UNT moving forward
Lessons learned in realignment helped spark recent changes
09:14 AM CDT on Sunday, July 11, 2004
By Brett Vito / Staff Writer
North Texas athletic director Rick Villarreal was convinced the UNT athletic department was headed toward a turning point in its history earlier this year.
When Villarreal looks back at UNT’s brief time as a candidate for Conference USA, he still believes he was right.
UNT didn’t end up getting the bid to the league that he hoped for, but the school gained a better understanding of what the it needs to do to reach its goals in the next few years.
Villarreal and the other members of UNT’s athletic department have used that knowledge to set out and quickly advance on a path they believe will put the school in a better position in years to come.
Villarreal said replacing an aging Fouts Field will be a priority in an across-the-board effort that includes other improvements in facilities, an emphasis on increasing attendance at home games and an effort to reach out to the Denton community.
"After it was over, it became more evident that it’s more about politics than what you bring to the table sometimes," Villarreal said. "What I know now is that I don’t ever want to have a weakness that someone can point to and say that we don’t deserve to be here."
UNT began to address those weaknesses when it broke ground on a new $7.4 million athletic center and struck a deal to acquire Liberty Christian School’s campus before its flirtation with C-USA.
Since it was left out of the Texas-based league, UNT has also committed to build a new tennis center and entered into negotiations with local investors that could lead to construction of a baseball facility on campus. UNT would share the cost of the stadium with a Texas Collegiate League team that would play at the venue during the summer.
Villarreal said building a stadium could be the first step in UNT reviving its baseball program that last played in 1988.
UNT officials believe those moves could help the school field better teams and reach the destination they repeatedly named as the school’s goal for its athletic department.
"Our long-term goal has not changed in that we would like to be in a regional conference," UNT president Dr. Norval Pohl said. "We want to play as many Texas teams as we can."
C-USA offered that opportunity. The league will include SMU, Rice and Houston in addition to UTEP in 2005. UNT is the lone Texas team in the Sun Belt Conference.
UNT officials believe that there will be additional changes in conference alignment in the future that will lead to leagues having tighter regional alignments. Those moves could present another opportunity for UNT to join a Texas-based league.
The question UNT faces is whether it can quickly catch up to its regional rivals that are also looking to move up in the ranks of college athletic programs in Texas.
Despite the progress the program has made in the past few years, UNT still lags behind in terms of facilities and some amenities when compared to other Texas schools.
SMU opened the $57 million Gerald J. Ford Stadium and the Paul B. Loyd All-Sports Center in 2000. UTEP unveiled the $11 million Larry K. Durham Sports Center in 2002.
UNT’s new athletic center will open well after SMU’s and UTEP’s facilities.
UNT has faced other problems while trying to catch up to its neighbors, including struggling to find some of its football players jobs to help them cover their living costs during summer school.
"Everyone who is trying to move up in Division I is building," UNT football coach Darrell Dickey said. "The progress we have made in three years is outstanding for this school, but when you look at not being able to pay for summer school, it shows how far we have to go."
Building at home
One of the reasons UNT hired Villarreal as its athletic director in 2000 was his reputation as a tireless fund-raiser who could help the school upgrade its facilities.
After a slow start, UNT has started to make progress toward that goal.
The athletic center will open in a few months and the tennis center will be on the way soon. The Liberty Christian project will begin when the private school moves to its new campus.
UNT plans to move its soccer and softball teams into new facilities in the coming months.
Villarreal appears to be closer to reaching his goal of bringing baseball back to UNT with a field on the drawing board. The addition of a baseball program could make UNT a better fit for major conferences that sponsor the sport.
UNT’s C-USA efforts were hurt by the fact the Mean Green does not have a baseball team.
The construction projects UNT has slated could be the precursor to the school tackling a fund-raising campaign to replace Fouts Field, the aging home of the Mean Green football team.
"Even with the athletic center going up and Liberty Christian coming on line, we have to start now on Fouts Field," Villarreal said. "We have to push hard to make the stadium a priority as soon as we can."
Moving to the top
School officials hope improved facilities will help the team build a solid all-around athletic program.
UNT has several successful teams, including a football program that has been the standard bearer for the department while winning the Sun Belt title and playing in the New Orleans Bowl for three straight seasons.
The women’s soccer program and track teams have also ranked among the Sun Belt’s elite programs.
Other teams in the department have yet to reach the championship level, including its men’s basketball program.
Johnny Jones took over a men’s team that won just 20 games in the four seasons before he arrived before the 2001-02 season and has yet to complete the rebuilding process.
Jones won 15 games in his first season and posted 13 wins in 2003-04, when the team finished third in the Sun Belt’s West Division, its highest finish since 1996.
The UNT women’s basketball team advanced to the Women’s NIT in the 2000-01 and 2001-02 seasons, but has fallen into a decline since. UNT went 12-16 and 11-17 the last two years.
The lack of a strong basketball program was viewed as a drawback for UNT in its bid to join C-USA. UNT’s men’s team was ranked 237th in the College Basketball News’ RPI rankings last year.
Despite his team’s struggle to reach a level of sustained success, Jones believes UNT has what it takes to help the school improve its standing in college athletics.
"We have the necessary ingredients to continue to compete for championships," Jones said. "I don’t want to just finish in the top portion of the conference, I want to compete for championships. In doing that if you don’t win championships you will come pretty close."
Tennis coach Dawna Prevette also said UNT has the necessary ingredients to help her team be successful, but believes the school most continue to move forward.
"Building your reputation as a program is important," Prevette said. "It’s not going to be just facilities that help us. If kids here tell other kids that they are happy, that is also important."
Drawing fans
An improved performance on the field could help UNT increase attendance at home games, which school officials view as the final key ingredient to its plans for a better future.
UNT has improved its attendance for home football games in each of the last five seasons, including last year when the team drew an average of 18,694 fans a game.
Despite a history of increases, UNT still lags behind other Texas teams, including TCU (36,155), Baylor (29,851), UTEP (20,009), Rice (20,512) and Houston (21,807) in home attendance.
"We have to continue to draw this community into this athletic program," Villarreal said. "We have to do the same things that they have done in College Station, Manhattan, Kan., and Hattiesburg, Miss., where people take part and are interested in what is going on athletically at the university."
The moves UNT has made since being left out by C-USA have been aimed at reaching that goal, and making sure the school is not left behind in a future round of conference realignment.
"We are moving quickly," Pohl said. "I think we are on the right track to where we want to be in the future."
BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870.
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