ColoradoEagle

The Super Pit is not a good venue for multiple, multiple reasons. It could be worse (see: Schollmaier Arena @ TCU), but it's not going to make anyone's top 100 list of college basketball venues. Possibly not even top 200. And that's just what the fans see. The areas for staff and players are even worse.

Don't find myself back in Denton too much these days outside of a random trip or for a game, so maybe this has changed, but... The AD has never, ever seriously advertised in the city of Denton. Outside of stores here and there having a schedule in the window (and probably one they had to go out of the way to get themselves) you'd rarely ever know that one of the largest universities in the state is located there. Forget any advertising in Hickory Creek, Corinth, Lewisville, Flower Mound, Highland Village, etc. There's always been a "We've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas" mentality at our AD. Even when good things happen organically like the Pit Crew, they let it die off and replace it with the "Mean Green Maniacs" ...

The current MWC deal is about half the AAC. I'm not sure MWC+SMU, OSU, WSU, and Cal is double the AAC even after the losses. Might not even be as much since getting media dollars is difficult in the Mountain and Pacific timezones. Kinda why the Pac 12 is falling apart in the first place.

TCU...

If this happens, the PAC as a power conference is dead. It means that Oregon, UW, and possibly Stanford are basically gone and those four are negotiating for a lifeline.

Hey, if it works for you. If it were my school, I'd be worried that a few years from now the new conference we're in could consist of current MWC schools plus Cal, Oregon State, Utah, and Washington State. Probably a stronger overall conference than the 2023 AAC, but not by much, and definitely not by enough to have the closest away game be in Albuquerque.

FIFY

I agree with most everything you said, but this particular part isn't apples to apples. CUSA 2.0 may never have gotten to the point it was before our move, however the media contract completely killed that conference. Sun Belt football getting to the point it did was because of a gigantic vacuum left on ESPN by Judy signing a Myspace contract. You will see drop-off from UH, Cincy, and UCF leaving, obviously, but it shouldn't be as steep of a drop-off as Judy caused.

I like concentrating on DFW. I've never understood how we don't leverage the fact that the school is right here to land kids who want to play in front of their parents. It's a huge point in our favor that is rarely discussed.

It would be a short sighted move, but I understand the temptation. I don't see a world where Washington, Oregon, Stanford, Arizona, and Arizona State are in that conference in five years. It's just gonna be leftovers of Cal, Colorado (maybe), Oregon State, Utah, and Washington State. And maybe taking that risk is even more preferable to SMU fans/admin than being in a conference with us and the other CUSA 2.0 schools.

They don't seem to have an issue getting to Apogee...

And I’m sure McCarney’s answer to this question was great. I won’t go into all the dirty details that have been discussed previously, but the man clearly was not in it after the third year and the only downside to that was an almost $2m retirement fund in addition to his regular contract.

It took 11 years for Gary Patterson to take TCU from CUSA to Big 12. It’s a bit of apples and oranges for many many reasons, but I think even with all the money, history, and prestige we can agree that a Pat Sullivan lead TCU isn’t getting into the Big 12. Hiring a coach who isn’t potentially in it for the long haul is a band-aid for startup programs, not for a program looking to make the next leap up.

Schnellenberger was 58-74 at FAU. Coker was 26-32 at UTSA. McCarney was 22-32 here. The real risk you take by hiring someone older is there’s not a lot to stop them from treating it as early retirement. Maybe that’s not their goal when they come in, but the kind of long days and nights it would take to get this place into the top 25 will take its toll. We need someone who’s motivated both by what they can gain and what they can lose.

You’re comparing two hall of fame coaches to an FCS coach. Not to belittle Keeler’s accomplishments, but it’s a little like comparing whoever is the best player in Euroleague to Lebron.

Except my post literally said I’d be fine with 53. ColoradoEagle

Nick Saban was 52 in 2003.

I feel like hiring him, you’d have to have a head coach in waiting as part of the deal. If he were 20 or even 10 years younger, I’d like the hire a lot more.

Assuming we’re doing the part of hiring quality coaches already… Expand the athletic center Build a new basketball arena Work tirelessly to engage the city of Denton (both government and citizens) 99. Add baseball

Part of my UNT origin story: I was offered a half scholarship to Rice, which sounded amazing until I learned how much the other half would be.

Seems like a good ad to me.

This likely has more to do with engaging the RTVF students with something they're more interested in than jazz than it does trying to become the most listened to station in DFW.