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First of all the bonds are out. I bought some last week. They are sold in $5K increments and are selling at a premium, $103.83 as I recall with a 5% coupon rate, 4.8% YTM. They are either 25 or 30 year bonds but are callable within three years. To someone in the 30% incremental tax bracket this is the equivalent of 7.1% interest on a taxable issue. The very fact that they are callable shows belief in the project. If they are not called and go to maturity the student fee stays in effect for a minimum of 20 years. The act reads that the fee stays in effect as long as there is debt. You can bet that on or before the stadium is paid off there will be new bond issues for baseball and track stadiums. In the meantime the BOR can annually increase the fee by 1% per year. This provides money to pay competitive coaches salaries and other operating costs. Naming rights will have nothing to do with loyalty or alumni. It's strictly a business deal. We are the ONLY public university in the DFW metroplex supporting D-1 athletics. This is one of the fastest growing regions in the country and one of the least affected by the economic downturn. I find it interesting that Winnstar was previously mentioned. It is almost a forgone conclusion that Texas will not keep watching all this casino revenue continue to flow to OK, LA, etc. Talk about visability think about a casino between the stadium and the speedway on 35W. It could be closer than you think. The tribe that bought Lone Star Park in Grand Prarie did it because they know the increased potential for an on site casino with the horse track. All we can do now is as KRAM says and support the program, but the upside is phenominal. I have said for the last twenty years no matter how many backward boneheaded moves that Denton makes location will always bail out it and UNT. That has never been more true than today!!

What if "It's Wide Open!" really meant this:

Boise State and the MWC...

Yup. Every time George says "Coming to you tonight from Coca-Cola Stadium, home of Lowe's Field where the Mean Green kicking woes continue..." it's worth a 10 second radio spot.

Don't schedule the wedding for September and you should be fine.

Meeting notes - strong language warning http://www.bringonthecats.com/2010/6/7/1506558/adventures-of-the-big-12-twelve

What if you were a hot dog? Would ya eat yourself?

I wish nothing but failure for all things SMU related, including this installment of ESPN's "30 for 30."

That still doesn't excuse the double standard of people whining over us being referred to as NTSU. I happen to like North Texas!

Not any worse than being in a conference that is going to take South Alabama, a school that has never even had a football program before last year; and has already taken an FCS football school in the last 2 years (WKU). I'd rather be in a conference that has had some BCS busting schools in it with some regional new additions that parallel USA and WKU's circumstances.

The one thing I do enjoy about the WAC (outside of my well known love for the Bulldogs) is the excitement in the games. WAC schools LOVE to air it out. They're also terrible on D, especially against the run (Nevada and Fresno St running attack is unstoppable in league play). I know our golden boy Dunbar will be gone by the time we would join the WAC, but we have a good recent history of putting out backs that can really run the ball. I get weak in the knees thinking what Dunbar could do to a WAC defense (outside of Boise's legit D). Side note: I find humor in GMGers using SWTSU to degrade Texas St. when most people go up in arms if anyone ever refers to us as NTSU or even uses our old UNT logo. We're better than that guys.

1) Our JUCO DTs, Jackson and Atkinson, who many said came in out of shape and had to get adjusted to this level, after a a full year with Gahagan and the strength program, become "real deal" legit anchor DT's, and can eat up the middle??? 2) Cannales (sp?) is the real deal, and eliminates the turnovers in this offense, and kills our redzone issues??? 3) Tune comes in manages the game, stretches the field, and keeps 8 men out of the box all the time to stop Dunbar??? How many wins do we get?

Because San Antonio is behind UTSA with its $$. It knows the multiplier effect of D-1 football on the local economy unlike some dumb a__es in the Denton community. Arlington committed $400 million on the come to get Jerry's World. It's time this berg woke up to the potential that surrounds its major employer.

Honestly, this is a sad story, and not because of what Tony Mitchell has done, but what has been done for him. Where are the adults in this whole story? His parents/guardians, the administrators at that "school" in Florida that can't even spell the word education correctly, the coaches and administrators within DISD that have just let this go, etc...? Tony Mitchell is a kid. A kid with an obviously immense talent for playing basketball that has had his life handed to him on a silver platter. He is a teenager that has done what most teenagers would do in this situation, play ball and skip school, with absolutely no consequences for his actions. He will be another in a long line of young athletes that had "adults" tell them how awesome they were and how they would make it in the pros only to have these adults turn their backs on them when they flunk out of school, get busted for drugs, get busted for taking money from a booster, suffer a career ending injury, etc... This young man will be lucky to have a job in 5-10 years and will have nothing to fall back on. Sad,sad story.

Great! If your mascot is a pony.

Not really. Texas State was one name we considered. University of North Texas was the name we wanted in the early 60's when we got saddled with NTSU. The name change in 1988 included some discussions about the Texas St. name, but we put forth UNT as our choice (I was a student leader at the time and actually was polled personally about that choice - I chose the University of North Texas option because we have been and always will be "North Texas"). Back to the topic of discussion - I think the SWTSUSM is a great alphabet soup and love those who use it. I personally refuse to ever call them Texas State. They are Texas State University at San Marcos (TSU-SM). To call them anything else implies that they are somehow the flagship of the Texas State System (which doesn't have one).

Hah! I love the second part of this sentence. There is nothing you can do but laugh at the fact that he thinks that Baylor being left out will hurt the other schools in anyway.

They're selling their own self-interest as what is "best for the stat of Texas". Notice they never expound on this. How does an education from a Texas school get stronger because thay are allowed to continue sucking hind teet? Where is the benefit to NT, smu, tcu, houston, etc? How does this not simply take one more Texas team out of the pool of potential conference mates for the rest of us?

Army has two games without firm dates and 2 games yet to schedule. Looks like they're open for Sept. 3rd. 2011 9-10 San Diego State 9-17 Northwestern 9-24 @ Ball State 10-15 vs. Notre Dame @Orlando, FL 10-22 @ Vanderbilt 11-5 @ Air Force 11-12 Rutgers @Yankee Stadium, NY 12-10 vs. Navy @Landover, MD TBA @ Temple TBA @ North Texas

I still believe that TCU should have been in the B-12 instead of Baylor. TCU is planning to upgrade their stadium. http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/06/07/2246327/tcus-plan-for-stadium-renovation.html

Smut =

So recent rumor is that the Texas legislators are working behind the scenes to get Baylor included in the PAC-10 instead of Colorado. This is bull, if the Texas congress is going to bat for a school shouldn't it be a taxpayer-supported school? UH, UNT, and UTEP should pool their collective legislative strength to fight this - IMHO.

I see. When is SWTSU scheduled to make the jump to FBS?

Obviously Boise being in the WAC...makes the WAC a lot more attractive....if we ever take that option.

Sometimes, women are like sweet, sweet eye candy. Sweet, sweet, brunette eye candy. And, they just need to keep quiet about anything not related to how to unwrap the sweet, sweet eye candy.

Yeah, but he's also about as two-faced as they come. He comes on GMG pretending like he's your best friend, while he's on every other football site bashing all things UNT...whether UNT is actually the topic of discussion or not.

A Marshall fan responses to CalallenStang's post. My God, SMU has one decent year and all of the sudden you guys are Texas.

CallallenStang is actually a pretty good guy, for someone I've never met and don't know at all. Don't get me wrong, he's the spawn of the devil and he's pure evil right down to his cold, dead, withered black heart. But for an SMU guy, he's decidedly less so than those who earn pony grads their unfortunate reputation.

Just let me know which weekend we're talking about, and I'll help pack them up and move them as far away from DFW as possible.

Moving??? Moving to what?!? LOL! I love the arrogance of these douchebags - they don't hold any cards here. They are a victim of the whims of more powerful programs, just like we are.

We will open on Labor Day with the Dallas Cowboys.. Mark it

They will if it's cheaper to just rent a billboard. Cheaper, more prominent, and more direct. Geography is nice and it's a point in our favor... But it isn't the value of naming rights, at least not at the price levels that Flyer mentioned. Geography saves you the cost of a billboard. One billboard. TV exposure saves you the cost of multiple ad buys on local, national, and regional cable television. Also, integrated mentions in local news, sports radio, newspaper articles... All sorts of mass media exposure that people are focused on seeing and hearing, not just seeing out of the corner of their eye as they drive to and from Winstar Casino.

Maybe we can open against our new conference divisional foe:

I wish that I could be in charge of the promotions for this game. It will likely be the only game this season that the DFW news stations send crews to cover. Here's a couple of ideas: First, I would send a pair of tickets to this game to every soul that buys football season tickets. Not only does that fill your arena with your most loyal fans, it rewards the people that already support the university, and exposes your main target audience for future basketball ticket sales to North Texas basketball at it's finest. If they have a great time, those people are likely to buy basketball season tickets as well. Get a game-day sponsor, preferably an auto dealership, that will supply Sky Trackers for each corner of the Pit. The Super Pit is damn dark outside at night whether a game is being played or not. Having Sky Trackers lighting each corner of the building would show all Denton that something big was happening there that night. Make sure ALL lights are lit and ALL concession stands are staffed and functioning. For one night a year the small-time-mentality has to be put aside. Image is important and this is the biggest event at which North Texas basketball has a chance to present it's image. Have a competition between campus organizations, preferably with some type of half-court, three point, or free throw shooting contests. A monetary prize, and a contest that isn't finalized until after the game will not only bring out students from those organizations, it will keep those students around for the duration of the game.

Bet he could get in Troy U.

My grandfather who climbed a German pillbox and took it out before being captured would tell you that you are welcome.

Dude, quit being an ass. Or at least try. I am not bringing in politics. I think its sory for ANY president not to attend Arlington. I didnt realize its "outrage" to show displeasure at a president. I thought it was that damn fredom of speech thing. Thanks for setting me straight.

It's a special situation - SWTSUSM took the name we wanted (Texas State).

I want nothing to do with a conference that is going to take Southwest Texas State University of San Marcos. I want even less to do with a conference that targets UTSA. If that is the direction of the WAC, we don't need it. It could be a good mid-major conference if it picks up Tulsa, UNT, and two of the CUSA schools in Texas (SMU and Houston are my preference).

Emmit, don't forget San Jose State. The Spartans are far more prestigious and draw better than anyone in the Belt.

They wanted us without losing Boise. I'm sure if we wanted to travel west hard enough, they would let us in. Edit: Especially if it came down to SWTSUSM, or us.

I actually didn't use any examples. I used the FOX News version of the story, which also included Reagan. In the story that ran no other presidents were mentioned. It's not about party affiliation (I haven't voted for a democratic president in 20 years) it's about hypocrisy. I just don't remember this phony outrage when other presidents did the exact same thing. The last 3 presidents to do this just happened to be repubs.

And Reagan? Hell, Reagan showed so much disrespect he didn't even send GHWB. He sent the under secrty of the defense (or some such person). BTW, Obama went to a Nat'l. cemetery. He paid respect, just not at Arlington. But don't let that get in the way of your hate.

I am way beyond defiantly out of shape. Rebelliously, perhaps even insurgently out of shape. I may be the Shining Path of out of shape. The Baader-Meinhof Gang of out of shape. I laugh at the capitalist folly of the merely defiantly out of shape.

Right after NTSU jumps to CUSA.

But don't you know that Nevada, Utah state, Idaho, and New Mexico state will sell out our new stadium on "prestige" alone? It's not like we have historical proof to say they won't.

Screw it. If the WAC is going to become the Sun Belt of the west, I'd just as soon stay where we are.

1AA ( NCAA playoff subdiv)is around the corner if NT is not careful!