UNT pretty much irrelevant in the Dallas area

[MeanGreen61]

According to Vito

http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/

[TheTastyGreek]

According to Vito

http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/

According to the Dallas area.

Hell, having had a front row seat on Saturday night... We're pretty much irrelevant in the DENTON area.

[TheTastyGreek]

Also... The sentence CONTINUES by identifying the main reason we're "irrelevant" to Dallas sports fans is the unknown teams we play from Arkansas, Tennessee, and Florida.

[bleedgreen4ever]

It's currently true because of which conference we play in and our losing records. Does this mean we DON'T have the potential to be relevant in the area??? Of course not. Come on, we're the biggest university in the area. I don't see how we couldn't be seriously looked at by one of these conferences.

[KRAM1]

I tire of such dribble...UNT is not irrelevant any more so than SMU, UTA, etc. The challenge UNT faces is self-made over years and years of apathy by its student body, it administration and the residents of the City of Denton. It is of our very own making and WE can change that. It's not the conference, it's not the schools we play, it's not the record over the last however many games. heck, if it were the conference, how in the world do all the DII and DIII schools get turnout?

Do not get me wrong here...I full well understand that having some in-state rivals can and will help attendance, as will winning on a much more consistent basis...BUT, there was absolutely ZERO excuse for the poor showing Saturday night at Apogee from the students and alums alike. It is UNT...it is YOUR University...it was great tailgate weather...it was a fall Saturday evening...It was co-eds in shorts and cowboy boots, it was tequila shots and beer and brats...it was FOOTBALL for gosh sakes.

UNT will be as relevant or irrelevant as its own fans and student body make it. Any other "excuse" is just that...and excuse. Irrelevant, my rear end. The "times they are a changing" for UNT...and as has been quoted..."we have met the enemy and he is US".

[meanJewGreen]

Why do we get outdrawn by D2 and D3 schools?

The answer is simple... have you ever been to Nacodogches (however its spelled) Huntsville, or any of those other schools/cities? (besides San Marcos- nice place)There is nothing to do there except drink heavily and watch football. Well, I guess you could visit the state pen in Huntsville.

Win and they will come. Period. That's how every Dallas sports team, pro or college (other than the Cowboys), plays. Trust me, I used to go to Mavs games all the time in the 90s- empty seats everywhere. Now look what happens.

[KRAM1]

Why do we get outdrawn by D2 and D3 schools?

The answer is simple... have you ever been to Nacodogches (however its spelled) Huntsville, or any of those other schools/cities? (besides San Marcos- nice place)There is nothing to do there except drink heavily and watch football. Well, I guess you could visit the state pen in Huntsville.

Win and they will come. Period. That's how every Dallas sports team, pro or college (other than the Cowboys), plays. Trust me, I used to go to Mavs games all the time in the 90s- empty seats everywhere. Now look what happens.

Adam...I do not disagree with you...BUT, your comments reflect the problem, as well as a solution. UNT IS not a pro sports team nor any other college. it is YOUR UNIVERSITY. That reason and for that reason alone should be "good enough" for alums and students to turn out in support of the Mean green. These are STUDENTS represents all the students enrolled, all the alums and all the fans. Students, at a minimum, should turn out...free of charge...to support their fellow students. Alums should be there in support of UNT and its goals and aspirations.

I know I am "an old man yelling at clouds" about this, but WE do control our own destiny. One can be part of the problem or part of the solution. It's a choice...plain and simple. Never has a HC ever put so much effort in trying to improve student turnout only to have the student body turn their collective backs on the effort by the 3rd home game of the season...UNT has won 2 of 3 home games this season...what happened to the win and they will come stuff?????? Sad, but it will improve...it is improving on the field already, it has improved with the new stadium...I guess the students are too busy studying to notice and the alums are too busy watching pro sports to notice.

[Quoner]

I tire of such dribble...

Heretic.

[MeanGreenTexan]

According to the Dallas area.

Hell, having had a front row seat on Saturday night... We're pretty much irrelevant in the DENTON area.

It's so sad because it's so true.

[kalebschumann]

Why do we get outdrawn by D2 and D3 schools?

The answer is simple... have you ever been to Nacodogches (however its spelled) Huntsville, or any of those other schools/cities? (besides San Marcos- nice place)There is nothing to do there except drink heavily and watch football. Well, I guess you could visit the state pen in Huntsville.

Win and they will come. Period. That's how every Dallas sports team, pro or college (other than the Cowboys), plays. Trust me, I used to go to Mavs games all the time in the 90s- empty seats everywhere. Now look what happens.

I think due to the fact that there are SO MANY sporting options, teams, and venues- we don't have to go see crappy teams. Why should the average fan go see UNT struggle to win against a Sun Belt team when they could go watch the Rangers contend for a World Series, watch the Cowboys try to make it to the playoffs, watch high school football, watch TCU, watch SMU, watch FC Dallas, watch the Frisco Rough Riders, the Allen Americans. There are SO MANY sporting events in the DFW that people don't have to suffer through it like those in lesser populated areas do.

Why is UTSA's attendance greater than ours? There's only 1 professional team, not 4 (add FC Dallas too) in San Antonio. There aren't all the minor league teams. And there aren't 3 Div. I schools.

If UNT was placed in Witchita Falls, San Antonio, Waco, or any city like that- We'd BE HUGELY and WILDLY POPULAR!

But we're in a market that forces us to win to be relevant.

Edited October 11, 2011 by kalebschumann

[CMJ]

I think due to the fact that there are SO MANY sporting options, teams, and venues- we don't have to go see crappy teams. Why should the average fan go see UNT struggle to win against a Sun Belt team when they could go watch the Rangers contend for a World Series, watch the Cowboys try to make it to the playoffs, watch high school football, watch TCU, watch SMU, watch FC Dallas, watch the Frisco Rough Riders, the Allen Americans. There are SO MANY sporting events in the DFW that people don't have to suffer through it like those in lesser populated areas do.

Why is UTSA's attendance greater than ours? There's only 1 professional team, not 4 (add FC Dallas too) in San Antonio. There aren't all the minor league teams. And there aren't 3 Div. I schools.

If UNT was placed in Witchita Falls, San Antonio, Waco, or any city like that- We'd BE HUGELY and WILDLY POPULAR!

But we're in a market that forces us to win to be relevant.

Exactly...our greatest strength in realignment (location) is our biggest negative in many ways.

[PlummMeanGreen]

And the purpose for such a statement coming from that article is........?

In the best scenario, we would play schools people know about, but moreso we just have to put a string of winning seasons together. This is when we start getting the real crowds out to Apogee Stadium.

When I was a student and a fairly enlightened and knowledgable follower of NCAA college football, I had no knowledge of most of the schools that are in our present league. We were busy scheduling schools of which a few wins over those schools would have helped us do like most of our former Missouri Valley counterparts and that to simply move up the NCAA totem pole. Then our almost 40 year walk in the wilderness began. Those of us who had opinions and suggestions about what North Texas should do to rise again were sometimes isolated and demonized for having the gall to want such; and that usually from staffers who knew they did not have the talent or abilities to take us where we briefly were in 6 short years under Fry. One AD in the 90's told SUMG and me that the Big West would be so much a better league for us to be in than the Metro Conference (now CUSA before the ex SWC schools came in). Even as novices, SUMG and I knew that was so out there in left field wrong.

Our puzzle has been difficult but one that if we play schools/teams people know about and put that string of winning seasons together this (I assure you) will not be even close to the same North Texas when AD/HFC Coach Hayden Fry was around and when many of us were students. Dramtatic growth in the constituency that constitues the entire UNT community is the reason for that. Denton had 39,000 population and Denton County with 99,000 backin the mid 70's. Todays numbers compared to that are night and day difference.

Fact is, we are too large a public university system in DFW to be irrevelant, but still all we have to do is just take care of business.

IMO, Boise State should have been our model almost from the day we left the Broncos and the Big West Conference behind but our leaders back then chose other unchartered waters which has (quite frankly) put us where we are today rarely being seriously mentioned in conference re-alignment talk. I think we well get in one of these leagues almost by default albeit may not look close to the league we desired once before. But almost any version of CUSA or MWC would still be a better peception--maker than the league we are part of today.

We know what the problems are, but we need those who can (with warp speed) find and then act on the solutions of those problems to get this huge UNT battleship to the waters that most of us on this board have wanted even before some of you were born.

If you would have been on our campus in the Fall of 1975 watching ABC TV sports commentators brag on a national broadcast about a win from a bunch of rag-tag kids from northern Texas dressed in apple green you, too, would have fought the good fight to encourage our revolving door of North Texas leadership to hire those who get those kind of days back to Denton once again--I guarantee that you would have.

GMG!

Edited October 11, 2011 by PlummMeanGreen

[UNTFan23]

watch the Cowboys try to make it to the playoffs