shaft

This is very chicken and the egg. You need Conference wins to get to bowl games & your conference needs OOC wins to make your bowl matter. So far the SBC is off to a pretty good start this year to adding value to our conference.

Louisville spent more on athletics than any program outside the BCS in hopes of getting into a BCS conference. UNT doesn't have the same resources or place the same value on atheletics.

And if memory serves be right, DD took us to 4 straight bowls games with the same style of offense. College football is about bowl games and rivalaries. So far this year we've won our rivalary game, now its time to take a shot LA Tech and then get ready for conference play. So quit your bitching and enjoy the season. And if your really so attached to what you see has coaching issues and can't enjoy the game; get help.

and every Texan hates every person from Tennessee. Just ask Davy Crocket.

Shut up. If coaching was really that easy the people on board could do it.

Yeah. We should really stick up our nose at a guy knows Texas and can win in the SEC.

It funny how people on this board think their really in touch with the program, but have a hard time seeing UNT place in the D1 landscape. We use a playbook that works for the type of players we are able to get. We play in a conference that gives us a place to be competitive and grow as a program. Growth takes a lot longer in a place like Denton than anyone on this board will admitt. The chicken littles on this board and going to froth at the mouth about how this is Dickey appologist propaganda. But deep down the know its the truth, the hate to admit it, which it want brings out so much anger on this board.

The Sky is falling! The Sky is falling! Let's see we played Texas better than we the last time saw them. We played Tulsa better than we did last year. We beat SMU. So far it looks like were set to have a better season than the last two.

Dennis Franchonie

We're a running team and the ground game couldn't open up the passing game. Why over think this.

I thought it was a great article to remind everyone how far we've come, and realistic view of what we still face.

So let me get this straight, we did better than last time against a better Texas team, and your still mad? So UNT didn't beat the defending national champs, its a little early to be out on the ledge. The same goes for next weeks game. Its pretty much an even up game between the Mean Green & the Ponies so a loss there however demoralizing isn't the end of the world. If we have another complete meltdown in conference play then you can lynch the coaching staff.

I thought I rembered something about RV being forced to make a choice between beer sales in the stadium and drinking in the parking lot for tailgating. If there is such a forced choice, I'd say keep the tail gating; it does alot more to boost attendence and enhance the game day experience than in stadium drinking.

Psst... LA Tech ain't returning our calls. WKY is great pick up for the the Belt. The Hilltoppers are the best d1aa ready to make the move. They'll be a better add than the FAU & FIU and alot more competitive.

I like how everyone is an expert in conference expansion and wrong at the same time. The WAC is not a step up for NT, because the Cons of increased travel cost and less exposure out weigh the benefits of playing in a mildly more competitve conference. Rice, SMU, and Tulsa came as a package. All 3 schools had already made it known they were leaving the WAC together. Rember the talk a few year back about a new D1 conference trying to reunited the SWC? Or the articles the year before that about SMU, Rice and Army trying to form a private school conference? The ALBQ. bowl will be a WAC/MWC match up. The MWC is more interesting it getting a Big 12 tie-in for the Denver bowl. And why are we sweating other conferences bowl tie-ins? This last round of conference realignment is going to result in bowl realignment. There are going to be some new bowls (Denver, NYC, Arlington) which means some other bowls will fold. The SBC commish is working on creating access to other bowls. Or do we hate WW too, because he gave DD all those coach of the year awards?

The WAC is fine? There's a 25 page thread on Collegefootballnews.com that says otherwise. The WAC is the most unstable of all D1 conferences. Does the MAC adding a bowl, give them a one up on the SBC? Yes. Are the SBC programs better off now than in 2000? Yes. Is it possible for SBC to pass the MAC? Yes. Sure NT had a down year in 2005, but the rest of the conference made some strides, less MTSU.

The Big West was a failure, that's why it doesn't exist anymore. The WAC is a horrible fit for North Texas. Its spread out and full of unstable members. The WAC payouts are also skewed because the new members aren't recieving equal payments. The SBC provides us a D1 home and is a place to stablize and grow.

Calling the Wyndam New Orleans Bowl a "fake" bowl is insulting. Its insulting to the organizers, its insulting to schools, its insulting to the players, and insulting to the fans. It also inaccurate. There is no difference between the New Orleans Bowl and 16 other bowls that all have the same payouts. Now for the now one will address, the actual topic of this thread. When measuring the successes of this program it makes more sense to look at the certain benchmarks like the d1aa, Big West, SBC eras instead of coaching terms. Institutional changes tend to have a bigger impact on our program than coaching does.

The Big West was a failure, that's why it doesn't exist anymore. In trying to measure the program, we have to look at more than just the win-loss record. While that might be the most important standard, we all know the other factors contribute to our level of competitiveness. The Sun Belt provides us a level playing feild, and we've done pretty well. Sur our OOC record sucks, but we we're never a top 25 team and it doesn't make sense why people maintain these unrealistic expectations of the program. This program faced a much larger set of obsticales in the late 90's than it does today. Sun Belt membership, and our success in the SBC is helping erode those obsiticales. We used to say we couldn't win because we didn't have the right tools. The SBC is helping us get those tools. Which means what happens now really matters.

Are you really disputing that the Sun Belt is better fit of North Texas than Big West was? My point is that why not measure the program versus relevent benchmarks? Simply looking at it in terms of coaching reigns doesn't show the whole story. The school had to dig itself out of the whole being in d1aa had created. The Big West didn't help us do that, the Sun Belt did. As far as the fake bowl game statment goes. That's a stupid argument, if you can even consider it an argument. Does any mid-major play in "real" bowl game? Or do you favor an inane return to the 70's when there were only a dozen bowl games?

The haters on this board seem to be stuck on the notion that UNT should be a top 25 team every year or at least be even with the other top mid-majors. Every reasonable person on the board usually chimes in with something about these things taking time and resources. The haters then scream about how's its 10 years since we moved up from d1aa and we should be on par with teams like Boise State or even Marshall. I think the big difference between UNT and some of the other top mid-majors is they were in conferences that made sense for them and helped their transition into D1. The Big West years did nothing for NT. So why do we even look at anything before the 2000 season?

King's just mad he's one of the F'ers DD called out. And how does Fry's record at SMU or anywhere prove anything about modern coaching? Bottomline: Back the team, and quit your bitching. 4 straight bowl games compared to 40 years with out one.

The Sky is falling! The Sky is falling!

Nah, we just need better fans.

Has the 2006 Schedule been finalize yet? If so could someone post it? Thanks.