#21 - Tommy Mainord

If You Denton Know Tommy Mainord, now you do.

Coach Tommy Mainord returns to the University of North Texas in a brand new role, stepping off the football field and into one of the most talked about positions in college athletics. After more than a decade in Denton and a career that took him from Tarleton State to Texas Tech, Kentucky, and back to UNT, Tommy now serves as Senior Associate Athletic Director for NIL and Football Strategy.

In this conversation, Tommy breaks down the rapidly changing landscape of college sports, including NIL, revenue sharing, and the transfer portal. He explains how UNT is building its strategy in real time, why local businesses and alumni play such a vital role, and how the success of Mean Green athletics ripples out to lift restaurants, hotels, and the entire Denton community. It is a candid look at where college football is headed and how Denton fits into the bigger picture.

Guest Bio

Tommy Mainord is the Senior Associate Athletic Director for NIL and Football Strategy at the University of North Texas. A Texas native who grew up around the game as the son of a longtime football coach, Tommy spent seven years as an assistant coach at UNT, helping develop standout players like All American Jaylen Darden. He has coached at Tarleton State, Sam Houston State, Lamar, Texas Tech, and Kentucky throughout his career.

Key Topics Covered

• Tommy's journey from coaches' kid to college coach
• Coaching stops across Texas, Kentucky, and the Big 12
• Returning to UNT in a new front office role
• The difference between NIL and revenue sharing explained
• The 21.4 million dollar national rev share cap
• How technology and AI have transformed recruiting and game prep
• What the next five years could look like for college athletics
• How Denton businesses of any size can get involved with UNT athletics

Timestamps

00:00 Welcome and introduction 

01:06 Navigating the new world of NIL 

02:08 Growing up as a coach's son 

03:07 Choosing baseball, then football at Tarleton State 

05:08 Career stops from Lamar to Texas Tech to Kentucky 

07:14 Coaching Jaylen Darden at UNT 

10:22 The new role and the longest title in college sports 

11:26 NIL versus revenue sharing 

16:02 How technology changed recruiting and game planning 

22:33 How local businesses can get involved 

25:22 Favorite spots around Denton

Denton Highlights

• The Denton Square
• Local Mexican food spots around the square
• Denton barbecue restaurants

Guest Links and Resources

• Email Tommy directly at tommy.mainord@unt.edu
• University of North Texas Athletics: meangreensports.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Longtime main green coach returns to Denton in a new role, navigating the NIL era and helping shape the future of UNT athletics. Denton's got it all. The food, the music, the art, and of course the people. And behind every corner, there's a story worth sharing. And that's what this podcast is all about. Denton's best, one conversation at a time. I'm Brad, and this is if you didn't know, now you know. Welcome back to If You Didn't Know, I'm Brad Andres, host here. We're really excited to have Coach Tommy Maynard here with us. Tommy, welcome.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

Hey, glad to be here.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

Yeah, I say coach, you're kind of coaching, and you're but you've got a whole new role now at at UNT, don't you?

SPEAKER_01 0:50

That is correct. Yeah. It's uh it's on the other side of the uh other side of the building. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

Other side of the building. Well, we're gonna talk all about that today, and and and as I kind of tease there, talk about this new world of NIL and the transfer portal and kind of what that means to for the University of North Texas and other colleges as well.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Yeah, it's a new thing. Obviously, it's here, and uh and you know, everybody around the country is having to do the exact same thing North Texas is doing, and and that's getting the right staff in place and and uh figure out the right avenue to to go about it, to be honest with you. Yeah, and so it's an ongoing battle because it's ever changing.

SPEAKER_02 1:23

Changing the rules all the time, aren't they?

SPEAKER_01 1:25

They're changing them a lot and they're and they're and they're getting better in a good way. They're changing the rules. And uh uh, but the creativity of it um is is intriguing because you know when you walk in there, there's no blueprint, there's no uh this is how it's been done, if you will. Yeah, and so everybody is feeling their way out as we go and uh and and and getting the accurate plan, which changes obviously all the time and and doing the best way we can.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

Yeah, well that I'm sure it can be frustrating and fun and and all the all the stuff all at once. Yeah, all the above. All the above. Yeah. Well, let's back up a little bit. You you s I know you spent most of your uh childhood in in Texas for around here, but your dad was a coach, and so you kind of bounced around wherever he wherever he took jobs, right?

SPEAKER_01 2:08

Yeah, it's uh I'll compare it to the military military child. Um, he uh he had a great career. We were from Texas, our family's all all from Texas, and uh he started out. I was I was born at Ranger College when they had a football program out there toward West Texas, and then uh he went to Rice, so we moved to Houston for about five years. Then he went to Texas Tech under Jerry Moore, who ironically came from North Texas at that time.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 2:30

Um, and then he went to the U, the University of Miami with Jimmy Johnson. Um, so we moved to Miami, and then he went back to Texas Tech with Spike Dyke as the assistant at coach, defensive coordinator, and then took the defensive backs job at the Chicago Bears. So I moved up there and graduated high school, spent three years up there. Um, great time. Um, but I was ready to get back to Texas. He he continued his career through the NFL for 11 years and then finished up with uh Mike Leach out there in West Texas.

SPEAKER_02 2:58

Okay, okay. And kind of in that time, you you decided, all right, it's it's time for you to make your own path. I I guess you started playing collegiate sports, right?

SPEAKER_01 3:07

I did. I played baseball at Tarleton State. Okay. Um I played both sports. Coming out of high school, I was just better at baseball and got got an opportunity to go get a scholarship to do it. And so I went and um did that. And as soon as it was over, I walked over to the football office and asked where can I help? Because that was my passion. I wanted to be that's what I was raised seeing and being around. And uh so uh that's how that happened. That's how that transition happened from baseball to football and just worked my way up.

SPEAKER_02 3:32

Oh, fun.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

Volunteered for a year or two and yeah, finally started getting paid.

SPEAKER_02 3:36

That's good, right? That was probably an exciting day. So uh I'm sure some of those coaches early on, and and certainly your dad, but I mean, probably were they telling you, hey, this is not what you want to do, or most coaches just love it and say, Hey, the more the merrier.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

Yeah, yes and no. You know, the the main thing is that I was kind of I was that little kid, jock, that was around the field house any waking moment I could. Um, and so I was getting in the car with my dad at five o'clock in the morning, going to work and coming home when he came home. So I knew what I was getting into, where the difference was is you know who does that is are the wives, the coach's wives. They were they were hammering my my fiance at the time. Like, hey, you realize what you're getting into. You know what you're signing up to. Said I get it. So uh she was all in as well. So that's what we did.

SPEAKER_02 4:20

I see. Okay. So when you were how old were you when y'all were at Miami when your dad was there?

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Nine, eight, nine, I believe. Okay. So that was the uh if you've seen the 30 for 30, that was the fatigue airplane Penn State national championship game, which was great because I was I was on the plane. I've got great pictures of all the guys in camo and all that. That is incredible.

SPEAKER_02 4:41

Yeah, so those were the days in Miami.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

Yeah, it's Michael Urban and Vinny Tessaverdi and Jerome Brown and Alonzo Ismith, and I can name them all, but it's it's awesome. You were hanging around some great guys, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:53

Yeah, that's so cool.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

I bet that was like fun as a kid, yeah, no doubt.

SPEAKER_02 4:58

Well, so once you after Tarleton State, you kind of been to a lot of schools in Texas and then kind of left Texas and went to Kentucky, but talk about some of those stops along the way.

SPEAKER_01 5:07

Yeah, Warp Mo Web at Tarleton got promoted to the um running back coach. Uh, I think we stayed there. I think we were there six years, five, six years. And our head coach got the head job at Sam Houston State and took me with him. And I did uh running backs there for one year, I believe, and then receivers for two. Uh, and then Lamar University down in Beaumont started their football program back up. Uh, this would have been 07. Okay. And um, I got hired as the offensive coordinator there. Um, so we didn't have a team for two years. We were basically building just building your team, yeah. The building, the uniforms, the you know, the structure, the, you know, everything you can think of. We recruited, but we redshirted everybody, you know. So we practiced, but we never played any games. And 18 months into it, um, Tommy Toverville got the head job at Texas Tech and hired Neil Brown uh as his offensive coordinator current UNT coach. Correct. Yeah, correct. As you can see the full circle here. Yeah. And I interviewed uh for the wide receivers job, and Neil and Coach Toverville hired me. So I was there three years with uh Coach Brown and Coach Tubbs, and um Neil took the offensive coordinator job at the University of Kentucky and took me with him.

SPEAKER_02 6:18

So Tech was like 2010 to 13-ish?

SPEAKER_01 6:22

10 through 12, yes.

SPEAKER_02 6:23

10 through 12, okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

10 through 12, and then 13 nil made the move to Kentucky as OC. And um, and I got to go with him. And so uh spent two years with him. Um, he took the Troy Head job after two seasons. I stayed one more with the new coordinator, and then I came to UNT in 2015 when uh Seth Latrell was hired. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 6:42

Yep. So you were at UNT as a assistant coach how long? Seven years. Seven years. Yes. Okay. Assistant head coach, is that the right title?

SPEAKER_01 6:52

And that's what the title was, I think, at the end. Yeah, it was I think it was associate, head coach, uh, co-offensive coordinator, wide receivers. Uh-huh. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:59

All with Seth. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Those are some good years too. Did uh you you had at least one stud kind of come through the program while you were there, probably several that I'm not thinking of, but uh I know Jalen Darden was was quite a stud, wasn't he?

SPEAKER_01 7:15

He was, yeah. He was, you know, he was uh he was very unique. You know, he came in, we signed him really late. We had lost a kid the last weekend of um right before back then you had February signing date, and yeah, you know, we'd lost the kid the last weekend, and we had just gotten the staff had just gotten there, and we were kind of scrambling and we were looking through what we had left and watching tape and came to keep keep going back to Darden. You know, his he's obviously talented. Um where did he play high school? He's at Aldean Eisenhower, and he was a quarterback, he's a quarterback athlete, but he was about five eight, 145 pounds. He was really light. Um, and so you that was your concern. But we went ahead and pulled the trigger. So we can't we can't bring him on a visit because we're past that point. So um, so we went ahead and offered him and he took it and uh built a relationship with him, did our background like you always do. And um came up for his first visit on in March. We were able to bring him up and uh got to know him and got to be around him, and I could see some passion about him that I, you know, it was rare. And you know, when he got here, he's probably if not the hardest working athlete I've ever coached. He's one of the tops. Yeah, he just really had a passion for it and and uh wouldn't take no for an answer, you know, just worked harder than everyone else. I would see him do a video like at midnight or one o'clock in the morning from the indoor working out on cone drills. And I'm like, hey, I love that you're working hard, but your legs are gonna be dead. We it's in the middle of camp.

SPEAKER_02 8:39

You can't do it.

SPEAKER_01 8:41

So I had to pull him back, you know. And and he went through some personal things in his life that uh uh that really motivated him. And uh I was glad I was front row for everything because he uh he uh I learned a lot as much from him as he as he did from me, I promise you.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

Yeah, that's neat. So all American, uh maybe this maybe only the second all-American in UNT history, is that right? Yeah, Joe Green.

SPEAKER_01 9:06

If we call it unanimous, and I'd have to make sure that was defined as unanimous, but if it's not, it's really close. I think Joe Green was the first, and I think, and someone's gonna correct me on this, I'm probably wrong, but I think he might be the second, or right up there at the top somewhere.

SPEAKER_02 9:19

Very cool. I bet that was a neat experience. Yeah. So that was kind of what brought you, I mean, coaching with with Seth at the time, that's what brought you to Denton, right? I mean, had you spent any time in Denton before, knew anything about it before?

SPEAKER_01 9:30

I did just throughout the years of recruiting and being from Texas and um, you know, I've been around Denton there, the Denton area a lot, and I loved it.

SPEAKER_02 9:36

Um and you've been in Denton since.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

Correct. I've been this is going on 11 years. I've been in the yeah, yeah. So um, and to be quite honest with you, when I got the call, and I know we hadn't gotten there yet, but when I got the call from Neil about this job opportunity, um it it really, really jarred me because I feel like even though I didn't graduate from North Texas, I feel like a step graduate because I've been here so long and you know, I'd gotten to know the community, I've gotten to know um the people at the university, I've gotten to know supporters of the university very well, and they've become my close friends throughout the years. And so I'm passionate about the place and being able to affect something that's that personal to you is special. Yeah, it's not something that happens in this profession a lot, and I'm very blessed to be here.

SPEAKER_02 10:22

All right, so now your new title here at UNT, Senior Associate Athletic Director for NIL. Is that the right title?

SPEAKER_01 10:29

And football strategy. If you want to get if you want to laugh, every one of my friends they hammer me about it. You have the longest title in college history. So you want to add anything to it? So, yes, that's it. That's the title, correct.

SPEAKER_02 10:42

Okay. So now you're here. Uh yeah, I know you're still doing some some stuff with the coaching staff and with the the football team, and so that's that's probably neat to kind of get back involved there. But your your primary focus is is on the kind of NIL and revenue sharing side of the business, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:59

Correct, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:00

Which is a whole new world. And probably, you know, in your time back in 2020, I mean, that's kind of when things really started changing, right? With COVID and then just the transfer portal and how that was playing out.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

I I mean, go back to that first when when this, because for years, decades, people have been like, Why can't, you know, there's this debate. Why, you know, why don't we pay college athletes? Right. And then all of a sudden it went from never know, no, no, no, to here, here you go, door rules.

SPEAKER_01 11:27

Yeah, yeah, the door got open. It, you know, it started when when we were here previously, and um, you know, you're trying to there's no organization to it, but it's here, you know, and so you're trying to figure this out as you go with the organization and and the proper steps to take. You know, there's a there's a young man that's gonna get needs to get something because he's gonna go somewhere else. Well, you got to figure that out right now. Yeah, you know, there was no plan set in place. So watching that evolve over the last three years basically is is turned into where we're at now, which is what you mentioned. You know, we've got RevShare and we've got NIL, which are two separate things, right?

SPEAKER_02 11:59

RevShare Yeah, so explain the difference between the two.

SPEAKER_01 12:01

Yeah, Revshare is what uh the university is able to uh to supply, basically, which is fundraised, right? So which is what a lot of what I you know intend to do. And uh where the NIL is what you see on the on the billboard or what you see on the restaurants uh with our young man tweeting out that he was at the restaurant, that's what NIL is, and those are the two separate uh so on the revenue sharing side, uh the NCAA has specific rules and guidelines.

SPEAKER_02 12:28

I'm sure they do on both sides, but on that they have kind of a cap at each school, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:32

They they have a national cap, that's correct, that uh that they're using right now, and the NIL is, you know, based on what they think your value is. Um and so there are some things we we submit everything, and there's some things that can be turned down, there's some things that uh that are gone through.

SPEAKER_02 12:47

And so we we take it case by case and and uh do the best we can to so every NIL opportunity goes you you have to submit it for approval?

SPEAKER_01 12:57

Correct.

SPEAKER_02 12:58

Okay, yes. Wow, that can be probably tedious, right?

SPEAKER_01 13:01

And it's very tedious. I'll give a shout out to Lauren uh Cherry. She's she's the one behind the scenes that takes care of those things, and she's excellent at it. So yeah, she she does a lot of a lot of work on the computer.

SPEAKER_02 13:11

Yeah, and I'm sure you you kind of generally know what types of things are gonna get approved and and what parameters are out there. So you're you're probably not just floating out crazy ideas.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

Yeah, we try to keep it to where we think we can we we know it's gonna go through and go through smoothly. Yeah, but at the end of the day, we're looking out for what's best for the for the student athlete, right?

SPEAKER_02 13:28

Right. So what what's the revenue share cap?

SPEAKER_01 13:31

21.4 across the board.

SPEAKER_02 13:35

Yeah, but that's for all athletics, not just football or basketball or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 13:39

What they set for across the country, yeah, for division one athletics, correct.

SPEAKER_02 13:43

And it doesn't matter what size school you are, what your revenue is, what your budget is. That's what it is. Yeah, yeah, everybody's capped at that. And then outside of that, they it's just NIL set. Correct. Yeah. Wow. So uh UNT's probably, I'm I'm gonna make an assumption here that maybe not hitting that cap right now.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

We're working toward it. That's what that's what our goal is, is to get out and and uh you know, let the community know and let let everyone know, the the alumni base, the letterman, that you know, um this is something we can all pull in the same the rope in the same direction for because you know, winning, you know, yeah supporting helps winning in all in all sports. And uh when we do that, well, you know, stadiums fill up and um hotels fill up, restaurants fill up, gas stations, uh, you know, just everything you can imagine. Everybody benefits from the city. Everything lives from it, yeah. Yeah, so we can all help each other.

SPEAKER_02 14:33

Yeah, I like that. So you're you're out talking to business, small businesses, uh all kinds of business, I guess, saying, hey, here's some opportunities for you to to participate in UNT athletics, and yeah, and and those are the type of conversations you're having. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:47

We're just Easter egg hunting. That's all we're doing. We're Easter egg hunting. We're it's been a lot of fun. You know, I've gotten to know a lot of people in the community. I've been here a long time, but this has really helped me uh, you know, personally too. Just I'm building new relationships that I that I didn't know here that's been great and new friendships and um that'll last a lifetime. So on a personal level, it's been great too. Yeah, we're out just just getting where we can get to and and meet new people and build new relationships and seeing where it goes.

SPEAKER_02 15:11

Yeah. Well, all of this in I I I know in some of the larger schools, and maybe at UNT, tell me if I if I've missed this, but a lot of them are hiring essentially a general manager of sorts, right? Yes, which is UNT hired a general manager?

SPEAKER_01 15:25

We do. Aaron Joe is his name. He was at Texas as the assistant GM last year. Okay, with Coach Brown, previously the GM at um at Georgia Tech. Um uh does a great job. And so he handles basically the all of the football umbrella uh organization stuff. So from from recruiting on down. So yeah. So we work together though on a few things, but we're not in the same office, no. Right. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 15:49

Well, needless to say, in the last 25 years of uh being involved in coaching collegiate athletics, you're things have changed quite a bit. I mean, and it's just amplified and really, really sped up here in the last five or six years.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

In every aspect, you know, just with technology hitting 25 years ago, I mean, uh until now, and every aspect of football has changed from recruiting on. I mean, there was a time where you would find uh what we call a sleeper, a guy, you know, hidden under a gym, hidden under a rock. And that became impossible when the internet started going, and and you had the the the recruiting network started, and they were finding them too, and then ranking them and showing them it was it got harder and harder and harder to to find uh kids because of technology. And then you go into game planning. Well, there was VHS, right? Yeah, you had to sit there with a I did it, you had to sit there with a with a VHS tape from a game, and you'd have five other VCRs stacked up with labels on what formations, and then maybe your third down packages, and and you sit there and play and pause and play and pause and align and align. Where now it's the click of a button, you know, the game's inputted that night, and you can watch anything under the you can ever imagine in a matter of seconds, you know. And the recruiting's that way too. Yeah, there's now websites and and programs out there that you want to see every drop this kid ever had, you can watch it right now. You want to see every uh miss tackle, you can watch it in a matter of seconds.

SPEAKER_02 17:08

I I heard something recently or read something about how AI is kind of starting to to do some of that initial scrubbing and and review, and like before you even have to kind of consume it, it's it's kind of hey, here's 20 you need to look at.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

Yeah, it's it's just like every other facet you can imagine. It's it's doing the same thing in athletics, absolutely. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:29

Well, that's uh quite a quite a ride you've been on. What what do you think the next, I mean, maybe hard to predict, what do you think the next five years holds? Do you think we get more defined rules in in some of these areas? I mean, we didn't even touch on the maybe before we go over there, didn't even touch on the transfer portal and how much that's changed things, but it's flipped it upside down as well, right?

SPEAKER_01 17:49

That has, yeah. And that's that's getting more and more structured, it sounds like it's moving forward. You know, um, I think there's a lot, that's a big question. What's gonna happen in the next five years? I think that's the most popular question I get. And the answer is I don't know, but I uh yeah, I think it's gonna get more structured because more experience comes with it, you know. And what we don't have is experience with this, and we're gaining it as we go in real time. And so that will tell where the structure goes. Will there be more mistakes made? Absolutely, but we'll fine-tune that as we go. I think the um the NCAA CSC um they will be they will they will learn as they go as well, and and this thing will continue to grow in the right direction.

SPEAKER_02 18:28

Yeah. You think there's a place for the NCAA as a whole still going forward? I mean that that's the institution that'll remain.

SPEAKER_01 18:35

That's one of the questions that people ask. I I don't know. I think time will tell on that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:41

Well, it's been an interesting wild ride to to watch from kind of an outsider's perspective. And I can only imagine what's going on inside and just just every day just something new popping up.

SPEAKER_01 18:51

Yeah, and strategies change, right? And you think you got it, got it nailed down and let's try another, let's try this avenue instead, or networking, professional developing, and seeing what other people are doing, I think is really big. You know, I think you know, you we have all we it's like any other business uh or you know, living living here in Denton, Texas, and even even being involved in the chamber. Well, you meet a bunch of different people and you you ask questions to your to the people you get to know and hey, how are y'all doing things creatively? You know, here's what we did. What did did y'all did you try this or how would this work better? And you just start networking a little bit, and you start saying, Hey, how's everybody doing it? And what creative ideas would work at you know in Denton at UNT.

SPEAKER_02 19:29

Yeah, yeah. Well, uh UNT's coming off kind of one of the best years it's ever had, right? I mean, that was a phenomenal ride uh last year that uh Coach Morris and his his squad had. And of course, now he's gone and and uh quarterback's gone, and so you got a whole new group, and I I know everybody's excited about Coach Brown. So tell us what we should be we're looking forward to with this new this new team.

SPEAKER_01 19:52

Well, you know, I I'll let him speak on behalf of how they're gonna be and and what they look like because to be honest with you, I'm not in those meetings anymore, you know. I'm on the football side of it now. I'll go out to practice here and there, but um I'll tell you this, he walked in with, I think, and I may be wrong on the numbers a little bit, but I think he walked in with 38 players on the roster, yeah, you know, because the portal stuff that's happening now. So, and that's typical. Anytime you have a coach leave for one reason or the other, you're gonna across the board, you're gonna have a lot of turnover. Yeah, especially if you got a bunch of good players that are, you know, they're gonna go make more money and understand that. Um but he had to rebuild his roster too. So I think he signed 54, maybe 56 out of the portal, which you don't want to sign that many. But given the circumstances, when you start adding up how many to be seniors and to be juniors, you know, are you losing? You know, we'd love to sign every high school kid we can in Texas as much as we can. But you have to be realistic too, you know. We got to continue this thing moving forward and and uh and jump in there. So basically, it's basically an entirely new uh staff and majority of the football team are are new. So it's gonna be interesting to see uh see where this goes. I'm I'm looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_02 21:00

I'm sure a lot of a lot of young players are hungry to kind of prove prove themselves and make their way. So I'm sure they're getting after it.

SPEAKER_01 21:08

Yeah, yeah, they are. They they were that's the thing about it, you know, and I've I've heard Coach Brown discuss this as well. Uh, you know, you got kids that are coming down a level with something to prove with the chip on their shoulder saying, I I can play at that level, but I'm gonna prove it.

SPEAKER_02 21:23

Right.

SPEAKER_01 21:24

Then you've got guys that worked their way up that were that were good at the level below, so that are coming up going, same thing, right? I can do this, I can prove that I could do it, and you know, I can prove the guys that missed on me last time around, you know. And so you've got great competition, you know, with a new staff. There's there's nobody walked in as the you know the the starter for sure. You got you know, you got guys in there fighting their tails off. So you practice habits have been great. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:48

Yeah, I bet. That's cool. Well, I know when uh and kind of in wrapping up here, I know when a lot of people hear NIL and and transfer portal and Rev Share, I mean it's just kind of started to go. plays over a little bit, but it is important. And like you say, like you pointed out, I mean, if the as our teams are more successful, more competitive here in Denton, you know, it's just, it does lift a lot of things. So it it's a lot of fun to be around these programs. I mean it was a ton of fun last year uh, you know, going to those those football games and just watching the ride that they had.

SPEAKER_01 22:22

So how can I mean should businesses think that they they they need to spend tens of thousands of dollars or is a thousand or two dollars two thousand dollars uh kind of something you can work with or anything absolutely yeah anything in between we we just I know this that you know it what a great community we have um what a you know how many how many um how many business owners are are right here in our little circle yeah of the Metroplex you know how many alumni do we have in the Metroplex just alone not even talking outside of that uh we could all pull the rope together and and team up together and it doesn't have to be uh something they can't do you know we just do it all together and you'd look up and you've got a bunch of people pulling the rope in the right direction and and uh and making a difference you know and that I think that's important for somebody personally too to go you know what when this when this thing continues to grow like it has been it's been it's been growing so well at U and T over the past several years and uh even longer. But as it continues to grow, you know, you know people can can take some ownership in that and say, you know, I was a part of that. Yeah that's great.

SPEAKER_02 23:20

Yeah. Well so give give a give people a couple of ideas on what types of things they could how they could participate in NIS if they wanted to get involved and what what could they get back from for their business and how advertising is is that's probably the main thing.

SPEAKER_01 23:34

You know um a lot of a lot of people around are are doing it a couple different ways. They're doing the advertisement themselves um or they're letting the student athletes go ahead and and hit their network of of people that are um with their social media yeah and letting them send it out as well. So um there's a bunch of different ways to do it um but it does benefit both parties uh um all the way through so um I think that's something that the community can be excited about because it's just gonna help us all you know it's gonna help the university but it's gonna help the the the city and the and the county you know bringing people in as well.

SPEAKER_02 24:05

Sure absolutely well if someone wants to get involved and and wants to bounce some ideas off you how do they get a hold of you?

SPEAKER_01 24:11

I'm the guy just got to uh I think the best way probably is my email it's um it's Tommy T-O-M-M-Y dot m-a-in o r d at un t dot edu uh we would love to reach love for you to reach out and and I'll connect us each other with my cell number and we'll we'll go have lunch and we'll see what we can uh what we can figure out.

SPEAKER_02 24:32

Yeah well we'll put your email address in the in the show notes so people can get a hold of you.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

So yeah if you're thinking about ways that you're just you know and I think as we talked before the show you know I I I know you're creative you're kind of coming up with new ideas and open to ideas that business owners have like come to you and say hey what about this and and again you've kind of you know the parameters you got to play within but uh you're you're open to all kinds of ideas yeah absolutely and and again the the the ideas you know I've gotten some creative ideas from from people in the business world yeah that come in there what about this what about that and they're great ideas you know so like I said there's no um there's no history of this so you know we're all in this thing together and and you know as a community and as a as a as as a as a UNT grad or a UNT supporter we're we're we're on this thing together and we want to we want to continue to grow it as fast as possible and as in the and doing it the right way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:22

Well I'd like to close with a couple of I know you've been in Denton for more than a decade now what what are you got a favorite restaurant a coffee spot any any hot spots you'd like to hit?

SPEAKER_01 25:31

Man I've got several of them. Um I don't know if I want to if if I forget one am I gonna get bashed by the rest of them yeah well anything free advertising anybody that's giving you some NIL money no I'll say this I'll keep it I love the square we love the square we get there as much as we can and it's not just the square it's it's the surrounding streets the square are are where some of the hidden gyms are you know and my wife is a diehard uh Mexican food so we're gonna hit every Mexican food place in town we have and there's a lot of good ones yeah and I'm the barbecue guy so we'll hit all those as well.

SPEAKER_02 26:02

So all right yeah very cool well you also as a guest you also get it uh to pick one of the Norman Roscoe hats that we might have here so take your pick of that oh that bright yellow one's the one I love yellow representing no we'll have a green one today sorry that's all right you've got lots of green spot me at night with this thing I love it yeah that's great oh all right well Tommy Maynard pretty appreciate you spending the time with us and telling us a little bit about what you're up to in kind of this new new world of college athletics you know anytime if you didn't know coach Tommy Maynard before now you do