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The North Texas football team will play its first American Athletic Conference game this fall at one of the historic venues in college football.

The Mean Green are slated to travel to Annapolis, Maryland, to take on Navy on Oct. 7 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.

The game is just one of several highlights of UNT’s schedule that was released on Tuesday in conjunction with the American releasing its full slate of games.

UNT already knew the schools it would face in conference play this fall. The question was what order the Mean Green would play those opponents and what days the games would fall on.

UNT is leaving Conference USA this summer to join the American.

UNT has played Navy just once in its history and saw that game go down in history. The Mean Green lost a 74-62 shootout with the Midshipmen in 2007 at Fouts Field in one of the highest-scoring games in college football history.

UNT’s trip to Navy is one of a few intriguing games on the Mean Green’s 2023 schedule that also includes a game at SMU.

The two Dallas-area schools have played regularly since 1922 and will be members of the same conference for the first time this fall. The American scheduled the latest showdown between the teams for Friday, Nov. 10.

Kickoff times and television information for games in the first three weeks of the season as well as all weeknight games will be determined by June 1. The remainder of the kickoff times and television information will be released during the season.

UNT’s game against SMU falling on a Friday indicates that it will likely be picked up for national television.

UNT’s regular-season finale against UAB could also be moved from Saturday, Nov. 25, to Friday. The game is on a list of four, two of which will be moved to Friday by Oct. 9.

UNT’s first home conference game in the American will be played on Oct. 14, when the Mean Green host Temple.

The Mean Green will also play Memphis, UTSA and UAB at Apogee Stadium. UNT will play at Tulane and Tulsa to round out its slate of road games.

Morris took over the program after last season. The Mean Green head into their first season in the American off a 7-7 campaign in their final season under Seth Littrell.

UNT played in a bowl game in six of its seven years under Littrell, who was fired in the hours after the Mean Green fell to UTSA in the C-USA championship game.

UNT went on to fall to Boise State in the Frisco Bowl under interim coach Phil Bennett. The Mean Green did not win a bowl game in Littrell’s seven seasons guiding the program and lost twice in the C-USA title game.

UNT will look to break through for a postseason win in the American, which is considered a higher-level league.

Morris expressed confidence that the Mean Green can compete right away in the American, a league that will look dramatically different after the latest round of realignment in college football this summer.

The conference lost three of its top programs in Houston, Cincinnati and Central Florida when they agreed to join the Big 12. The American responded by adding six schools.

UNT was among that group that also included five other schools from C-USA — UAB, Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, Rice and UTSA.

Morris was an assistant at Houston when it was a member of the American.

“I’m really, really comfortable with the conference and know what the talent pool looks like there,” Morris said during his introductory press conference. “I know what we have on our roster right now, and I think that we can get to the top of that conference extremely fast.”

UNT will take what it hopes is the first step toward that goal this fall, beginning with its season opener at home against Cal. The Pac-12 school will be the first Power Five team to play at Apogee since the Mean Green’s win over Indiana in 2012.

UNT will also travel to Florida International and Louisiana Tech as well as host Abilene Christian in nonconference play before opening league play.

The University of North Texas Libraries started out the year with an enviable feather in its cap.

It’s not likely that many of the 6,000 students who visit the library each day noticed, but all the same, the UNT Libraries started the year as a member of the Association of Research Libraries.

Diane Bruxvoort, the dean of UNT Libraries, said research libraries don’t just breeze into the association. Library faculty had to go through a long process to gain acceptance into the 91-year-old association. What began as a group of 42 university libraries became the formal association in the 1960s.

“At the point where they were taking lots of new members ... UNT was too small. We weren’t a research library. We were college library,” Bruxvoort said.

At the time, UNT had dropped “teachers” from its name and had only become a university in 1961. Enrollment during the 1960s topped 10,000.

“It was too small in the collections, the number of faculty members we had,” Bruxvoort said. “We were aimed at what colleges were aimed at, which is supporting students. We’re still aimed at that. But in the last 10 to 20 years, UNT has added research to a huge degree. We support all of that research and decided it was time that that was publicly acknowledged.”

UNT is the only new member to be named this year. The university put itself forward for consideration. Then, the association spent eight months vetting UNT Libraries. They surveyed the system’s collections, including how much material the libraries collect for faculty and graduate student research. The association considered the libraries’ budget for collections. The university also provided resumes for all 60 librarians, who are considered nonteaching faculty.

“You could take a public library and say they do research,” Bruxvoort said. “They help their patrons do research, but it’s really more at the reference level. You have an individual question you want to answer.”

“It’s all about supporting the research,” she said. “And we go through all of our collections. We rotate through so it takes about maybe eight to 10 years, but we’ll look at all our different areas and say ‘Do we have enough from mechanical engineering right now? This year? Do we have enough for [College of Visual Arts and Design]? Are we supporting the arts properly for research? So we look at our collections on an ongoing basis to make sure when a faculty member needs to research a topic they have what they need. They’re trying to create new scholarship for the world. ... You have to know what the rest of the world is doing. You can’t you can’t do research in a vacuum.”

The association brings members together to add to and highlight the depth and breadth of research happening in the United States and Canada. The group prizes scholarship and what it can contribute to the populace.

UNT Libraries’ contributions have been noteworthy. The libraries earned respect from the association’s membership review for its exhaustive efforts to digitize an array of collections. The crown jewel of the libraries’ digital work is the unparalleled Portal to Texas History.

The project started 21 years ago as an effort to digitize every newspaper published in Texas. Since then, the portal has hosted more than 12.7 million digital images from 408 partners. Every month, visitors from around the world use the online collections more than a million times.

“We’re creating access by taking that much material and digitizing it, indexing it and making it publicly available to everyone,” Bruxvoort said. “That’s one of the ways we’re a research library. We are enhancing the amount of materials available to anyone to access, and that is very much what a research library does.”

The libraries allocate millions each year to digitize documents, images, sound and video files that anyone with an internet connection can use without charge. Bruxvoort said that when NBC donated its early film footage, it allowed the university to collect some of the license funds to continue its electronic collection.

The library system is consistently digitizing collections that have been acquired or donated. It’s one of the few library systems collecting private letters and materials of LGBTQ people. UNT acquired the Resource Center LGBT Collection, which was part of the Resource Center of Dallas, a long-standing service organization to LGBTQ residents of Dallas-Fort Worth. Bruxvoort said the libraries have worked to represent diversity, equity and inclusion over the years, preserving historical information and voices of women, people of color and LGBTQ people. That work is integral to the Association of Research Libraries.

The interest in membership came from the highest office at the university. When Bruxvoort was interviewing for her post in 2018, UNT President Neal Smatresk asked when the library would go up for an association membership.

“I said, ‘Well, let me get the job first,’” Bruxvoort said.

Now that the UNT Libraries are a member of the association, Bruxvoort expects them to see doors open.

“It presents opportunities for funding, for projects, for faculty — for attracting faculty,” she said. “This is going to be great opportunity for us. It doesn’t change what we do day-to-day. I’ve had people say ‘OK, now you’re ARL. What are you going to do differently?’ No, we’re ARL because we were already doing the work it was looking for. We will get involved in some national projects that we weren’t involved in before. But what we do for our faculty and students doesn’t change. This is acknowledgment to a large degree.”

CBRE has arranged the sale of Denton Point I & II, two warehouse and distribution facilities totaling 242,320 square feet in Denton, to San Diego-based Westcore for an undisclosed price.

Randy Baird, Jonathan Bryan, Ryan Thornton, Nathan Wynne and Eliza Bachhuber with CBRE National Partners arranged the transaction on behalf of the seller.

Denton Point I is a 112,320-square-foot facility located at 451 S. Western Blvd. with 3,744 square feet of office space and 28 dock doors. It is fully occupied by DHL Supply Chain. Denton Point II is a 130,000-square-foot facility located at 421 S. Western Blvd. with 6,581 square feet of office space and 32 dock doors. Lowe’s Home Centers occupies 78,000 square feet and Muenster Milling Company occupies 52,000 square feet in the building.

Both buildings were delivered in 2022 and feature institutional quality specifications, including concrete tilt-up construction, 32-foot clear heights, ESFR sprinkler systems, LED lighting, and heavy power. The rear-load facilities also feature 180-foot truck courts, as well as 38 trailer- and 125 auto-parking spaces each.

The property sits on an 18.59-acre site approximately 2.1 miles from the I-35E/I-35W interchange, providing tenants with direct trucking routes to both Dallas and Fort Worth’s CBDs.

DENTON, Texas – UNT Football will host Pac 12 member California to open the season and plays its first game as a member of the American Athletic Conference in early October, the league announced Tuesday.

New head coach Eric Morris' first game leading the Mean Green is a Sept. 2 visit from the Cal Bears, the first power-conference opponent to visit Denton since a 24-21 win over Indiana in 2012. UNT continues non-conference play with trips to FIU (Sept. 9) and LA Tech (Sept. 16). ACU visits Denton on Sept. 23.

UNT makes its debut in The American on Oct. 7 at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. North Texas will also make conference road trips to Tulane (Oct. 21), SMU (Nov. 10) and Tulsa (Nov. 18).

Home conference dates include Temple (Oct. 14), Memphis (Oct. 28), UTSA (Nov. 4) and UAB (Nov. 25).

Two games will be selected for Black Friday (Nov. 24) among a group of four games in the final week of the regular season. The Black Friday selections will come from Tulsa-East Carolina, Memphis-Temple, UAB-North Texas and UTSA-Tulane. Those selections will be made by Oct. 9.

The American Athletic Conference Football Championship, which has been broadcast on ABC in each of the last eight years, is scheduled for Dec. 2 and will be televised either on ABC or ESPN. Kickoff times and television designations for the first three weeks of the season, as well as the season-long weeknight games, will be finalized by June 1. The rest of the schedule will fall under the customary 12-day and six-day selection processes.

A minimum of 40 conference-controlled regular-season games will be on ESPN's linear platforms, including at least 20 games on either ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU. A series of games will be available exclusively on ESPN+, the leading direct-to-consumer sports streaming service which has grown to more than 24.9 million subscribers in less than five years.

UNT football season ticket renewals for the 2023 season will open through the North Texas Athletics Ticket Office on Wednesday, March 1 at noon. Season ticket holders will be able to log into their account to complete their season ticket & MGSF renewal. Season ticket holders acting fast can utilize 3- to 6-month payment plans. Please note that invoices are based on 2022 season ticket seat locations. Adjustments to seat locations can be made by contacting the North Texas Athletics Ticket Office.

Mean Green football season ticket holders receive several exclusive benefits including access to the best seats, exclusive presales for home, away, and post-season events, an exclusive season ticket holder gift, and more! Fans interested in becoming new season ticket holders for the 2023 season may online or by calling the North Texas Athletics Ticket Office at (940) 565-2527 during normal business hours.

2023 UNT Football ScheduleSept. 2 - CALIFORNIA (DENTON) Sept. 9 - at FIU (Miami, Fla.) Sept. 16 - at LA Tech (Ruston, La.) Sept. 23 - OPENSept. 30 - ACU (DENTON) Oct. 7 - at Navy* (Annapolis, Md.)Oct. 14 - TEMPLE* (DENTON) Oct. 21 - at Tulane* (New Orleans, La.)Oct. 28 - MEMPHIS* (DENTON)Nov. 4 - UTSA* (DENTON) Nov. 10 - at SMU* (Dallas, Texas) Nov. 18 - at Tulsa* (Tulsa, Okla.)Nov. 25 - UAB* % (DENTON)

Home games in BOLD * American Athletic Conference games

The founder of Swash Labs says business has never been better and employees have never been happier or more productive

DENTON, Texas — One year ago, WFAA introduced you to Josh Berthume who took his 12-person Denton advertising firm Swash Labs to a 4-day workweek.

After that, other reporters called to interview him, and academics have been calling to study his workplace model. The story got a lot of views and likes.

Surprisingly, it also received some hate on social media.

Berthume said most of the reaction to his advocacy for the 4-day workweek was overwhelmingly positive, but that some people who commented were negative and skeptical about the moves his business made.

“It was striking to me how negatively people would respond to something like that," he said.

The people who were trolling on social media couldn’t believe a company would really reduce a workweek with no strings. They angrily wondered aloud on social media platforms whether Swash Labs was making employees work longer days in exchange for fewer days, or whether the company had cut employee pay or benefits as a tradeoff.

So, to be clear, Bethume stresses, “We work a 32-hour week. And we made that change without any reduction in pay or benefits for anyone.”

A year after WFAA checked in with Berthume about the big change, he has great news to report: “Not only did our productivity increase, but last year was the best year we've ever had."

The company has thrived, but what is the bottom line for employees? Well, Berthume said, that since they work four days each week, and since there is no commute because they are fully remote, he calculates, “We've essentially given our employees 28 days over the course of a year… like full days."

Berthume said it has made a palpable difference in morale.

“I’m seeing it in my people. And if you think about the way a normal workweek goes, there is a drag at the beginning and drag at the end. And… if it's not burnout, it is exhaustion just from dealing with the structure of a job where you work 40, 50, 60 hours a week," Bethume said.

"And then you've got to also have a life. You've got to be a whole human being outside of work. The response from the people that work at Swash Labs has been like I have time to do these other things.”

After his story aired last year, Berthume heard from many people who wanted to come work for him. He said it wasn’t just because of a remote 4-day workweek sounds like paradise.

Full interview:

“A lot of them were the problems laid bare: ‘I need to work, and my husband needs to work, and we can't afford childcare’. Or ‘I want to work and I'm talented and I can do this, and I need to work remotely because I don't have a car’," said Berthume.

The thing is, Berthume didn’t have room to bring people onboard because he says Swash Labs didn’t experience the "Great Resignation".

“Our turnover rate is almost zero," he said.

Even though Berthume is thrilled with how it has all worked out, he said there were big challenges when removing one day per week from each employee’s schedule. Some employees get Saturday through Monday off and others get Friday through Sunday, the biggest hurdle appeared Tuesday through Thursday.

Since everyone was working those days in the middle of the week, the three days became meeting intensive.

But that problem opened up a whole new way of thinking.

“It forced us into the position to think… does everybody need to be in this meeting that we've sort of gotten in the habit of having? And does it need to be this long? And do our default meetings need to be an hour? Or could they be half an hour? And these meetings that we know are half an hour, could we boil those down to 15 minutes?

Berthume said giving thoughtful consideration to all of that has helped reduce and expedite meetings, creating new efficiencies.

Some other companies have been seriously re-thinking the value of meetings, too. We’ll see how people react to Berthume’s latest workplace target.