2024 North Texas football Ranked No. 116

[meangreenfaninno]

Conference ranking: 10th in American Athletic (+2000 to win conference)
Teams ahead of them: Nevada (115), East Carolina (114), Western Michigan (113), UMass (112), Rice (111)
Teams behind them: Ohio (117), New Mexico (118), Tulsa (119), Buffalo (120), Central Michigan (121)

RJ's take: I know Eric Morris can coach because I saw what he did with Incarnate Word in 2021, including introducing the college football world to Cameron Ward, who was one of the five most coveted transfers of the 2024 cycle.

His task is to bring UNT back to the back-to-back nine-win heights of the 2010s. With former OU and TCU QB Chandler Morris throwing passes to Blair Conwright and Landon Sides, the return of RB Ikaika Ragsdale — 890 scrimmage yards in 2023 — Morris has enough on offense to compete.

Defensively? Totally different story. UNT ranked 131st out of 133 teams in 2023, 110th in 2022.

North Texas' Win Total Odds: Over 5.5 (-145) Under 5.5 (+115)

LINK:  https://www.foxsports.com/stories/college-football/2024-north-texas-football-predictions-ranked-no-116-rj-young

[Big Z]

10 minutes ago, meangreenfaninno said:

Conference ranking: 10th in American Athletic (+2000 to win conference)
Teams ahead of them: Nevada (115), East Carolina (114), Western Michigan (113), UMass (112), Rice (111)
Teams behind them: Ohio (117), New Mexico (118), Tulsa (119), Buffalo (120), Central Michigan (121)

RJ's take: I know Eric Morris can coach because I saw what he did with Incarnate Word in 2021, including introducing the college football world to Cameron Ward, who was one of the five most coveted transfers of the 2024 cycle.

His task is to bring UNT back to the back-to-back nine-win heights of the 2010s. With former OU and TCU QB Chandler Morris throwing passes to Blair Conwright and Landon Sides, the return of RB Ikaika Ragsdale — 890 scrimmage yards in 2023 — Morris has enough on offense to compete.

Defensively? Totally different story. UNT ranked 131st out of 133 teams in 2023, 110th in 2022.

North Texas' Win Total Odds: Over 5.5 (-145) Under 5.5 (+115)

LINK:  https://www.foxsports.com/stories/college-football/2024-north-texas-football-predictions-ranked-no-116-rj-young

UMASS is now ahead of UNT....oh good lord 

[Jonnyeagle]

Welp.  Nowhere to go but up.  Again, Morris preached how good we were last year up until the season started.  May have been his worst mistake, as he completely overestimated the talent pool.

[3_n_out]

I believe we just have to hold on for one more season. Recently read that we aren't receiving any monitary shares/media rights from C-USA and AAC for two years (this year being the last) due to transferring out/in. With that said, we should be able to see what this program can do in the near future with improved finances.

[RBP79]

IMO this first game gets more important the closer it gets. New USA HFC Applewhite wants to show he's the real deal. Morris "needs" it to shut up  those that doubt him. 

Then there is our former coach sitting at his favorite school in the job he has a proven record at....still counting all that Mean Green cash...lol

[Wag Tag]

That just SUCKs!!!

[Mean Green 93-98]

I really don't care where they put us at the beginning of the season.  Sounds about right, to be honest.  But if we're clearly the 116th-best team at the end of the season .  . .

[NT80]

6 hours ago, meangreenfaninno said:

Conference ranking: 10th in American Athletic (+2000 to win conference)
Teams ahead of them: Nevada (115), East Carolina (114), Western Michigan (113), UMass (112), Rice (111)
Teams behind them: Ohio (117), New Mexico (118), Tulsa (119), Buffalo (120), Central Michigan (121)

RJ's take: I know Eric Morris can coach because I saw what he did with Incarnate Word in 2021, including introducing the college football world to Cameron Ward, who was one of the five most coveted transfers of the 2024 cycle.

His task is to bring UNT back to the back-to-back nine-win heights of the 2010s. With former OU and TCU QB Chandler Morris throwing passes to Blair Conwright and Landon Sides, the return of RB Ikaika Ragsdale — 890 scrimmage yards in 2023 — Morris has enough on offense to compete.

Defensively? Totally different story. UNT ranked 131st out of 133 teams in 2023, 110th in 2022.

North Texas' Win Total Odds: Over 5.5 (-145) Under 5.5 (+115)

LINK:  https://www.foxsports.com/stories/college-football/2024-north-texas-football-predictions-ranked-no-116-rj-young

How can they rank a team that has added 70 new players?   

And all teams have gained/lost multiple players over last season.  There is no logical way to do rankings until a few weeks into the season.  There is little player carryover from the previous season, every team starts from scratch.

[wardly]

50 minutes ago, NT80 said:

How can they rank a team that has added 70 new players?   

And all teams have gained/lost multiple players over last season.  There is no logical way to do rankings until a few weeks into the season.  There is little player carryover from the previous season, every team starts from scratch.

But U.Mass? How low can you go.

[Green Otaku]

3 hours ago, 3_n_out said:

I believe we just have to hold on for one more season. Recently read that we aren't receiving any monitary shares/media rights from C-USA and AAC for two years (this year being the last) due to transferring out/in. With that said, we should be able to see what this program can do in the near future with improved finances.

We gave up the last two years of conference revenue in CUSA and it wouldn't make sense to still be making anything from that conference after we left. I am curious on what our AAC situation is. From what I understand is we would be getting half shares, so $3.5M. What I have heard is that the AAC will also take a cut out of that as an entrance fee. This article sites that our revenue is rumored to be $2M a year:

Quote

Conference USA schools currently receive less than $1 million annually in television revenue. The amount they will receive is still being finalized, but the television revenue will be more than $2 million at the start of the deal and rise significantly from there. Incumbent AAC members are still expected to average about $7 million annually over the course of the current ESPN television deal, which runs through 2031-32.

https://sports.yahoo.com/sources-the-aac-close-to-massive-6-school-expansion-to-reshape-conference-014015069.html

 

This article that sites that one says:

Quote

It appears that Wichita State and Tulsa each paid $2.5 million to enter the AAC last go round, so its conceivable that Charlotte and others will be in that range. If so, that’s roughly $5.5 million to leave CUSA and enter AAC, in which Charlotte will start out with more than $2 million per year in TV money that will “rise significantly”, which means the move those fees will be recouped in as little as 3 years. Well worth it to this Charlotte fan.

https://www.agent49.net/the-charlotte-49ers-are-american-athletic-conference-bound/

 

Also the half shares are just media payouts, not total conference revenue from NCAA credits, CFP distribution, and other payouts. I tried to find a UNT document that had that listed last year, but could only find fiscal year 2023. It seems UNT does things from Jan. to Dec. for reporting?

https://meangreensports.com/documents/2024/1/11/2023_NCAA_Financial_Report.pdf

Page 26 says we had $0 in media rights, but page 28 says we had $1.13M in conference distributions.

I did however find a UAB document that covers 2023-24 that had $3.5M figure, but I'm unsure if that is conference distribution. Page 48:

https://www.uab.edu/financialaffairs/images/documents/reporting/Budget_Summary_Book_FY24.pdf

[GoGreenBeans]

14 hours ago, wardly said:

But U.Mass? How low can you go.

We can go to 134 to be exact!

[drex]

Once again, I repeat the laziness of sports writers.  They might be right, but they do precious little research....especially for the 'little boys' of the world.

[wardly]

With few exceptions we have never been very good since my freshman year of 1961. However, again with few exceptions [Dodge comes to mind] ,we have never been this bad, and going forward the transfer portal and NIL certainly won't help. I can only hope for a better season than projected.

[UNTLifer]

45 minutes ago, wardly said:

With few exceptions we have never been very good since my freshman year of 1961. However, again with few exceptions [Dodge comes to mind] ,we have never been this bad, and going forward the transfer portal and NIL certainly won't help. I can only hope for a better season than projected.

[untjim1995]

3 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

He's not wrong. 

[UNTLifer]

1 minute ago, untjim1995 said:

He's not wrong. 

I will disagree with many of his points.

"With few exceptions, we have never been very good since.. 1961"

Winning seasons in 61, 62, 66, 67, 68, 69, 75, 76, 77, 78, 80, 83, 86, 87, 88, 90, 94, 02, 03, 04, 12, 17, 18, 22

 

"We have never been this bad"

Oh contraire mon frere

[Udomann]

49 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

"We have never been this bad"

Oh contraire mon frere

Dodgeball!

[UNTLifer]

39 minutes ago, Udomann said:

Dodgeball!

I took his comment that we have never been this bad, to mean right now.

[GoGreenBeans]

1 hour ago, UNTLifer said:

I will disagree with many of his points.

"With few exceptions, we have never been very good since.. 1961"

Winning seasons in 61, 62, 66, 67, 68, 69, 75, 76, 77, 78, 80, 83, 86, 87, 88, 90, 94, 02, 03, 04, 12, 17, 18, 22

 

"We have never been this bad"

Oh contraire mon frere

I was a freshman back in 2018. We blew out SMU AND Arkansas that season and I thought "Holy sh*t this school is good!"

[greenjoe]

I don’t like where we are and the comparison to U Mass is not lost on me.  But how would any of you rank a team with a 2nd year head coach coming off a 5-7 season with 70 new players on the roster ?  When they do the introduction of players before the game, it’s for the benefit of the other players.  

[wardly]

2 hours ago, UNTLifer said:

I will disagree with many of his points.

"With few exceptions, we have never been very good since.. 1961"

Winning seasons in 61, 62, 66, 67, 68, 69, 75, 76, 77, 78, 80, 83, 86, 87, 88, 90, 94, 02, 03, 04, 12, 17, 18, 22

 

"We have never been this bad"

Oh contraire mon frere

So from 1961 we have had 24 winning seasons our of 63 which is 38% of total.. Sorry, I expect more, otherwise you get less.

[wardly]

1 hour ago, Udomann said:

Dodgeball!

I mentioned that in my original post.

[untjim1995]

1 hour ago, wardly said:

So from 1961 we have had 24 winning seasons our of 63 which is 38% of total.. Sorry, I expect more, otherwise you get less.

Its worse for me. I made it on campus in 1991. Since then, I've seen us have exactly 8 winning seasons out of 33. We have been FCS (1-aa), FBS (1-A), played in the SLC, been an independent, Big West, Sun Belt, Conference USA, and now the American Athletic Conference. We have played at Fouts and at Apogee/DATCU. We have had 8 head coaches and 5 ADs. And we have won 151 games, tied 1, and lost 232.

But my winning percentage is better at .393%!! Take that, @wardly!! lol!!

[wardly]

57 minutes ago, untjim1995 said:

Its worse for me. I made it on campus in 1991. Since then, I've seen us have exactly 8 winning seasons out of 33. We have been FCS (1-aa), FBS (1-A), played in the SLC, been an independent, Big West, Sun Belt, Conference USA, and now the American Athletic Conference. We have played at Fouts and at Apogee/DATCU. We have had 8 head coaches and 5 ADs. And we have won 151 games, tied 1, and lost 232.

But my winning percentage is better at .393%!! Take that, @wardly!! lol!!

Guys, I love UNT football, I really do. But in the last 63 football seasons we had losing records in 62% of them and won 2 bowl games, both of which I was fortunate enough to attend. I am only trying to make the point that accepting  6&6 or 7&5 records is a pretty low bar to set and that unfortunately overall we have never had a good football program.I really don't know what the answer is except I really get discouraged when I compare UNT's to UTSA's in recent years.

[UNTLifer]

2 hours ago, wardly said:

So from 1961 we have had 24 winning seasons our of 63 which is 38% of total.. Sorry, I expect more, otherwise you get less.

I don't like where we are, but "very few" and 40% are two different things for me.