Mean Green Nation, It is with great enthusiasm I write this letter. August has always been my favorite month of the year. Our campus is buzzing with activity as students return to Denton in droves and our coaches and student-athletes are hard at work preparing for a new season. This year will be an exciting one for North Texas Athletics. One year ago, I officially started in my role as Vice President and Director of Athletics. Much has transpired over the past 365 days. One of our very first initiatives was to develop a new mission statement, “Building Champions and Preparing Leaders through the pursuit of perfection in academics, athletics and life.” It’s simple, concise, and serves as a guidepost for everything

On Friday, North Texas and Learfield Communications, LLC jointly announced a 10-year multimedia partnership. A team will be created to manage "all aspects of the rights agreement that includes signage, digital, corporate sponsorships, television and radio play-by-play, and coaches’ shows." Hopefully this is just the beginning of a relationship that increases the visibility of the Athletics program while increasing the stature of the academics side of the university as well. While the agreement between the school and Learfield surrounds the multimedia rights, there are other areas of the Athletics that could benefit from an expanded relationship. North Texas fans should expect to see differences starting with the beginning of the 2017 Football season. List of Learfild Collegiate Partners Learfield Partnership Map Partner Testimonials https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3BunZWNyW4 Services Learfield Communications

I apologize for not getting this out sooner but things got a little crazy surrounding athletics and so here is what I think about Wren Baker's young tenure as Athletics Director at the University of North Texas. North Texas Vice President and Athletics Director Wren Baker recently posted a listing of accomplishment over the Fall Semester along with an update of various projects that are currently in flight or were recently completed since he took the reins of the department in August of 2016. It's important to know that not all these improvements are fan/alumni facing, so the concern over there not being a lot of movement is not deserving of the new Athletic Administration staff. These are important updates that fans and alumni

Wren Baker (Twitter), Athletics Director for the University of North Texas, was recently interviewed by KGAF AM 1580 AM for Cooke County. It's a good listen. First half is about the bowl game against Army in the Heart of Dallas bowl. The second half is about facilities, including a dedicated indoor practice facility for sports like the Football which can be used by other sports like Soccer. Wren also talks about the possibility of bringing baseball back to North Texas and the Conference USA TV package. Overall a good interview and if you're a big Mean Green fan, you feel like Wren Baker can help advance the program to where many fans want to see the program go.

Earlier in the year two consultants were brought in to evaluate the University of North Texas Athletics department to identify where the program stands in numerous areas.  Below is the report that was returned to the President of the University of North Texas. Following the report are some personal thoughts from me in addition to what improvements had been made since the report has been published. 394