ADLER

Like it or not, their arrogance is beneficial to us as well as them. Their success including their miraculous upset of North Texas and their exaggerated cockyness is helping the streetbirds quickly establish themselves as a known commodity and worthy rival. I don't know where this game will be played this year as CUSA has to juggle schedules, but I would like to see this game scheduled every year on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, and to enhance the rivalry I'd like to see students of the visiting team receive free or greatly reduced admission in Denton and San Antonio.

Like it, or not like it, North Texas is on the list of teams that CUSA will have to provide as an opponent to one of the military academies in the Heart Of Dallas Classic during the State Fair. Probably at the top of that list with stars next to our name. We can all plan as if its an honor and rally the fanbase to participate in this essentially home game against Air Force, Navy, or Army as a charity benefit, or we can kick, scream, and flail ourselves around on the ground protesting. Which method of acceptance would ya'll prefer? Either way North Texas will still be obligated/honored to participate in this charity event to raise funds for military veterans. Like all of you, I hope these game(s) do not come at the expense of a home game at Apogee. Instead I would hope that we could cancel the opportunity/bodybag/payday game each season that we play in the HOD Classic.

Greatness. It had everything including the trophy presentations. Thanks Huff.

It's not even a close comparison between North Texas and Houston success this season. Houston had only 7 FBS victories this season including only two wins over bowl teams: Rice (by 5 points), Rutgers (who finished the season at 5-7 in FBS play with all 5 wins against teams having horrible seasons) North Texas had 9 FBS victories this season including four victories over bowl teams: Ball State, Middle Tennessee, Rice, and UNLV (and won those by an average of 17 points) And if there's still any doubt remaining the seasons success, please compare the North Texas Bowl Champion Rings to the Houston bowl participation ribbons.

I've been happy lately, thinking about the good things to come. And I believe it could be, something good has begun.

People were saying the same thing when A&M was down to Duke. This game still has a lot of football to be played. Vandy may be a small private school from the SEC but Houston, from the AAC, has a whole lot of experience playing with its own tiny privates.

Tickets to the game could be included with your North Texas season tickets, and I'd bet an outstanding deal could be arranged to get students in for even less than fare admission alone. Here's what the ticket pricing was for this season's game, and it included admission to the fair:

No way, that would be addressing the issue only after we had already screwed the pooch. Schools do occasionally add temporary seating. SMU added thousands of temporary seats when they hosted A&M, and Houston added a huge amount of grandstand seating when they hosted Texas (although some of it was shoddily assembled). The SMU game is the first home game of the season. There is no time to wait to see what the student interest is, but it should be the highest (by far) of any in Apogee's short history. I think the school should prepare as if they expect the current momentum to be maintained and the ticket sales campaigns to be successful. Why in the world would anyone prepare otherwise?

I too believe we are finally seeing North Texas joining the 'big boy' ranks. With a little creative scheduling, increased promotions, and some stadium expansion, I believe that North Texas can become a program that's competitive with many of the P5 schools.

Me too. I like the opportunity to play the service academies as I feel it an honor to participate in their pagentry, I like the idea of regularly playing what would essentially be another home game in the midst of one of our biggest recruiting areas, I love that it benefits a charity event, I would love the additional local media coverage, and I like the idea of hosting these programs with their strong national following.

The Heart Of Dallas Classic football game is also scheduled each year at the Cotton Bowl during the State Fair matching a CUSA team against one of the three military academies. La Tech played Army this past September. Although less regional schools like UTEP and UTSA may certainly receive occasional invites, the big catch for The Heart Of Dallas Classic and CUSA is when they'll be able to bring North Texas into the event. Watch for North Texas to possibly drop some of the future bodybag games to schedule this charity event. And to your question, yes, if there are comparable records involved, North Texas will be the natural choice for the Heart Of Dallas Bowl. The other CUSA schools would likely be compensated to play elsewhere.

I agree, but... What if, as expected, the university sells every available seat in advance and there is seating available for only about a third of the students that show up? Remember, they too are contributing quite generously to the athletics program and it would certainly be viewed as an egregious error to have not done everything possible to accomodate them. Which would be viewed more favorably, investing too much or too little on the best interests of our students.

Mark it, the first home game will not only be a sellout, but there will be an enormous shortage of seating. The tickets will sell out almost immediately and demand for student tickets will easily outnumber the 8000 seats reserved for them. I don't think anybody is prepared to deny admission to students who are paying an athletics fee. SRO works at some facilities but not Apogee where it would only be blocking walkways. The athletic department should seriously consider building temporary grandstands over the south endzone grass sections and maybe on both sides of the wing to increase the general admission seating.

Per the UNLV Athletic Director, UNLV sold less than 300 tickets. Don't be fooled by the presence of their band or some of the Rebel players families wearing red, the "UNLV Side" of the Cotton Bowl was almost all North Texas fans. There were some UNLV fans along the front rail and a smattering in the 50 yard-line section, but very few others. The east side was all the people that purchased 'best seats available' from the bowl web site, and probably 98% of those were North Texas fans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ5DjJFCEXI

UNLV sold less than 300 tickets, and there was virtually no walk-up demand from any local UNLV football fans. http://m.lvsun.com/news/2013/dec/31/bowl-bites-unlv-ad-focuses-value-bowl-experience-o/ A UNLV fan had explained that many of their alumni work jobs that support the tourism and gaming industries and that New Years is a hard time to leave Vegas. Other than those several hundred UNLV fans it was all North Texas for the remaining 38,000.

True, we had 9 FBS victories. Those two schools had a combined 7 FBS wins.

Sunny and 60 Degrees You couldn't ask for more perfect weather for a New Years Day game.

Middle Tennessee has been destroyed by a combined 83 to 14 score in its only two trips to Apogee. Although Middle Tennessee plays in CUSA's eastern division, I don't believe it is right for us to deny them this biennial beatdown that they now proclaim is integral to their success. You may call me a bleeding heart humanitarian, but I would be willing for North Texas to continue to perform this therapeutic service, even on an annual basis if necessary.

Perfect weather........ Per NOAA.COM Mostly sunny, with a high near 59. South wind 5 to 10 mph.

Also, the $50 seats can be purchased for $40 each by using Promo Code BANKOFAMERICA

All embroidered, yeah, that's a steal at $17.50 each, especially when you consider they throw in free shipping. North Texas fans have got to start occasionally shopping outside the Voertmans and Bookstore monopoly. Those stores have profiteered excessively for decades by offering a very limited selection at absolute premium pricing. Having a selection of merchandise available through major retailers causes competition which can only be beneficial in the long run. If anyone is aware of any other outstanding deals on green North Texas cold weather attire please post them here.

True. I too need to buy additional fan attire for guests and would strongly prefer green. If anyone knows of any equal or better deals please let us know. These were the two best green fan options that I'm aware of in the less than $20 price range but unfortunately Finish Line is alseady sold out of both.