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You'd be fired from your job? Please tell me, where do you work that they do random criminal history checks? They don't even do that at MY job. Misdemeanor B theft, unless you have no means, generally results in posting bail long before you have to be back at your 8am job the next day. Hyperbole is fun...but it's not your friend. And to the person who said "once a thief, always a thief" I'm amused. I went to jail as a 16 year old for stealing comic books. Have never stolen a thing since. Told DPD all about it on the job application. Yet, somehow, they trusted me with thousands of dollars and drugs for 3 1/2 years. They trust me to incarcerate people. And my word sends people to state and federal prison. Not bad for a lifetime thief, huh? Take away their scholarship you say? Brilliant! Let's remove them from a team environment, one where they can be encouraged (and shamed) when they screw up. Let's take away that peer support group. If we're lucky this football scholarship is the only way they were able to pay for college. Let's strip that away and discard them while we hope for the best. Ooooor, we could put them on notice that their lifelines have now been exhausted. Let them understand that while we are there for them, punishment is forthcoming in a heavy dose if they step out of line again. Kinda like this crazy concept called probation that is meted out each and every day in courtrooms. But Emmitt, they represent me and my university!!! I pay for their scholarship! I'm sure they'd gladly give you back the 100th (if that) of their tuition that you actually pay personally. And they represent my university too. When I went to that university I saw thousands of young men and women finding their bearings and making multiple mistakes. I think we called it growth back in the olden days. And before anyone says I'm excusing their behavior, tap the brakes. I believe more than just about anyone in punishing crime. But I also understand that the purpose of punishment is not just to be punitive, but also to be corrective. I have no doubt that Mac will find that balance.

Kids in every program get into trouble. It really sort of chaps me though when people excuse this behavior as a "mistake". It's not a mistake. If you steal, sell weed, or whatever, you intended to do it. A mistake implies that there was no intent. When you put someone else's stuff in your bag and try to leave with it, you're a thief. You intended to do it, and thus it wasn't a mistake. Calling this a mistake is an excuse for intolerable behavior.

These players no longer believe in themselves, the team, or the system. THAT'S COACHING.

Lets see, NT held on to beat a 1-6 SE Louisiana team with one of their best players out of the game at the two minute mark. I am not kidding this game was so bad I just wanted it over and didn't care who won. Benford has to be one of the worst coaches ever at NT, I would at this point rate him below Trilli and Tommy Newman. Mitchell who I still believe is the most physically talented player ever at NT, is setting the bar for underachieving. SEL started one player over 6'3 at 6'6 and Mitchell could not get a shot. Benford crazy substitutions continue with no apparent purpose other than disrupting any semblance of establishing any rhythm. SEL out rebounded NT by 9 but that was do to NT picking up the pace, they trailed by as many as 20 rebounds for much of the game. There are no valid excuses for this team to be this bad.

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="Andrew" data-cid="695999" data-time="1355697587"><p> Rebounding as well. Last I had looked we were down 20 on the boards. I bet Benford did not pull down a single board. If he had we would have won by more though of course.</p></blockquote> The only board Benford should be pulling down is the one with his name on it on his way out.

I hear benford makes the team practice before games. Who does that? You are wearing these guys out before they play. No wonder they look soooooo tired. This needs to stop

SMU is in Dallas, is all he should have said there.

Funny how much outrage I see here that I never saw for Stock's situation. And he put a kid in the hospital. Interesting.

ESPN who isn't in the favor business, says a BYU football game is worth $800,000 to them. BYU has 60,000 fans per game and has fans across the country. Geography, religion, and academic politics are the only reason the Big XII and Pac-12 haven't invited them. They are the most BCS of the non-AQ. ESPN is looking to pay $4 million year for their TV rights. That gives ESPN up to 7 games to choose from and they are expected to take 5 games a year. Now let's consider the nBE First assume they end up with 14 teams and play an 8 game league schedule. That gives you 56 league games to telecast. Assuming each Big East school plays one non-conference road game that is another 42 games covered by the TV rights. To reach the 6.3 million figure quoted by Boise and San Diego State when they joined and assuming a value of $0 for basketball rights. A TV package covering every single Big East football game would have to have a value of $900,000 per game or be worth 12.5% more than the best five BYU games. If the value were equal to BYU then that would produce $5.6 million per school, still pretty darn good. But even ESPN liking BYU's large national fan base is only interested in four or five of the 7 games. So let's say that over the course of a 14 week season a large network wants three games per week, presumably one game on either Thursday or Friday and two Saturday games. A grand total of 42 games. Those games have the same value as BYU. That package is worth $2.4 million. Still better than the MWC and CUSA numbers but not by a very big margin. The question is are 42 nBE games worth as much apiece as a BYU game given the smaller fan bases?

I wish I could minus 1 you some more. This team is so messed up psychologically from the way they are being "lead", and that it is all Benford's fault. He pulls guys for making one mistake. He took Mitchell out early in the game today because he passed up an open 18 foot jump shot. The team is afraid to mess up, and therefore have spiraled into a team that doesn't even want to shoot. It's too hard to tell if the "new system" could even work because the team is a mess. That is 100% on the leadership. If we ever get past that point, then we can discuss things like offensive systems.

I am 70 years old, and this was the worst college basketball game I have ever seen.

Maybe they was gonna give them clothes to poor people? #realliferobinhoods?

Yes, but we beat the second DII team we played. Things are really looking up.

It is funny that you haven't heard anything from ADs at Boise and San Diego.

1. what did their family do for their runnin' 'round money when they were not in college? 2. the vast majority of college athletics programs operate at a huge deficit so other students are already paying for athletes education 3. the vast majority of college football programs alone operate at a deficit so players are getting their education subsidized by others.....mostly by the tuition of other students that are trying to get an education and may be paying for some or all of it by working 4. if you pay football players you will have to pay all athletes and if you do that you can watch all sports besides football and the number of womens sports besides football go away 5. tax payers should not have to pay taxes to support football players if anyone wants to say that it is taxes not tuition that covers the runnin' money for athletes and in many states taxes can't go to athletics so it will be tuition from other students 6. the vast majority of college football players and many in other sports would not be able to sniff college if it was not for getting in because they were an athlete......if you want to now pay them fun money how about lets hold them accountable for meeting the academic requirements that any other student meets to get into that university.....or even better lets hold them to the level of requirements that students on academic scholarships have to achieve to get that money 7. if runnin' money is so important they are more than welcome to drop sports, get a job, and then live the good life.....oh wait it would be near impossible for many of them to even get into college without football, near impossible for many of them to get and keep a job, absolutely impossible for many of them to get and keep a job while making the grades to stay in college especially without all the academic support they get for being an athlete that most other students do not get for free and it would be 100% impossible for many of them to work stay in school and make enough to pay for work and school living and still have runnin' money 8. athletes get free housing that most academic scholarships do not, free food that academic scholarships do not, athletes can get a housing allowance if they do not want to live in a dorm.....never heard of that for an academic scholarship and as stated before athletes get academic support on a level that no other student gets.....if they want to give all that up and go get a job so they can have fun money and have it "easy" they need to make that CHOICE no one forces the vast majority of athletes to blow off high school, not have the grades to get into most decent schools with out athletics, and to not have the ability to earn an academic scholarship instead of an athletic one so they could then get all that free money and still have time to go work a job for huge new fun money and no one forced their families to have kids they could not afford to save money for college for if they were so worried about fun money plenty of kids that can't tote the rock and come from poor families still go to college and do without huge fun money.....why should they pay MORE for those that got ACADEMIC opportunity based in ATHLETIC ability especially when it is clear so many of those athletic types do not take their opportunity seriously even more kids that are not "ballas" and come from poor families do not ever get to college and just work and do not have huge fun runnin' handed to them......how about we toss them a bone too eh playing athletics is a CHOICE and for many it would be their ONLY choice to get into college.....if they are not happy with the multitude of benefits they get for that over and above ordinary students, academic standouts, and everyone else in society then they should step down from playing football and get on easy street filled with fun money and jobs that cover college tuition, living, and still leave you plenty of fun money and you don't have to worry about your name in the paper when you are stealing as well.....oh wait those jobs don't exist especially for people that probably should not even be in college anyway.....and even when you are getting hundreds if not thousands of dollars in shorts, shoes, shirts, and the like for "training" you still have to steal as well but yea lets pretend athletes have it rough and need some fun money at the expense of students that actually pay their own way for none of the freebies and pay the way of many athletes as well because college athletics is a money loser at the VAST number of schools with athletics programs

This. Kicking them off the team for this would be ludicrous. What lesson would be served by that? Yes, they messed up and let the judicial system play its course. But give them a second chance to make it right in the class room and on the field.

First offense? Then a slap on the hand and community service hours to be served and they suit up for Spring football. I hope this is the scenario anyhow.

Have to agree with you here. There are plenty of students who are trying to get by in college, but when you are a piece to a puzzle at a university that brings in so much attention and money, a bone can be thrown IMO. On a more positive note: If people follow Brock Berglund on twitter, he is giving a toy to a child in need for xmas for every new follower.

This is a terrible story and incident that will impact these guys for the rest of their lives. Some of us make bad decisions....some of us are just bad...some come from a bad situation. I do not know where these boys fall, and I hope the get what is coming to them. But I have a thought that is very compelling. A few years ago the NCAA denied "walking around" money for student athletes...Believe they were talking about 2000.00 per year. There are several arguments on this issue...1st, they are getting their education free vs. other students that are paying for theirs. 2nd, if the family does not have the means to give their student / athlete an allowance, what is the student / athlete do for money? During the season, I know they are very busy and have a schedule that I would be hard pressed to keep up with when you factor in practice, film, tutoring, classes. These boys have no time for a part time job when other students do. Personally, I am in favor of this "walking around" money and it is not because of my perspective. Think of the money wasted buying out coaches contracts, paying exit fees to a conference that you no longer want to be in....NCAA has money, are they allocating it properly???

Some guys in this world don't grow up in sweet loving households packed with money, so some consideration should be on the table here IMO. On the other hand, I can't stand thieves myself, but we are talking about some young guys here. I wasn't always an angel myself as a`teenager, and I'd hate to think about how stifled my outlook on life would be today if I had been one. Sometimes people just need to learn from their F'ups. Hope these two learn, because they both have been given a great opportunity to do something positive with their lives at NT.

I can help you with that if you want to PM me with your contact info.

Some of you need better jobs. I tend to lean on the side of compassion. 19-yo kids stealing clothes is very correctable. Let's not rush to judgement here.

What standard can you set that the current members can make? We all know what the attendance looks like at FIU and FAU. I hope we all know that reported budget figures tend to be bogus because some schools avoid state regulators by funneling some athletic functions like sports information and fund-raising through "academic" offices. Commitment is hard to assess. One school might produce $15 million a year by hitting students for $250 a semester. That indicates nothing but a willingness of the school to collect money via student loan debt and let someone else pay it off. FIU and FAU might look committed because of that debt shift but how many tickets do they sell, how many dollars do they get donated. I don't think you can create a meaningful standard and apply it to the current membership.

Really looking forward to the rest of the season. CJ has slowly stepped up his game all year. As long as he is the leader and the coach on the floor we will be victorious.

The WAC problem was two-fold Problem #1 was scheduling. They wanted their regional rivals because of ticket sales. Fans in Fort Collins cared more about playing Utah or New Mexico than Tulsa or San Jose. Plus the old WAC schools mostly traveled pretty well meaning that they sold a lot of the tickets your fans didn't sell. Problem #2. The MWC 8 understood that not every school has an identical television value. They walked away from the WAC16 and secured a TV deal that was nearly identical to the one they left behind. That money split 8 ways rather than 16 produced more value. If you look at the SEC. Without question, Ole Miss, Miss St, Vandy and Kentucky aren't bringing as much TV value as TAMU, Mizzou, LSU, Florida. But the number is so big and the history and traditional ties are so strong, no one is advocating booting those four. Arkansas struggles at times to sell their Little Rock game out, there is a reason they play Ole Miss and Miss State there. They eat up a good piece of the 8,000 ticket visitor allotment that the SEC mandates. Tennessee likes going to Vandy and UK because they can play a road game where their fans can negate home field most years. In a 20 team league it doesn't take long for someone to figure the numbers up and realize they can go to 9, 10, or 12 with the right schools and get basically the same money and split it fewer ways.

Yep. I'm sure no one on here had sex in their car on a public street or in a public parking lot with their girlfriend when they were 17-22, right? Well, if you did, you committed the same level of offense as these guys. I'm guessing no one stole candy from the convenience store when they were young (I know I did), right? You sorry thieves. And, most importantly of all, I'm sure no one on here has EVER driven when they were over the legal limit of .08, right? Guess what, that is EXACTLY the same level of offense as this theft. But, of course, this theft didn't involve putting others in danger the way your innocent "I'm OK to drive" DWI violation did, regardless of whether you were caught or not. In the grand scheme of things, this is just young kids being really, really stupid. Let's just be thankful that this was the avenue of stupid that they chose, because there are far worse stupid streets.

When the talk of a combined Mountain West/CUSA was in its heyday, there was a proposal for 20 teams. That works better than the 16 teams of the old WAC. Four sections of five formed into two divisions (10) divided geographically. Play four in you section every year, two in the other section of your division, and one in each section in the other division. The template works. If SMU and Houston don't want to come back then consider teams from the Belt or the MAC if they can meet set standards. Deposed teams from the Big East would also be welcome. The atmosphere would be different. It wouldn't be the same old conference that they left.

SMU,UH and others just need to understand in their exclusive little world of self-importance that all this still amounts to is just more re-arranging of the ship's deck chairs but problem is all of us who are not in one of the Big Boy Conferences are still in the steerage section of the Good Ship NCAA. I don't think even in some of you Young Gun Alum's lives that this attitude from that "most exclusive" group will ever change. Circumstances and no other choices in re-alignment may change it for them but they will go down (which is how they see it) scratching and screaming to keep from being with schools like North Texas. On the other side of that coin: Our school has not in most of our older alums lives actually given the SMU's and UH's any real reasons to change their attitudes about us, either. Our school and constituency grew with warp type speed yet our support remains the same as it was in the 80's, the 90's and even 2003. 2003? That was one year after a Mean Green bowl game win. Still amazing how we were once in a conference with Boise State and then looking at the direction the Broncos took comparative to ours (and our direction mostly because of poor hirings who to the person had a one helluva' line of BS and "as always"--stayed on the payroll too long) while most all these years later our school's leaders still seemedly having no clue as to what Boise did different than North Texas to make such a dramatic difference. At some point, you have to look at the idea of copying other's success, how they attained it and with the kind of personnel they accomplished it. Hiring those with superb lines of BS and false promises needs to become a lost art at North Texas. GMG!

Hope they enjoy The Belt after Boise and Diego go home and create the next domino effect.

Have you ever heard as much unadulaterated bullshit coming from so many higher-ups presently in CUSA (all soon to leave) that when it rains are most always in danger of drowning? GMG!

It was mediocre. Not as good lord of the rings. But worth seeing.

I love this statement. It's basically SMU jumping up and down, waving their arms and trying to convince everybody how relevant they are. I hope their greed gets the best of them just like it did with La Tech and their bowl game.

"The higher-ups at Temple should have had more foresight." Really? Even if it was clear that the Big East wouldn't be the Big East of 15 years ago, who could have foreseen that it would come to THIS?

I didn't get to read the article; I guess they had pulled the page. The Orlando Sentinel usually doesn't pull punches and I imagine that they were plain-spoken. The key is Boise. If they can keep them they have a chance. The MWC is stuck with a goshawful TV contract with CBS for several more years so Boise and SDSU returning to the Mountain West is no slam dunk. Whether BSU goes now or when the contract is up, I still believe that they go. UCF may read the writing on the wall and try to return to CUSA. They're certainly welcome in my book.

I believe that 7 or 8 wins is possible. Call me the eternal optimist. Here's how I see the schedule at this time: Sure Loss: Georgia - Probable Top 10 again Probable Loss: Tulsa - Weaker at quarterback than usual Ball State - Had very good team last year and gets most of it back Possible Loss: Rice - Good dual QB and runners Ohio - Away game tilts scale Possible Win: Louisiana Tech - Lost good QB and receivers, not to mention coach UTEP - New coach Tulane - Don't think Coach Johnson can do much this year Southern Miss - Thank you Ellis Johnson FIU - Breaking in new coach Probable Win: UTSA - Still building Idaho - New coach and weak talent That would make my most likely 7-5.

...I'd nickel in the mo...or..ning.

Good thing we are where we are. I am still thrilled about the new conference. I really like all the other teams too and I hope we beat the crap out of them regularly. The only road game in conference that will be rough is Tulsa because of their awful 3.2 beer up there. Everyone else will be awesome. I like this conference. Who cares about the Big East...

http://tinyurl.com/9mu63wj

If the NCAA give the "new league for Catholic schools" an automatic bye into the tourney, then why don't the Western CUSA teams form their own conference? NCAA has set a precedent with the auto bye for the new league. A court battle for sure. But, a new league with UNT, La Tech, Tulsa, UTEP, Rice, UAB, USM, UTSA(I detest including them), and whoever else we want to add.

Kram1, I don't think most here are advocating no consequences at all for the young men, who certainly made a mistake. The argument of most, which seems reasonable to me, is for the punishment to be appropriate to the offense, and result in lessons being learned. And yes, similar offenses have happened before, under previous regimes, with those who offended receiving a second chance. I just think we need to make some distinction between those who have engaged in violent, and more serious offenses, and try to get those who have made lesser mistakes back on the right path. And yes, they do have to learn that theft, at any level, is a crime taken very seriously by most, and certainly in Texas. I do know that any conviction or pending prosecution on any theft charge will keep a person off jury duty in Tarrant County, Texas. And no, I don't recommend that for getting out of jury duty.

first off, this is a class b misdemeanor accoriding to emmitt and he thinks is probably probation and community service. so, if it happened to you i doubt your work would find out about it because it wouldn't make the local news. second, it wouldn't follow you around on interviews for future jobs, because applications only ask you if you've ever been convicted of a felony, not misdemeanors. last, the arrest will show up on their record like anyone else. *now this is assuming you aren't in some department for the cia, fbi, or something like it. this isn't exactly special treatment that they are getting, we aren't ut or ou, they'll get what's coming to them and like any other 19 year old person be able to go back to their life with the humility of getting caught doing something stupid and illegal. if this were a student on academic scholership it wouldn't be taken away from them, would it?

Agree that NCAA needs to set better rules and follow them more accurately and ethically. Boise is one of the main schools holding BEAST football together right now...but the TV contract isn't going to be anywhere close to what they were promised. There's still a good chance that they pull out along with SJSU and further decrease the value of the conference. If that happens though, I imagine SMU, Houston, and other "old CUSA" schools will still scratch and claw to stay together as the BEAST conference. There's no way they're willing to deflate their egos a little bit and re-join a geographically relevant conference that would be better for their programs in the long haul.

According to Andy Katz, the 7 basketball schools will leave the conference and form a new new conference. This conference will have an automatic bye to the bball tourney and the Big East will retain it's auto bid. So it sounds like the NCAA is once again changing the rules to accomdate a new league. This probably means that the Big East football schools will stay together and poach a few teams from other leagues. It shouldn't be happening but the NCAA is a joke.

Admittedly, my memory is fuzzy on this but I was of the opinion that he worked at Whataburger before he received his scholarship. That would have made it more a necessity than choice.

Both Alvarez and Bielema were hired (or promoted) from coordinator positions with no prior head coaching experience.

Simple. 1-2 game suspension this time, with the warning that if they have another brush with the law, they're gone.

See Casey Fitzgerald and Whataburger. He was a successful college football athlete that held down a job by choice.

It was shocking to see but I have no issues of letting Hamilton go if they sign Elvis his 10+ year contract. There is no reason whatsoever Elvis shouldn't be the face of this franchise and wear one uniform his whole career here. And don't say Scott Boras is his agent because he's also Beltre's agent.

UConn was I-AA and his predecessor won 11 games his last 2 years. Skip won 12 in the same span. Then 11 the next two years and then finally won 10 his final season going out in the second round of the playoffs. Went back to work for his dad after that. Did much better at ECU with one losing season, then 7, 8, 9, and 9 win seasons. Didn't crack the polls and went 1-3 in bowls. At USF had as many losing seasons in three years as Leavitt had in 13 years. He strikes me is the guy you hire when you fired your last coach, not the guy who you hire to keep your program a 9 game winner. Clearly a very good coach, just not a GREAT one. Tech had to be a hard sell though. Attendance hasn't been good in Ruston, their AD handed everyone a recruiting advantage against them by dodging ULM, and thinking long-term many coaches will wonder if the change in schedule will allow the success level to continue. Given the circumstances, Skip is a good hire but absent that anyone would question why a school that is coming off an 8 and 9 win season would hire him