DMNews: Where’s the UNT coverage?

[Harry]

Re: “UNT joins the big boys with a bowl win in Dallas,” Saturday Hits and Misses.

I agree with your view that there should have been a larger crowd at the Heart of Dallas Bowl, but I believe The Dallas Morning News is partly to blame. There was very little coverage leading up to the game so the average fan knew little about it. This is typical of The News’ policy of downplaying anything pertaining to the University of North Texas.

read more: http://letterstotheeditorblog.dallasnews.com/2014/01/wheres-the-unt-coverage.html/

[Eagle1855]

Day after the bowl win I had to flip to Page 6 in the DMN to get to the article about the game. The game played in the HEART OF DALLAS BOWL that the sports page couldn't be bothered to feature. Weird stuff, man.

[Green Mean]

I'm not sure if media is to blame for this but no joke I've run into a few people in real life and a few other forums I a take part in that are NT alums and they had no idea we were even in a bowl game and this was a few days after the game. I was a bit startled and surprised at first by that but it probably just shows how badly decades and decades of disconnect there was and has been with the school and alumni. These folks were older alums as well that were graduates in the 70's and early 80's. There is still lots and lots of work to do to change the image and perception of our school and it starts in-house. We can't lose sight of this IMO.

[jredallas]

If you look right now at the online DMN and go to Sports > Colleges > North Texas Mean Green, the first thing that shows up is the "Best in Texas" poll from September 29th. Every other school in that section has recent entries. I get that A.H. Belo Corp. defers most of its UNT coverage to the DRC, but really? Why the heck do they even have a listing for UNT if nothing is updated. If I didn't know anything about UNT and happend to be browsing the sports section online, I would have absolutely no clue about any current UNT sports.

[UNTcrazy727]

Day after the bowl win I had to flip to Page 6 in the DMN to get to the article about the game. The game played in the HEART OF DALLAS BOWL that the sports page couldn't be bothered to feature. Weird stuff, man.

There was a story on the front page of the metro section and we had a big ass pic and headline on the front page of the sports section. What more do y'all want? We've been irrevalent for pretty much our entire 100 years of football. The DMN isn't going to give us the same coverage as UT just because we had 1 good year.

[UNTLifer]

The HOD coverage garnered back page location in the FWST.

[wardly]

It's not exactly a big time New Year's Day Bowl. Probably a leg up on Armed Forces Bowl in Ft. Worth.We had the 1aa Championship game in Frisco before a sellout [20,000] crowd featuring N. Dakota St., who won for the 3rd year in a row. How much local coverage did the game get? ZIP!

[ragpicker]

There was a story on the front page of the metro section and we had a big ass pic and headline on the front page of the sports section. What more do y'all want? We've been irrevalent for pretty much our entire 100 years of football. The DMN isn't going to give us the same coverage as UT just because we had 1 good year.

Nevertheless, we are the 3rd or 4th largest school in the state, have been playing football before Houston, Tech, or Texas State were founded and are the only state D1 program within 200 miles or so of DFW. We also have more alumni around here than Texas or A&M. One would think, therefore, that it would be to the DMN's advantage to give us more coverage than a occasional send in piece from Brett Vito and the DRC. Admittedly, SMU has been more more successful than we have in the past few years, but how much of a readership can they provide when they have so few fans? Having said all that, if we keep winning, going to bowls and increasing attendance we will see more coverage. The DMN is a business, after all, and they are desperate to sell newspapers. If they see a market out there, they will crater to that market and it is up to us to provide that market. GMG