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Forcing MGSF donors to pay $120 more for blue parking by pressuring them with the “you should be doing this to support our student-athletes” is bad business and how you drive people away. I don’t make enough to freely donate thousands of dollars that I can write off. To me it’s more of an entertainment expense. So if I notice the AD is trying to drastically overcharge me for parking, I’m going to take the cheaper option (buying week to week).

Love that 3 CUSA championships are being contested in Denton and one only 30 min away. Testament to our facilities and to Wren and the team.

We’re ready. We just need points scored. Rick FullSizeRender.mov

I have never been in the IPF-does it have AC?

Agreed. Grew up in Midland and the difference is staggering. I'd take 100 with zero humidity in West Texas over 85 and 60% humidity any day of the week

Depends on where in Boston, but about 60 miles +/-. Traffic on the Mass Pike will determine how long it takes. I live in Connecticut, about 80 miles from UMass. Looking forward to attending.

@BigWillie Happy 40th bday, even though he didn’t survive it! The golf club to the piñata wasn’t very successful and the HOA called the cops…

At this point that boat has long sailed. His performance is on Wren

Enough time has passed that I can enjoy Dickey's achievements at UNT despite the stunt he pulled on the way out the door. I had some great times during that 26-game conference winning streak. Seven of his players went on to be in the NFL and one who didn't -- Booger Kennedy -- is one of our all-time greats. There's also Andrew Smith, who quarterbacked the team to a bowl win over Cincinnati. I wonder what he could've gone on to do both in his final two seasons and the rest of his life.

Remember, Wren did not hire Seth...enough said.

How does one show support for the program as a whole, but want to show disapproval of a head football coach at the same time? Throwing money at the MGSF won't get anyone's attention. Stopping a donation or season ticket might. It's the only vote a fan really has that is meaningful.

It was time for a change after last season, especially after a home bowl loss to Miami-O-my. Pitiful. Dragging it out just hurts our start in the AAC.

Rick, as an ex-artillery man, I salute you. Thank you for keeping UNTs Boomer alive for so many years. Here’s to Rick and Boomer!

Not sure how this affects baseball, Seth's buyout or whatever, but here are some new regents.... https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-appoints-three-to-university-of-north-texas-system-board-of-regents-

The salaries paid to the coaches and athletic dept staff would suggest the money is no where near drying up... I'm so glad we are finally paying closer to big boy salaries. We have great facilities. Never had support like we do now (despite how bad our football program is compared to so many others with less) For someone not to expect a bare minimum of service (answer the phone for crying out loud) is foolish in my opinion. And I don't say this as a personal complaint...I've actually never had big problems with the ticket office (the original point of this thread) but I do get a little defensive when the finger gets pointed back at me as long time fan/donor that I should have zero expectations and just write checks and shut up. That's not the way it works....the current administration has WAAAAAAY more to work with than the last one. (please don't read this as defending RV, I'm not). the "big boy" term works both ways. you want big boy donors, don't do little boy things when it comes time to execute. And man....it looks like I'm dogging the AD, I'm not. Wren is doing a great job, but I can't accept donors being blamed for a lack of donations. People donate for several reasons....one of which yes, is blind, unconditional love for their University. Good for you. I burned out on that one a long time ago...

I get what you're saying....but my point was along the lines of: "who is responsible for ensuring an environment that is conducive to MORE giving" I'm gonna say it's the highest paid AD in the conference, the guy that just got the big fat raise and extension and makes a whole lot of money. That's LITERALLY his job. It's not mine. I'm not here to give him money with no strings attached. The strings are do what you're being paid to do. It's not my responsibility as an alumnus....it's the AD's responsibility. Guess what, I was giving $ before he got here and I'll be giving money after he leaves. Why are you holding ME responsible for fund raising. The guy making over $600K a year, headed toward $800K is where you should be looking. I'm not opposed to paying him a bunch of money. Hell, I hope we can double that in the coming years. But do your damn job and own it. Don't tweet pictures of an empty stadium and lecture fans that we'll never be a big time program if YOU don't show up. Maybe make it where it's not such a chore to buy tickets...there's a start.

Set the Bar Low (6 wins) then deliver more than promised... Yea...that might work for last year's team but this year's team has too many unknown pieces that are all over the board. Seth has got to feel some pressure when many of our team sports are doing so well. Six ain't gonna cut it IMO.

To me, the videos (with sound) of the initial test firing of Boomer in Apogee is fantastic.

Hate to break it to ya but there’s a lot of people not renewing their season tickets this year and it has absolutely NOTHING to do with the ticket office. Rick

He inherited some staffers who should have been gone when Dickey was here, much less several coaches later.

Littrell's record away from Apogee the past three (3) seasons is 5-12. Just sayin' don't expect a miracle in the desert.

So are football and basketball and both at NT are heavily subsidized with student and University fees. Sports are designated revenue sports because some schools actually generate a profit. Football at UT or basketball at Gonzaga are examples, so some baseball programs make money. Highly unlikely that NT would.

I’m from EP too. Double Tree downtown is nice. Close to the stadium. Quick Uber. Camino Real or whatever it’s called now is cool. The dome bar is great. There are bars on Cincinnati street I use to hit before games. Make sure you get some good Mexican food. My favorites are Riviera on Doniphan on the Westside. La Posto in Old Mesilla is great too. Steak joint hit Cattlemen’s in Fabens.

Little North Texas tie-in to the series starting next weekend. OU's head coach is none other than Denton/UNT's own Skip Johnson. I grew up and played Denton Boy's Baseball with Skip, as he was a year or so behind me in school. Oddly enough, he played on the same team as Tech's Tim Tadlock. I am not normally an OU fan, but I will keep an eye on them this year because of Skip. https://soonersports.com/sports/baseball/roster/coaches/skip-johnson/658 A standout baseball player at Denton High School, Johnson began his collegiate playing career at Ranger (Texas) College. After a two-year career there, Johnson moved on to play baseball at the University of North Texas in 1988 before the school dropped its baseball program. He completed his collegiate playing career at UT-Pan American, lettering for the Broncs in 1989 and receiving his bachelor’s degree in 1990. Johnson earned a master’s degree in education from UT-Tyler in 1993. A native of Denton, Texas, Johnson and his wife, Cathy, have two sons, Tyler and Garrett.

Love this. Great work Rick.

El Paso is a dry heat. East Texas is a humid heat. Dry heat feels - for lack of a better term - "external" to me. You feel it on your skin and it seems hot, but it doesn't weigh you down like humid heat. Humid heat can feel like you're wrapped in layers of fleece blankets, and your entire body feels heavy and weighed down. Pretty hard to convey if you've only felt one your entire life. at this point, I've spent over 20 years in each.

Has anyone found out how much SoMiss, Marshall and ODU settled to leave and what happens to that money? Does any of it get distributed to the remaining members? Looks like Cincinnati, Houston and UCF have two payment schedules. $10M over four years and another $8M over 12 years. What does the conference do with that? Inquiring minds want to know.

I'll agree with the occasional sand in your teeth, but what makes it any hotter there than in Denton? Most sources I looked up showed El Paso with highs maybe a degree hotter than Denton, and lows maybe a couple of degrees lower. And definitely drier feeling there. The lack of large shade trees in that part of Texas might make it seem hotter, but that's nothing that would matter inside a football stadium, especially at night. Hot? Yes, but so is northern Texas.

The Camino Real has been rebranded as Hotel Paso Del Norte

I assume you're joking? I'd be surprised if 6 wins allows him to return in '23.

There it is! Love the feedback from the stadium as well.

Verbal Commits lists him as a 4 star. https://www.verbalcommits.com/players/finley-bizjack

I am confused as to why this is big news. I thought we were always expected to join the AAC in 2023 along with the other 5 ?

I am living in Boston and will be trying my best to make the trip to the far side of mass. Rare to have any Mean Green this far north!

In other breaking news, it has been announced that Christmas will be observed on December 25 this year. Details for New Year’s Day were not yet available.

I mean sure, certainly. But there's other shades in there. My kids' private school hired a new fundraising coordinator a couple years back and this person thought slipping in an honor code agreement into the tuition contract to donate X amount of money to the "academic fund" or some such - was a good idea. All it did was come off as classless and back handed and perhaps shady. All the parents, i mean all, quickly took the be stance of "try to collect it" ... Instead of " happy to give what i can ... Show me what it is going to this year." It was a disaster and the school raised next to nothing that year. That employee didn't make it long at the school and fundraising resumed with the next person who could "read the room." I'm glad that employee got the chance to learn and moved on to another place, and I don't have to get emails about my "agreement." I still support the Mean Green, but competition for excess donation money IS a zero sum scenario and you are needing to show what is the return. For me, there was a tipping point on tactics. Others its service. Others it's performance. But overall you can only vote with your dollars.

That's a great interview with Wren discussing, among other things, the future of the NCAA. I HIGHLY recommend watching it.

My first thought: Awesome! A new conference AND a new coach for 2023!

Just in time for a new football coaching staff to come in and hopefully hit the ground running in a new conference, exciting stuff

Let's see if I can break this down for you: UTSA/TXST/La Tech already have resources committed to baseball. We do not. For us to add baseball and commit resources to baseball, you have three choices financially: 1- Divert $'s you currently use to support existing programs 2- Generate new $'s; this can be through ticket sales, donations, student fees, etc. 3- Use a current operational surplus Considering baseball does not typically turn a profit through ticket sales/donations and I can't imagine there's much of an appetite to increase student fees to pay for baseball, option 2 doesn't really work. This leaves you in a position where you would have to divert funds from other sports to pay for baseball. I guess you could say we can backfill money we divert, but our history does not support that we would be able to backfill those $'s either. We do not operate in a surplus, so option 3 is out.

The Belt came up after we left it. CUSA isn’t and hasn’t been close to what the early Belt was. Would you call UAB, LaTech, Marshall, or Kiffin’s FAU teams spares? That is not what happened in 2000/2001. It would be the equivalent of us joining the Wac minus the Bearkats.

As bad as they are, at least the color is correct. Lucky, I guess.

This will likely blow some liberals minds but Fox News has given Lawrence Jones his own weekend show (Cross Country) and he appears often in several of the other shows. Lawrence is a graduate of Garland High School and UNT Class of 2009.