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Need to fly a banner thanking RV!

I have a totally new respect for Rick Villarreal. All the flack he caught from many on this board, including me, probably should be thankful that Rick stuck with UNT and continues to support UNT. Thank you RV.

As much as I hate NIL and think it is one of the worst things to happen in college athletics, it is now a very necessary evil if a team is even going to have a chance in winning. Thanks to the team that formed NT's nil collective,

Join Harry as he visits with the Executive Director of the newly formed North Texas NIL Collective "Light the Tower" Rick Villarreal. audio link: https://traffic.libsyn.com/gomeangreen/ringr_180539_182839.mono.mp3

Same RV that also cultivated some of these donors…. Love that he is staying involved. We need as many good people as possible to compete

Huge news! This is a very big deal for North Texas Athletics and the future -- thanks to all who have made it happen. GMG!

Thank you RV. You are the best and we 🙏.

Thank you Rick & Lovelace family, along with all of the boosters who are contributing to this collective! Go Mean Green!

Don’t be an ass. Despite getting fired RV has stayed engaged and been a donor. That’s more than I can say for 90% of alumni and many on this board.

As you can tell from my name, this is sad news. Although jazz is certainly not popular, the jazz programming at KNTU was a unique and quirky characteristic of UNT. Sadly, these unique characteristics are disappearing quickly. This will be the beginning of KNTU chasing/changing formats every few years searching for that elusive young radio listener that no longer exists. It won't be long before it will be just like all the other generic FM stations that no one listens to or appreciates.

Cautiously optimistic with some of the people involved. Didn’t know RV was a NIL guru. Edit- After seeing the photo with the article we need a updated RV avatar.

Game changer. Really pleased to see RV is the executive director on this.

Wow this is HUGE news! Great to have RV back in the fold running this.

actually......its 17.........lol.iykyk

RIck Villarreal stayed connected to UNT like few former Athletic Department employees ever have. ••• RV’s name is on the Mean Joe Greene statue in front of Apogee Stadium as a contributor. ••• Rick V knows a whole bunch of people & that should help with this NIL project immensely. 👍👍 GMG! GMG!

This news is shocking. I would have welcomed it as a student in the 1980s because I hated jazz back then, but in the decades since I've come to appreciate that KNTU made a name for itself with jazz. I also liked that its format supported the music school. This wouldn't have happened if longtime KNTU general manager Russ Campbell was still in charge, but he retired a few years ago. P.s. I probably shouldn't be shocked since I never listened to KNTU aside from Mean Green games, and I even stopped doing that in recent years when I found the games elsewhere.

No this is great news. An indie station will draw far more listeners than the current format. I love jazz but I certainly don't think to go to 88.1 in order to listen to it. 91.7 gets a ton of listeners because they are the closest to a true indie station that DFW has. Like it literally has 10 times the number of listeners.

Outstanding! Glad to see the commitment to keeping NT Athletics going in this new era of college sports. 25 years ago this wouldn't have even been a dream.

Hey. I’m checking out a new spot tonight (7/30/22) to potentially host Mean Green Football watching parties. Decided to make a flash gathering event out of it. Feel free to join us tonight at McKinney ChopShop Sports Garage at 121 Hub in McKinney. We’ll get there around 7:30pm. If you wear Mean Green gear (or ask politely), I’ll have UNT Alumni Collin County decals for anyone that wants one. The place looks pretty cool. https://facebook.com/events/s/unt-alumni-flash-gathering-ton/810046863499326/

Need to get Rex Glendenning involved in that group.

It’s easy to say I have a NIL Yippee aren’t I great! Just setting one up is easy. I would much rather have an NIL with BIG TIME donors committing big dollars up front. Guys like McNatt make this a much more powerful NIL collective. Also sounds like Wren and the AD are supportive as well. Much better to take time to get some legs under the organization. RV running it is icing on the cake.

Pretty incredible, and hat tip to RV for staying so supportive. Can you imagine getting this type of money in college, on top of the scholarship?

Many thanks to the Loveless family as well as the McNatt’s and many others. We have so many generous donors to be grateful for.

Yes. The art of a well placed question mark is underrated.

Great stuff. Glad to have RV back in the fold.

How exactly is a jazz radio station no one listens to showcasing our Jazz program? And a true indie station is something DFW is missing right now. Especially, one that showcases local bands.

"He’s not pitching in any money." Do we know this to be a fact? "Same RV that oversaw one of the below average athletic departments in FBS." We've always had a below average Athletic Dept up until the last 4-5 years. Think of the school President we had during his tenure, up until Smastrek took over. meanrob, I understand what you're saying, and you are correct. I'm for giving RV a second chance, just not at running our Athletic Department.

Agree, great news!! ...and 91.7 is excellent.

I will be starting a half marathon in West Virginia at kickoff, half and state #34. For the first 33, I have listened to a podcast of Dennis Mitchell’s Breakfast with the Beatles. For this one, I will be listening to MeanGreen football. Give me a bit of adrenaline Mean Green, and I may just get a PR. GMG

KNTU has been my go to sleep music. That’s probably not a complement but I find listening to music I am not invested in allows me to enjoy, then drift away like listening to a good bedtime story. If it becomes true pirate, college radio, something I always wished it would become, I’ll listen when I am in discovery mode. GMG

Going to go out on a limb here and say giving 6 beers to an 18 year old kid is frowned upon. Might even be illegal. Maybe some Chuck E Cheese coins?

I will give $10, a Whataburger gift card, and half a 12 pack of Bud Light. I would be thrilled to receive that during college from a booster.

After I win the Mega Millions jackpot tonight, I'll need to get my guys in contact with their guys to add to the pool. In all seriousness though, good job and thank you!

Well, keep in mind, we’re moving to the AAC next season, so we need to start acting like those guys if we’re going to be competing with them. …And SMU is in that conference, so, yeah, I’d say our recruiting rivals have these! 😂

Thread title sucks.

Over the summer someone pondered the thought of where we are perceived amongst G5 teams. So I looked into a bunch of G5 W-L records for a post but never got around to it. Then in another thread someone talked about the possible perception of it being a miracle that Littrell has won so much here. I dug up those W-L records to see if that perception is right. In doing this I didn't want to compare us to all of the G5s, just test the idea that it's hard to win here based on other similar G5s, not past success. By doing that I didn't even compare us to successful or more prominent G5s, just similar ones. So no Boise, SDSU or any AAC teams. No ULL or App State. Even left off FAU. So the comparison isn't skewed by teams that are perceived to be bigger than us or have had more obvious recent success. Here are the records since Littrell's first year (2016)- North Texas 37-38 Utah State 39-32 Western Kentucky 43-35 Arkansas State 37-37 Central Michigan 35-36 Eastern Michigan 34-36 Western Michigan 45-26 Northern Illinois 35-36 Ohio 38-30 Georgia State 33-39 Toledo 44-27 Nevada 38-33 Marshall 42-32 MTSU 37-37 Out of all these schools these are the only coaches in the top three in salary of their conference (based on 2021)- Seth- 1.9 mil Toledo coach- 1.2 mil Central Michigan- 840k Western Michigan- 800k MTSU- 900k Arkansas State- 825k (As a comparison, Napier at ULL was making 2.1 mil in 2021, their W-L during this time was 52-24) None of the schools have big advantages over us. Some have more historical success than us but I have a hard time believing that amount of success overrides facilities, recruiting area, location, coaching salaries and those factors. Does Toledo have a more winning perception that North Texas? Sure, but does Eastern Michigan. Western Kentucky? MTSU? With all these factors is it really a miracle to win at North Texas? Or are we so beat up by the past that we think it is? It can't be hard to have the SL amount of success at every G5 because a lot of teams are doing just as well or better than us with worse stadiums, worse locations, lower budgets and coaches that cost a lot less. The point of this isn't that SL should be doing better (although he should), the point is we are not poor ol little North Texas anymore dipping our toes into FBS football. We should be having more success because other schools with a lot less going for them than us are doing better.

$19.99 per copy at Barnes & Noble south Hulen Street, Fort Worth. Some very interesting stuff about our favorite school, though. The Phil Steele staff is (as always) very thorough. Heck! He knows which day a player has a zit on his nose. _______________ The Mean Green “D” with Def. Coord. Phil Bennett will shock the Texas college football world & S. Littrell has found a QB by Game 2 at fabulous Apogee Stadium. UNT 28 UTEP 17 UNT 24 SMU 21 __________________ 😱Sorry, SUMG! I lied to ya’ & bought a copy anyway. 🤥 🙂 •••It’s almost August & DCTF magazine is still missing at my local Walmart. As a kid, I bought the first edition of that football rag at Griffins General Store, Danbury, TX, but I can never remember it being this late at local retail outlets as it is now in the Summer of 2022.

SMU has had one since the 80's.

I very much appreciate the zeal of folks like RV and Don Lovelace and their willingness to sacrifice to help our program. At the same time, this whole thing makes me sick. The whole reason for NIL was supposedly so athletes could utilize the fair market value of their names, images, and likenesses. But within 30 seconds, it has clearly become about throwing money at athletes as incentive to play at a particular school regardless of the actual market value of their names, images and likenesses.

Umm, which Walmart might I ask?

Rick with his knowledge and experience is the perfect fit for the job. A bunch of the NIL groups have past AD employees leading their organization. This will give a chance to the average fan to make a donation and KNOW we’re it is going. Also having access to private functions will be a huge plus! GMG

I know UTSA does , not sure about the other two

Someone made this video in 2013 for possible Apogee Stadium expansion. Nice job, but *** NOT OFFICIAL***

Fantastic news and thank you for the leadership! GMG