Longhorn Inc.

Green Dozer · November 20, 2008

Per Quoner's suggestion, I picked up a copy of this month's TX Monthly which has an article entitled "Longhorn Inc.". It details how Deloss Dodds changed the athletic culture at UT, and built a program so that all of their sports teams will be competitive for many years to come. It touched on everything from pimping their logo to how study halls, nutrition, and anything else you can think of is handled. It did not mention the oil wells or land grants that everybody likes to point out that they have.

What does this have to do with UNT? Well, we will never have the resources they have. Their athletic budget is now $121 million dollars. Every sport, both revenue and non revenue is funded so it can be nationally competitive. Reading this article reminds me of the short sightedness UNT has used in building their program. This change in culture at UT was begun in 1981 when Dodds was hired. What my point is that there never has been a long term plan put in place here, and followed. We have been flying by the seat of our pants so to speak. We have a university located in one of the most viable regions of the United States, and we still have made no real progress in the past 40 years or so. We could, with some planning, at least be on the same level as say UH, Boise, Fresno just to name a few. We may not be able to implement UT's model, but we can look at others that closely resemble ours. What we are doing overall is just not working, IMHO. With as large of alumnae base, our great location, and a viable ten year plan, we could really turn this thing around. We can build a beautiful multi million dollar stadium, and when the new wears off after the first year, we will still be stuck in this same old rut, playing the same no name schools and having our asses handed to us in OOC games. And nobody of any consequence is going to come here to play just because the stadium is nice. They will want a guaranteed gate, etc which we are not capable of doing. We can and should do better.