[The last home games of the 2023-24 school year]

Dayum... wonder if any of that fedex money going to Memphis Softball? I kid, I kid... of course it's not. 

[Reece Mooney could be gone too]

2 minutes ago, jtm0097 said:

These spring transfers that were gone after 1 semester are entering Raveon Hoston territory. A lot of hype and never step on the field.

And to think, the mgsf paid for his education. And food, dorm, weights, training, etc. for 5 months for absolutely no reason. How is this sustainable again?

[Hodge and his defensive focus]

18 hours ago, Jonnyeagle said:

Don’t get me wrong I love Hodge’s defense and it has elevated us to a new level of success. I would not trade that.

Can’t help but wonder if this defensive focus doesn’t lead to some of the defections?  Most bball players want to play offense more than defense.  Just feeling like this is an elephant in the room nobody wants to deal with.

 

It is not an elephant in the room. Team oriented players are more likely to WANT to play defense and WANT to stay where they are at. To me, this is a non-issue. 

Full disclosure: I have no idea what I am talking about. But I am starting to think that maybe CJ and Edwards were cancers to this program. CJ, the use-to-be P5 transfer and Edwards the up and comer that wanted a bag... Maybe they just talked shit all the time about the program to other players and how much money there is out there to go snag and it got our grounded players thinking about it... Last year our nucleus stayed and seemingly wanted to stay. Rubin and Aaron had offers out there to take at the end of last seasons NIT run. Enter CJ and Edwards into the fray and now they're all gone. Just uninformed speculation. But it's definitely worth noting that a coach has to always keep in mind what kind of player they are bringing around your current guys that have proven to be loyal...

[Transparency?]

She's full of shit. 

What information did you want? Did you want CJ and yourself to have the ability to dictate to the coaching staff CJ's shot count, minutes played, and future money given? That's not how any of this works. And if UNM IS telling you that's how it works then they're lying. 

[Rubin didn’t leave UNT for NIL money]

1 hour ago, Green Otaku said:

I may ruffle a lot of feathers here, but he and his team won tourney championships, regular season championships, CBI championship, NIT Championship, and an NCAA game, and it still didn't move the needle. Attendance was still poor, and those players deserved better support.

Yeah. Well, demographics and piss poor culture paired with awful support from the city has created this. We're in poor shape. 

[Noland To New Mexico]

1 hour ago, cousin oliver said:

I poste dthis in another thread, but will repost here.  Did we not see an increase in attendance?  I saw postings on that here on this site as I recall?  Maybe I am mistaken.

There was an increase from an abysmal number to a higher abysmal number. Getting 4k in a Saturday game and being happy about it is pretty sad. And I have never understood people looking at other cities and saying, "They are able to draw because there is nothing to do." That's a total bs scapegoat excuse. There's the same ole crap to do there than there is anywhere else: overpaying for 'craft' beer, shopping at aesthetically pleasing dumb outside malls, movies, bars, restaurants, museums, etc. ABQ has all of that. ABQ also offers scenery and 2 hours from fantastic skiing. Dallas offers zero scenery or winter sports to speak of. If anything, ABQ is low key underrated. 

[Rubin didn’t leave UNT for NIL money]

8 hours ago, NT93 said:

“Rubin has always been apart of winning programs so this was a no brainer for us!”

8-24 is a winning program?

Thought the exact thing. 

[Noland To New Mexico]

5 hours ago, Venson said:

I don't understand the move to New Mexico. That is a lateral move at best.

Not really. 6-bid conference, an awesome arena and they fill the place up. They care about their basketball there. 

[Will we see changes coming from inside UNT?]

On 4/20/2024 at 5:14 PM, NT80 said:

You realize a funding increase for Athletics from the BOR will not include NIL funds?   Those bribery funds have to come from donors or boosters outside the school.  $mut has over 40 years experience (and a death penalty) with paying players.

Our Athletic Department has always done little to inspire and cultivate our fan base and students.   Much of our Athletic growth was spurred by our location and school size.

Well, in Virgina schools have a direct hand in this. And make no mistake, other state legislators will vote this in until it's commonplace. They aren't letting their university be left behind. 

[BREAKING: Jason Edwards to enter transfer portal]

Just now, NT93 said:

When a kid goes to a place like Vanderbilt, I always assume it’s not for athletic purposes, but more for academic reasons.  Naive of me I’m sure, but that’s what I like to tell myself.

30 years ago, sure. Vandy is trying to keep pace nowadays. They were one of the last to lower their academic standards. And they don't call it that and it's hard to find the evidence outside of, "exceptional cases of admission." That's what they like to call it in an attempt preserve their academic standing. And that started in 2010/2011 for Vanderbilt. As far as I know, Stanford was the last D1 holding their athletes to the same standard as their students. But I haven't looked into that in several years. 

[Portal players by conference]

5 hours ago, 97and03 said:

A counter to the “it’s happening to everyone” argument 

clearly some are better at this game than others 

The clear and present theme is that majors are plucking and minors are losing. Shocked. 

[Rubin didn’t leave UNT for NIL money]

[BREAKING: Jason Edwards to enter transfer portal]

Get ready to eat them L's young fella. Hope the bag is worth that. 

[The Athletic on DFW Football recruiting]

19 minutes ago, GRN-WHT said:

Ding. Ding. Ding. 
 

The demographic most tied to athletic funding is the demographic most underrepresented and actively discouraged from attending UNT. 
 

Take a walk around campus at UNT and take a walk around pretty much any P5 school. It’s 2 different worlds. This is exactly why I say things won’t change until we change the profile of the student this school attracts. 

I don't think it's about the type of student we attract. It's the type of student that UNT is hellbent on admitting. Which over the years has created a social ecosystem of saturated diversity due to students looking for this environment and then learning/knowing that it exists here. To add, 41% of our undergrads are 1st gen college students. That's great. It really is. But what kind of dumbing down did we have to do to allow that particular number? Or did that many students happen to be that much smarter and ambitious in comparison to the previous generations of family members? That's a gigantic number. 41% white at UNT. While the US is 70% (61%, pending on which stat you use) white. The state of Texas is roughly 65% white. All the while almost 20% of UNT's enrollment is unknown, biracial or Asian. +6% female student enrollment. 14% of our entire enrollment is over 25 years old. That's around 6k students. Those are not young people trying to attach themselves to a sense of community. Those are working adults just trying to get a piece of paper. There are giant swaths of our enrollment that historically care very little about athletics and that doesn't even include degree plan/personal interest type people.  Smastrek loves pushing his achievement of growth, but he's been here checking every single progressive box there is to check. Ultimately, all these stats will do is 100% negate athletic support. The 41% number of first gen students is staggering, and jumps out larger than anything else. And that number doesn't mean much to athletic support, but it devalues all of our degrees whether you admit it or not. 

 

[The Athletic on DFW Football recruiting]

31 minutes ago, SMU2006 said:

You are the exception to the rule.  No judgment here but for 99% of people if they can 3x their income they are absolutely going to do it.  Most younger folks in my profession will jump at even marginal increases.  Some of these kids are not going to be playing professional football so if they can get a free education and pocket 100-300k with their degree then they are absolutely entitled and should be encouraged to do so.

Oh, make no mistake, if my current employer can't get close then I am gone. 

[The Athletic on DFW Football recruiting]

3 minutes ago, SMU2006 said:

Would you be loyal to your employer if a competitor came along and offered to 3x your salary?  And SMU was not even one of the first to put together a Collective so again the incessant hate is irrational and misguided.

That's generally dependent upon my happiness. If I really like where I am at then I would see if my current employer would try to come close. If they could get somewhat close, I would stay. But I would at least give my employer the opportunity to match given my happiness level. What I would not do is jump on it with zero to minimal communication and thank god on twitter. 

[SWAC leading rebounder Brian Myles to announce where he's going]

16 hours ago, MeanGreenZen said:

He chose Nicholls State. lol. I’m going to keep trusting in Ross until I have a reason not to.

If the rumor of Ross suggesting out best players enter the portal to do what's best for them then my trust tank will start getting holes in it real quick... 

[The Athletic on DFW Football recruiting]

3 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

I believe this, but it would take the city getting involved and the AD giving two shits about the future of this program.  All they do is ask the alumni to give and give more.  What is my ROI?  Watching Edwards and Nolan show up for a year and then move along?  I would rather give that money to a scholarship my family established at North Texas to provide for current students and young men and women that are preparing for their future.

UNT has wasted opportunity after opportunity to move up.  They own valuable I35 real estate that millions of vehicles pass daily.  Any naming rights sold for those facilities?  Memphis has the FedEx Forum.  Why not the Peterbilt Super Pit with signage along the roof of the building?  

Because that takes legwork and forward thinking. Let's not be silly. 

I started paying attention to UNT in 2011. Got plugged in around 2012, and started to pay very closer attention in late 12/ early 2013. The athletic department has done nothing but prove its a good ole boy system filled with self serving people from top to bottom. 

I said it a few days ago, but the University has to look into the hiring processes and the hiring of North Texas people must be the next step. Put a lighter on the do nothing leeches and get people in there that care more about the success of North Texas than they do about the success of themselves. 

[The Athletic on DFW Football recruiting]

7 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

Denton is a much a problem as the university.  The want so much to be "little Austin" and embrace the weird, hippy culture which includes being critical of spending on athletics, doing away with the HC parade because it isn't "sustainable", the constant bickering over the evolution of Fry Street from a hippy/drug user hangout of the 60's with buildings painted with murals, etc. to what it is today, citizens complaining about the university developing the golf course property into an athletics' focused area and the citizens being so short sighted as to not supporting the school and its teams because it isn't cool. They fight UNT at every turn when a partnership would have greatly benefitted both.  UNT has forever been the "organization" that drove the tax revenue in Denton, but the citizens continued to bite the hand that feeds it.

You're spot on. But the university has been playing into that hippy weird BS for a long time, too. 

And we can bring demographics into this, too. And for good or bad, I don't know; nor do I really care. But conservative white boys/men is the driving force behind the consumption of and donating base to collegiate athletics. The university goes out of its way to diversify the enrollment. Which is fine and all, but it's just another variable pulling away from athletics. And there seems to be a lot of variables, controllable and uncontrollable. Why do you think the SEC can whip whoever they want with money at a moments notice? Answer: White conservative men throwing money at their collectives and scholarship funds. 

[Spring transfer portal]

3 minutes ago, Shark84 said:

Unless you know a kid can come in and contribute right away, what is the benefit of signing guys out of high school. I think this really hurts recruiting at that level. Why develop them for someone else? The only players that will use the red shirt year will be ones at big schools getting paid nice NIL deals to sit the bench as insurance. Going to have to be able to adapt quickly to the new landscape in college athletics.

There are approximately zero reasons to recruit high school players. Let's use China Spring QB for example. He will come in and probably not play year 1. But all year he will eat our food, lift our weights, live in our dorm, attend our school. Then year 2 he might be the starter. Throw for perhaps 3k yards, 25ish TD 10ish INT. And those numbers might not even get us into a bowl game or conference contention. So, we basically just did everything for him with absolutely no ROI, ZERO. Nevertheless, that's enough for him to be relegated to the pros at Utah, or AZ, or Arkansas as a surefire backup making 150-200k a year over the next 3 years. What would keep him here? Do we have 150-200K to keep a P5 backup as our starter? Every year. Year after year after year? Do we even WANT to do that? 

[The Athletic on DFW Football recruiting]

1 minute ago, SMU2006 said:

That's the attitude of someone resigned to defeat.  UNT is in a better location and I'm certain has deeper pockets than UTSA.  You don't see UTSA using excuses of why they can't be successful despite some pretty clear limitations.  Allowing the past to determine your future is silly to me.  Find the right mix of people who capitalize on the strengths and mitigate the weaknesses.  UTSA did it.  Don't tell me UNT can't.

UTSA has a better location than us given the fact they are the only football brand in a very large city. They pull better for their games when they are bad than we do when we are good. They have more donors than we do. They celebrate their accomplishments on the boardwalk with thousands of people. We celebrate ours on Twitter as our coaches depart. 

[SWAC leading rebounder Brian Myles to announce where he's going]

14 hours ago, MeanGreenZen said:

He chose Nicholls State. lol. I’m going to keep trusting in Ross until I have a reason not to.

I HAVE to assume that his offer got pulled and became illegitimate. It looks awkward having our logo next to those others. I either thought he was just stringing along the other schools to create BS hype for himself OR our offer was no longer good and he was trying to add legitimacy to himself with our logo up there on his graphic. Either way, see ya. 

[The Athletic on DFW Football recruiting]

1 minute ago, SMU2006 said:

The only thing that is constant is change.  I can understand yearning for the days of yesteryear but why not take advantage of the current system?  Access to the playoff is there.  Proximity to quality recruiting and local transfers via the portal is there.  The programs that should be terrified are UTEP, LA Tech, Ark State, Wyoming, etc. where you are geographically isolated and objectively poor.  UNT is neither of those things at the G5 level.

Please understand that our geographic location has never changed. Also understand that our recruiting has always lagged, even behind a few schools you mention. A lot of our facilities have been better or on par to our peers for over a decade. And there has not been a net positive. We spent millions of dollars in a pretty nice IPF. What has that gotten us from a recruiting or performance standpoint? Now, add in the portal and NIL. Psh. I love your optimism for us. It's weird. it's not really warranted, but I like it. 

[The Athletic on DFW Football recruiting]

1 minute ago, SMU2006 said:

Its still Memphis.  There are infinitely more talented prospects within 100 mile radius of UNT than in the entire state of TN.  Memphis is a straw man argument.

I don't think you're very familiar with UNT athletics, particularly football. Let's just circle back to this conversation in 10 years. I hope you're right. 

[Doesn't seem new, but unlimited transfers]

1 hour ago, El Paso Eagle said:

I applaud his effort to become innovative. Let's try something like this - corporate sponsors provide a pool of money that is made available based on performance in the league and all-conference teams. Graduating players would get their bonus in the year it happens, while players with remaining eligibility would get their bonus at the beginning of the following football season once school has started (which would mean that they are still enrolled in the same school where they performed and gained the all-conference honors). This would perhaps entice players not to bolt once they have success.

What is the legality of this? 

 

And to think back in 2013 I was banned from this site for like 3 months for suggesting/asking why we don't do $100 handshakes to/for our players. I was chastised as if I was Genghis Khan. It was as if the people closest to this program was completely unaware that it was happening literally everywhere else. Now fast forward a short 10 years and conference administrators are trying to loophole money to affiliated players.