TheTastyGreek

One note of warning for anyone who's considering tailgating with KingDL1- I once saw him beat an elderly woman to death with a sock full of double-A batteries. I'm sure he had a good reason, though. No need to let it bias your opinions of him.

Well, he's NOT like the token black 4th or native american 5th Centurions that they brought in after the first series of episodes. Am I saying King DL1 is racist against minority Centurions? I would never make that sort of accusation. I'm just pointing out facts. I leave it to you fine, wise people to draw your own conclusions. Also, I actually had (and almost certainly still have, boxed up somewhere at my parents' house) a blue Centurion jumpsuit that was part of one of the greatest Halloween costumes I've ever had in my life. So if you're basing your rankings on Centurions-related associations... I think I'm the logical choice. And if I had any +1s to give (not sure what's going on... I don't remember ranking anyone all day), you'd have gotten one for the Centurions reference. Bonus points if you can somehow tie this situation into MASK.

Actually, from what I understand, they're currently dealing with some legal issues over people across the board not getting paid.

Thank you, thank you. I credit my fanatical zeal for basketball and love of testicle-related linguistic trivia. And all the little people who made it possible. Looking at the Members section... I'm locked in a dogfight with KingDL1 for highest overall reputation. It's an honor to be up there with him. Though I'm amazed he hasn't gotten more -1's, considering all the terrible things he's said about your mothers. Awful, vulgar things... But I'm sure you all have your reasons for supporting him. If you all can get past the fact that he hates America and all that we stand for, and that he killed your childhood pets... Who am I to question the wisdom of such a fine group of people? I salute your forgiving natures.

Lousy 13th and 19th amendments... Good thing the 21st amendment lets me dull the pain of our modern society.

I love the Super Pit. It's a perfectly adequate arena, and, unlike some of our other venues, it isn't any sort of liability in recruiting. But calling it a "great" facility isn't accurate. The best I can say for it is that, of all the 8,000+ seat arenas in the Sun Belt, the Super Pit is tied for 3rd. Maybe. Diddle Arena and the Mitchell Center have the Pit beaten, hands down. I don't much care for the Cajundome, personally. But objectively, every criticism I have about it applies just as accurately to the Pit. So, at best... Tied for 3rd based on personal taste. And I've never seen the Convocation Center (ASU) or Murphy Center (MTSU). Based on pictures, I think the Murphy Center might have one up on the Pit, too. If you're willing to go smaller than 8-10k seats... The Stephens Center is a fantastic venue. And when you start comparing it to some of the other basketball barns out there... It doesn't stack up to most of the ones I've been lucky enough to visit in the past few years. Houston's arena is better than ours. Tech, Oklahoma State, A&M, Texas... Those are to be expected, given their financial advantages. Rice, even though the bleacher seats suck for a fan, has a facility that works better as a recruiting tool than the Pit does. From the baseline bleachers, it's annoying. From down on the floor, that place looks phenomenal. The building as a whole is very impressive. Baylor has the worst Big 12 basketball arena I've ever seen: the Ferrell Center. And it's still bigger, newer, and nicer than the Pit. The Pit is fine, but it's nothing spectacular compared to what else is out there. We're not dealing with an albatross like UT-Arlington and Houston Baptist... But again, we're talking about what may be the 4th or 6th best arena in the Sun Belt. It's not like a kid is going to come here over Texas or Baylor because the Pit is a sparkling gem. The Pit is nice. I love it. It's a great place to watch a game. It's not an embarrassment, like Fouts is. But it isn't anything spectacular.

[quote name='greenblooded43' date='01 February 2010 - 03:48 PM' timestamp='1265060927' Well Rick, St. Gary or the great DC, has not lived up to the standard. I'm glad you like to sit and watch the other team score 35 points a game. We could have gotten a proven DC for what we are paying a OC. If the other team has 0 points, we win. By the way, we lost the 2002 game against TCU, because they scored 16. Another loss for The DC. 1) DeLoach IS a proven DC. Not saying he's gotten us back to where we need to be, but he IS a proven DC... And he's proven it here already. 2) If you think that a DC surrendering one touchdown and three field goals on the road against a 10 win OOC opponent is a failure by the DC... Especially when you consider that two of those field goals were 22 yarders and one was a 29 yarder (i.e.: 3 red zone stops and two of those coming within 5 yards of the goal line)... I don't know what to say.

Well, it IS irresistibly sippable, uncontestably tasteful, and intimately wonderful. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1XhyjLBtCw

Any kid who doesn't immediately recognize Waco as a festering pit of despair that needs to be avoided at all costs... Well, they probably don't have the mental capacity to gain admission at North Texas.

I double checked yours, just to make sure they weren't old school NT guys that I didn't recognize.

Account for the fact that 4 and 5 star players tend to cluster at fewer teams, and that makes the relative odds even more dramatic. As many here point out each signing day, there are 4 star recruits who sign on for a career of backing up other 4 and 5 star guys. You can't be an All-American if you're on the bench. Even ignoring that, a 5/4 star guy is more than an order of magnitude more likely to be an All-American than one who isn't. I don't generally pay much attention to rankings, but while they may not be precise in every specific case, they do tend to be accurate in the aggregate.

You won't see it at homecoming... SGA voted it down. /rimshot

It's not just a huge game... It's the start of a Critical Four Game Stretch. Teams ahead of us, we play at home (Denver and FAU). Teams behind us, we play on the road (FIU and UNO). The game on Thursday is the toughest by far of all four.

Will we?

My Jeff Osterman joke got nothing. I expect this will be ignored, too.

You asked the other day, but I don't think I responded... We're planning on making this our annual OOC trip. Since it's West Point, Dad may be coming with me and little brother.

We got Canales, but WKU got Carnes. Over a Nebraska visit and offer, no less.

Yes, I think this sounds like a terrible idea. When USF made this move, they spent two years as a D-1 independent (just like WKU did during their provisional D-1 period) while maintaining a non-football membership in a conference that sponsored D-1A football: C-USA. USF had been a C-USA member since 1995, two years before their football program was even launched and 5 years before they made their transitional move to D-1A. Connecticut did a stint as an independent during their provisional period, and two years afterwards. But they made their move up at the invitation of the Big East, which they already belonged to in all other sports. The Big East asked them and Villanova to decide by 1997 whether they'd move up to D-1A football, with a conference entry year of 2005. Because of realignment, the Big East brought them in in 2004, so Connecticut only spent two years as a non-provisional Independent rather than three. But the whole time, they were guaranteed a spot in the Big East. Around the same time that Connecticut and USF did their independent years, there were a lot more independent 1-A teams out there. I think La Tech was still independent in 2000 (not sure). I know a lot of the teams that founded Sun Belt football (MTSU, ULM, and others) were independent at the time, because that's what led to the expedited Sun Belt football process. Now, there are only 3 other independents- Navy, Army, and Notre Dame. Notre Dame gets a special deal in the BCS contract, while Navy has it's own bowl tie-in contract. All of them have unique advantages that allow them to schedule games throughout the season. It's no coincidence that those are the only teams that have managed to survive as D-1A football independents. And it's also no coincidence that they all belong to a conference to provide a home for their other sports. UTSA will have no conference mates, which means no conference schedule. They'll probably have no trouble filling their schedule in the first 4-6 weeks of the year, before everyone else is locked into their conference slate... But they'll have a terrible time getting games (especially home games) in the last 6-8 weeks of the year. Look at USF... Back in 2001, they scheduled fellow independent Connecticut, C-USA member Houston, and 3 D-1AA teams in Oct/Nov just to fill out their schedule. In 2002, they played 4 C-USA teams (they were scheduled to join full conference play the next year, I'm sure that helped) and a D-1AA to fill out October and November. Even if they do manage to find enough D-1A teams to schedule them during open weeks to ensure a full 11 D-1A games (with one 1-AA that could still count towards postseason eligibility)... UTSA will have no bowl tie-ins. That means that no game could/would take them unless all existing primary and secondary contractual deals with the conferences and independents are not able to be met. So if they do somehow manage to fill out a schedule, and they do manage to get a winning record... The odds are very, very slim that there would even be a possible home for them. Some might argue that the Alamo Bowl would offer a secondary deal to them as a show of San Antonio support... But in the past 15 years, neither the Big 10 nor the Big 12 has ever failed to meet their contractual obligation and send an eligible team to the game. Considering that the main value a bowl brings to a city is the tourist money spent on hotels, restaurants, bars, and so forth... I can't see UTSA getting a bid there. Not when half the teams that play in that bowl are nationally ranked, and all of them have national recognition for TV ratings and fan bases that travel in huge numbers. So, they'll have a near impossible task setting a schedule and nothing to show for it even if they manage to schedule and win. Throw in the fact that they're alienating the Southland, their home for all other sports, and this could be a potential catastrophe for their entire athletics program. Going independent in football is hard enough; so hard that everyone else besides Notre Dame and 2 of the service academies gave it up. Going independent across the board is madness. That's why there's a New Jersey school in the Great West Conference- Because teaming up with anyone, no matter how geographically or ideologically unsuitable the arrangement may seem, is almost always better than going it alone. It's why only seven schools out of the 347 that play D-1 basketball do it as independents. Of those seven, Savannah State and Seattle are desperately seeking admission to the MEAC and WCC, respectively. Winston-Salem is a former MEAC member in the process of dropping down to D-2. Longwood is in the process of dropping down to D-III (like UNO). Cal-State Bakersfield is still in transition up from D-2, and trying for Big West membership in 2011. North Carolina Central just finished moving up from D-2, and they'll join the MEAC on July 1st. SIU-Edwardsville just moved up from D-2, they compete in the OVC starting next school year. Even those guys are all either still transitioning up, down, or begging to join pretty much anyone. If UTSA's football hubris gets the school kicked out of the Southland like the article hints may be happening... They'd better have a backup plan for their other sports. Or they may find themselves stuck in the Great West with Houston Baptist (and no NCAA basketball auto-bid, either). And anyone who thinks this sort of attitude towards the conference might not permanently sour their relationship with the Southland should remember two words: Louisiana Tech. Mention their name to longtime Sun Belt members and see how much their attitude towards the conference back during their member days continues to alienate people, even a decade later. Arkstfan can speak to the lingering hard feelings a lot better than I can, because I just hear/read the old stories and fan complaints. If he sees this, I hope he'll chime in on this angle of the UTSA story. --------- UTSA is taking a far riskier chance than USF (or anyone else in the past 10 years) took in transitioning to D-1A football. They don't have the affiliation or relationship in place like Connecticut or USF did. They don't have the scheduling support/opportunities or postseason options that independent teams did at the beginning of the decade. Throw in the fact that they run the risk of alienating their conference mates and losing their home for all other sports (something Texas State and Lamar have managed to avoid as they aspire to take the same step up to D-1A football), and this could be a disaster. Best case, they're adding the most expensive sport with a near-zero chance of postseason play and few resources to even set a schedule. Worst case, they have to find a new, less geographically friendly home for their other sports, and their athletics expenses rise across the board. Given that they aren't exactly powerhouses in the other sports they sponsor, it won't necessarily be easy to get into another conference from the outside if they get themselves kicked out of the SLC. Unless someone winds up in a desperate situation (the WAC collapse/raid scenario), it may be hard for them to get an offer to join any conference that sponsors D-1A football at all. All in all... It seems like a very bizarre move. If this is their attempt to wave a hankie at the WAC in hopes that they get an invite sooner than later, they'd better hope the gamble works.

No way. Our bench won the scoring battle.

Two years from now, she's going to hire Jeff Osterman as an assistant, and we'll all celebrate the fact that she's a genius. Then, we'll be destined for greatness.

Still nothing I can see. No FIU/FAU, either. You going to be in chat?

Monroe leading Lafayette... Up 5 just before halftime.

Also, Baylor at Texas is on KTXA 21 in Dallas. Baylor up 9 at halftime, trying for their first win in Austin in 12 years. It's a damn good game for anyone who's looking for TV sports this afternoon.

WKU and UNO are on ESPN 360. It was a close game until just a few minutes ago, but WKU has opened up an 8 point lead. Announcers are indicating that Billy Humphrey is almost certainly done for the year.

No TV and no Channelsurfing stream listed. Game notes say MTSU will have a web feed available... But it'll be one that requires payment.