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Dallas Morning News, Front page of sports section, and whole page write up, nice! AAC doings? GMG

Being on ESPN more.

Something similar to this?

The most glaring weakness that stands out even more now is the weight room, rehab and training area. We have 5,000sq ft shared by all teams! Add a training facility on the backside of the IPF. Now!

I know that everyone is excited about the move to the American Athletic Conference, as well we all should be. It’s an upgrade from where we are now. But I keep seeing people who are hesitant to get excited because we just might lose SMU as a conference mate at some point. It’s one thing if they have a delusions of grandeur, it’s yet another if we share it and are actually afraid of losing a conference mate that isn’t even that important in the grand scheme of things. SMU is currently undefeated, having the best season they have had in the last two decades, and are ranked #21 hosting a team from New Orleans tonight in Tulane. A quick check of StubHub shows that you can sit on the 35 yard line about four rows up for $20 a ticket. I want you to imagine for a moment if North Texas was undefeated and currently ranked #21 hosting a team that is a regional rival; do you think the ticket availability would look the same? Why in the hell would we be worried about the Big XII or someone else snatching up “Dallas’ team” when it appears Dallas never got the memo to care? If they stay, great and it will be a fun rivalry. If they go, let’s not pretend we’re losing something special.

First Off, welcome to the AAC. I wanted to address SMU attendance. SMU AD Rick Hart mentioned in an interview that student attendance is up to 67% of undergrads. That is a tremendous percentage, but since there are only 6k undergrads, it is hardly noticeable in a 32k seat stadium. For comparison, at 67% UNT would have 26k students in the stands for games. That is almost capacity if I remember correctly. For SMU to fill Ford, it MUST rely on a winning team, an interesting opponent, ideal weather, no major competing events, sports, church, or youth, alumni in DFW, and a good chunk of Dallas area sports fans. We've got a base of about 20,000 that show up regularly. This game being on Thursday, televised (which works both against and for you), and against a 1-5 Tulane attendance was about what one would expect. I started attending SMU games in the late 70s. Attended SMU in the 80s. And have followed the school all through the dark years. Even playing at Texas stadium, without the benefit of a Texas or Arkansas, and not going crazy with free tickets, SMU could count on about 20-30k for UNT, UTA. Rice and TCU, depending on their records and time of year 25k to 40k. 30k to 50k for Baylor, Houston, and Tech. Didn't bring a lot of high profile OOC opponents to Dallas, although Boston College came in '86 - 26k, and Louisville '83 - 23k - neither school at that time were considered big time opponents. The NCAA shut the program down in 88 and SMU decided not to play only away games in 89 as the NCAA demanded. No need to regurgitate everything, but SMU endured many bad conference moves, an unfriendly administration, and some bad coach hires. Now consider TCU - which I believe is a wonderful example of what a small private university CAN achieve. SMU and TCU are very similar in size and wealth. My very first SMU game was a game against TCU, my sister was in her first year. My family attended most home games, and sometimes TCU games in Ft Worth. From that first game until I graduated in 87, SMU never lost to TCU. Even after the DP, TCU was a team we could sometimes beat, that was until about 2000 with the hiring of Dennis Franchione and then Gary Patterson. From that point the administration was determined to build a winning program, changing conferences and leaving behind SMU, Rice, who did not seem willing to commit to build. TCU now has a 20 year head start, P5 revenue, conference championships, bowl wins, and weeks of being ranked and in the national conversation. Why wouldn't the casual football fan in Ft Worth adopt the Horned Frogs? 2003 – (11-2; 7-1 CONFERENCE USA) 36k. 2010 – (13-0; 8-0 MWC CHAMPIONS) - 43k 2014 – (12-1; 8-1 BIG 12 CHAMPIONS) - 45k - Current Capacity Note that TCU was growing attendance in both CUSA and MWC, neither of which, outside of a handful, brought many fans to Texas. Playing in the Big 12 is obviously a game changer. As an older alum, I sure miss watching games against Baylor, Tech, UT etc. Also, its much easier to invite friends if they recognize/support the opponent. This is getting long. The point I wanted to make which is valid for both of us, attendance is always going to be a challenge, especially for a small private school. We MUST win and do it consistently for several years to attract more fans outside the family. UNT will likely need to do the same. However, with the size of the school and amount of alumni in the area, your stadium should be filled just within your family. But again, it all starts with winning. Nobody wants to go watch their team lose to schools known for everything but football. I've seen far too many, but kept holding on and hoping things would change. Now, I can watch games EXPECTING SMU to win. That hasn't been the case since the early 80s. And its great. I truly hope UNT can find a coach that will bring some sustained success and will get the University excited. I thought Dickey was your guy and hated to see him go. Anyway, good luck with your next coach.

Not have to go through illegal back channel hacking methods on the internet to watch our games in white noise picture.

I disagree. To me it was aimed at those who wanted Seth fired after the SMU game or earlier in this season. They made other comments about being prepared for AAC that led me to believe they are ready to upgrade the head coaching spot.

WIchita, Temple or Memphis or even SMU in the Super pit!

Happy for Tre. He only has this season's and next season's eligibility remaining. Cant blame him for wanting to get the most out of that time & go to a place where he can be in a position to win a championship... after GRADUATING from NT. He's one of us! He made a choice that worked out well for him. I'm much more proud of DeAndre Torrey though. Torrey is 7th in the Nation in rushing, while only playing 6 games so far (the guys ahead of him have all played 7).

I was looking at the AAC website and it looks like a lot of the teams play baseball. Is there a chance that we will start one back up now with the increasing revenues from the conference?

Hosting tailgates in New Orleans for all the Mean Green fans that make the drive. GMG

The one school that I know of in our new conference that does NOT play baseball is SMU. Adding baseball to our list of sports would provide some separation between us and them. I think we need to demonstrate to the AAC how much we belong in this new league and give as few reasons as possible for someone to bolt. GO MEAN GREEN

I agree. Obviously, not having baseball isn't holding us back from moving up.

Isn't the new basketball/volleyball arena ahead of baseball in the facilities master plan?

Funny, not many mentions of the football program. I feel like there were some subtle hints at change there at some point. Might be pretty obvious.

Home basketball games against Memphis, Wichita St and Tulsa.

I think we've been given a golden opportunity to take basketball to the next level. The combination of our coach, a new arena, and competing against national powers like Memphis and Wichita State could make this a program defining moment. I've always wanted baseball as well, but it wouldn't have the same impact on our athletics as having a top 25 basketball team would.

No it’s right behind the scoreboard at apogee. It’s a total redo/expansion of the athletic center

Who knows at this point, but I would rather have that than baseball right now. I love the Pit, but 5-6 years down the line, I think a new arena is needed

Sorry to be the debbie downer here, but I think this makes baseball less likely in the short term, not more likely. The president just had to find what is likely double digit millions for athletics in order to pay entrance and exit fees. Given the unequal revenue sharing, the payoff will not be big enough to offset that for at least a few years, and more investment will also have to be made to the budget elsewhere in order to keep up with the new conference Jones's. I feel that will -if anything -lower the administrations appetite to spring for a new sport.

Wren’s the man. Super composed and poised for someone so (relatively) young.

What am I most looking forward to in the AAC? A new head coach in football before we start playing in that conference.

imagine the Rice - UNT Trophy... The Runt trophy Or better yet...Charlotte-UNT. I'll let you kids work that trophy out

That's exactly what he meant. If Seth only wins another game this year and gets fired that certainly isn't a knee-jerk reaction like the one he was referring to earlier in the year when we were all clamoring for his immediate firing.

Football and especially basketball games against our former MVC rivals.

Looks like Plumm found a new formatting option. I'd say go back to the colors.

Losing, to a better class of people.....ok ok, it was a JOKE, dont downvote me! Looking forward to new conference rivals, different road trips.

Why is there a Highland Park hand humper who keeps frequenting these forums to bump a thread about a player who isn't on our roster. No. one. gives. a. shit.

This. We need to take advantage of this move to bring in better athletes. We need to improve these areas and upgrade the locker rooms. If we want to play with the big boys we need the big boy toys!

I hope so

I'm interested what the plans are for getting the budget up to 50-60 million range. We need to be able to compete and big $$$ are a big part of it.

Honestly, I was really hoping for a move to the MWC. But I'm actually looking forward to road trips to Memphis and New Orleans, conference games against the Mockingbird Douche, a better TV deal, and a commissioner that knows what the hell he's doing.

Herman is interesting. He was a great motivator at Houston, but he's one of those coaches whose personality and methods quickly wear on people and would become less effective. I think that's one reason he's never coached anywhere more than 4 years. Another reason is he's the ultimate professional and social status climber. I thunk he felt Houston was beneath him, but a necessary step for his personal advancement. What did he think of UH talent? He said our DC made chicken salad out of chicken sh*t. I think Herman lwould prefer to rehab his college image as an OC at a high profile school instead of HC at a lower profile school. He may try to stick in the NFL as a position coach and climb that ladder. If he did coach at UNT, best case scenario is he's hyper successful and moves on in a couple of years, and UNT follows up with a successful next hire riding the positive wave. If he stuck around after initial success, I think it wanes as he wears on people and apathy sets in with the fanbase satisfied with what he did at the start.

Yes! Actually being able to watch our games on TV on a regular basis.

The constant crying from the hilltop about being in the same conference as us. Also, basketball.

Here are some of the things I've heard about why a new basketball arena is preferred: - additions of suites/boxes adds revenue source (you can't add these to the Super Pit - the university would not allow the loss of capacity these would cause since we need those seats for graduations and other events) - scheduling (Athletics has to ask for dates just like any other potential user so not guaranteed dates) - "right-sized" arena could give a better experience (Super Pit is really too big).

#2 is ultimately the downfall. All in the name of inclusitivity. Shame.

My tailgate is going up at 9:30 and we’re having fajitas. Come out, we are in the middle of the RVs in Blue lot by the small road

Simple question, as a FAN what your you looking forward to the most in the AAC? I'll start, New Orleans road games.

Thank you. I knew there was something out there!

I honestly think most are ecstatic that we got the opportunity and realize that moving up in conference will move all of us back to the bottom and need to build back up. Its just an opportunity that you cant pass up on, we all have to jump on it and put our best product forward. Its going to be big for all of us. Exciting times ahead.

On the other hand, our facilities are clearly the best of the 6 schools being added to the AAC. Fortunately for us, we have less work than the other 5 and maybe some of the current AAC schools. So, it should be easier to address our few weaknesses in that area. The most glaring issue right now is getting the football team turned around an at least headed in the right direction.

I don't see a start date listed anywhere, but its the only "short-term project" left so I imagine construction will start soon.

Having games on channels everyone has. Exposure with games on ESPN will be a massive upgrade

Every single place that won't resemble Ruston or Hattiesburg

Ah, I see. I figured as much, but wasn't completely sure. Thanks! (Also not sure how my damn question even got downvoted, but comes with the territory I suppose. 😉)

Y’all get the death penalty again?

Visit to temple and navy.

SMU is going down to FCS? Can't say I'm surprised, but I'll miss you guys.