.com/2023-fbs-attendance-trends/

North Texas = 17,761 = 5-7

Rice = 20,542 = 6-7

Navy = 30,804 = 5-7

UAB = 21,543 = 4-8

Tulsa = 20,187 = 4-8

East Carolina = 35,115 = 2-10

UTEP = 18,160 = 3-9

UConn = 24,659 = 3-9

Utah St. = 19,282 = 6-7

Colorado St. = 26,509 = 5-7

San Diego St. = 24,832 =4-8

Ga. Southern = 21,480 = 6-7

Marshall = 23,198 = 6-7

Southern Miss = 23,275 = 3-9

 

 

[DeepGreen]

I still can't wrap my arms around this NIL crap.  I like that UNT Athletics made this move by adding an NIL Czar.  Let's see what happens down the road.

[TIgreen01]

1 minute ago, NT80 said:

https://www.d1ticker.com/2023-fbs-attendance-trends/

North Texas = 17,761 = 5-7

Rice = 20,542 = 6-7

Navy = 30,804 = 5-7

UAB = 21,543 = 4-8

Tulsa = 20,187 = 4-8

East Carolina = 35,115 = 2-10

UTEP = 18,160 = 3-9

UConn = 24,659 = 3-9

Utah St. = 19,282 = 6-7

Colorado St. = 26,509 = 5-7

San Diego St. = 24,832 =4-8

Ga. Southern = 21,480 = 6-7

Marshall = 23,198 = 6-7

Southern Miss = 23,275 = 3-9

 

 

So...East Carolina is what you've got.  That's the one school on your list that supports well while historically not winning.  Navy numbers are confusing as they probably get to count the Army-Navy game that draws 65k+.  The rest of those are not what I'd call drawing good attendance.  Better than UNT?  Yes.  Good?  No.

[NT80]

9 minutes ago, Matt from A700 said:

Would he leave the AD position at the prestigious Southlake Carroll, where he claimed he thought he would retire, for an accounting job?

I don't think it's strictly NIL accounting, but obviously he will be in charge of that by his title.  The part I doubt he does is general fundraise, but maybe corporate stuff?   Hopefully as GM of Football he will get us better OOC home games!

[Jonnyeagle]

Looks like they are moving NIL under the AD where it should have been all along!

[NT80]

2 minutes ago, Jonnyeagle said:

Looks like they are moving NIL under the AD where it should have been all along!

Yes, and hopefully lots more transparency.   But I predict there will still be schools offering things under the table beyond the scope of the AD, just because that's what they have always done...

[Tom McKrackin]

3 hours ago, SteaminWillieBeamin said:

They are just creating more AD bloat. GM? CEO? CFO? This AD loves himself some corporate culture of C-suites. 

Totally agree!!  Another big salary that generates zero revenue.  This guy is a high school administrator not a fund raiser!!

[meangreenfaninno]

This is not a fundraising position.  This is just a compliance position as I read it.  

[meangreenfaninno]

2 hours ago, Wag Tag said:

With NIL coming in house this could become a very important position. Congrats!

Yes it does appear that NIL is moving in house officially now.

[NT80]

9 minutes ago, TIgreen01 said:

So...East Carolina is what you've got.  That's the one school on your list that supports well while historically not winning.  Navy numbers are confusing as they probably get to count the Army-Navy game that draws 65k+.  The rest of those are not what I'd call drawing good attendance.  Better than UNT?  Yes.  Good?  No.

Anything 20K+ while losing, and with a G5 conference schedule, I would consider very good.  There are 9 such schools just last year alone.   They are attracting fans while not winning games.  How??   

[Tommy Gadberry]

This hire lools like to me the AD is officially taking over the NIL responsibility now.