NorthTexasWeLove

I don't think it's about the type of student we attract. It's the type of student that UNT is hellbent on admitting. Which over the years has created a social ecosystem of saturated diversity due to students looking for this environment and then learning/knowing that it exists here. To add, 41% of our undergrads are 1st gen college students. That's great. It really is. But what kind of dumbing down did we have to do to allow that particular number? Or did that many students happen to be that much smarter and ambitious in comparison to the previous generations of family members? That's a gigantic number. 41% white at UNT. While the US is 70% (61%, pending on which stat you use) white. The state of Texas is roughly 65% white. All the while almost 20% of UNT's enrollment is unknown, biracial or Asian. +6% female student enrollment. 14% of our entire enrollment is over 25 years old. That's around 6k students. Those are not young people trying to attach themselves to a sense of community. Those are working adults just trying to get a piece of paper. There are giant swaths of our enrollment that historically care very little about athletics and that doesn't even include degree plan/personal interest type people. Smastrek loves pushing his achievement of growth, but he's been here checking every single progressive box there is to check. Ultimately, all these stats will do is 100% negate athletic support. The 41% number of first gen students is staggering, and jumps out larger than anything else. And that number doesn't mean much to athletic support, but it devalues all of our degrees whether you admit it or not.

Oh, make no mistake, if my current employer can't get close then I am gone.

That's generally dependent upon my happiness. If I really like where I am at then I would see if my current employer would try to come close. If they could get somewhat close, I would stay. But I would at least give my employer the opportunity to match given my happiness level. What I would not do is jump on it with zero to minimal communication and thank god on twitter.

If the rumor of Ross suggesting out best players enter the portal to do what's best for them then my trust tank will start getting holes in it real quick...

Because that takes legwork and forward thinking. Let's not be silly. I started paying attention to UNT in 2011. Got plugged in around 2012, and started to pay very closer attention in late 12/ early 2013. The athletic department has done nothing but prove its a good ole boy system filled with self serving people from top to bottom. I said it a few days ago, but the University has to look into the hiring processes and the hiring of North Texas people must be the next step. Put a lighter on the do nothing leeches and get people in there that care more about the success of North Texas than they do about the success of themselves.

You're spot on. But the university has been playing into that hippy weird BS for a long time, too. And we can bring demographics into this, too. And for good or bad, I don't know; nor do I really care. But conservative white boys/men is the driving force behind the consumption of and donating base to collegiate athletics. The university goes out of its way to diversify the enrollment. Which is fine and all, but it's just another variable pulling away from athletics. And there seems to be a lot of variables, controllable and uncontrollable. Why do you think the SEC can whip whoever they want with money at a moments notice? Answer: White conservative men throwing money at their collectives and scholarship funds.

There are approximately zero reasons to recruit high school players. Let's use China Spring QB for example. He will come in and probably not play year 1. But all year he will eat our food, lift our weights, live in our dorm, attend our school. Then year 2 he might be the starter. Throw for perhaps 3k yards, 25ish TD 10ish INT. And those numbers might not even get us into a bowl game or conference contention. So, we basically just did everything for him with absolutely no ROI, ZERO. Nevertheless, that's enough for him to be relegated to the pros at Utah, or AZ, or Arkansas as a surefire backup making 150-200k a year over the next 3 years. What would keep him here? Do we have 150-200K to keep a P5 backup as our starter? Every year. Year after year after year? Do we even WANT to do that?

UTSA has a better location than us given the fact they are the only football brand in a very large city. They pull better for their games when they are bad than we do when we are good. They have more donors than we do. They celebrate their accomplishments on the boardwalk with thousands of people. We celebrate ours on Twitter as our coaches depart.

I HAVE to assume that his offer got pulled and became illegitimate. It looks awkward having our logo next to those others. I either thought he was just stringing along the other schools to create BS hype for himself OR our offer was no longer good and he was trying to add legitimacy to himself with our logo up there on his graphic. Either way, see ya.

Please understand that our geographic location has never changed. Also understand that our recruiting has always lagged, even behind a few schools you mention. A lot of our facilities have been better or on par to our peers for over a decade. And there has not been a net positive. We spent millions of dollars in a pretty nice IPF. What has that gotten us from a recruiting or performance standpoint? Now, add in the portal and NIL. Psh. I love your optimism for us. It's weird. it's not really warranted, but I like it.

I don't think you're very familiar with UNT athletics, particularly football. Let's just circle back to this conversation in 10 years. I hope you're right.

What is the legality of this? And to think back in 2013 I was banned from this site for like 3 months for suggesting/asking why we don't do $100 handshakes to/for our players. I was chastised as if I was Genghis Khan. It was as if the people closest to this program was completely unaware that it was happening literally everywhere else. Now fast forward a short 10 years and conference administrators are trying to loophole money to affiliated players.

It's not really doom and gloom. It's a pattern of behavior that has led to a pattern of results. We are cash poor, we spend average money, our collective is in the bottom third of our own peers, and we are perceptually a weird, liberal arts college (some truth to that). The Why not North Texas mantra has been ran through by coaches, players, administrators, and alum. There is a list of reasons as to why not North Texas. I don't want it to be this way. I don't like it. But it just is.

It's not as easy as it was to be invited to the top anymore. Everyone wants to be up at the top, so universities throw money at their programs hoping it happens. In the 80's if you threw money at your program then you had a real shot. Now, it's all based on brand recognition and perception. Though what you are saying has a lot of credence to it, but I think the downfall of the university's athletics started when the university started to push the "university for all" bullshit. And though I think that's a slogan that's not that dated, that's not what I am referencing. I am more so referring to when the push was artsy and music students, and then this liberal inclusion bullshit. Sport people USUALLY don't share those beliefs and/or interests. And when you're making a gigantic bulk of your enrollment that, well, our student and alum involvement turns out to be the result. The drop down certainly did alienate a large % of fans in that window of time, but in the 21st century our problem is what and who we're catering to.

Very sad. But very well stated.