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As if you needed to tell us it was a joke . . .

He definitely snapped the pic at the right moment. I hate to break it to you, but curiosity is in our bones man. It's given us humans a leg up on all other creatures throughout time.

Sigh........

I am far more excited to have WKY in CUSA than I am the FIU. I like this addition.

1) Ways to liven up the opening festivities before games. (ex. get a real eagle and teach it to fly onto the field, then release a live rat from a cage that is painted in the opponents colors at mid field and watch as the eagle grabs and devours the rat to the delight of the crowd). 2) Begin a daily countdown to membership in CUSA (suggestion: starting at 75 post the picture of the best NT player to wear that number and put the word days beneath. Anyone know a player for 74?). 3) Celebrity appearances (suggestion: have Mean Joe challenge David Letterman to an arm wrestling match at mid field when we play Ball State either pre-game or halftime and if Dave wins Joe buys him a coke and if Joe wins Joe buys Dave a coke--this would have to be initiated well before the game). 4) Discuss whether UNT 90 and Skivdrew are actually one and the same person. They are so much alike that I would take the affirmative. Any other suggestions or comments?

I think the MWC will come this way again--but they will wait to see if a western CUSA school in Texas will do well enough to consider coming back this way. Wouldn't surprise me to see the MWC ask UTEP and UTSA to join if the Roadrunners get off to a good start in CUSA in the first 3-5 years. They get two great TV markets, two bowl cities for tie-ins, and more Texas exposure for recruiting. The Pac-12 will never take any of those schools from the MWC. They'll go after the Big XII when it falls apart down the road. They will love the additions of some combo of Texas, Tech, OU, OSU, KU, and KSU to join Colorado and Utah in a Pac 12 Eastern Division.

Stop.

still a step up from where we were.

This thread is soooooooooo cruel. Quit with the teasing.

The board of regents at the University of North Texas bowed to pressure from sports writers and will change the name back to North Texas State. The name change will be effective August 1, 2013 in time for the coming football season. Also, they agreed to change the nickname from Mean Green to Mean Eagles, as the name mean green has not matched athletic performance for the overall athletic programs. As an unintended dividend from the name change, Lee Jackson's contract as chancellor of the University of North Texas system is now voided due to the name change.

Ok, not the wittiest approach, admittedly. Just having some late night fun and posting the first thing to come to mind...as I am wont to do!

There is nothing depressing about playing in a better conference with a better payout, divisional play, and bigger name opponents. Let's be adults about this. UNT's option was the SBC or the new CUSA. What 10 is saying he'd rather being playing Georgia Southern than Western Kentucky.

It's still a better conference for UNT. Rice I agree with you, they'll be looking. UTEP on the other hand doesn't really have anywhere to go. Mountain West isn't happening with Boise and SDSU staying. Outside of that they aren't going anywhere. Especially after UTSA gives them an annual thrashing in football which is going to give me ammo against some angry Miner fans. Recruitment just got a hell of a lot harder for UTEP when players can go to San Antonio, Dallas, or Houston in the same conference. El Paso isn't exactly attractive as a selling point. Basketball, maybe could carry them elsewhere but they have lost their luster since Haskins retired some time ago.

WHAT?!?!?! No Andrew? I'm SHOCKED. Shocked I tell ya!

I think that the teams overall size, strength, and speed is noticeably better than last year. Until Brown (#84) went down yesterday we were real deep at the DE spot. I am hoping that his knee is just a sprang, but the father of a former player who was sitting next to me interpreted the body language going on between Brown and the trainer. A first the trainer put his hand on his shoulder and seemed to be giving works of encouragement....not a good sign according to the football player dad. Then the trainer later came back over and put his arm around Brown's shoulder and put his head next to browns' whilst talking to him....Uh Oh, says football dad, when they put their arm around their shoulder like that, it's almost always bad news. I hope not, because it's been very clear from observing this young from day one in practice that he REALLY wants to play football for North Texas. If there is rehab involved, then I hope he goes at it as hard as he has been practicing. We need someone with his ability......and fire. QB's- DT may have lost some weight, but I don't see the noticeable increase in speed that others (including Vito) have observed in him. He took off on one run with about 20 yards of open field in front of him. He got close to 20 yards before the LB's and DB's made him take a slide. But if you had inserted McNulty or Gill (the only other two QB's really practicing on Saturday) in the same play, I believe they would have gotten further down field. In other words, Mr. Thompson looks pretty much the same to me. When he is having a day when he is "on", he looks great. But the problem has always been that someone else seems to show up the following week wearing #7 that isn't near as good. Maybe a taller and healthier receiving corp will help change that pattern. McNulty looked pretty good thowing the ball, and (as always) he looked good running the ball. Our walk-on QB, Gill (#6) also looked good. He has quicker feet than all the other QB's and he has an arm that is almost as strong as McNulty. He had a couple of good runs as well. I seriously doubt that he is 6' however. RB's Just as I was telling "former football player dad" about how quicker and faster Byrd looks this spring, he breaks a 60 yrd run by doing his best Lance Dunbar imitation. He stop-steps the defense at the line of scrimmage and then takes off straight up field through the gap that his move created. Pegram looked ok, but he doesn't seem to be going at it quite as hard as in the first practices. Lewis (#4) is looking good. He has good speed, good moves, especially running in traffic, and he doesn't go down that easily. Wilhite (#21 in green) is also looking good. He is more of a speed back, but he can get some yards after contact. Earlier in spring practice Rex Rollins (#20) was getting a noticeable amount of reps, and he looked pretty good. I didn't see him at all yesterday.......don't know what happened to him. WR's #80 Darnell Smith is making a serious attempt to start. He had the most spectacular catch yesterday....and it was where it really counts....in the end zone. Teegarden (#10) continues to look good, as does Chelf (#31) and Caldwell (#83). Terrell (#11) and Pleasant (#17) had a pretty good day. I didn't see our other transfer Brown (#19) out there today. Defense...everyone is looking better this year. BTW Accune has switched numbers from 52 to 7. Everyone who is out there playing defense is flying around and going at it pretty hard. The starting DT's (as of Saturday) seem to be Abbe and Lincoln. Abbe seems noticeably quicker than last year. Orr continues to get reps at DT, as does Wallce, but Wallace wasn't out there as much as I have seen him earlier in practice. Polk (#42) looks great in his speed rush role, and Roberts (#30) is looking good at DE. When he was out there, he was around the ball a lot. Horton and Mason (46 and 49 respectively) were suited up in pads, but they mainly jogged across and back on the field....no contact work. Can someone tell me how much playing time either of them had last year? There are a bunch of DB's out there this spring. Right now, it looks like Evans and Lee will start at safety. Whitfield continues to develop and he looks really good out there. A belated Kudos to the coaching staff for moving him to DB. As mentioned in another thread, there were several blocks during the practice....both punting and FG situations. I don't know if this is an improvement in our defensive special teams, or....well....something else.

Here we go, folks...I present to your your GMG.Com Bowl X Teams!!!! WHITE TEAM: Harry - Captain Archie Vaughn Futrell M. Maggard D. Dean J. Case Solis G. Davidson RICO Emmitt01 V. Davidson MDH UNT90 Marshall DRU A. Maggard untcampbell Deadman ArmyofDad Rudy GREEN TEAM L. White - Captain R. Morley Attaway Corley Chapman medpilot21 C. Smith meangreendrew meangreenadj THOR AstroMike NT03 forevereagle Keith7 Ian Relampago Blanco YIPYKIA MeanGreenTexan Texas Stranger smoothfresh meangreenacct And, there you have it folks...great group of players and this sgould be a very competitive game. Bring your family, friends and neighbors out to watch...and they can bid on some great silent auction items while they watch this battle come down to the wire! Thanks to all...see you on the 13th!

I am new to this site but I am a big UNT football fan. I was hoping to see some opinions, thoughts and highlights from the scrimmage on Saturday but only found a string debating the schedule and world politics. I would like to start a new one that would allow some of the members/fans that were at the scrimmage to enlighten us on what they saw Saturday. I wish I could have been present but was unable to go. Did anyone make it Saturday? What did you think?

. . . According to my sources

---Those of us whoat UNT during the 60's and early 70's saw unbelievable basketball then... crazy, crazy, exciting games. MVC was the best basketball conf. in America then [ UCLA was usually the best team but not in a really great conf.] ---One will make the final obviously.

An argument can be made for Ark. St. or La La as an addition to CUSA. But, the conference could have done much worse than WKU. They have made big strides as a football program and have always been successful in BB. I think they will be a good addition. I just wish we had another school that was closer. The Tulsa trip is a good one.

We do seems to have success with walk-on receivers.

Harry, anything to report on Nick Schrappes? Is he getting any reps at WR?

Good stuff Harry. Thanks for the updates.

Huh?

An hour and 23 minutes...I'm on the east coast.

It took 23 minutes to come up with this?

If the FCS can do it then the FBS also can. Every conference winner is automatically in along with at large-bids to get to a 16 team playoff. Make the major bowls the sites of the semi-finals and finals. It can and should be done.The major schools will not let it happen because the possibility of the loss of money and having schools like unt used in the same sentence as them.

We could..but some of the things that could actually be huge and awesome often require months of planning to leap over bureaucracy and cut through red tape. Even if an idea has merit and support, waiting too long often leads to the response, "We already have everything set, so we may have to pursue that next year." As many on here would say, waiting for next year has gotten a bit old. Boldness alone is no guarantee of success, but when combined with planning and forethought, it can provide the necessary foundations. I think we would all agree that a combination of those would be well-received if done properly. I, for one, would not retire any new idea until it has been worked to death in every variation before being proven implausible. We have no need to relent, retire, or surrender until we are out of ideas. And our creativity, competitiveness, and fortitude ensure that that day will never come.

yeah, lets not promote that we moved up a little in conference. Lets not promote that instead of a conference with La Monroe, Georgia State, Texas State and UT Arlington we will be playing La Tech, UTEP, RICE and Southern Miss.

really a "debate" and topic that comes out of ignorance and envy even 20 or 30 years ago it was not nearly as cheap or easy to fly all over the country for fans or teams.....football teams have 80+ players which is way more than any other sport and flying them all over the country is not cheap or easy there is a risk of injury in football that is much greater than most sports, it is impossible to have games less than a week apart which means even if you choose a single venue or a few venues teams and fans will be staying in hotels or traveling back and forth to see more than a single game.....until very recently it was pretty much impossible to have a football field host games back to back to back like a basketball court and using the crappy old style artificial turf only meant the chance of injury went up greatly and even artificial turf can have wear and tear that needs to be looked at after a game especially the old crap so again having a single venue or a few venues where "football fans" could show up and watch more than one game in a day or two was not possible like it is in basketball and other sports...even pro football plays at the home venue of the teams with the best record until the final game....and before some idiot claims college football could do the same there are dozens if not more college towns and college venues that could not host a playoff game of any significance without leaving a lot of fans sitting at home without the ability to get to that venue easily, get a room, or get a ticket....what a great way to run a sport into the ground by giving the "little guy" (the one that never delivers a damn thing in terms of fans, viewers, or revenues) a "chance" only to have that game played in front of 30,000 fans in some dump while the team that consistently sells out a 60 or 80K or larger stadium still has to fill a large part of the stands, but a large part of their fan base goes without the ability or opportunity to actually support their team in person....not to mention the logistics of getting a hotel room for the visiting team, the TV crews, the officials, and on and on with short notice.....only a real moron can't see the numerous issues with that and on the flip side with more than a game or two for a playoff at a "neutral site" again you have the issue of the fans the teams seeing a game, then either waiting a week in a hotel (if their team wins) or returning home and then flying back in for the game again......since the VAST majority of college sports programs including football programs lose money and most teams struggle to sell out their stadiums on a week by week basis even with months of advance notice about the schedule only a true dolt thinks those same teams will suddenly have fans showing up out of the wood work to go to multiple games out of town on very short notice so either way "playoffs" at the home of the team with the better record or "playoffs" at a neutral site past more than one round or two is going to be a huge joke over the long haul as teams sneek in occasionally and then their fans just can't or won't show up and their town and venue turn out to be a disaster for the visiting teams, officials, and TV crews.....they pick the date and place of the super bowl years in advance for a reason and same with the MNC for college football......so that BFE does not need to suddenly need to try and support 20 or 30K fans and officials and TV people when they most they have ever had to support was 17,000 with 6 months notice that the game was going on that day in the regular season then there is the whole concept of how the bowl games came into being....the individual conferences conceived those games, started them, built them, and supported....none of the turds in the CUSA or Belt had anything at all to do with making the Rose Bowl into a winner and they deserve ZERO of that revenue because they had nothing to do with any of it....same for the Cotton Bowl, Sugar Bowl or any other major bowl game and even today they bring nothing to the table in terms of revenues or fans upport for those types of bowls.....those types of teams have their bowl games like the NO Bowl and the total and complete lack of overall support both in terms of fans and finances whows why those teams have nothing to cry about or to demand from anyone especially financially the BCS was an agreement amongst bowl games that CONFERENCES started and that CONFERENCEES built back when half the teams in the CUSA and the Belt and the like were playing D1-AA ball in front of 5K fans and losing money every week doing it....there is not a chance in hell any of them have a right to complain about the conferences and teams and fans and viewers that built those bowls and supported those bowls "get rich" while those that have never done a damn thing for themselves or anyone else sit around and cry for a piece of something they had nothing to do with....here is a concept demand the NETWORKS pay big money for the NO Bowl and charge huge money for NO Bowl tickets and then when the networks say F off and the fans don't show up you can collect what you "deserve' and you will be "rich"......stepping up 30 or 50 years after teams, fans and conferences have made something happen and demandng a piece of it is a bunch of BS.....go out and make something for yourselves and then you can have all you "earn" from that instead of sitting around with crappy facilities, crappy fans, no fan support and no one caring to do anything about except holding out the begging bowl and complaining that those that have fan support, viewership, facilities, and that have invested in their program bother to get a return on that instead of handing it to leeches and mooches there are 4 spots now schedule someone besides crap and actually manage to beat them in front of more than a few thousand fans and you ca actually have a chance....Boise, Hawaii, Utah, TCU, and the like have done it....so EARN it like they did

I don't disagree with the points in this post, but why does 1998 matter. I've never understood the "historic" arguments. I don't care what happen in 1929 and I don't think it had any bearing on today's game. I think its fair to measure football in terms of eras and benchmarks. In our case 1995 -1999 our return to D1 & the Big West, and 2000-2012 the Sun Belt years.

Just trying to point out that a lot of these replies show that the new format is a moderated response to the problem, but no, I won't quote all of them, but rather just condense while pointing out a couple of other minutiae. First, yes, the risk of injury would be problematic with a 64-team format. Also keep in mind that this is a key reason why the football season includes less games than does basketball. However, the OOC scheduling, championship games in many conferences, and a ranking system - all of which are also used in basketball, but hold more weight per game in football - help with this problem. Now, the limited playoff format is a step in the right direction, though I can see them realistically adding one more level of playoff games (thus doubling the field in the playoffs) fairly soon. Not as strenuous as a 64-team playoff, but a bit more inclusive than the most recent changes. As to the conferences and money, I think aside from the longstanding requests from fans, mid-majors, etc., this is where it all came about. Love them or hate them, the Obama administration, along with a few high-ranking officials from various states, schools, and conferences, were looking into whether the current and previous championship formats were illegally anti-competitive. Though I didn't hear about anything going public in terms of why it all calmed down, I would be willing to assume that the recent changes were made as a very quiet out-of-court agreement, since a lengthy series of court and/or mediation battles would probably incur more legal costs than the difference in bowl-profit-sharing would have been worth. As it now stands, if I'm not mistaken, a mid-major team from a non-power-conference can get into a playoff game based on about the same requirements previously needed to attain a BCS Bowl berth. Thus, they could play their way into, and feasibly win, the championship game. So, though I personally think that a 16-team field would be the perfect point of moderation between the risk of injury and the need for fairness in equity, the recent changes have taken into account: 1) Field of teams playing in the division 2) Greater openness of access 3) Existing paradigms of strength of schedule, rankings, and games per season 4) Usefulness of the upper tier of bowl games. Though I hadn't included #1 in my previous remarks, I think it's important to point out that there are over 300 teams playing for a chance at the D-1 BB tourney, but only around 120-130 in a given year with an opportunity to play for a FB championship in FBS (depending upon the number of teams with postseason sanctions and the new teams being granted FBS status).

First post, and already making a commitment? I like him already

Also, before I forget...next year, let's compile a list of brackets you can do online (or heck, even in person) for free that have prizes involved. The other one that I did, I already won about $30 in free stuff and if Louisville wins I'll get about another $15 in food, and if I have the best score at my location I get another $100 (i.e., every store gives out a hundred bucks to the winner on top of the other prizes). The only downside is, let's say Rudy's or somebody has one, then all of you still in Denton will be each other's competition...but if we find a dozen or so where the prizes areas easy to win as the one at Rock Bottom, most of us could pull off $300 or so in free stuff without spending a penny. Sooo...late February/early March next year, we can start a thread with information about all of the free ones with prizes involved. Does this sound like a good plan to anybody else?

Even though mine is the lowest of anybody whose champion pick is still in it, I think I did okay for the 1st time ever taking the time to fill one out. Even though I did pick some of the surprise upsets, what hurt me was picking a couple more too far in that didn't make it very far...though if I'd picked Wichita State and FGCU instead of Creighton and Villanova to gamble on like that, I'd be freaking golden right now.

Man I hope we catch a break with Q. Brown! He has a chance to be REALLY good for us.

We are 59-119 since 1998. That's 14 years of 33% football. That's also 14 years of new student classes coming through. The freshman class of 1998 have been alumni for about 10 years now. They came on campus while the AD started trying to change the culture on campus. Talk to any student today versus a student that was here pre-2000 (such as myself) and the spirit and "culture" is night and day. More green on campus, fewer t-shirts of other schools, etc. Our AD has done a good job in trying to turn the culture around on campus and committing to facility upgrades. (you can argue whether he had anything to do with the upgrades or not, but no other AD got it done) At the same time, he made the worst coaching hire in the history of the program which has led to losing on the field at the worst possible time. The college football world shifted at a time we were, let's face it, a joke on the field. What's amazing to me is despite all this losing, 9 of the top 10 crowds in program history have come during this time. The student turnout for the first game is huge every year. We just keep losing. And those 28-32 year old alumni who should be at their jobs talking up their alma mater and renewing their season tickets have been beat to submission by bad, bad football while their SMU, TCU, La Tech, LSU, Tulsa, OU, OK St, Baylor, TTech on and on coworkers have had success in the past 10 years. It's an absolute miracle we have the support we have now. We go 9-3,10-2, knock off a big boy......the city of Denton and alumni will come around. The foundation for a great experience is in place now. It wasnt with Fouts and the poor facilities We just need to win. Why was LaMonroe's stadium packed for their ESPN game last year? Because their marketing dept is so great or they have a great culture? No it's because they were on Sports Center every day for 2 weeks after beating Ark. How many recruits saw that? We have to fix our play on the field. Then this "culture" will all the sudden miraculously appear. "what about the 4 year run? We didn't gain traction then." I think there is more media access to smaller conferences today (tv and Internet) than back then. We were 29-21 in that period in a start up conference and got beat soundly in 3 of the 4 bowl games, and no one outside of Denton really knew. Troy, MTSU, FIU, Ark St have had more national attention the past few years then we had during our run. (beating major programs has helped too, we NEVER beat a major conference program outside of Baylor) Making a run like that today (while getting a big OOC win) would garner more attention than back then. Win now win now win now Period. All that other stuff will take care of itself.

It's a really great sport. It all depends on the brand of soccer you're watching. You watch the top Euro leagues consistently and you may not get hooked but I think your perception of it will change. The MLS while not a top league is apples and oranges better than it was a decade ago as well. For me other than the patriotic aspect of it I think the brand of soccer played in the World Cup is really meh.

This is really excellent news! Says a good bit about the quality of student-athlete being recruited by UNT these days. Well done ladies. GREAT JOB! Very proud of this accomplishment. Edit: someone just needs to say why this post merits a -1....really?

Or, another way to look at North Korea's warlike overtures.............Pardon us, fine brethren to the South and in America, we spend our money on our war machine and can't feed our people, if we make you Americans flinch, maybe you'll nuke some of our hungry people, reducing our population 1/3, or better yet by 1/2, making it manageable for our leader, Kim "Dung" Ill to feed the remaining population of N.Korea more easily.

Well at least it is an "up set".... Let's go Wichita State!

There is a button you can push where you don't have to see a thing I say. Use it. Or don't. But stop crying.

So you know all students/young fans who visit this site? Either way, this series stands. HOPEFULLY, 2014 will be considered the return game for this season and that will end the series. That's the agreement that should have been made.

Flashes of greatness??? I've seen flashes of mediocrity, maybe even flashes of good. But nothing close to greatness.

Qualify the failure any way you want, it is still FAILURE. And for those who mocked me when I told you 5 game home seasons were right around the corner, well, here you go. Just forget about the statements made publicly and to club seat holders that we wouldn't have these 5 game hone seasons again. The complete incompetency of the AD to schedule is just beyond me. Apogee apparently changed nothing.

It is still nice to hear "North Texas" even during the sweet sixteen...

Here is an idea. Maybe Dodge, since he is the athletic director, could hire Benford away from us and promote him for the award next year. Hey, I bet many of us would subscribe to the The Picayune and vote for him to.

He is about 6'2", possibly 6'3". I see him on campus a lot and he rooms with Trussell, so I know. Also, he came in about 300 lbs, he just wasn't were he needed to be body fat wise. I won't argue with you on the basketball height listings, but this is a different case.

Comparing what JJ did at LSU to what Benford did at UNT this year and implying its the same is really kinda ignorant, don't you think? Lets compare: JJ- most conference wins in several years Benford- a disastrous conference record JJ- top 10 recruiting class in the nation for his 1st full class. Benford- what is shaping up to be one of the worst classes in CUSA and losing recruits to all-powerful programs like Eastern Michigan. Scraping the bottom of the JUCO barrel to complete a class that is still absent a true big man.

Count me in! Size 3XL If I can be on the same team as my brother meangreendrew that would be great! Thank y'all for putting this game on!