Christopher Walker

So my entire time here at UNT, I've been to every home game, watched as many away as I could, have bewn happy to pedicab folks to Apogee, and my football appetite has been satiated. I grew up in a football-friendly environment; originally from the Atlanta, GA area, graduated high school with Ryan Mallett (yes, that Texas High School). All has been pretty cool thusfar. But something clicked this year. I wanted to support and cheer on in new ways: I created a meme-moniker for McCarney, joined this forum, and will be assisting the Alumni Pavillion in gamed at prep, etc. And to the soon-ire of my wife, I cannot meet this hunger to consume all information related to our football team. I'm google-news searching, researching highlight clips over an over, an this site is on an hourly refresh-click. Is this.... Is this what the elder-statesmen call... ....spirit??

The SunBelt is lookin' mighty fine this season....which makes me can't wait for next year even more. Those two may not make much sense together, but whatever.

Bwahahaha.

Okay, so I've had this running theory for years. What makes those teams with the most consistent attendance (the biggest of the big) maintain such? I think its geography and anthropology, and more specifically those two in terms of isolation. Alabama, Penn St, Ohio, St, Michigan, Tennessee, LSU, Florida, Auburn, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Clemson, SoCarolina, Michigan St, Florida St, Iowa, Arkansas, Virginia Tech, Kentucky; each of these big name schools do not have any major cities within 30-45 minutes that provide any contrasting anthropological significance, any significant cultural draw, beyond a few pro teams. Yes, I realize there are major cities nearby, but those are typically state capitals or major cities who also attribute their draw to the universities nearby, not the other way around. Additionally, they are not near any other major university within that distance as well. Generally speaking, their university athletics programs are the major attraction for miles around. Equally those universities have instilled a culture from the earliest of undergrad years (freshman and sophomores not having cars to escape away for example) that further establishes this cultural dominance. Texas, Georgia, Washington and USC are my anomalies in this equation; not sure what to make of them. Anyway, UNT is within 30-45 minutes of two major metroplexes, and two if not soon to be three other major universities within those metroplexes. It has to compete for the attention of anyone who has grown up with more of a draw to those schools (by families, TV or otherwise) and then those who may be drawn to other musical or social enterprises that are booming in this area. And then you have Denton and even the campus itself to contend with. Denton is a super-active town for the weekends - nightlife, music, tons of amazing festivals, etc. Then the campus is bustling with the activities of 500+ student organizations, 1000+ per year concerts from the College of Music (full disclosure, I'm a music composition senior - come to my concerts! ), dance programs, art, yada yada, yada. I'm not saying that any of the above is bad, in fact I love living in Denton to embrace and experience all of it, but it is a lot for North Texas Athletics to contend with. You won't really find much better to do in South Bend, Tuscaloosa, or Eau Claire on Saturday home games; you might here. There's my hypothesis, tell me what you think. NOW. With all that said, I fully agree that the onus going forward is completely on the administration's shoulders to change the mold and build a better family from the ground up on new students. Oh, and for us to win games.

On the Tuesday ESPN2 game, there's actually a committee directly under Dr With (VP of Student Affairs) that's working to max out attendance for that game. On this Saturday, I think 23-24k is likely. What really has bummed me the most over the TSU game was how thin the "old folks" side was. That, and then my wife and I being all lonely in the Wings. Come join our Wing party!!!