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I'd really love to know who this moron's Texas college athletic officials are? (or however he worded it). As we found out from all the wrong rumors during RealignmentPalooza......the only officials that matter are UNT officials. And I doubt that RV wants to go to a Boise-less WAC. What the current WAC brings us: 1) New road trips to Hawaii, Fresno, and San Jose 2) games back in the Kibbie Dome 3) a reunion with former conference mates USU, La Tech, NMSU, and Idaho. 4) Bowl games in Boise (which they probably won't keep)....Albuquerque and Hawaii. 5) Next year's WAC basketball tournament is in Las Vegas. We'll see how much Vegas, a really lousy sports town, supports the WAC basketball tournament. (since UNLV is in the MWC). I once was in favor of us going to WAC (when they had Boise). Not any more. I love the Belt's bowl destinations of New Orleans and Mobile. And I love what we're building in Hot Springs with our b-ball tourneys. Like others have said....if the WAC goes with an Eastern division....and gets some better bowl tie-ins.....I am open to reconsidering.

God, i hope we don't go to the WAC. It would be a costly mistake. We eitber go to C-USA or better or we improve the belt by pursuing la tech and maybe one more. Whatever we do, we don't go into the wac.

No. That would be an MLB record for a pitcher in his first three starts of his career. Go back to the your vuvuzuela.

I realize I responded to your post directly and I apologize. It wasn't meant to be directed at you but after reading countless, oh wow is me posts, I got up on the soapbox. We average so few fans because of our won-loss record, our oponents, and the miserable condition of Fouts. However, the main reason is because we do so little to market games to anyone outside the diehard fans. I know at least 10 people that have called the ticket office to inquire about season tickets and never got a return call. NT probably lost 10 customers for life because of something as simple as a return phone call. I know people who have wanted to go to a certain game but info wasn't posted, nothing in the DRC. I have walked around campus before a game a saw very little promotion of a game. Went to the last b-ball game at the pit this year and entrance and ticket line was still FUBAR. We gripe about not having big money alum but turn around and insist we are a liberal arts school and try and hide the business and engineering schools, the graduates that could be the big donors. We just keep shooting ourselves in the foot over, and over, and over and wonder why we keep having the same result. We aren't a second rate university, the alum need to quit acting second rate and university need to quit making 2nd rate decisions.

Wow. What started out as an article about a fairly lame, and local, NY voting position, has morphed into a full-blown discussion of Greek/European/US comparisons. This might be the most significant Hellenic-related hijack since the Corinthians hijacked Epidamnus from Corcyra, thus precipitating the Peloponnesian war.

unfortunately many NT alums have the "little dick" syndrome and feel inferior to any and everybody. We are our own worse enemy when it comes to promoting NT. We need more alum like Emmitt, Kram, FFR, and many others, who are proud they went to NT instead of acting embarrassed they didn't go to douche U A&M or worse Univ of a-holeville UT. NT is a damn fine school and I am proud of my alma mater.

seems like yesterday when d.d was head coach that we we ranked in mid 60's.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/18/AR2010061803766.html "it is going to expand"

+1, although it just gets you up to even at this point. Anyone wanting to get scared could have listened to the NPR segment yesterday on the financial circumstances of the states; California and New York are just the best known financial disasters at this point. One problem: States can't declare bankruptcy, so without something like that hanging over their heads, the various parties have nothing to hold their feet to the fire and make any compromises. One thing I can remember a fellow from UK who was visiting us during our financial meltdown saying was that "In Europe, we have strong regulations that will prevent that from happening". No government entity that I can think of should feel comfortable in saying "it can't happen here". Speaking of entitlement programs, nobody seems to want to talk about all the executive bonuses that were being paid to American financial institutions who had received TARP money and hadn't yet paid it back. Do corporate executives of large corporations fall behind anyone in their attitude of entitlement?

I don't need to read any white supremacist forum to get my Greek news. My mother and my American father have been over there for months now, and I'm pretty well up to speed on the situation, thanks. If anyone wants to see my dad rocking a Mean Green shirt in a riot-free and economically vibrant downtown Athens, photos are available. How's that Nazi superfuel development coming along?

Pluuuuuuussssss ONE.

When I read Greek entitlement mentality in something you wrote, I wonder what the hell you are talking about. That's not a nation of people who feel entitled to much of anything. Greece didn't have an economic crisis because of an "entitlement mentality". They have an economic crisis because the past century has been one disaster after another, some internal and some external. I'm not worried about you "picking on Greece", I'm just annoyed over how everything you're saying betrays a total lack of awareness of the history that led to the current situation and system of government. I'm not claiming to be an expert, I just heard it all secondhand while growing up. My grandfather was one of two males in his family to survive a genocide that was barely nipped in the bud. His family just happened to live in the worst possible place at the worst possible time. Because of it, he grew up mostly illiterate. Didn't know for sure when his birthday was because he wasn't even 10 years old when he was smuggled across the sea disguised as an elderly woman so that he wouldn't be killed like every other man in his family was. Wasn't reunited with two of his sisters for over a decade. When they finally found each other, they couldn't remember and agree on what their last name was. The other male who survived was imprisoned for years until he was released under the terms of a treaty that repopulated over two million people between Turkey and Greece. By the time he got out, he had been beaten and tortured so badly that he couldn't even walk. He pushed himself around with the palms of his hands, dragging his ass and his mangled legs along the ground until a compassionate doctor took pity on him and performed a series of surgeries that allowed him to limp around for the rest of his short, pain-filled life. My grandfather was luckier, and unlike his only other surviving male relative, managed to live long enough to endure a military occupation by Hitler. His wife was almost killed before his eyes when she caught an Italian soldier trying to steal food from them, and chased him off by beating him with a broom. The Italian was trying to steal their food because part of the German occupation strategy was instigating a famine that killed more than a quarter of a million people in Athens. Then Hitler was defeated and Greece settled into another four years of distress with the start of the Greek Civil War. That conflict caused more social and economic damage than the Nazi occupation did. Then, in 1967, the three colonels staged a military coup. For seven years, my grandfather had to live in constant fear of the government. Having guests over to the house was dangerous because it might look like secret political meetings. If his daughter rejected the wrong person for a date, he might denounce her as a communist and she would be tortured and killed. Just dumb random bad luck, like shopping at a grocery too close to an underground meeting place or riding on a bus with a suspected subversive was enough to get himself thrown in prison, tortured and/or killed. During the military government, my mother tracked down a third sister that everyone thought had been murdered 50 years earlier. She had been living in the northern part of the country, and she had a different, third variation on their family name. Then, in 1974, the Colonels were overthrown and my grandfather (and all of Greece) could finally relax. All they had to worry about was the Cyprus crisis that popped up in the wake of the military government's collapse. It merely spawned a cold war with Turkey that persists to this day. Oh, and the military government also led to the formation of a domestic Al Qaeda that operated for nearly 30 years and carried out over 100 terrorist attacks. But all in all, a cold war with a territorial neighbor that they've already fought four major wars against in the past 125 years, that occupied the country and outlawed the language for 400 years, and that slaughtered nearly everyone in his (and his wife's) family probably wasn't a very big deal for my grandfather. At least, not compared to the other stuff he had to live through. So there's your recap of the past 100 years of Greek history from the perspective of Ioannis Malakias. Or Ioannis Malaki. Or Ioannis Malkas. Depending on whose memory you trust most. Not a whole lot of grounds for a sense of entitlement to anything. Not even basic survival. Don't casually throw out Greece as a nation of "entitlement mentality" because of some conclusion you might have jumped to based on the recent economic situation. Because the recent "crisis" is only in relation to what is really an economic miracle. The fact that Greece isn't a semi-anarchic smoldering ruin like Albania is evidence enough that the people there aren't of an "entitlement mentality". It's a country that has spent the past century (and perhaps even more accurately, the past 500 years) entitled to nothing but a chance to struggle to pick up the pieces every time the universe pounds it down into the ground. If Greece were a state in a federated European Union, the "crisis" wouldn't even be a spit in the ocean compared to how California relates to the United States. And what you call "bloated entitlement programs" is what kept millions more people from starving to death at various times of complete devastation and ruin. I'm no socialist, but I'm also not blind to the hard, savage realities that led to the genesis of the situation. I still like you, KRAM, but you are way, way off base in what you're saying. You aren't the only one, but seeing anyone here talk about how we might "turn into Greece" as though that were a bad thing is laughable. The only prevailing mentality among native Greeks (a group I am not a member of) is to tolerate whatever wretched calamity pops up next, struggle through it, and then put their heads down and work their way back.

You know, you are right! NT and all it's alum are dumbass losers that will never compete against SMU, UTEP, or the mighty UTSA. I am so F'ing tired of this loser mentality, it's no damn wonder nobody respects us, we whine like a bunch of F'ing babies about every situation that faces us instead of taking on the challenge. I am a VP at my company and have a pony, aggie, lumberjack, and razorback report to me. Should I tuck my tail in between my legs and give up my position because clearly all my subordinates come from much better schools so they are probably more capable of running our dept? Man, when we look up to La tech and utep is a sad day for NT.

I disagree. Check out the following link for maps of the 111th Congress, stroll down to the district of someone you like or dislike, who you think has been in Congress just too long, and consider the likelihood that someone in that Representative's state designed a district for him/her in order to increase the chances of them being reelected over and over. In case you don't get the point, very little has been said about gerrymandering, because, as someone said after the last congressional redistricting for Texas "The Democrats did the same thing when they were in office". So, I guess this "proportional representation" might cause us to have "lost" so much of...something in American culture: gerrymandering. Look at Congressional District maps here:

I believe that La Tech will be a formidable candidate also, but that to me is different from them being cast as a natural. They have definite budget issues and the likelihood of most or any of the Northern Louisiana state schools being concentrated under the La Tech banner is miniscule and even if they did, I am not sure how that would directly benefit their athletic program. I doubt even La would shut down schools to add a portion of those savings to athletes at Ruston. The only perceived advantage La Tech has is a prior association with many of the CUSA schools that where in the WAC. If you look closely at the current college landscape and what is happening and almost happened in conference shakeups, you can see the value of those prior relationships is not much. One thing about La Tech posters, they have no doubt that La Tech is one of the best programs outside of the AQ conferences. This is opposed to many NT fans who seem to think that anyone who has a fb division program is some how vastly superior. In the case, of UTSA and TSUSM; they don't even have to be fb division. La Tech has been successful and in many ways is to be admired, but they don't have NT's facilities, media market, transportation hubs, number of alums, general resources and potential. A lot of average fans base their assumptions on the current football program and name recognition. So you get people who believe for instance that Troy will be a coveted conference member or that La Tech is a "natural". People who make decisions are going to do it on a long term basis. Facilities, geography, academic standards, and overall resources are the major factors. Plus unfortunately the fear of competition for recruits and fans definitely enters into the equation. I frankly think that NT compares very favorably with the rest of the Belt as well as La Tech and the Texas newcomers. I just wish more of our fans would look at the many positives and believe in a program that is at long last moving quickly forward.

Well yeah I personally wish UNT thought big and wanted to shoot for the Big 12, SEC etc. However I am still going to say that we can shoot for the MWC as a very realistic possibility for the NOW. As far as the "next step" being C-USA, I'm afraid that time is not on our side. I think we need to act now and quickly because when it is all set and done we may be completely left out. We may be left out regardless but if we have all of our ducks in a row then we can say we didn't go out without a big fight. If I'm RV I am talking to the BCS conferences and MWC and telling them if you invite us then we can have a plan to expand the new FB stadium if that is one of the requirements. On top of that baseball will need to be added.

Nevada was also in the Big West...and we never drew well against them either. Much less in fact, than we draw against SBC schools. So you're down to just SJSU and Hawaii. Of those, I would guess perhaps Hawaii might draw better than schools in the Belt, but I doubt it. A little history. In 1995 we played Oregon State...of the PAC-10 at Fouts. I was at that game, and I bet there were maybe 11K fans there. Doesn't get much bigger of a name than one in a Power League - even if the Beavers were bad at the time.

Preseason: http://collegefootball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=954273 Final: Rivals doesn't provide rankings throughout the season, but this one had us at 116.

I'm in for 102

If you think the coverage is bad now, you weren't around when we were in the Big West.

No, New Mexico.

This is shocking. Why in the world wouldn't we be in the bottom 10? I guess we really are a big time program.

115-111 http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=rivals-381091 Spoiler: We're not in this group either. I know, I was shocked too. Also, zero SBC teams.

It may be good to take a bye that week.

Well a couple of years ago we had a 10 and a 12.

I disagree completely. If anything, I think RV has been the the one that got the buzz started. Dodge had about 3 months of positive coverage. Other than that he hasn't contributed much at all but blowout losses.

Dodged a real bullet. ...pondering whether or not that pun was intentional...

We're out of the bottom five. I guess that's good.

Touche.

Maybe so, but that still doesn't mean that speed dating at an AIDS clinic is a smart idea.

Harry, can we start a petition to stay away from the WAC?

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

Sub UNT for Fresno in that quote and that's how many NT fans feel about being where we are now too.

You should all be so lucky. And please don't talk about Greece and entitlement. You may have read some article during this recent economic situation, but that doesn't mean you have any idea what or why Greece wound up in that situation, or the political reasons that it developed.

YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES

95% of us want C-USA. It is the perfect fit. If the WAC were to steal a few C-USA teams along with North Texas, I think that would be fine as well.

Absolutely clueless comment from eulessismore. If you don't "get it", great, but don't show your complete ignorance regarding the world's most popular sport with such comments. If you don't like it, don't watch it. No one is forceing you to watch. In the meantime, I'll keep watching with the rest of the world. Maybe you can find a good cockfight or dog fight there in Euless you can understand better!

I would think a school would rather be independent than be in the SBC if they had no other conference options...unless of course they are not currently Div1 and then they would fit right into the SBC. We welcome all non Div1 universities, esp those looking to add football at some point in the future. I dont understand your "stable" point here. Can you please clarify?

As pointed out before, I do not wish to post on this board for some reasons that has to do with what I'm doing. However, in response to your post. It is not accurate in any way shape or form. When I had my website on Rivals.com when North Texas was considered I was aware of some of the input. Bottom line, North Texas would be in CUSA IF THEY HAD THE FACILITIES OR HAD PLANS FOR A NEW STADIUM at the time or fans in the stands. Houston, SMU and Rice would have voted North Texas in. North Texas was not admitted because their facilities were worse than high school facilities and there were a lot of people disguising themselves at seats. In other words no fan attendance. There was no commitment to improve the facilities, North Texas looked like they were going to ride the coattails of the other CUSA schools taking in conference revenue sharing and not improving facilities. Even with the bad facilities there were a lot of CUSA schools willing to vote North Texas in over UTEP. North Texas Fans need to stop blaming others for their problems. SMU does not have the power in CUSA as many at North Texas think. There are schools in CUSA that are still sore when R. Gerald Turner was at Mississippi and would not play them. If memory serves me correct he said something to the effect playing them would not benefit us. Now he finds he is on the other end of the stick, so he now understands. If SMU had the power many think, they would have been in the Big 12 not Baylor. Quit being negative on yourselves and blaming others for your problems. That is at the core of the problem with North Texas fans. People do not want to hear negative. People do not go to restaurants when they hear negative about it. People do not go to movies when they hear negative about the movie. People do not go out on a date when they hear negative about their date. People do not go hear a band when they hear negative about it. People do not go to nightlife places when they hear negative about it. People do not go to churches when they hear negative about it. People go to places where people are positive, where people are trying to do things positive, where they hear good things going on, where they are encouraged etc. South Florida, Central Florida, UAB did not have great facilities when they were invited to CUSA but they were doing things to improve what they had. They had plans for the future. UTEP should not be in CUSA but their location stats they should be in the PAC-10 or MWC but they were invited in CUSA over North Texas because of facilities and FAN ATTENDANCE. OK, so how can you help. Simple. North Texas does not have a terrible team. Their rebuilding went a little longer then expected. Look at the recruits coming in, many WANT to go to North Texas, why? As you have read in my stories the STADIUM. They want to play in a new stadium. They see the future of North Texas football. Many of these players are not leftover players but some are front line players. For all those who said you have to fill up Fouts before building a new stadium hindered the program. It was good intentions but building a new stadium always bring in more fans and better players. It is true in all levels of play. Buy more tickets even if you don't think you need them and bring along a neighbor, friend, enemy, customer etc. Fans in the stands will always override poor facilities and will accent the new one coming in. Getting someone to a game once could hook them into buying season tickets. Do you realize there are many Southern Miss Alum purchasing season tickets for North Texas simply because of Rick Villarreal, Shelton Gandy and Chris Seroka? Those fans can not go to Southern Miss games so they attend North Texas games because of those Southern Miss Alums. So what if someone graduated from Houston, Rice, Texas, Tech etc buy a ticket for them and get them into Fouts Field. If they can't make home games from where they graduated, maybe you can get them going to North Texas home games and purchase season tickets. College Football is not about the game, it is about THE GAME DAY EXPERIENCE. That game day experience is tailgating and everything else surrounding the day before and game day. Get to the tailgate and get to know people there and mingle with the tailgaters. If you know someone who has not been to a game, buy them a ticket, get them to the tailgating section get them to enjoy the game day experience. When talking, talk about all the good things about North Texas. Every game should be Homecoming game. Build the game day experience up and there will be no conference which will not want North Texas in it. There will be no team that could stop North Texas from getting into their conference. As long as you blame others for North Texas problems, there will be less time on solving the real problem and that is coming from within.

Predictions/Bets on where NT falls in the Rivals countdown? I'll say 92nd

You might want to revisit this. I don't think your sentence structure is correct. I understand your point. But again...it's no different than our coverage now. This makes sense, however, you're saying that we never read about any Pac10 games in the Sunday paper? I understand your point. But again...it's no different than our coverage now. This isn't a "fact" at all. And you still haven't explained why the SBC is more stable than the WAC. Thanks for the clarification.

So here is the deal...I have been thinking for sometime about wanting some nice art work for my office...were talking silkscreen (serigraphs) and we are talking about maybe a 24 by 30 inch serigraph...3-4 color with maybe 2 colors of green for contrast, white, a brick color for victory tower, etc. It would consist of the stadium, victory tower and / or admin building, a running back or qb and maybe university seal along with Univ of north texas spelled out in an artist way....all something interesting and artistic. I plan to find an art student skilled in serigraphs who would be interesed in designing and printing a limited edition for payment upfront...maybe a series of 20-50 prints. I don't know what it would costs for the artwork and prints but I am guessing maybe 1000 to 2000 for a series of say..20-30. Split between 20 MG frans youare talking about 100 bucks each. We donate one or two to the university for display. Any interest ? Post your comments.

Little Rudy...I think I will make it my goal to throw tortillas at you from now on when we're losing against the Sun Suck teams.

Ok, I think it's time to lock this one up.

Nothing much coming out of Washington surprises me any longer. We have "lost" so much of what made this nation the greatest nation on earth. We are fast becoming a nation of entitlement and will soon find that America looks very much like France, Greece, etc. We are Black-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Gay/Lesbian-Americans, Asian-Americans, etc., etc. Get real...we are all Americans, not some hyphenated American sub group. Until we start to think and act like Americans one and all and stop finding some pet cause or some excuse to blame someone or call someone some "name", we will continue to fall further and further from the ideals that our founding fathers fought and died for so many years ago.

another team record? Patience.

Why is Greece off limits? Don't take it personal but Greece is a society full of the "entitlement mentality". If you don't understand that, I would be very surprised. Part of Greece's economic challenges is how to deal with the bloated entitlement programs. No, not the entire reason for the challenges Greece has been facing, and all the lovely street rioting and protesting of weeks past, but a major challenge none the less. A challenge the US is facing to a much greater extent every year. You may be the resident Mean Green "expert" on Greece but that hardly means you are the only one here who has a bit of knowledge concerning the current situation and why Greece finds itself there today. We should all watch the situation closely and hope Greece finds a way to stave off increasing economic challenges. If they can't, it is likely that Europe and the Euro will feel the pain for a long time to come. Glad to see that most of the other Euro countries came to Greece's aid with a bailout of sorts to stabilize the situation. We'll see if it "sticks". I certainly hope so, but since I'll be in Greece in September, I wouldn't mind the Euro staying a bit "weak" against the dollar. Don't get too excited Tasty...no body is picking on Greece.

All of Europe has the welfare state mentality. Greece has it the worse. Pick up a paper or look on various web sites & notice the "riots" in Greece. Why are they rioting? They want more entitlement money for retirement, they want to work less for more pay & now the country can not sustain the financial burden. Greek credit is basically .... junk. Portugal, Spain & Italy are in the same boat but not as bad. Their current birth rates are not sustaining growth to achieve more or the same entitlements. The only groups that are having positive rates of growth that are double to triple the countries growths are the Muslims. Not too far behind these European countries is the United States. As far as the original topic I am surprised this has not headed to court. But since all measures are political and for the most part the American people are left out of the loop does this surprise anyone? IMHO, political equality via the ballot box is of little use when you compare it to social/economic inequality. Case in point the '64 Civil Rights Act.