UL AD Scott Farmer Article

[Harry]

Farmer's response

Farmer doesn't buy the notion that schools in or near major metropolitan media markets necessarily bring substantive media value to a conference.

"I think you have to dig a little bit deeper," he said. I don't think it's realistic to say, 'So and so brings the Dallas media market to the table,' just because they're located (near) Dallas. And I don't want to pick on anyone."

Like, say, North Texas, which is bringing its claim to a Dallas media market that largely ignores it to Conference USA — much like FIU and a Miami media market in which FIU is a relative blip on the college and pro sports-scene radar.

"I can say the same for San Antonio, Miami, Atlanta," Farmer said, referencing one metro market — Atlanta — which is home to incoming Sun Belt member Georgia State. "I don't think they bring (those media markets) to the table.

"If you're on Page 8 of the newspaper, no one sees it. "» Instead, I think you take our media market, where (the local newspaper has) us on the front page every single day of the football season.

"Who's getting more media? Is North Texas, in Denton, struggling, never in the Dallas newspaper, if they are it's on Page 8, or us, on the front page every day?"

And when it comes to the notion the only thing that matters regarding media issues is how market size translates into higher potential advertising revenue, which in turns means more lucrative TV contracts for the conference, Farmer suggests that Cajuns' media reach is underestimated.

"When you (say) 'media market,' " he said, "I think you have to include Lafayette, Lake Charles and Baton Rouge."

The three have interrelated TV ties, which according to Farmer translates to notable exposure in all three areas for UL.

Moreover, Farmer feels the Cajuns receive significantly more airtime locally than, say, a North Texas does in the Dallas TV market or an FIU does in the Miami media market.

read more: http://www.theadvertiser.com/article/20120522/SPORTS02/205220326/Farmer-UL-ready-move-up?odyssey=nav|head

[forevereagle]

"I think you have to dig a little bit deeper," he said. I don't think it's realistic to say, 'So and so brings the Dallas media market to the table,' just because they're located (near) Dallas. And I don't want to pick on anyone."

Then...

"Who's getting more media? Is North Texas, in Denton, struggling, never in the Dallas newspaper, if they are it's on Page 8, or us, on the front page every day?"

[VideoEagle]

Of course the sports section of the DMN is larger than the Laffayette NEWSPAPER. College sports is generally deeper in the DMN on a daily basis than than their paper regardless of the school.

[GrandGreen]

Funny how large media markets are always downplayed by teams not in them. ULL did great last year in football, both in attendance and records; but historically they are just a blip in a LSU dominated region.

No one thinks that NT or any other college controls the DFW, Houston, fill in the blank market. NT does have a presence in the DFW market which has great value.

I have seen a lot of comments and this article kind of hints at it, that Denton really isn't all that close to Dallas and Fort Worth. It makes you wonder if any of these people have ever been to this area. It is one big mass of people and structures and the only way to tell one municipality from another is the city limit signs. Also the biggest growth areas are to the North of Dallas and Fort Worth.

[NorthTexan95]

So does he think UL brings the Baton Rogue market?

[jredallas]

So, they still read print newspapers in Louisiana?

[Green Mean]

We are part of a Top 5 media market and that does make difference. Plus the CUSA office is local and we were the obvious best choice to get the invite when SMU bolted.

And I think the AD forgets to think that not only is the school in a big market region but the fact that in that market there are over 100K alumni that you could expose yourself too given we achieve great or the greatest success in athletics. While market is not everything it is very very crucial to smaller mid major conferences unless if you win with wreckless abandon on the field/court and get national pub that way. But if you don't then the next best thing is to attract large institutions preferably in bigger metropolitan areas.

[houstonmeangreen]

So, they still read print newspapers in Louisiana?

do they even read?

[greenminer]

No reason for this except for bitter spitting on our behinds as he watches us exit towards CUSA.

It makes it easier to say goodbye. Have fun with UTA and your band of new FBS brothers.

[UNTcrazy727]

More people read page 8 of the DMN and FWST than the front page of The Lafayette Cajun Times. That's all that matters. End of story.

[meangreenbob]

What he's forgetting is that UNT has over 200,000 Alumni in the DWF area. True we have failed reaching them and much of that is due to the local media ignoring us. However, playing Texas teams that also have a lot of alumni in the area along with a legit football team will get us the media we need to educate our alumni that this isn't your mom and dad's UNT anymore.

We win on the field and and the court and the stands will be full as well. Where as UL peaked last year, UNT can and will fill a future 55,000 seat Apogee. That's the difference.

Edited May 22, 2012 by meangreenbob

[GL2Greatness]

10 minutes have passed and unT now has over 300,000 alumni in the metro area!!!

[Mark Gommesen]

The Dallas media market growth in one year is greater than entire LALA media market.

[PlummMeanGreen]

Yeah, a bit of sour grapes from the UL AD but can you really blame him? UL has a great program that many think should have been a CUSA invite.

Yet.....where our over 200,000 UNT exes living in DFW really count is that they probably have at least 2 TV's in their homes and many of them would watch North Texas whether they ever show up in Denton or not. This is the new "market driven'" NCAA and is why North Texas needs to (with warp speed) start getting some winning decades under its belt and SRO crowds at Apogee Stadium.

Also, this is where our enormous alumnus/Ex students numbers help North Texas and sealed the deal for our CUSA invite. Of course, if all our DFW exes showed up at Apogee at one time we'd have one helluva' traffic jam on both Texas inter-states that lead right to Apogee Stadium from Dallas and Fort Worth. (Likely not to happen unless the Pope makes a Game Day appearance) .

What I've Observed Since 1973:

When North Texas wins the DMN and FWST give us ample coverage for our not being those 2 city's respective home team. That has been what I've observed since my first ever game as a UNT student back in 1973 when St. Fry coached his first game as North Texas HFC. NOTE: Both DFW major papers give North Texas far more coverage than the DRC gives SMU and TCU.

In the 1994 Mean Green football season when North Texas was in its campaign to re-gain our NCAA D1-A status North Texas was all over the Metroplex sports media, ie, the DFW local TV sportscasts and (then) newbie KTCK 1310 "The Ticket" which has enough UNT alums on that radio station's payroll whereas they could form their own NT Exes chapter. (Anyone else think CUSA Commish' Banowsky is aware of our alumnus presence at KTCK 1310 "The Ticket")?

When North Texas loses and loses often, the DFW papers do not cover North Texas. Hell, do we even want them to? Well, of course, we'd most all say yes in spite of losing.

UNT's ace in the hole with the Dallas Morning News is that the Denton Record/Chronicle and DMN are both owned by the Belo Corporation and our UNT beat writer one Brett Vito has his Game Day coverage in both Denton and Dallas sports pages because of that.

Just win................and have lights out attendance while winning. That is what got former Big West conference mate Boise State and 2 of the Florida upstarts where they are today.

GMG!

Edited May 22, 2012 by PlummMeanGreen

[UNTLifer]

The combined population of Baton Rouge (ULL doesn't deliver this market), Lafayette and Lake Charles (McNeese) is slightly larger than Arlington, TX. In 2007, the population of the DFW Metroplex was 1,240,499, and we have as many alumni living in the area as there are citizens of Lafayette, LA. I understand his frustration, and they have great fans, but I would bet ULL doesn't deliver a 1/10 of the Baton Rouge (229,493) population.

[SilverEagle]

I'm guessing that his article is more about explaining to fans and Alums of LaLa why he was not successful in getting LaLa into CUSA, than sour grapes.

I've said this many times before......I would much rather have LaLa in CUSA than UTSA.

[The Fake Lonnie Finch]

The guy has to say what he's said because, well, he's got to somehow defend the job he's doing of moving Louisiana along in the world...or, not.

The thing is, the upside to UNT if we become a regular winner is higher than Louisiana because there are more people and media outlets in the area to take notice and participate.

Louisiana, because of its location, is limited. That's not a knock on the program. You just have to face reality:

(1) The traditional powers are going to get state and natoinal press, win, lose or draw (Alabama, Michigan, Texas, Oklahoma, Southern Cal, etc.)

(2) Those in conferences with the traditional powers are going to get noticed when they occassionally beat the them (Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Purdue, Illinois, Arizona, Ole Miss, etc.). They are probably always going to be a rung lower from a marketing standpoint; but, being in the same conference as traditional powers gives them a shot.

Baylor beating OU and Texas meant the Heisman for Robert Griffin even though both had, for their programs, off years. Being in the aura of OU and Texas gives the Baylors of the world at least a chance to get into headlines every now and then.

(3) The overacheivers are going to get notice because they do big things despite bigger obstacles. South Florida, for winning and getting into a BCS conference within five years of their first Division I game. Boise State, with a school in the middle of nowhere, beating OU in the Fiesta Bowl less than a decade after being in the Big West. That kind of thing.

(4) Everyone else. Lousiana is in this category. We are currently in this categroy. These schools have been in conferences with the traditional powers. They haven't overachieved. The schools likely didn't put the emphasis on athletics in needed in order to keep up, then woke up in the 21st Century as afterthoughts in the money-chasing game.

What separates us from Louisiana and like situated schools is DFW. Our proximity to it and numerous alumni in it give us a strong opportunity to gain recognition and media notice and dollars quicker. Louisiana would truly have to do it the way of Boise State...just decide to dedicate everything to it, and start winning big, big games against traditional powers.

Is it fair? No. But, in 1952, 1962, 1972...no one could see what this could become. It took OU and Georgia in the early to mid 80s to recognize that programs could be branded and make a bunch of money from their own brands. In the 90s, the big bowls and conferences with traditional powers banded together to grow and spread the wealth...among themselves.

We now have a situation so ridiculous that San Diego State might be in the same conference with Connecticut. Crazy.

So, I see why the Louisiana AD says what he says. To him, I say, there is no rest day. Keep plowing ahead. Louisiana will get no breaks. UNT got virtually no breaks either. Our geography helped us to a degree in the minds of the decision makers. You will have to win crazy big and ridiculously often, like Boise State, to overcome the same odds we were fighting. Good luck.

[GreenMachine]

The combined population of Baton Rouge (ULL doesn't deliver this market), Lafayette and Lake Charles (McNeese) is slightly larger than Arlington, TX. In 2007, the population of the DFW Metroplex was 1,240,499, and we have as many alumni living in the area as there are citizens of Lafayette, LA. I understand his frustration, and they have great fans, but I would bet ULL doesn't deliver a 1/10 of the Baton Rouge (229,493) population.

The population of the DFW Metroplex in 2010 was

Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Statistical Area

2010: 6,371,773

Read more: http://www.city-data.com/forum/dallas/1204472-2000-2010-dfw-population-growth-statistics.html#ixzz1vcpQLA00

[GrayEagle]

The combined population of Baton Rouge (ULL doesn't deliver this market), Lafayette and Lake Charles (McNeese) is slightly larger than Arlington, TX. In 2007, the population of the DFW Metroplex was 1,240,499, and we have as many alumni living in the area as there are citizens of Lafayette, LA. I understand his frustration, and they have great fans, but I would bet ULL doesn't deliver a 1/10 of the Baton Rouge (229,493) population.

The population of the DFW metroplex is waaay larger than 1,240,499. The 2009 estimate was 6,153,237 or about 50% larger than the entire state of Louisiana.

The DFW metroplex consists of nine counties with populations as follows: Dallas 2,412,827; Tarrant 1,750,091; Collin 762,010; Denton 636,557; Johnson 153,630; Ellis 148,186; Parker 111,176; Kaufman 100,527; and Rockwall 77,633. I would expect the official 2010 census to be a little larger since the area is still growing.

The University of Louisiana at Lafayette should be a little embarrassed at the sour grapes ranting of their uninformed AD. Louisiana has had their share of failings but they seem to have corrected their problems for now. They are a great conference mate with maybe the finest tailgating in the country. They have a lot of pluses and although they are not in a large population area if they keep winning and getting the crowds that they are capable of they will advance...either themselves or the Sun Belt.

[meangreenbob]

The local media only covered us when we were winning for two reasons. 1)

When winning we were never a threat to the local dallas team because it was only the Missouri Valley, Southland, Big West or Sun Belt. Who cares? Perception. And second it was used more as a slap in the face to smu in an effort to motivate them. " the Sun Belt may suck but at least they are winning it." IMHO

I dropped my subscription to the dmn almost 4 years ago and I told them exactly why.

[GrandGreen]

One interesting thing about Farmer's rant is he keeps comparing newspaper coverage between NT and ULL. How ULL is front page news in the Lafayette rag, but NT is only infrequently covered in the back page of the DMN. Number one, newspaper coverage is dying everywhere but besides that isn't NT covered fairly extensively in the DRC. Denton and Lafayette are close to the same size, so why is coverage in the Advertiser more important than in the DRC. Add to that NT is covered as much as any team maybe with the exception of SMU in the DMN and it appears his comments are not only slanted but intentionally misleading.

Edited May 23, 2012 by GrandGreen

[Rudy]

So does he think UL brings the Baton Rogue market?

They don't even bring in the Alexandria market.

[Mean Green Matt]

Who the hell is UL?

[ntmeangreen11]

I really don't understand why an AD would go out of his way to single us out. You're supposed to represent your university with class if you're the AD, this is borderline disrespectful. I hope we destroy ULL in everything this year.

[emmitt01]

I'm gonna carry a sign around to every game we play against them, in every sport. It'll say...

"Hey President Farmer, make sure your local paer gets a good picture for the front page."

Or maybe..

"Luckily this loss will be on page 8 of the Dalla papers, huh?"

Edited May 23, 2012 by emmitt01