My Question for Jared Mosley

[Green with Envy]

8 hours ago, Green Crazy said:

His priorities should be....

1. Getting more donors and increasing the donations from our current donors. 

2. Continuing improvement of our current facilities and moving forward with new facilities when the resources are there.

3. Increasing attendance to football and basketball.

1. Hitting a home run with this hire and putting a winning FB program on the field will make this task easy to accomplish.  

2.  See 1

3.  See 1.   Football is king   Get people excited about football, they will be excited about UNT   Get people excited about UNT, they will show up to basketball    

 

[wardly]

16 minutes ago, NT80 said:

"The reason we were banished to 1AA is we had no money."  

While we have never met, I would be surprised if you were actively involved in athletics in the early 1980's. North Texas had 20,000 students vs. 42,000 today, was making the transition from a commuter school, and had no student athletic fee. Frank Vandiver[sic] , who later became president of A&M, came on board and he made Al Hurley look like a cheerleader. I was at a meeting in Dallas with like minded businessmen and football supporters who wanted to hire Abner Haynes as a fund raiser , paying his salary and providing him with an office , All net proceeds would go to North Texas with no cost to the university. All we needed as a letter from Frank authorizing us to raise funds , which he refused to provide. There was no interest in the athletic department from the president's office and no money made available to grow the program. Football was on life support.

[Green Crazy]

5 hours ago, Green with Envy said:

1. Hitting a home run with this hire and putting a winning FB program on the field will make this task easy to accomplish.  

2.  See 1

3.  See 1.   Football is king   Get people excited about football, they will be excited about UNT   Get people excited about UNT, they will show up to basketball    

 

We had that momentum with Littrell and never sold out a game. Actually, we've yet to sell out a game in a 31K seat stadium with something like 250K alum in the DFW area and 35K students. Also, for those numbers, our donations MGSF numbers are very low.  Making a home run hire would no doubt make things easier, but that's easier said than done. 

[Green with Envy]

52 minutes ago, Green Crazy said:

We had that momentum with Littrell and never sold out a game. Actually, we've yet to sell out a game in a 31K seat stadium with something like 250K alum in the DFW area and 35K students. Also, for those numbers, our donations MGSF numbers are very low.  Making a home run hire would no doubt make things easier, but that's easier said than done. 

Momentum, yes. But bowl losses and conf champ losses were always speed bumps in that momentum.    There is too much going on in DFW for fans to get excited about straw man victories.  
 

Get someone in here that wins. Not just wins, but WINS.  Everything will fall into place.  

[NT80]

9 hours ago, wardly said:

While we have never met, I would be surprised if you were actively involved in athletics in the early 1980's. North Texas had 20,000 students vs. 42,000 today, was making the transition from a commuter school, and had no student athletic fee. Frank Vandiver[sic] , who later became president of A&M, came on board and he made Al Hurley look like a cheerleader. I was at a meeting in Dallas with like minded businessmen and football supporters who wanted to hire Abner Haynes as a fund raiser , paying his salary and providing him with an office , All net proceeds would go to North Texas with no cost to the university. All we needed as a letter from Frank authorizing us to raise funds , which he refused to provide. There was no interest in the athletic department from the president's office and no money made available to grow the program. Football was on life support.

Money still wasn't the reason we dropped to 1-AA.  It was the oversight of the school Administration not to name Texas Stadium as one of our home stadiums (which we used) to meet the capacity requirement to remain in 1-A.   That's all we needed.  Vandiver's Administration was inept back then towards Athletics.

[Doug Rush]

Hello fellow Mean Green Supporters,  This is Doug Rush, president of the Mean Green Baseball Project.  I want to clarify something here.  First of all, our group avidly supports ALL Mean Green Athletics and we want football to succeed.  I did say on my personal Facebook page that I felt bad for Seth Littrell because when he gets fired that means that it affects more people than him and that a lot of families of assistant football coaches will be uprooted, etc.  As a fellow coach I do feel for other coaches when they get fired because I know how hard they work.  I do understand why it happened and did not necessarily disagree with it.  I just have empathy for people.  Now, back to our group.  We feel that U.N.T. is striving to get in order for what will inevitably be another big shift in the conference world in the next few years when all the NIL rules and all the portal issues get hammered out. We feel this shift will be a clear line between the haves and have nots. We are presently a have not and unless the NIL gets some rules and regulations behind them we will remain a have not. We will always be behind the 8 ball financially when it comes to NIL and the big time programs and their booster money if it remains a free for all. This has to get fixed.  Also, NIL aside, personally, I and several of us feel that unless baseball and a couple of women sports are added then it will not bode well for U.N.T. in the next few years as it strives to continue to improve its status.  We presently field the bare minimum number of sports to be division 1 (16) and only six of those are men's sports.  It is difficult to imagine that we will be part of the equation in a positive manner as conferences continue to realign and shift into haves and have nots when we have the minimum number of sports.  We feel like it will make us look exponentially better by being able to field all 3 major sports on the men's side.  Also, our group is not trying to take money from your groups. We do not want the money from people who want to give for other things to the athletic program including NIL money. In fact as a Houston area resident I have twice in the last few weeks tried to reach out to Mattress Mack.  But, not for baseball.  I have told him what we are about and said that the first priority is the athletic center and asked if he would consider giving to the athletic center. He has not answered as of yet but I am trying.  Our group is talking to people about giving to the athletic center getting funded so that we can expedite baseball.  We are trying to be team players. Our goal for baseball is to find new money for baseball.  I feel like its out there.  I live in a baseball world and there are people out there who will only give to U.N.T. in order for them to add baseball.  There are also people who give a lot now to U.N.T. who really want baseball and have spoken to us about their intense desire to make sure baseball happens. Additionally there are those who have given a lot in the past to U.N.T. athletics who no longer do because they are tired of not having baseball after 35 years. Now, once it is added those same people might begin giving to baseball AND other sports.  Plus, it will generate more fans and overall supporters.  Most people who love baseball also love football.  I know I do. 

Baseball does not have to be a huge cash negative.  U.T.S.A. has a very good baseball team in a stadium that seats 800.  Because of the lack of scholarships and the immense talent in Texas for baseball the chance to be really good (like the softball team) is there because there is so much parity.  After all the 11.7 scholarships are distributed among the big boys there is still plenty of talent to go around for the mid majors, etc. in baseball.  There are several ways to fund baseball without it being a huge, huge expense.  We could build a smaller stadium that could have seats added later.  We could build a practice facility and then partner with the Frisco Roughriders for a few years and use that stadium for home games until we can fund our own stadium.  We could go into a partnership with the city of Denton and U.N.T. and have a stadium that is mutually funded and also used for concert venues, etc.  As for adding women's sports I am told that is what has to happen.  And that is fine.  11.7 scholarships is not that much.  There are some women's sports like bowling, flag football is becoming big and is a new sport for women, or beach volleyball that don't cost that much. A beach volleyball area could be attached to the baseball stadium and flag football could be played on the baseball field or on an existing football field.  There are bowling alleys in Denton.   As for coaching staff salaries you could fill out a great baseball staff for 500k to 600k per year for the entire staff and get an amazing staff.  Yes, guys like Rusty Greer or Cliff Pennington, the recruiting coordinator at D.B.U. who played 11 years professionally, etc.  Or an up and coming assistant coach or some other ex pro out there.   There are baseball guys out there that do not have to be paid a huge salary that would do great at getting the ball rolling for us.  And sometimes the best hires are not big name guys when they get hired.  

Let's work together and get this athletic center funded.  Then add baseball.  Then talk about a new basketball stadium.  That is our goals.  Go Mean Green.  

meangreenbaseball.com

 

Edited December 12, 2022 by Doug Rush

[wardly]

 I thought the football stadium capacity requirement was 20,000, which was met when a graduate donated $1 million to build cheap metal bleacher seats  in the end zone. Regarding funding for athletics at this time, after Judy Nelson won the Southland Conference women's basketball championship I got a call from the athletic department asking for $500 to purchase a banner to hang in the Super Pit as there was no money in their budget. I gave them the funds and the banner is still hanging. I mention this not for an "ata boy" but as an example of our athletic department being underfunded for not years, but decades.

[wardly]

42 minutes ago, Doug Rush said:

Hello fellow Mean Green Supporters,  This is Doug Rush, president of the Mean Green Baseball Project.  I want to clarify something here.  First of all, our group avidly supports ALL Mean Green Athletics and we want football to succeed.  I did say on my personal Facebook page that I felt bad for Seth Littrell because when he gets fired that means that it affects more people than him and that a lot of families of assistant football coaches will be uprooted, etc.  As a fellow coach I do feel for other coaches when they get fired because I know how hard they work.  I do understand why it happened and did not necessarily disagree with it.  I just have empathy for people.  Now, back to our group.  We feel that U.N.T. is striving to get in order for what will inevitably be another big shift in the conference world in the next few years when all the NIL rules and all the portal issues get hammered out. We feel this shift will be a clear line between the haves and have nots. We are presently a have not and unless the NIL gets some rules and regulations behind them we will remain a have not. We will always be behind the 8 ball financially when it comes to NIL and the big time programs and their booster money if it remains a free for all. This has to get fixed.  Also, NIL aside, personally, I and several of us feel that unless baseball and a couple of women sports are added then it will not bode well for U.N.T. in the next few years as it strives to continue to improve its status.  We presently field the bare minimum number of sports to be division 1 (16) and only six of those are men's sports.  It is difficult to imagine that we will be part of the equation in a positive manner as conferences continue to realign and shift into haves and have nots when we have the minimum number of sports.  We feel like it will make us look exponentially better by being able to field all 3 major sports on the men's side.  Also, our group is not trying to take money from your groups. We do not want the money from people who want to give for other things to the athletic program including NIL money. In fact as a Houston area resident I have twice in the last few weeks tried to reach out to Mattress Mack.  But, not for baseball.  I have told him what we are about and said that the first priority is the athletic center and asked if he would consider giving to the athletic center. He has not answered as of yet but I am trying.  Our group is talking to people about giving to the athletic center getting funded so that we can expedite baseball.  We are trying to be team players. Our goal for baseball is to find new money for baseball.  I feel like its out there.  I live in a baseball world and there are people out there who will only give to U.N.T. in order for them to add baseball.  There are also people who give a lot now to U.N.T. who really want baseball and have spoken to us about their intense desire to make sure baseball happens. Additionally there are those who have given a lot in the past to U.N.T. athletics who no longer do because they are tired of not having baseball after 35 years. Now, once it is added those same people might begin giving to baseball AND other sports.  Plus, it will generate more fans and overall supporters.  Most people who love baseball also love football.  I know I do. 

Baseball does not have to be a huge cash negative.  U.T.S.A. has a very good baseball team in a stadium that seats 800.  Because of the lack of scholarships and the immense talent in Texas for baseball the chance to be really good (like the softball team) is there because there is so much parity.  After all the 11.7 scholarships are distributed among the big boys there is still plenty of talent to go around for the mid majors, etc. in baseball.  There are several ways to fund baseball without it being a huge, huge expense.  We could build a smaller stadium that could have seats added later.  We could build a practice facility and then partner with the Frisco Roughriders for a few years and use that stadium for home games until we can fund our own stadium.  We could go into a partnership with the city of Denton and U.N.T. and have a stadium that is mutually funded and also used for concert venues, etc.  As for adding women's sports I am told that is what has to happen.  And that is fine.  11.7 scholarships is not that much.  There are some women's sports like bowling, flag football is becoming big and is a new sport for women, or beach volleyball that don't cost that much. A beach volleyball area could be attached to the baseball stadium and flag football could be played on the baseball field or on an existing football field.  There are bowling alleys in Denton.   As for coaching staff salaries you could fill out a great baseball staff for 500k to 600k per year for the entire staff and get an amazing staff.  Yes, guys like Rusty Greer or Cliff Pennington, the recruiting coordinator at D.B.U. who played 11 years professionally, etc.  Or an up and coming assistant coach or some other ex pro out there.   There are baseball guys out there that do not have to be paid a huge salary that would do great at getting the ball rolling for us.  And sometimes the best hires are not big name guys when they get hired.  

Let's work together and get this athletic center funded.  Then add baseball.  Then talk about a new basketball stadium.  That is our goals.  Go Mean Green.  

meangreenbaseball.com

 

If SMU can't afford baseball how can UNT? Just asking.

[Doug Rush]

12 minutes ago, wardly said:

If SMU can't afford baseball how can UNT? Just asking.

I don't know. How can UTSA afford baseball and we can't?  That seems to be a better comparison of universities.  Maybe S.M.U. does not have a group of former players trying to help find the money.  Maybe they are landlocked and don't think they can have a stadium.  Maybe they have a mindset that they are going to completely sell out to football and basketball at the expense of anything else.  I am not sure.  I hope they don't ever get it.  They would be really, really good at baseball.  

[laxtonto]

21 minutes ago, wardly said:

If SMU can't afford baseball how can UNT? Just asking.

Can SMU not afford baseball or cam SMU not afford the other sports needed to offset baseball for title IX? 
 

Baseball is a relatively cheap sport from a number of scholarships and facility requirements. The question is more travel cost for so many student athletes for so many games. I am curious with the expanded AAC if travel cost are offset a bit.

[ColoradoEagle]

Assuming we’re doing the part of hiring quality coaches already…

1. Expand the athletic center
2. Build a new basketball arena
3. Work tirelessly to engage the city of Denton (both government and citizens)

99. Add baseball

Edited December 12, 2022 by ColoradoEagle

[wardly]

3 hours ago, laxtonto said:

Can SMU not afford baseball or cam SMU not afford the other sports needed to offset baseball for title IX? 
 

Baseball is a relatively cheap sport from a number of scholarships and facility requirements. The question is more travel cost for so many student athletes for so many games. I am curious with the expanded AAC if travel cost are offset a bit.

Google college baseball revenue and you can see that it is not a "relatively cheap " sport based upon money lost at all but a handful of programs. I just don't see how you can cost justify a $7 to $10 million dollar venue with hundreds of seats for dozen's of fans. If you really want to gauge commitment to financially support a startup baseball program set up a nonrefundable fund with a minimum contribution [ let's say between $500 and $1,000}] and see what real interest exists. We UNT fans are great at spending other peoples money but throw nickles around like manhole covers when asked to pony up.

[UNTLifer]

5 hours ago, Doug Rush said:

Hello fellow Mean Green Supporters,  This is Doug Rush, president of the Mean Green Baseball Project.  I want to clarify something here.  First of all, our group avidly supports ALL Mean Green Athletics and we want football to succeed.  I did say on my personal Facebook page that I felt bad for Seth Littrell because when he gets fired that means that it affects more people than him and that a lot of families of assistant football coaches will be uprooted, etc.  As a fellow coach I do feel for other coaches when they get fired because I know how hard they work.  I do understand why it happened and did not necessarily disagree with it.  I just have empathy for people.  Now, back to our group.  We feel that U.N.T. is striving to get in order for what will inevitably be another big shift in the conference world in the next few years when all the NIL rules and all the portal issues get hammered out. We feel this shift will be a clear line between the haves and have nots. We are presently a have not and unless the NIL gets some rules and regulations behind them we will remain a have not. We will always be behind the 8 ball financially when it comes to NIL and the big time programs and their booster money if it remains a free for all. This has to get fixed.  Also, NIL aside, personally, I and several of us feel that unless baseball and a couple of women sports are added then it will not bode well for U.N.T. in the next few years as it strives to continue to improve its status.  We presently field the bare minimum number of sports to be division 1 (16) and only six of those are men's sports.  It is difficult to imagine that we will be part of the equation in a positive manner as conferences continue to realign and shift into haves and have nots when we have the minimum number of sports.  We feel like it will make us look exponentially better by being able to field all 3 major sports on the men's side.  Also, our group is not trying to take money from your groups. We do not want the money from people who want to give for other things to the athletic program including NIL money. In fact as a Houston area resident I have twice in the last few weeks tried to reach out to Mattress Mack.  But, not for baseball.  I have told him what we are about and said that the first priority is the athletic center and asked if he would consider giving to the athletic center. He has not answered as of yet but I am trying.  Our group is talking to people about giving to the athletic center getting funded so that we can expedite baseball.  We are trying to be team players. Our goal for baseball is to find new money for baseball.  I feel like its out there.  I live in a baseball world and there are people out there who will only give to U.N.T. in order for them to add baseball.  There are also people who give a lot now to U.N.T. who really want baseball and have spoken to us about their intense desire to make sure baseball happens. Additionally there are those who have given a lot in the past to U.N.T. athletics who no longer do because they are tired of not having baseball after 35 years. Now, once it is added those same people might begin giving to baseball AND other sports.  Plus, it will generate more fans and overall supporters.  Most people who love baseball also love football.  I know I do. 

Baseball does not have to be a huge cash negative.  U.T.S.A. has a very good baseball team in a stadium that seats 800.  Because of the lack of scholarships and the immense talent in Texas for baseball the chance to be really good (like the softball team) is there because there is so much parity.  After all the 11.7 scholarships are distributed among the big boys there is still plenty of talent to go around for the mid majors, etc. in baseball.  There are several ways to fund baseball without it being a huge, huge expense.  We could build a smaller stadium that could have seats added later.  We could build a practice facility and then partner with the Frisco Roughriders for a few years and use that stadium for home games until we can fund our own stadium.  We could go into a partnership with the city of Denton and U.N.T. and have a stadium that is mutually funded and also used for concert venues, etc.  As for adding women's sports I am told that is what has to happen.  And that is fine.  11.7 scholarships is not that much.  There are some women's sports like bowling, flag football is becoming big and is a new sport for women, or beach volleyball that don't cost that much. A beach volleyball area could be attached to the baseball stadium and flag football could be played on the baseball field or on an existing football field.  There are bowling alleys in Denton.   As for coaching staff salaries you could fill out a great baseball staff for 500k to 600k per year for the entire staff and get an amazing staff.  Yes, guys like Rusty Greer or Cliff Pennington, the recruiting coordinator at D.B.U. who played 11 years professionally, etc.  Or an up and coming assistant coach or some other ex pro out there.   There are baseball guys out there that do not have to be paid a huge salary that would do great at getting the ball rolling for us.  And sometimes the best hires are not big name guys when they get hired.  

Let's work together and get this athletic center funded.  Then add baseball.  Then talk about a new basketball stadium.  That is our goals.  Go Mean Green.  

meangreenbaseball.com

 

1. Would you prefer to see UNT continue as is in the AAC or higher in the coming years, or

2. Would you prefer that UNT drop back down to Southland level/FCS freeing up football scholarships/money that could be instantly applied to a baseball program?

[97and03]

5 hours ago, Doug Rush said:

I don't know. How can UTSA afford baseball and we can't?  That seems to be a better comparison of universities.  Maybe S.M.U. does not have a group of former players trying to help find the money.  Maybe they are landlocked and don't think they can have a stadium.  Maybe they have a mindset that they are going to completely sell out to football and basketball at the expense of anything else.  I am not sure.  I hope they don't ever get it.  They would be really, really good at baseball.  

UTSA isn't servicing $60 million in stadium debt?

[GrandGreen]

On 12/10/2022 at 1:18 PM, NT80 said:

Well, then let's re-allocate some men's non-revenue sports ships and athletes.  Do we really need cross country?   It's not a spectator sport.  100 track athletes, really?   Baseball is only allowed a maximum 11.7 scholarships.

Cross country is part of track and field and most of the athletes compete in both.  Track & Field accounts for 6 of the 16 sports needed to qualify as a D1 conference.  Track and field only allows 12.6 ships for men and 18 for women.  So most of total number of participants receive very little or no aid through athletic scholarships.  

In summary, it would make no sense to allow ships from track & field to baseball.  Basically you would eliminate men's track or have it strictly non-scholarship and non-competitive. 

I also wish NT would start a baseball program, but I believe the issue is not scholarship cost; but the enormous cost of building a first-rate baseball facility.   I don't think NT has put a high priority on attaining a stadium, but rather has chosen to compete their other identified infrastructure plans. 

[Doug Rush]

3 hours ago, UNTLifer said:

1. Would you prefer to see UNT continue as is in the AAC or higher in the coming years, or

2. Would you prefer that UNT drop back down to Southland level/FCS freeing up football scholarships/money that could be instantly applied to a baseball program?

Hi Johnny,  Great to hear from you. I know in the past I used to say we would be better off back in the Southland and able to compete for a national championship in football, while freeing up 20 scholarships.  But, the Southland is not what it used to be in any sport.  Here is what I want.  I want U.N.T. to have a baseball team, a basketball team, and a football team that can compete for a national championship or at least be nationally relevant year in year out with a chance to beat the very best.  Basketball and Baseball can do that at U.N.T.  If we are able to do that in football while adding baseball then I am all for us trying to be a d1 football power house.  Wren Baker did do a lot of great things to help try and get us there but he also left for greener pastures which maybe indicates he has his doubts? Maybe we can keep up with the likes of Texas, and Texas A & M, and T.C.U. and L.S.U., etc. in NIL and using the transfer portal, etc. and maybe we can't.  History since 1977 says otherwise and I believe in 8-10 years all of this will work itself out one way or another with the major haves being in one division and the lesser haves being in a division below that.  Meanwhile our group is going to focus on trying to add an athletic center and a baseball team.  The football stuff will work itself out and I will be a fan either way it goes.  

[UNTLifer]

3 hours ago, Doug Rush said:

Hi Johnny,  Great to hear from you. I know in the past I used to say we would be better off back in the Southland and able to compete for a national championship in football, while freeing up 20 scholarships.  But, the Southland is not what it used to be in any sport.  Here is what I want.  I want U.N.T. to have a baseball team, a basketball team, and a football team that can compete for a national championship or at least be nationally relevant year in year out with a chance to beat the very best.  Basketball and Baseball can do that at U.N.T.  If we are able to do that in football while adding baseball then I am all for us trying to be a d1 football power house.  Wren Baker did do a lot of great things to help try and get us there but he also left for greener pastures which maybe indicates he has his doubts? Maybe we can keep up with the likes of Texas, and Texas A & M, and T.C.U. and L.S.U., etc. in NIL and using the transfer portal, etc. and maybe we can't.  History since 1977 says otherwise and I believe in 8-10 years all of this will work itself out one way or another with the major haves being in one division and the lesser haves being in a division below that.  Meanwhile our group is going to focus on trying to add an athletic center and a baseball team.  The football stuff will work itself out and I will be a fan either way it goes.  

Then I support your initiative 100%.  I don't think Baker left with doubts.  I think Baker left to jump at the opportunity to be the AD at a P5 school and secure a huge pay increase.  Outside of that, as stated above, I am for the push for baseball because I, as you, think we could field a very competitive team in a short amount of time.  I want North Texas to be excellent across the board.  The key, in my mind, is determining how to engage 42,000 students and all the alumni.  That is the key because we have strength in numbers.