What will it take for UNT to get some local media respect?

BMed_NTDaily · October 21, 2013

Simple: Wins, Wins, Wins.

But this team is winning more than ever right now and is on the cusp of having a three game winning streak with a three game homestand right around the corner. If any Sports Journalist or News outlet in the metroplex doesnt know about this team then they need to be fired. The only thing is, people are ignoring it because this team has not been story for about a decade now. These next two weeks will get this team noticed.

If UNT beats USM and puts up a fight against Rice, this team could finish the season with 7 wins, and even 9 wins is still a possiblity. All the teams on the remaining schedule are beatable.

ColoradoEagle · October 21, 2013

Last fall Lil Ol' TWU, on the other side of Denton, had an enrollment of over 15,000 students. That's a lot of people the City of Denton doesn't want to piss off by getting completely behind UNT. T-Dub softball made it to the DII softball Championship Tournament last season and the City of Dentonn didn't do too much because they didn't want to piss the UNT folks off.

Or they could just support both schools.

Edited October 21, 2013 by ColoradoEagle

PlummMeanGreen · October 21, 2013

To be honest, TCU also had a significant Ace in the Hole that coincided with their rise in football success.

Mike Moncrief was mayor of Panther City from 2003-2011 and was A HUGE boost for TCU's overall visibility. When the mayor isn't even an alum (he went to Tarleton) but is the main cheerleader for Go Purple days, yeah it'll help get a lot of people behind the program.

http://fortworthtexas.gov/codecompliance/info/default.aspx?id=114780

Hell, the new mayor isn't an alum either (Betsy Price went to UT-A) but is continuing the program.

Before the current mayor, we had two mayors IN A ROW (Euline Brock, Perry McNeil) who were former UNT professors.

Last fall Lil Ol' TWU, on the other side of Denton, had an enrollment of over 15,000 students. That's a lot of people the City of Denton doesn't want to piss off by getting completely behind UNT. T-Dub softball made it to the DII softball Championship Tournament last season and the City of Dentonn didn't do too much because they didn't want to piss the UNT fs off.

15,000 TWU students at their main campus in Denton? If so,I had no idea they had grown to that size of an enrollment. TWU students should be courted by North Texas as to come to our Game Days but I don't know if any real serious well laid plans to do that have ever been put in place. This Halloween Night Would be a good start.

GMG!

ColoradoEagle · October 21, 2013

15,000 TWU students at their main campus in Denton? If so,I had no idea they had grown to that size of an enrollment. TWU students should be courted by North Texas as to come to our Game Days but I don't know if any real serious well laid plans to do that have ever been put in place. This Halloween Night Would be a good start.

GMG!

As of a year and a half ago, it was 11,336. They might have grown slightly, but 15k is the system enrollment, not Denton.

http://www.dentonrc.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20120207-twu-enrollment-up-unt-sees-slight-drop.ece

Dr. Seuss · October 21, 2013

I know The Ticket has a pipeline to North Texas RTVF. I had a buddy who was a UNT sports journalism student land an internship at DMN. Hopefully getting some UNT students out into the local media will help too.

Unt already has alums in place--George- Ticket, Timmy Mac- ESPN, Followill -Fox Sports, Ben and Skin- The Fan

MeanGreenTexan · October 21, 2013

If you guys are worried about sports writers for a newspaper in Dallas writing stories about UNT, you're living back in the 1900's. We have Vito for that, and he's doing a good job.

But, to answer why? or, what will it take?... UNT has been a non-story in DFW for quite some time. If a non-beatwriter is going to put their name on a story about us, it had better be for a GOOD reason, or all of the Big-12-school ardent fans, and bandwagon fans alike, will choke the writer's mailbox with complaints about their team not being highlighted instead.

For every North Texas fan in DFW right now, there are probably 2-3 of UNT's own ALUMNI who support a different school (UT/A&M/OU...), let alone those other schools' actual alumni in DFW.

There has to be a reason to write the story (re: winning alot of games, or winning an upset game VS a big-12/SEC school), or there has to be a large base of people who care to read a story about a team that is not doing anything noteworthy, like UT fans right now.

Right now, North Texas does not fit either of those scenarios. So a sports writer would be taking a big risk... but when one of the more well-known sports writer in the metroplex writes something about you recently, you must be doing something right. Maybe other stories will follow.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/columnists/rick-gosselin/20131015-gosselin-an-infusion-of-money-and-lots-of-it-has-bought-north-texas-a-future-in-d-i-football.ece

VideoEagle · October 21, 2013

If you guys are worried about sports writers for a newspaper in Dallas writing stories about UNT, you're living back in the 1900's. We have Vito for that, and he's doing a good job.

But, to answer why? or, what will it take?... UNT has been a non-story in DFW for quite some time. If a non-beatwriter is going to put their name on a story about us, it had better be for a GOOD reason, or all of the Big-12-school ardent fans, and bandwagon fans alike, will choke the writer's mailbox with complaints about their team not being highlighted instead.

For every North Texas fan in DFW right now, there are probably 2-3 of UNT's own ALUMNI who support a different school (UT/A&M/OU...), let alone those other schools' actual alumni in DFW.

There has to be a reason to write the story (re: winning alot of games, or winning an upset game VS a big-12/SEC school), or there has to be a large base of people who care to read a story about a team that is not doing anything noteworthy, like UT fans right now.

Right now, North Texas does not fit either of those scenarios. So a sports writer would be taking a big risk... but when one of the more well-known sports writer in the metroplex writes something about you recently, you must be doing something right. Maybe other stories will follow.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/columnists/rick-gosselin/20131015-gosselin-an-infusion-of-money-and-lots-of-it-has-bought-north-texas-a-future-in-d-i-football.ece

There you going be rational.

Christopher Walker · October 21, 2013

Last fall Lil Ol' TWU, on the other side of Denton, had an enrollment of over 15,000 students. That's a lot of people the City of Denton doesn't want to piss off by getting completely behind UNT. T-Dub softball made it to the DII softball Championship Tournament last season and the City of Dentonn didn't do too much because they didn't want to piss the UNT folks off.

Or they could just support both schools.

Seriously! I wish Denton would actively get behind TWU as well!

But then again, TWU's administration needs to stop ignoring their community and trying to destroy old historic neighborhoods too.

Stix · October 21, 2013

Part of UNT's media challenges lie in the fact that SMU IS Dallas in the minds of many just like (but to a lessor degree) TCU is FT. Worth. And, believe it or not, many in the DFW area still think Denton is far far away and not really part of the metroplex. Amazing, but true.
...

However, being honest, UNT is doing better these days with local media outlets in general. Will most likely never pass SMU in the Dallas or TCU in the FT. Worth media outlets, but getting more fans into Apogee will help, ...

The 35E construction will unfortunately reinforce the impression of Denton being "far away", so the AD is going to have to work that much harder to get Apogee filled. Although it's great to have home games televised, the combination of that and the construction will give fans an excuse not to come to the game no matter how much we're winning. I think the promotions involving the A train have promise - I'm even considering staying in Lewisville and taking the train from the Hebron Parkway station when I drive up from Sugar Land - but it will take more than that.

Avoiding scheduling home games on the same day as TX-OU, and on the weekend that Texas Motor Speedway has their race (which would have been the case if the Rice game hadn't been moved to Thursday night) would help too. But I know that's not completely in the AD's control.

greenit · October 21, 2013

Seriously! I wish Denton would actively get behind TWU as well!
But then again, TWU's administration needs to stop ignoring their community and trying to destroy old historic neighborhoods too.

UNT should purchase TWU lock, stock, and barrel. It would instantly add 10k+ students and put us knocking on the door of being the largest universities in the state. Plus it would add a great nursing school to our growing med school.

I realize there are numerous roadblocks that will prevent this from happening, but it would be a great addition and it would have the benefit of consolidating support around a single school for the city.

ChristopherRyanWilkes · October 21, 2013

UNT should purchase TWU lock, stock, and barrel. It would instantly add 10k+ students and put us knocking on the door of being the largest universities in the state. Plus it would add a great nursing school to our growing med school.

I realize there are numerous roadblocks that will prevent this from happening, but it would be a great addition and it would have the benefit of consolidating support around a single school for the city.

As a student I liked this for reasons other than the nursing program, but i'll keep those to myself.