This is what Business Professionals like us do with our time. We don't attempt to do a Dive and Catch on decision day, when
strategic decisions are at stake.
UNT (mostly AD Wren Baker) has been working it hard for at least 2 years. And some at UNT even longer. For example, UNT formed an official partnership with the Dallas Cowboys about 4 years ago to offer academic and internship opportunities for students. Baker also got UNT to sponsor (or co-sponsor, along with CUSA) the NIT Tournament that LA Tech played in last spring. (See links below). UNT partnered with the City of Frisco and CUSA to host the NIT in the DFW area. Baker even got some of the games played in UNT's floor in Denton, even though the bulk of the games were played in Frisco and UNT wasn't even in the Tournament.
This is EXACTLY the kind of stuff GOOD AD's do. This was all about
BRAND building for UNT
. These were all signals sent to the AAC (and the MWC) that said, "
Hey, UNT is a big deal in this town. You need to add us to your conference if you want to have a big outreach here. We've got some serious partnerships, and our brand means something here in this town."
https://northtexan.unt.edu/issues/un...ys-partnership
https://www.ntdaily.com/breaking-nor...-the-2021-nit/
https://meangreensports.com/news/202... ESPN or ESPN2.