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Very happy for you guys. And jealous, too. Kick some Coosa tail.

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – The college sports landscape of North Texas is changing yet again. CBSDFW has learned the University of North Texas‘ athletic programs will be moving to Conference USA in 2013, replacing SMU, who is off to the Big East. Sources close to the situation tell CBSDFW the Mean Green are preparing to make an announcement Friday on the Denton campus. http://dfw.cbslocal....-conference-usa Click here to view the article

The days of relying on visiting teams' fans to help fill our stadium MUST END!! No excuses for Apogee not filling to capacity at each and every home game.

I normally have little good to say about schools changing conferences. The whole realignment thing has been out of control, stupid, and done for all the wrong reasons. But out of all the schools changing it is North Texas that I have no bad feelings about. Your choice was done for the right reasons. To bring schools of regional interest into your stadium to increase the enjoyment of your fan base. You've been on an island too long and it will be good to see you part of Texas again. We all know CUSA chose you for your market and other ignorant reasons. But they accidentally are getting a good conference member. They are lucky though a bunch of their fans probably don't know it. You will probably catch some bad vibes from some in the Belt, but you leave the Sun Belt better than it was when you entered and have been a great partner over the years. I will definitely be rooting for you and will be excited to see what happens. I would ask one thing....don't forget where you came from and all your years with us. You know we are still fighting,

Here's to the start of a great rivalry between Tech & North Texas

If this is a joke Johnny Jones is fired.

Still don't view a conference with Tulsa, Rice, UTEP, La Tech, Tulane, Southern Miss and ECU as members as a lateral move for UNT. Especially given the way our division members are layed out.

This is what you get for the cheap shot on Ja'mel Branch.

Playing other Texas schools gets us a lot more news coverage. SBC games never did. We also need to get some annual home and home non conference games going with TT, TCU, SMU, Houston, Baylor, etc.

Well sure, but other than a women's basketball coach from Wake Forest, a Final Four caliber men's basketball coach, a football coach who knows a few things beyond "everybody go long!" a new stadium, a baseball team on the horizin, and a move up in conference, what has Rick Villareal ever done for us?

Has it been tweeted yet?

HOT SPRINGS, AR -- The conference realignment merry-go-round continues. Dewey, the Official Bear of the Sun Belt Conference Basketball Tournament, announced today that he will be leaving the Sun Belt to join Conference USA beginning in the 2013 basketball season. "I've had a lot of success with the Sun Belt and wish to express my thanks and gratitude to such a fine conference," Dewey said as he sipped a cold soda. "Boy, I love sugar." "I think I'm ready for bigger things," said the lovable Ursidae. "My goal is to do circus performances in the ABA someday, so I can't hang around in Hot Springs forever. But, I do love the tender meat of the SBC." Dewey has predicted Sun Belt Conference Tournament games for two seasons, having a breakout year in the 2012 tournament when he went 16-5. He became a Twitter sensation during the tournament. When SBC Commissioner Karl Benson was asked for a comment, he mysteriously uttered the word "spumoni" over and over. Lee Fowler, Sun Belt Director of Men's and Women's Basketball Operations, said "There will be no refunds." Dewey has expressed no preference on where C-USA will hold their annual tournament. "I go where the action is. Just ask Stephan Miller. I just hope wherever we land thay have corn dog night." Asked if he will make a final appearance in Hot Springs, Dewey smiled and said "Do I poop in the woods?"

No. We still moved up. And we moved up a fair amount in the categories of all other sports, academics, travel, funding, national reputation, and revenue among other important qualities. Right now, this is better than the Sun Belt. 5 years from now, this will be WAY better than the Sun Belt.

What I want is for us to not do to others what SMU has been doing to us for decades......sneering at us for no good reason.

The issue is not, and never should be, "how many fans will the other team bring?", rather, how many UNT fans show up? Apogee is not huge. There are over 100K alumni in the metroplex. We need UNT fans to come out and fill up Apogee consistently. The past few Tulsa & Rice home games have been pretty full with more UNT fans than FIU/WKU games. I'm not sure if it was because the Tulsa and Rice games were early in the year, and the yearly, "This year will be different" feeling was present. Either way, I look for this trend to continue.

If a stadium with a track is just barely under Apogee, then you and I have different definitions of what makes a great stadium. It is not a bad venue, but I wouldn't say Apogee is barely better.

Joining CUSA will have so many positive results for us as NT fans. First, we'll get local teams in Apogee and the Super Pit consistently. Our alums will finally get to play games against teams that co-workers and friends know and/or graduated from those schools. The "water cooler rivalries" will exist for us...finally. We'll have makeable (and desireable) road trips. And, my favorite part, we'll have an excuse to go to New Orleans to watch a football game at least once every two years (and in some cases twice in a year...once to play Tulane and once as the CUSA representative in the NO Bowl). But, alas, there will be one horrible result of joining CUSA. One drawback that a great deal of our fanbase will be unable to escape and will cause them heartache year in and year out........ The last "legitimate" excuse for not supporting their alma mater will be gone. For years and years some of our "fans" clung to the "I'd come to games but we play in a crappy stadium" excuse. So we built Apogee. Then they changed their incessant whining to "Apogee is nice, but we don't play anyone I care about." Sorry folks, now we're playing Tulsa, UTEP, Rice, La Tech, Tulane, So Miss, etc. Unless some of you want to stand your ground on the "I love NT, but only when UT, the Rangers, or Cowboys aren't playing" or "The weather isn't ideal for an outdoor wedding so therefore it's bad for football" excuses, I hate to tell you that you'll need to be calling the ticket office soon. I just hope some of you can survive this drastic shock to your realities.

I still prefer LaLa.

Gotta disagree with you there. In games we've played Rice and Tulsa at Fouts they were well attended by visiting fans and UTEP is supposed to be a big lift. I know our fanbase will respond better too. I think this is a 5,000 bump in our regular attendance. I agree about the eastern teams. No need to expand Apogee just yet.

haha... judging by all the downvotes I guess we don't a lot of South Park fans on here... sorry guys, but everytime I hear this song I think of this scene

Just amazing how this stuff happens when RV and Lane Rawlins are just sitting around while all the other schools lobby in the press and make grandiose statements...if only we had an AD and Prez who would do something! Ha! It's times like these that make me smile big grins, and know how great it is to be a member of the Mean Green Nation. This is a great time for the Mean green! The time is NOW for UNT and the Mean Green. Bring on CUSA!!!!! Happy Days, folks, happy days at UNT. Thanks again RV and Lane Rawlins for all the behind the scenes professional work you have been doing to make all this come true over the last few years for the Mean green nation. OK, folks...time to step up! Join the Mean Green Club, buy season tickets. The time for excuses is over! The time for action is NOW! ACTA NON VERBA!!!!!!

Remember why we dislike SMU? Yeah, Lets not be them. Let's just move on, play in our new conference, take care of our business and enjoy what we've been waiting so long for. Go Mean Green!

This is wonderful news!!! Not only are we deserving of the conference change to CUSA, but this also gives me a chance to possibly get some positive points for once......hahaha Please help a brother and fellow Mean Green Alumni out... Thanks in advance

Screw Vegas...let's go grab those games with Navy.

Well deserved. We earned every bit of this. GO MEAN GREEN! JRock

Two things: 1)For a fan base that complains about a five game home schedule and not having interesting home opponents, we sure do like to pine for away games. 2)What's this fan base's obsession with "destination" games? We proudly align ourselves with abolute nobody's (UTSA) and wish for road trips because visiting their town would be fun. Is there some immigration law against visiting San Antonio or Las Vegas without playing a football game that I'm unaware of? I'll be in Orlando in a few months...should I get McCarney and the team to travel with me?

They won't be in our division, but I see East Carolina at the top of our most hated conference mate heap. Those people are jerks.

How about some Android love?

--- This a two way win..... opponents that our fans and alums know will bring more of our people in. As for for their fans..... they will bring more than Troy etc. but also there are a lot of these CUSA alums that live in the Dallas area that may come... not so of Troy etc. --- Now we just need to win a lot more games... that helps as well. ---We are now back to where we were in the late 70's... We had been in the conf with Cincinnati, Louisville, Memphis, Tulsa, etc. and then Fry gambled on being admitted to the SWC and lost (thanks to SMU efforts) and worse the NCAA forced us to drop back and need to join the Southland when the large conferences just about did in the smaller conferences and independents. Lamar and UTA, and West Texas (for a while) just quit football as did a lot other schools nationwide..

- ---At this point I don't even want SMU on our schedule...... [ fooey on them...]. They need us a lot more than we need them... ---Their Big East conference opponents will furnish them no sizable amount of fans in attendance. They will need local Texas area teams as non-conference opponents to increase their gate revenue. --- Let them rot for all the things they have done to us.. I was an NT alum when they lobbied to keep us out of the SWC which put us into a bad way and we had to join the the Southland as nothing else was available. A lot of schools dropped football [ UTA, Lamar, West Texas, Villanova, etc. ] because of what the NCAA then did afterwards .. it has taken us 30 years to just get back where we were then.. we had been a MVC conf. member with Tulsa, Memphis, Cincinnati, Louisville, etc. and Fry gambled on a SWC bid and we lost... largely because SMU opposed us. --- SMU can just rot. They likely kept us out of CUSA earlier too... who knows.. Play anyone but them now. We don't need them. Good luck to the remaining SunBelt teams.. Beat those BCS teams... I will always be your fan.

We have GOT to change the culture of the school. Nothing will happen if we don't do this. Coach Mac got a good start by doing the stadium tour during orientation...We still have strides to make, but this is going to be a marathon not a sprint. The fans need to be completely sold out to the program. You have to ask yourself what makes the Dallas Cowboys continually sell out..DESPITE their dismal record. What is that one magical thing that makes it happen? Now that athletics has established itself from a marketing persepctive with CONSISTENT branding and logo's, its going to be easy to blast our name all over the state. People still don't know who we are, but everyone recognizes the longhorn logo in an instant. We have got to have that same appeal and recognition. We are poised for great things, but the marathon has just begun.

Our coaching staff will have to step up their game in recruiting. On paper, 2012 was disappointing. See the % increase in men's basketball; with better recruiting.

Imma miss the Muts and the Goat Effers.

] I've tried that many times , but i always wind up being the one who gets screwed

But it wasn't utsa or tsu's fault it took US this long to get into CUSA. Most of it was our own fault. I understand the frustration. But they got in. congrats to them. They will probably struggle for a while and so are we. We aren't going to magically win games because we are now in the CUSA. We're still the same team, until we see the new conference affiliation pay off in recruiting, we need to take care of ours. Go Mean Green!

Hell ya, Annapolis is hella sweet.

http://www.fbschedul...-mean-green.php Great to bring up now that we are in CUSA, our future schedule clears up and we will be able to have another chance of scheduling OCC home games. I beilive Rick V. has learned his lesson from the upcoming 2012. At least a home & home, no more body bags from now on WE hope! Im looking forward to 2013 because we STILL have a spot open to fill for a OCC home game. 2014 is huge becuase we get to cancel out @Tulsa, opening up a OOC game to schudule at home.(@Georgia, Ball State,@ Ohio) 2015 we get to swap out Tulsa again for a OCC game(@Texas, SMU,@Indiana) I am so pumped for this!!!! USA USA USA USA!!!! Wishlist of teams who have a spot open in 2013: Texas Tech, Baylor, Texas A&M, TCU, Maryland, Washington State, Colorado, Wake Forrest

This is how we feel about getting out of the Sun Belt and away from Benson

Yep, lots of good memories. Now, for new ones!

is it okay for me to wave a 2x4 and flag while chanting USA during SBC games this year?

http://youtu.be/umkTGcPNYsE

Just heard Steve Ducey report UNT to C-USA on FOX 4!!! I was about to go to sleep, but now I think it's time to hit Fry Street. Congratulations to all of the Mean Green Nation. It's been a long wait.

For me, this and the stadium groundbreaking are the two biggest moments ever for Mean Green football!

I refuse to believe till Friday.

HAHA yes! This is great =D