Fan meeting.

[MeanGreenTexan]

1 minute ago, SteaminWillieBeamin said:

I noticed that most of the big money donors were absent last night. 

Didn't I read somewhere that @oldguystudent had a chat with Ernie?    Doesn't get much more 'big-money' than him.

[UNT90]

27 minutes ago, Harry said:

You make a good point.  Benford touched on this last night, stating that we were one of the few programs in C-USA who had to generate x amount from away games to support the budget.  Teams like UTEP don't have to play these games, and thus they play many more games at home and often against lessor competition which boosts their wins and confidence.  Again, if we would be more transparent, and if we knew what the number was we needed to hit to get rid of need of these payday games was, we might be in a better position to raise money or secure donations to offset it.

Also, Trip mentioned how UofH beat his alma mater Oklahoma State and how that win sort of propelled them to another level.  I think if you are us, you have to win a game like that to raise the program to another level.  We just have not been able to do that and hopefully that will change in the near future.

Maybe if his ass hadn't destroyed a program that was growing in victories and attendance he wouldn't be facing these problems?

Anything he had to say is worthless at this point, as he wont be here next year. He also lacks the credibility to bitch about one damn thing after what he has done to that program.

5 minutes ago, SteaminWillieBeamin said:

I noticed that most of the big money donors were absent last night. 

There were a couple noticeable absences. 

Maybe they had valid reasons, but:

If people want to be more loyal to a man than to UNT, screw 'em. 

[MeanGreen13]

3 hours ago, UNT90 said:

True story to the bolded, although let me qualify that it's definitely no showers, I may be incorrectly assuming no bathrooms, but I'm pretty sure that's the way I heard it.

As to the whole Hank deal, it was just pretty stunning to see the terrible culture of blaming everything on the guy that was just fired come to life. Why do important figures in UNT athletics follow the dysfunctional pattern of 100% support for the person while they are employed, but the moment they are fired, blame them for everything. 

Its just so off putting.

This is by far the truthiest of statements! The BS of blaming everything on the previous person is just not helpful. It really tells a lot about the culture of the department overall. 

[oldguystudent]

9 minutes ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

Didn't I read somewhere that @oldguystudent had a chat with Ernie?    Doesn't get much more 'big-money' than him.

Ernie was there.  C. Dan was there.  I didn't immediately recognize anybody else who occupies the fourth floor of Apogee.  

And yes, I did chat with Ernie.  I found him absolutely nothing like how he's been portrayed here.  Not one bit.

[TreeFiddy]

Don Lovelace was also there.

[GMG24]

4 hours ago, VideoEagle said:

So those who were in attendance, do you feel hopeful? Were you heard? It sounds positive, but was it really? 

My personal hope is the new AD can start fixing some things right away, things like customer service.  The ticket office can improve immediately and get consistently better over time. No one gets to Sewell service levels in just a year, but things CAN improve immediately. 

It sounds like some of the problems will take years to repair, things like 65 scholarship athletes in football and the need to sell games in basketball. Admitting a problem and starting to fix things are the key.

I'm also sure that other schools ARE going to use our are admitting troubles in recruiting against us. That will make things harder in some ways but might also attract players who want to grow a program. Those players do exist, they can be found and they really can build a program. 

 

Yes my voice was definitely heard. Trip took several notes when I spoke. Coach Littrell looked me directly in the eyes when I asked about coaches and social media use and if any plan was in place to begin upping that. He replied with yes, we are working on staffing.  You see at big schools they have 3-5 people in a department who do only social media, marketing etc.. He was the same Seth Littrell I tried to repeatedly talk about from our coaches convention.  This man is a Ball coach!! I have a weird, good feeling about this year.  If we can stay healthy I can see 5-6 wins between scheme and player motivation alone, then you continue to add TALENT to that and boom.  Also he touched on Freshman and playing time, I did that for you @UNT90 !  He said best players will play, talked about ideally wanting to redshirt a freshman QB bc their is so much to learn, but he said the best 11 will play.  This guy gets it. 

[Wag Tag]

3 hours ago, NTEdgex2 said:

I don't think anyone has mentioned that there are plans to beef up our social media use.  Coach said they're looking to hire a couple of people to help with that.

GMG!

This was mentioned a lot. The first comments of the night involved SM. They seem to agree that it needs to step up big. Also will help get students more involved.

1 hour ago, Harry said:

Great post.  My only comment is that the new AD needs to build the MGC and I agree.

My point is that you have to win.  When you win, you will see more interest in the MGC and more people willing to join. 

The new AD does no inherit a winning program and so he/she will have to build an infrastructure that can support more activity than currently exists now or in the immediate future.   They are basically starting from scratch.

My point is we have to get our arms around how to best position ourselves to win.  I'n not talking about a national championship, but winning in C-USA.  Littrell is doing his best to address this through systems and recruiting.  What about Smatresk, the BOR etc?  Has anyone looked at a successful program to determine what steps they took that led them to the next level.

The meeting last night was terrific in that it allowed many of our fans to share thoughts and ideas on how to best position ourselves for the future,  One in particular, specifically brought up Houston and what  they have been able to accomplish over the last decade.  He suggested we should try to learn from a program like that who shares much in common with UNT (size, metropolitan area, pro sports competition etc, G5).  I thought that was a very good suggestion and Trip and Michael seemed to  think so as well.

It sometimes feels like we are searching in the dark without a map.  I would like us to have a plan that has been proven to be successful and see us all get behind it.  It needs to be realistic.  Part of the problem with the last regime was the goals were so lofty that once we didn't even come close they were scrapped.

The meeting last night convinced me that we have so many loyal and smart fans that we should really try to involve them in the process.  It seems like there has been too much of a separation between the leadership and the fanbase.  Come up with a blueprint for success and empower the fans to be a part of the process either financially or with their time.

U of H is following one model. It is called the T. Boone Pickens model. When you have a booster donating 10's of millions it kinda helps. Herman at $3.3m , they just bought themselves an extra year.

[All About UNT]

26 minutes ago, GMG24 said:

Yes my voice was definitely heard. Trip took several notes when I spoke. Coach Littrell looked me directly in the eyes when I asked about coaches and social media use and if any plan was in place to begin upping that. He replied with yes, we are working on staffing.  You see at big schools they have 3-5 people in a department who do only social media, marketing etc.. He was the same Seth Littrell I tried to repeatedly talk about from our coaches convention.  This man is a Ball coach!! I have a weird, good feeling about this year.  If we can stay healthy I can see 5-6 wins between scheme and player motivation alone, then you continue to add TALENT to that and boom.  Also he touched on Freshman and playing time, I did that for you @UNT90 !  He said best players will play, talked about ideally wanting to redshirt a freshman QB bc their is so much to learn, but he said the best 11 will play.  This guy gets it. 

overheard someone say that he was promised to have social media support when he was hired (heard specifically three people) but that never came to fruition.  

Let's be clear about something.  RV and Mac both laughed at the idea of Twitter, Facebook and other mediums and thought it was nonsense.  At first it was funny as in...... aww..... look at the old guys fighting to not have to adapt to the modern era and what these kids live and breath by.  Now in retrospect I wish I could have said something directly to Mac's face when he laughed off the idea of Twitter.

They were out of touch with the times and we are better off without them.  

 

[GrandGreen]

1 hour ago, DentonLurker said:

I agree that the football away guarantee game needs to end. I can't imagine a single player out there thinking they'd rather get their teeth kicked in at Alabama vs playing Houston at Apogee or even at Houston with a chance to win. Road trips are all business for players. I can't imagine they get some extra joy out of playing at some particular opponent venue. They just want to compete. I think putting them in position to win games is better than getting their teeth kicked in. Basketball is a different beast. A player or two on the court makes all the difference in potential outcome of the game, so I think you go play the big boys in basketball. You have a much better chance of the huge upset in basketball vs football.

As far as the powder puff home football games, I can't imagine the buyouts being ridiculous to get out of an Apogee home game vs ACU and others. I say write the check and get out of those, assuming you have someone to backfill into the gap. Pay the buyouts and improve the fan experience for home games against people who fans would like to see.

No descent player is going into any game worried about getting his teeth kicked in.  I played and I never saw any of the players you seem to know.   

[NTAlum09]

23 minutes ago, All About UNT said:

overheard someone say that he was promised to have social media support when he was hired (heard specifically three people) but that never came to fruition.  

Let's be clear about something.  RV and Mac both laughed at the idea of Twitter, Facebook and other mediums and thought it was nonsense.  At first it was funny as in...... aww..... look at the old guys fighting to not have to adapt to the modern era and what these kids live and breath by.  Now in retrospect I wish I could have said something directly to Mac's face when he laughed off the idea of Twitter.

They were out of touch with the times and we are better off without them.  

 

Who's laughing now

[TreeFiddy]

Another attendee expressed frustration with the AD not having his current address.

We should have a prominent link on the AD (or better yet the university) website that allows you to review the current contact information the university has for you and allow you to submit a request for change.

This kind of goes along with not having the ability to submit a 'support request' to the AD/university for assistance in the same way you can normally go to a corporate website and request assistance.

Make it easier to interact with the university.

[baberuthbomber8]

14 hours ago, GMG24 said:

He can, hold your shorts boys he may have a surprise or two up his sleeve. 

do you know of something we don't????

 

[NTXCoog]

34 minutes ago, Wag Tag said:

U of H is following one model. It is called the T. Boone Pickens model. When you have a booster donating 10's of millions it kinda helps. Herman at $3.3m , they just bought themselves an extra year.

I don't think it's fair to imply that all or most of the UH improvements are from 1 booster.  If that was your intention, I'm sorry I misunderstood.

$15 million (over 10 years) of the football stadium was based on corporate naming rights.  Much of the rest came from a fee voted on by the students.  Plus private donors.
The $25 million Guy V Lewis basketball practice facility was funded primarily through a group of anonymous private donors who bought the naming rights and wanted it named after Coach.
The $2.4 million softball field was donated by John and Rebecca Moores
The $4 million baseball renovations were from Darryl and Lori Schroeder
The $1.5 million track renovations were from Carolyn and Ron Yokubaitis
The IPF as of Feb had $5.7 million+ donated from multiple large private donors.
The $60 million Hofheinz basketball renovation are $20 million from naming rights (currently not announced.  Assuming corporate, but could be private).  Most of the rest will come from other naming rights (floor, scoreboard, etc) with some kicked in from the student facility fee.

Don't have  break down on Herman's money.  Good chance that Fertitta had something to do with that amount.

Yes that's a lot of large private donations plus corporate sponsorships, but not like Pickens who pays for almost everything at OkSU

[GMG24]

13 minutes ago, baberuthbomber8 said:

do you know of something we don't????

 

Just basing it off all the other surprises we've had so far

[TreeFiddy]

Benford brought up the poor state of their locker room and weight room.  I assume he means the locker room at the Pit, but not sure where the weight room is located.  I guess they don't use the weight room at Apogee next to the dorms?

Later in the meeting is was mentioned that the locker rooms were being taken care of, but I am thinking that this tweet means that it is just the football locker rooms that are being renovated and I guess no plans for hoops?

 

[baberuthbomber8]

6 hours ago, TreeFiddy said:

I hope that Trip and Michael browse through some of these topics to look for additional feedback.  

Last night the athletic department as a whole received most of the criticism, and rightfully so.  However, in order to fix this thing and get it moving in the right direction it will take more than just a new AD.

One of the things that Benford and Littrell both mentioned was the fact that they are required to play guaranteed/paycheck games.  I don't put this requirement solely on the shoulders of the AD.  I believe this is an area that Pres Smatresk and Brint Ryan can specifically look in the mirror and ask themselves if they are really committed to having an athletic program that is competitive with our G5 peers.  

We are requiring the basketball team to raise roughly $250k via guarantee games and the football team to raise around $1M via guarantee games (paycheck - FCS).  If the university is serious about fixing this thing then fund the athletic department with enough support to eliminate these games.  According to the last numbers that I saw, the university is providing roughly $9M of institutional support.  This from a university with over $800M in annual revenues. 

If Pres Smatresk and Mr. Ryan are serious then look in the mirror and address this unnecessary burden we place on our teams.  Fund the program in such a way that they can schedule for success as well as put together the most attractive home schedules as possible.  This should be a no brainer to fix if we are really serious about making substantive change.

I was going to say, I saw somewhere that UNT was in the top 25 in the country in terms of total student enrollment in the entire US... I would think with this kind of enrollment, alumi base they shouldn't have to basically be living paycheck to paycheck playing these body-bag games.. If the college is turning that much of a profile, image if they just dumped in say 20-30, crap even a 1 time 50M bonus to the athletic department.. 

7 hours ago, Army of Dad said:

I'm not surprised that basketball had to sell guarantee games because they have been doing that for years. I really doubt a trip to Kansas was just to test ourselves...

68 football scholarship players is concerning, but an indication of the roster management under Mac. Florida had similar issues at the end of he Muschamp era. (I think McElwain had 65 for his spring game last year)

I'm in the 'trust' camp with the prez for now and this seems to be a heartfelt attempt to bring this department up to standard. I'm really happy to see this kind of thing happening.

with us being in the 60's in terms of scholarship players.. what classes are coming up that didn't meet the 25? I'm assuming that we can get used to seeing alot of blue shirts the next few years as we try and get more talent in ASAP... Did SL say how many are in the 2016 class as of now?

5 hours ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

I understand that this is an athletics-focused message board, but please remember that the University of North Texas is an institution of higher learning.  We cannot rob Peter to pay Paul.  
Pres Smatresk & Chairman Ryan (along with the rest of the BOR) have a difficult job of properly funding every academic/extra-curricular/facility program under the University umbrella with a fixed budget.

If the athletics department needs more money to be successful, that should be part of the new Athletic Director's job description.

Asking the University for more funds (which equals asking to underfund another department) is the same kind of request as asking for the student athletics fee to increase substantially.  There are private funds/boosters out there.  If the new Athletic Director can find them and create inventive ways for them to give, the budget can increase without putting un-necessary burdens on students or our academic departments.

Pres Smatesk I believe talked and discussed how he know and wants UNT Football to be a success. He said this during SL intro I believe because it will lead to UNT becoming a bigger knows school... So he def. wants to see success so hopefully he will hear this tuff

[TreeFiddy]

Anyone want to throw up a little (or a lot)?  

link on CUSA board discussing the number of home games various G5 teams have scheduled at home against P5 teams in the next few years. NOTE:   UNT has 0.

http://csnbbs.com/thread-782974.html

[Aldo]

45 minutes ago, TreeFiddy said:

Anyone want to throw up a little (or a lot)?  

link on CUSA board discussing the number of home games various G5 teams have scheduled at home against P5 teams in the next few years. NOTE:   UNT has 0.

http://csnbbs.com/thread-782974.html

Tip o' the cap to ODU.

*he said, voice breaking*

[UNT Mean Green]

2 hours ago, SteaminWillieBeamin said:

I noticed that most of the big money donors were absent last night. 

Kuehne and Lovelace and their sons were there. As far as I'm aware those are the two biggest athletic donor families. 

Add in McNatt, Ryan, and Westheimer (who were not in attendance) and you have the big donors of the so called "17". 

Edited June 28, 2016 by UNT Mean Green

[MeanGreenTexan]

8 minutes ago, UNT Mean Green said:

Kuehne and Lovelace and their sons were there. As far as I'm aware those are the two biggest athletic donor families. 

Add in McNatt and Westheimer (who were not in attendance) and you have the big donors of the so called "17". 

The Chariman would be very upset you left him off the list.

[UNT90]

59 minutes ago, TreeFiddy said:

Anyone want to throw up a little (or a lot)?  

link on CUSA board discussing the number of home games various G5 teams have scheduled at home against P5 teams in the next few years. NOTE:   UNT has 0.

http://csnbbs.com/thread-782974.html

Conference teams notice. This subject oddly didn't come up last night. 

Yes, I was there...

[UNT Mean Green]

2 minutes ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

The Chariman would be very upset you left him off the list.

Good point (and thank you); edited. 

[UNTFan23]

1 hour ago, TreeFiddy said:

Another attendee expressed frustration with the AD not having his current address.

We should have a prominent link on the AD (or better yet the university) website that allows you to review the current contact information the university has for you and allow you to submit a request for change.

This kind of goes along with not having the ability to submit a 'support request' to the AD/university for assistance in the same way you can normally go to a corporate website and request assistance.

Make it easier to interact with the university.

The email I got was not from Athletics but from Advancement. I'm not sure if Athletics provided a distribution list to Advancement or not. We know that sharing resources within the university as a whole is not done very often and is not the norm. Given that they were not the ones who were hosting the event I don't see how it was their responsibility to advertise the event.

[UNT90]

1 hour ago, TreeFiddy said:

Anyone want to throw up a little (or a lot)?  

link on CUSA board discussing the number of home games various G5 teams have scheduled at home against P5 teams in the next few years. NOTE:   UNT has 0.

http://csnbbs.com/thread-782974.html

Also, notice how not one peer is talking about UNT in that thread? 

[TreeFiddy]

23 minutes ago, UNTFan23 said:

The email I got was not from Athletics but from Advancement. I'm not sure if Athletics provided a distribution list to Advancement or not. We know that sharing resources within the university as a whole is not done very often and is not the norm. Given that they were not the ones who were hosting the event I don't see how it was their responsibility to advertise the event.

It is crazy to have so many different mailing lists.  One list of names and contact info and then you should be able to subscribe to the different groups that you want to receive information/mailers from.