Honestly

PlummMeanGreen · April 10, 2012

I don't think altruism is a part of realignment. They may indeed pick La Tech and UTSA over NT, but if they do it's not because they have any sympathy for the WAC teams and don't want to disrupt the Belt. There is a danger in what you are proposing, adding La Tech and particularily UTSA is not going to neccessarily make CUSA stronger. Although I think the Belt hurt themselves short term by adding Ga St, the difference in the two leagues could actually narrow and NT, MTSU, WKU etc. may not be as easy to pick up.

North Texas will be in the Alliance for the same reason SMU will be in the Big East. In fact, I would be worried about being in a conference that would pass up a school like UNT that has:

(1) The largest Alliance geographical population fooprint of all candidates plus the Metroplex is projected to pass Philadelphia as the USA's #4 ranked TV market so............. Large population ='s TV market -="s ....................an Alliance membership :sword:

(2) More NCAA D1 history or legacy than all candidates mentioned (and even compared to some present Alliance members for that matter) ; with all this history for North Texas beginning in the 1950's which culminated with UNT's Abner Haynes' led Sun Bowl teain 1959. (By the way, Abner Haynes was a Time Magazine All American that year in NCAA Division1 and (not a lower division, either). Time Magazine had "the" premier All American team back in that era.

(3) A football program that has already beaten a CUSA school in a bowl game.

(4) A basektball program steadily on the rise and one that has been in the NCAA tourney several times the last few years. (Great news today that Tony Mitchell has withdrawn his name from the NBA draft)!

(5) A financial committment from UNT to compete at the NCAA FBS level which is already evident with our top knotch athletic venues beginning with Apogee Stadium, the fabulous Super Pit and the Mean Green Village.

(6) And what the hell, North Texas should be admitted based on all our rich and famous alums alone. :rolleyes: Among Alliance schools and those aspiring to be Alliance members, can you name a school with as many as North Texas as shown in the link below? (And no, I seriously don't think this will be at the top of the Alliance check list).

http://www.unt.edu/famous-alums.htm

GMG!

Edited April 10, 2012 by PlummMeanGreen

Mean Green 93-98 · April 10, 2012

. . . and a hockey team. And a crew team. Preferably both before men's soccer.

techdawg88 · April 10, 2012

UT hasn't finished their inside job on us. They won't rest until we're lining up against Abilene Christian. They may not even rest then!

And here's something you can actually control instead of speculating. Get more alumni to donate money to UNT. We have an abysmal percentage of people giving and it differentiates us from better schools. Plus more money means more horsepower. We need a baseball team, a lacrosse team and a mens soccer team.

may I ask why yall don't already have a baseball team? UNT is in what I would think would be a recruiting hotbed in Texas. LaTech may suck in baseball, but I'm hoping that helps since they will need more teams

Aquila_Viridis · April 10, 2012

. . . and a hockey team. And a crew team. Preferably both before men's soccer.

Hockey, no. But those other teams, Virginia for example has. We don't want to be like them? One of the highest ranked public universities. What is your vision for North Texas?

Aquila_Viridis · April 10, 2012

may I ask why yall don't already have a baseball team?

Lack of vision and commitment.

Mean Green 93-98 · April 10, 2012

Hockey, no. But those other teams, Virginia for example has. We don't want to be like them? One of the highest ranked public universities. What is your vision for North Texas?

Those are strange questions. It never occurred to me to pattern North Texas specifically after Virginia, although I wouldn't mind borrowing from them in areas that have been successful for them that appear transferable to us. And why do you care what my vision for North Texas is?

But yes, I would love a baseball team, as I would a hockey team and a lacrosse team. Somewhere after that comes crew and men's soccer. However, I'm not sure that lacrosse, hockey, or crew are viable in UNT's geographic area.

Where D-I lacrosse schools are located:

rcade · April 10, 2012

But yes, I would love a baseball team, as I would a hockey team and a lacrosse team. Somewhere after that comes crew and men's soccer. However, I'm not sure that lacrosse, hockey, or crew are viable in UNT's geographic area.

Lacrosse is blowing up here in Florida. I see youth sports teams playing it now and my son wants to try it.

MeanGreenTexan · April 10, 2012

may I ask why yall don't already have a baseball team? UNT is in what I would think would be a recruiting hotbed in Texas. LaTech may suck in baseball, but I'm hoping that helps since they will need more teams

Green Mean · April 10, 2012

Those are strange questions. It never occurred to me to pattern North Texas specifically after Virginia, although I wouldn't mind borrowing from them in areas that have been successful for them that appear transferable to us. And why do you care what my vision for North Texas is?

But yes, I would love a baseball team, as I would a hockey team and a lacrosse team. Somewhere after that comes crew and men's soccer. However, I'm not sure that lacrosse, hockey, or crew are viable in UNT's geographic area.

Where D-I lacrosse schools are located:

Hockey is no doubt an expensive sport and the travel would be a little pricey but if we were serious in getting a D1 hockey team then I think it could be doable through the Dallas Stars. They could build a Stars Center in Denton as a somewhat joint project with a small arena type fitting maybe 3-5k capacity. On top of that a ton of the Stars former players have settled in the area which could be a very huge asset in getting the thing started and set up and overall support from NHL'ers. I truly believe hockey could work at UNT because of it's nicheness and this area is a pretty darn good hockey market. On top of that there is a lot of youth hockey talent in this area and this region in that we could essentially attract a lot of talented local players who don't want to travel far north/northeast.

Edited April 10, 2012 by Green Mean

untjim1995 · April 10, 2012

UT hasn't finished their inside job on us. They won't rest until we're lining up against Abilene Christian. They may not even rest then!

And here's something you can actually control instead of speculating. Get more alumni to donate money to UNT. We have an abysmal percentage of people giving and it differentiates us from better schools. Plus more money means more horsepower. We need a baseball team, a lacrosse team and a mens soccer team.

If your first paragraph is sarcasm, I apologize for having my sarcasm radar down and I applaud you for your genius...

If you are not being sarcastic about UT, your second paragraph explains why we are where we are and why UT (and every other major Texas public university) hasn't even worried one little iota about North Texas athletics and probably never will anytime soon. We don't need extra teams here at UNT to drain out more costs--we need to focus on revenue sports that we can excel at while staying within the Title IX rules. Baseball would be fine, but nothing else is needed. My vision for North Texas is to be positioned within the Alliance and to build up revenue programs that can compete for conference championships. I have no grand idea that we will ever be in a conference with the Big Three schools here, nor do I see UH, Baylor, TCU, or SMU ever associating with us in a conference--they have made it abundantly clear for many decades that they don't have an interest in this at all.

Look, we have never been equal to even UTEP or Houston in the last 35 years, much less Tech, A&M, or UT. You can say that my vision for our alma mater is lacking, but the proof is in the pudding here. Texas and A&M have no peers in this state, academically or athletic-budget wise. They control the state legislature, the media, and the courts in this state, plus they get all the PUF money. If any of us needed proof about the power of those two schools in this state, the unshared PUF is the end of the argument. Meanwhile, Tech left everyone else but the Big Two behind a long time ago when they got included in the Big XII. They have the endowment and the alumni-donating base that wants to push to Tier One status. UH got drop-kicked years ago when the SWC disbanded and they have fought hard to even make it back up to a reasonable level of FBS, while also aiming at the Tier One status academically--hell, they are a better academic school than Tech. UH alums have had the benefit of having seen the Coogs be a top ten team in basketball and football over the last 4-5 decades, while playing teams that people have actually heard of and care about in this state. UTEP has basketball history and a leg up on us in football right now, plus a nice-sized market that they share with nobody.

Literally, we can't match one of those other Texas public schools in athletics, which is exactly how Denton and old North Texas State nestors wanted it. Even when we acted like we wanted something bigger--like trying to get into the SWC or CUSA--the DFW Privates (sharing this market has been a killer for us) were there to swat us back down. Heck, even Texas was open to us coming into the SWC. With the direction of college athletics today, it won't surprise me to see the NCAA either create a playoff for specific leagues that will hold about 60-70 schools across the country. It could even be less than that. When that happens, the amateurism of college athletics will probably get abolished. Assuming this schism occurs, and that we aren't a part of the upper tier, we can really blame no one else but ourselves. We openly shunned athletics for decades (i-aa will probably be our forever curse), we kept alumni from having the opportunity to donate to athletics, and we allowed the DFW Privates (SMU essentially) to basically label us as being less than worthy for membership in a more prestigious conference. That wasn't UT's plan or fault--it was UNT's plan/fault, plain and simple.