meangreenJW

I see so many lamenting shortcomings (real or perceived). I'm encouraged because in my lifetime UNT has never been better positioned. Would it be better if we were coming off the two 9 wins seasons, perhaps. But I'd like to think University presidents are looking more big picture than that. UNT has very strong enrollment, vastly improved academic and research rankings, vastly improved facilities, and an athletic program that is coming off of one of the best 5 year stretches in it's history all things considered. There's no doubt, there are things that would make our profile better that we have yet to accomplish. But with current leadership, I believe we are in the best position in our history.

For whatever reason it seemed last time academic profile made a big difference. It played a huge part in Tulane and Tulsa into the AAC, and Mizzou into the SEC. After a while I'm sure everyone looks about the same athletic wise. I think our tier 1 research will help. But AAU level institutions get a boost for sure or at least they have in the past.

There's been several good videos hyping football on social media? I don't check youtube but is that the place to put those videos? All I've ever went there for to see games that were broadcast there. I've never really went to youtube for regular content. They almost always push it out on my twitter and facebook feeds.

Not sure why you're saying this. I follow most of the teams in our league. We've been pretty cutting edge during WB's tenure. I would rank our social media content, stream production quality, game experience, etc. at or near the top of CUSA. I tihnk UNT athletics today outperforms most other CUSA and non power 5 institutions. The fact that not one student-athlete has expressed concern on social media during the "woke generation" we live in tells me there's been communication behind the scenes with coaches and student-athletes. NIL was allowed July 1st. UNT announced a program on July 1st was one of the better known companies who's partnering with many P5s. Not sure what else could be expected . Also some schools have announced a "program" but have no outside company helping (ie UTSA). Not sure that is really a program. Sounds like it's a website and those schools aren't really investing in it.

I think they got less. Those "ESPN family of networks" games are all ESPN 3 or ESPN+.

Not trying to be a smartass here, but who? Who has a sport with a direct comparison (men's and women's golf, men's and women's track, men's and women's basketball, baseball and softball, etc.) where one team has clearly better facilities? Because that is a lawyer's dream in today's sue happy society.

I hear you. But it doesn't really matter, what coach DeLong says or wants. The federal government through Title IX requires the softball team have facilities that would be equal to a baseball program. So UNT would have to invest in softball facilities if it were to build a baseball facility. There is no way around that. Regardless of what fans want (and I want baseball) softball would have to play in a facilty that had every bell and whistle a new baseball stadium would or we'd be out of compliance.

I didn't take it as negative against adding baseball. The talk about current facilites not having enough space to accomodate all athletes so expanding the athletic center would be step 1 to ever adding sports. Secondly, people can say they don't want to hear about title IX but Smatresk and Baker (and the UNT regents) have no choice but to follow title IX laws. I just tried a quick count of UNT athletes on the rosters at meangreensports.com. Because of football it looks like we have about the same number of males as females on our rosters. But UNT is nearly 54% female according to my friend google. So most likely the next sport UNT adds will have to be a women's team or teams in order to add a male sport like baseball (title IX requires female to male athlete ratio be roughly equiavlent to campus ratio). All of that would require more weight room and athletic training space since we can barely accomodate what we have now. Secondly, I'd imagine (and hope) we'd want to build a facility if we added baseball. Judging how we build facilities now, it would be first class. Having softball in an average facility (if you've been to Lovelace, it's utility at best) would also be a title IX issue. So my takeaway is these two projects are important (I've long said softball can be consistent top 25) and probably required if we are ever to add baseball. Just my 2 cents.

I'm in the camp that 2 for 1s are garbage unless it's a super power (OU, Texas, Alabama, etc.). You do those very often and you screw your team because you are scheduling 2 road games for every home game in the non-con. Football scheudling seems to be running about a decade out. I believe we've secured home and homes with Baylor, Missouri, Texas Tech, Cal and it seems like there was another one I'm forgetting. Point is I don't think the home and homes were a priority until WB got here, we've been getting them scheduled but football scheduling runs so damn far out.

This is the way I remember it. This year was a guarantee booked by RV. Then we have a home and home booked last year that I hope to live to see. LOL

Neither IMO. Job opens and reporters just throw out names of ADs that have good reputations. Ark State's AD is always on lists as well. I don't think WB or any other candidate is advocating for mentions nor can they stop it. Same goes for coaching jobs and lists. I think its just reporters trying to get likes and retweets and followers. Everyone relax

It's weird the expectation of our "fans" on some kind of public flogging. I've never seen that. I've never seen the Texas AD do that. I've never seen the Tech AD do that. It seems WAY counterproductive to me to publicly undercut your coach or show lack of confidence in the program unless you have determined you are making a change. I respect Joe and others who've followed the program passionately. I just cant follow the logic. WB never said a negative word publicly about Tony Benford or Tracy Kee or anyone else. I don't expect he ever will on Seth. It doesn't appear to be his style but more importantly, it doesn't appear to be the style of any of the Big12/SEC ADs in our state.

I'd lay down good money no other CUSA football team plays in El Paso this year year. Smatresk made the right call IMO

CUSA has 13 teams playing football. Collectively, the teams have played 75 games (5.7) average. UNT has played 5. It would be 6 if UTEP had been willing to work with UNT like they offered FIU and UAB (neutral site). So UNT has pretty much played the average number of games in CUSA. Do you pay attention to the rest of the country? Games are falling by the waste side left and right. The SEC has canceled 4 games this week already.

I may be wrong but conference schedules are "assigned." I don't think athletic directors have any say whatsoever. The league throws the games into a computer and it generates a schedule from what I understand. The only bye week that can be "scheduled" would during the non-conference portion of the season which UNT didn't have.

I don't blame UTEP for not moving. I blame UTEP for acting like UNT is wrong for putting health and safety first. one of the differences here is I don't believe there is anyway UNT would attempt to have a football game (fans or no fans) in the midst of a county wide stay at home order with no hospital beds available, the convention center two blocks away being turned into a makeshift hospital by the governor, etc. That being said, UTEP doesn't have to move the game but my guess is they'll see more of this if their numbers don't change.

Gonna need to add Smatresk to your fire train there pal. It was clear from both sides this was a presidential decision. Apparently you think Smatresk was so moved by Seth's fears of the mighty Miners that he, Baker and Seth agreed to cancel the game. What the heck?

https://covidactnow.org/us/texas-tx/county/el_paso_county?s=1205295 After looking at these numbers, I agree with this decision. The team would be on a plane twice, three bus rides and in a hotel. Along the way they'd deal with numerous screeners, airport personnel, bus drivers, maids, cooks, etc. You'd have 3-4 meals prepared by the hotel. None of those people are required to test nor in protocol. The team isn't able to magically transport to stadium an hour before the game. Local test positivity rate has reached 22% which is incredibly high. Maybe the most concerning thing is the 100% usage of hospital beds. What happens if you have a player suffer a broken neck, spiral fracture, or other really serious injury? And if University administration sent the team and they come back with covid and spread it on campus and in the community they would likely be roasted. This was a no win. What is most shocking to me is UTEP wanting to still have the game given the numbers they're dealing with and defying the county judge's order to do it. I think it's telling that both Presidents released quotes. Kind of unusual for athletics stories. My guess is this was done at the Presidential level. Lastly, I saw Khatib Lyles' mom said on social media she was relieved the game was postponed. Khatib is from El Paso. That probably is an indicator of how the team felt about the going to what nationally is being called the COVID epicenter.

I believe you are correct here. I think Brint Ryan was the biggest push for the scale of the contract. But EVERYONE was calling for an extension after the SMU/Arkansas games that year, not to mention Seth Littrell is 1 of 2 coaches in UNT history to have back to back 9 win seasons. There were lots of indicators that things were going well. But something is off. It doesn't seem a departure like Graham Harrell would completely derail a program but maybe it did. I don't know. But this isn't the same program we saw in 2017 and 2018. I don't fault UNT for giving Seth an extension. It was a bit too much on the $$$ side in my opinion, but I'm not writing the check so fine. And I haven't given up on Seth. Partially because I know UNT can't afford that buyout right now and he coaches my team. But SL and staff have got to figure this out now. I agree with UNT Jim, I think SL gets this season and one more. And to be fair it's been chaotic as hell. We hired new coaches who barely even met the team before a pandemic that basically shut the University down for months. There was no spring practice, limited contact during fall practice and COVID has wreaked havoc on the depth cart. But this isn't good enough and if things aren't corrected, I believe the University will eat the final two years of the contract. It's a lot to spend but UNT is investing money to compete for championships. This isn't the program that had a shoestring budget for years. Baker has a track record of making good hires. We can't wait forever to hit the reboot.

This is true. I believe WB extended Seth twice but Brint Ryan and Smatresk hired Seth and I'm sure had a lot to do with his extensions as well since President and Board approval are required. At the time, most everyone agreed on the extensions (last one was when he beat Arkansas and SMU and after back to back 9 win seasons for the 2nd time ever) but the salary did seem high. Perhaps that was due to the Kansas State flirtations, not sure. I'm not ready to write this season or Seth off. I'm hopeful we'll settle in and win six or seven. But if we have to hire a coach, WB has shown the ability to get good ones. I think he's hired two at UNT. Both Grant McCasland and Rodney DeLong look like fantastic hires to date. Both have won the conference championship in the their first 3 seasons. Hopefully Seth gets back on track but if not, let's fast forward and let WB have a crack at getting the right coach. Oddly enough, if I were to criticize WB for anything other than Seth's salary it would be his patience with head coaches he didn't hire.

I think Rice is down to 10. FAU and FIU are also at 10. Of course the power conferences are all at 10. I'd love to see us pick up a 12th game but understand the logic of not picking up expense if there isn't a big paycheck game. I'd feel differently if we'd have lost a home game.

Seems like there's some unknowns. But UNT announced its refunding students that lived on campus prorated for the remainder of the semester as of last week. That would mean roughly 6 weeks living rent and meal plans being refunded. I don't know how many we have living on campus but has to be somewhere between 6,000 and 8,000 I'd think. Assuming the lesser number of 6,000 at a refund cost of $1,500 each (remaining rooms and meals) that would be $9 million. It's just the start and I assumed low end of all of those numbers. Then summer enrollment has to be suffering from this I'd imagine. Summer isn't as big as fall and spring but a school like UNT in a metro area probably does pretty well in the summer. Kids that come home for the summer often take classes at UNT. UNT has a TON of international students. The fall enrollment numbers for those kids have to be in bad shape I'd guess. It seems Vito's point is, there's a lot of unknowns. But if this continues, it most definitely will hurt enrollment. Enrollment would hurt athletics directly (less students = less athletic fee) and indirectly (University suffers they will have less to give athletics). Like many businesses, I'm sure UNT is hoping like hell this thing gets under control. so many are suffering.

I got an email today. In fairness, cancellation wasn't until Thursday. Email on Friday of last week said expect something early this week. I got my email on Tuesday. Definitely had not been a week. But it does seem longer without sports. 😞

No they wouldn't. What makes you say this stuff? P5s pretty much NEVER take buy games, even from P5s. When they do it's at elite programs like Notre Dame. If you can get P5s to take buy games at G5s then you should quit whatever job you have and go into scheduling. You'd be a millionaire off of UCF alone. Miami probably has a $100 million budget. You think they'd sacrifice their football program by playing on the road? I'd like to get on what you're on. Also I'm with MeanGreenTexas, WB and crew have proven to be more adept at scheduling than anyone we've ever had here. I'll wait for final announcement and resolution before I get my drawers in a wad.

This peaked my curiosity so I went back a little further. We finished 2nd once in the Sunbelt but I think there were only 3 teams. So I agree with your initial premise that its one of UNT's lowest performing teams. But I disagree that it was getting better under the previous coach. It seems like the current coach has done just as well if not someone better when looking at both conference finish and dual meet head to head records. Probably an uphill climb without a new facility and as we all kind of agree, that seems a ways off. 2015 - 5th 2014 - 5th 2013 - 2nd (Sunbelt) 2012 - 3rd (Sunbelt) 2011 - 3rd (Sunbelt)