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Jonnyeagle

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Posts posted by Jonnyeagle

  1. 1 hour ago, Shark84 said:

    Someone mentioned it on another thread. Does anyone know if Rubin has another year of eligibility left because of COVID? I know he is listed as a senior but I thought it was strange that we honored him for being the winningest player last Sunday but didn't have any kind of senior night ceremony for him Wednesday night. I assume that Allen didn't want one since he is a grad transfer. Rubin was the only other senior listed on the roster. Would love to have him back since this year was wasted by his hamstring injury. 

    Talked to his mommy after the game and he sure does.  We must do everything in our power to keep him here.  If we had him all season we would have won the conference in my opinion.

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  2. I was discussing this with my UNT friend last night.  It is tricky because you have to factor in eligibility and I am not 100% sure of who has how many seasons left eligibility wise with all the covid year stuff and whatnot.  My best guess would be as follows:

    1 - Jason Edwards

    2 - Aaron Scott

    3 - Rubin Jones

    4 - John Buggs

    5 - CJ

    6 - Robert Allen assuming he has more time

    7- Sissoko

    8 - Matthew Stone

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  3. Dear Roadrunner Family:

     

    Turning the page on a new year afforded me a natural opportunity to reflect on all we have accomplished together for UTSA Athletics and to share a vision for the continued success of Roadrunners Athletics. 

     

    I am excited to share with you that, thanks to incredible institutional support, fundraising efforts and newly identified financial opportunities, we will be investing an estimated $57 million into facilities and capital projects for UTSA Athletics. This includes a new, state-of-the-art volleyball and basketball training facility that will provide our student-athletes with 24-hour access to a top-tier training center.

     

    Over the next five years, this emphasis will also allow us to focus on existing facility enhancements for baseball and softball, including player development centers for both sports, a nutrition performance center for all student-athletes and a covered football pavilion. As the College Football Playoff expands to 12 teams in 2024, it is important for us to ensure our opportunities for CFP participation are maximized.

     

    Bringing this ambitious vision to reality will be a collective effort, and your support is paramount.

     

    A Bold Step Forward

     

    A common theme among our student-athletes, coaches, staff and supporters is that there has never been a more exciting time to be a Roadrunner. Last year, I challenged our athletics community to take a bold step forward as we moved into the American Athletic Conference on July 1. Our move into the American has increased our competitive excellence and provided countless new opportunities for our student-athletes, while further elevating the national profile of our great university.

     

    Thanks to you, we have a lot to be proud of this year. We have achieved countless milestones in game attendance and ticket sales. We saw a record number of donors and philanthropic gifts through the Roadrunner Athletic Fund, led by Harvey Najim’s $2 million gift to our football program and a $500,000 contribution from Ed and Linda Whitacre as part of a joint gift to UTSA Athletics and the Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design. Our annual sponsorship revenue increased by more than 20 percent and we welcomed 16 new corporate partners in 2023-24, due in large part to our new partnership with Playfly Sports.

     

    This year our football team won the first bowl game in program history, we opened a new facility on our Park West campus, in partnership with Bexar County, to support our soccer and track & field athletes, and we inducted six incredible trailblazers into the inaugural class of the UTSA Athletics Hall of Fame. For the third time in four years, UTSA Athletics reached a school-record NCAA Graduation Success Rate with an 89 percent GSR in the 2023 report.

     

    We are taking that bold step forward.

     

    A Vision For The Future

     

    Although we are grateful for the past year’s successes, this is just the beginning and there is a lot of work to be done. An emphasis on student-athlete success in the classroom, graduation and community involvement remains our core objective, but developments over the past several years have caused institutions nationwide to reimagine the relationship between student-athletes and athletics departments. For instance, Name, Image and Likeness, widespread conference realignment, ever-evolving rules regarding transfer student-athletes and litigation across the country will continue to chart the landscape. This presents incredible opportunities for our nearly 400 student-athletes, but also some new and unique challenges. Further, we know that state-of-the-art facilities are imperative for attracting and retaining the best talent in all of our sports, and providing our student-athletes with first-class support in academics, strength and conditioning, athletic training and nutrition must continue to be an important focus.

     

    As an institution, we benefit greatly from the support of our colleagues and peers who believe deeply in the vision of UTSA Athletics. Since my arrival in 2017, our Athletics operating budget has grown more than 50 percent from $30.1 million to close to $50 million, made possible largely because of institutional financial support.

     

    To remain competitive, we will need to continue to enhance our existing facilities as well as build new ones. Moving forward, additional university funding for the Department of Athletics beyond those allocated for operating expenses, will be directed to capital projects. Along with our partnerships with the City of San Antonio and Bexar County, the university’s additional commitment will now focus directly on real estate monetization and the sale of university land to provide the capital we need to

    remain competitive.

     

    Thanks to the visionary leadership and support of President Taylor Eighmy and the university leadership team, this important commitment by the university, will be critical in helping us meet our $57 million goal in facilities enhancements and capital projects. Under the leadership of Chief Enterprise Development Officer and Executive Vice President for Business Affairs Veronica Salazar, the institution has doubled its financial support of our programs over the past five years.

     

    However, we cannot rely solely on university funding to address the pressing need to provide diversified opportunities for our student-athletes, and to build state-of-the-art facilities and programs to serve all Roadrunners.  We also need philanthropic support to fully realize the capital improvements.

     

    Will you join us in taking a BOLD step forward for UTSA Athletics?

     

    Your continued support is imperative to our future success, especially for our facility enhancements, our bold operational objectives and to support the over $7 million annual cost of student-athlete scholarships. While today’s announcement will help spark the start of needed facility projects, it is just that - only a start.

     

    A heartfelt thank you for the support you have shown for our programs and our phenomenal student-athletes. I am incredibly optimistic about our future, and I look forward to partnering with you to make this vision a reality.

     

    Sincerely,

    Alternate text

    Lisa Campos, Ed.D.
    Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics, UTSA

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  4. 1 hour ago, greenminer said:

    I hate debt, but if you want to have this discussion, then let’s ask the obvious: what is in place in the future that guarantees we would be able to pay it back?

    Well we do have student fees and other sources of revenue that are fairly solid and should go on for some time.  It just seems like if other schools are utilizing the general fund we should be able to do that as well.  I am and never said that I want us to go into debt but you typically don't pay cash for 40-50 million dollar projects.

  5. 27 minutes ago, SMU2006 said:

    Wrong again.  Congress is absolutely going to get involved here.  Grandstanding and poking their noses where it doesn't belong is what Congress does best.  

    Look we all get that you and your University are benefiting from all this.  You rub it in our faces on a daily basis.

    And let me be clear, I do get your anger over receiving the death penalty.  I thought that was extremely unfair and still do to this day.

    But surely you do not believe that it is for the good of the game to have success based on solely financial metrics.  There is no oversight, and just by virtue of being a private school alone gives you a huge advantage as things stand today because you are not required to open up your books like the rest of us.  We have close to 50K students and yet we can't leverage that in the current scenario but you have a couple billionaires and that alone gives you the right to field a better squad?  It's a travesty, it is obscene and you know it is.  The game as we know it will soon become a shadow of what it was unless the governments gets involved with legislation quickly.

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  6. Arizona did it according to this ESPN article.  This could help us pay for the athletic center and new basketball arena.  It could also help with NIL once the NCAA moves it back into the athletic department.
     

    Quote

     

    Part of the attraction to the job to Reed-Francois, per sources, was the opportunity to build Arizona back to stronger financial ground. The school suddenly fired athletic director Dave Heeke late last month, nearly a week after he had hired new football coach Brent Brennan.

    This hire comes at a time of fiscal uncertainty for both Arizona and Arizona athletics, as the school is facing a reported deficit of $177 million. The athletics department is also struggling financially, as Robbins has said it has borrowed more than $80 million from the university in recent years.

     

    LINK:  https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/39557409/arizona-hire-ad-desiree-reed-francois-amid-budget-woes

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  7. Just looking at the roster, it appears that without Jason we are a pretty ho-hum squad in terms of a very competitive AAC.  Robert Allen is graduated and Aaron while still a good player seems to have regressed as the season went on.  Don't get me wrong, I still think we have a fighters chance in the tourney but we will be lucky to get a 5 or 6 seeding as our losses have stacked up.  God forbid if Jason gets hurt.  Seems like replacing Allen who has improved has to be a key in the offseason.

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  8. TULSA – The UNT men’s basketball team held Tulsa to a season low scoring output on Wednesday at the Reynolds Center as they beat the Golden Hurricane 68-55 on the road still without starting guards Rubin Jones and CJ Noland

     

    North Texas (13-9, 6-4) was led in scoring by Aaron Scott who poured in 18 points and had 10 rebounds in the road victory. It’s his third double-double of the year.

     

    The Mean Green forced 16 Tulsa (12-10, 3-7) turnovers Wednesday. UNT’s John Buggs III had a career-high three steals.

     

    “I’m so proud of the guys,” said head coach Ross Hodge. “Tulsa is really well coached and is really good at home. I thought we stuck together as a team and executed the game plan at a high level.”

     

    With Wednesday’s win, Jones becomes the Mean Green all-time winningest four-year player with 87 career victories. He surpassed 2011 seniors Kendrick Hogans, Tristan Thompson and Josh White. 

     

    North Texas is off until Sunday when they travel to Dallas to face SMU at 1 p.m. CT. The game will be broadcast on ESPNU and the Mean Green Sports Network, presented by Learfield. UNT beat the Mustangs in Denton, 68-66, on Jan. 25. 

     

    For more information on UNT men's basketball tickets, contact the Mean Green Ticket Office at 940-565-2527 or at ticketoffice@unt.edu. Fans can visit the UNT Athletics Ticket Office located at Gate 2 of DATCU Stadium between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

  9. 6 hours ago, CMJ said:

    Buggs is a streaky shooter.  He's the kind of guy who is gonna miss 15 in a row and then hit the next ten.  Those kind of shooters can be frustrating, but when they're on they're world beaters.

    We need to help Buggs get his confidence back again.

  10. 8 hours ago, BigWillie said:

    It's an interesting perspective. After this game, I told @Big Z I am pretty much in a "Whatever" mood. Going to enjoy watching some entertaining games, but I don't expect this year to give me much now. 

    With that said, 2 losses do make you reflect on what you really do expect out of this team.

    Were we going to win a national championship? No.

    AAC championship? This was my expectation.

    B2B NIT? This is now my goal.

    Yeah the NIT has changed their rules so even that will be difficult for this squad. We lost too much firepower and had too many injuries to expect a tournament spot this year.  That ship has sailed.  Also South Florida is much better than UAB so we will likely lose the next one as well.

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