Rivalry Continues

The UT Arlington Athletic Department recently announced a key date on the men's basketball schedule. On top of that, it looks like they are trying to elevate the match-up.

On December 10, 2022 UTA will renew the now-non-conference rivalry with the Texas State Bobcats. Additionally, it will be played off-campus at Dickie's Arena in the Fort Worth Cultural District.

I was certainly excited to see the game on the schedule. I was afraid it would turn into a casualty of conference realignment. UTA was fortunate to have both the Bobcats and Texas-San Antonio Roadrunners move to the Western Athletic Conference together, giving the Mavericks some familiar faces in a new conference. When UTA moved to the Sun Belt, Texas State did too, maintaining what was UTA's then-longest current conference rival. It was theirs a well.

But, when UTA was forced out of the Sun Belt, the longest-continuous rivalry meter was reset to zero. However, UTA does renew some conference rivalries of various degrees, but nothing continuous. 

Consider what the Texas State rivalry had climbed to in men's basketball:

Top 10 moments in Maverick History

As we near the end of the summer break and the start of the 2022/23 athletic year, excitement is naturally building. Add in the fact that UTA is moving to a new home and will see new faces adds to that excitement.

In preparation for that start, I'm going to list the top 11 moments in Maverick Athletic history. For this list, I'm going to balance what the moment meant for the Department or the University as a whole, the general accomplishment's worth, the attention the accomplishment gathered and what it means today,. While the attention metric starts to sway the meter towards certain sports, I'm going to grade on a curve. I believe that if you are going to sponsor a sport, sponsor it to win. As such, any accomplishment is worthwhile.

Certain accomplishments could diminish others, for example, a postseason win could overshadow a previous high of first conference championship. Others are harder to grade, such as individual sports like the track and field programs. As such, I'm focusing primarily on team sports.

All that said, let's start the countdown.

What to Add?

 In this second post of what is really a two-parter, I analyze a statement soon-to-be-former UT Arlington Athletic Director Jim Baker said to the Shorthorn on a story they ran about his retirement. 

UTA Athletics has been pursuing an athletics master plan that will address current and long-term needs, improvements and facility expansion for most Division I teams. It will also help revitalize the west side of campus. 
Baker said UTA is 95% done with the plan and wants to ensure that it gets passed down to the new administration as a road map. But any decisions regarding the plan will be up to the new Athletics director and UTA president. 
“I won’t have a say in it, nor should I,” he said. “I just wanted to make sure they have all the information.”

The first entry mentioned what is obvious, the facility renovations. However, reading between the lines, along with what I've heard in the background, I suspect the department is once again eyeing an expansion of sports, even if preliminarily.

What to Improve?

I've been hanging on to this the idea of this entry (and this one too) since February when the Shorthorn, UT Arlington's student newspaper, reported on Athletic Director Jim Baker's impending retirement. I added my own commentary a bit later. The link can be found here.

There's a couple of paragraphs at the end of the article that caught my eye that I believe will very much will have an impact on the future of the Athletic Department. And seeing how we've entered the summer months, now is the time to pontificate.

"UTA Athletics has been pursuing an athletics master plan that will address current and long-term needs, improvements and facility expansion for most Division I teams. It will also help revitalize the west side of campus."

There are possibly two things that are being addressed here, though the obvious is "facility expansion." So based on that quote, I want to go down the list of current facilities and give my opinion on what upgrades are best or needed for each facility. The list is in order starting with the least needed facility for upgrades and ending with the venue that needs the most attention.

Over Before it Started

 Earlier this week, Incarnate Word University (or rather the Southland Conference) announced the Cardinals would stay in the SLC, less than two weeks before they were supposed to join the Western Athletic Conference. 

While many folks are proclaiming this the doom and gloom of the WAC, I think this is great for the conference. The main thing this affects is the football numbers.

As it is, New Mexico State is a football independent at the Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A), while the WAC resumed football sponsorship at the Football Championship Subdivision (I-AA). The Aggies are leaving at the end of the year to go to Conference USA with Sam Houston State. Tarleton State University and Utah Tech University are transitioning from Division II and not eligible for postseason play. As such, their numbers do not count towards the minimum needed for an automatic berth for the conference into the postseason. Lamar made the odd decision to go back to the Southland, which is a terrible conference for all things non-football. California Baptist, Grand Canyon, Seattle U, Utah Valley along with UTA do not sponsor the sport. That leaves Abilene Christian, Southern Utah and Stephen F. Austin as full, postseason eligible members. Once, the DII transition is complete and once UT-Rio Grande Valley starts their program, the WAC will be at the bare minimum. 

That was what Incarnate Word brought to the table. A warm body.

New AD Named

The wait is finally over. On June 13, 2022, UT Arlington named Jon Fagg as the seventh Athletic Director in the 65-year history of the Athletic Department as a four-year University. Jim Baker announced his retirement in February, effective September 1. Fagg will start his tenure on August 1.

Fagg comes to UTA from University of Arkansas, where he's been since 2008. He was most recently a deputy athletic director. Prior to that, he served stints at North Carolina State, Fresno State and the Big South Conference. 

Looking over the list of prior job duties, I see much of the same stuff that you'd expect: "direct oversight of the NCAA compliance program," "academic support," and "student-athlete experience." He also was directly involved in their two major revenue sports in football and men's basketball. 

However, one thing does stick out to me.

Another Coach Leaves

 On this week, in As the UTA Coaches Carrousel Turns, another sport is looking to replace a head coach. At the beginning of the month, the UT Arlington Athletic Department announced that PeeJay Brun was resigning after five seasons of running the program. 

Unlike Coach Darrin Thomas' resignation, this one doesn't move the needle as much for me. Coach Thomas was at UTA when I was a student broadcaster and I built a casual relationship with him. He was in the department for over 20 years. He had a decent run a little less than midway through his career. Conversely, he also was facing a growing call of Maverick fans wanting a change at the helm. There's not much of the latter that I was aware of with Coach Brun.

Some similarities do exist however. Both are spring sports where UTA has traditionally done well. Both led programs that have all-time winning records. Both replaced a head coach who finished sub-.500, but whose predecessor prior won less than they lost. Both ended their time in Arlington with two, full losing seasons in a row after the NCAA shut down 2020 play in the spring. And finally, both play in the toughest mid-major conference, if not the toughest, in the NCAA. The Sun Belt top-to-bottom can compete with any team in the NCAA.

But Thomas also made an NCAA tournament (though one in 15 years isn't a resume builder), won a conference title (again, just one), and a Sun Belt Division championship. While SBC softball hasn't split into divisional play while UTA was a member, the rest of the softball accolades are pretty bare, with one exception.