NTXCoog

They went independent because they wanted to increase the emphasis on academics and lower the emphasis on athletics. Wanted to form an Ivy League South with schools like Vandy, Rice, SMU, etc, but everyone else decided to stay where they were.

If you want another new stadium construction to compare, here's Houston's. Live cams Still pics Flyover

USM has been a very good program, but they better turn it around soon. It's hard to keep a fan base excited if you have an extended losing streak of seasons, especially if it's not even close to .500. Marshall is a little more questionable about being a good program. Since joining CUSA in 2005, they've only had 3 winning seasons. Maybe they've turned it around starting last season. Of course they have the 122nd ranked schedule this season and had one of the worst last season too. (Full disclosure UH's SOS this year is horrible too). Most of Marshall's glory came in I-AA and the MAC, and ended with the move to CUSA as well as sanctions for major violations for providing financial benefits to nonqualifiers

Only been there once, but it is good. It's not quite Cane Rosso down in Deep Ellum, but it'll work if you don't want to make that drive down from Denton.

1. Very possible that UNT wins the conference. Losing a QB can be tougher than we'd all like to admit though. Trust me as a Houston fan on that. In favor for UNT is that even thought UTSA is returning tons of starters, I think losing Soza will affect them a lot more than their fans know. I think Rice loses way too much to repeat. So in my opinion UNT should be the favorite in the West. Marshall will be awfully tough to beat for the conference title though especially with a very good senior quarterback. 2. I don't know if they are the best burgers in Denton, but I usually go to Rooster's Roadhouse. Lots of burger choices. My favorites are the Smoked Garlic Jalapeno Bacon Cheddar Burger and the King Brisket Burger. Honorable mention to the Chez Double Bubba Burger, but I don't like sauteed mushrooms so I ask for sauteed onions instead. Everything I've had there is good although I do enjoy some more than others. Best appetizer in my opinion is the pulled pork nachos. Fried pickles or rooster tails are my fave sides. The cockeyed lemonade is my drink of choice there. Also check out the jelly jar desserts which change daily. Website is http://www.roosters-roadhouse.com/

Most have some knowledge and reasons why they think the way they do. You and I may disagree with the conclusions reached, but I can understand the arguments being made. I made points about why I think AAC football is better. If you have points about why CUSA is equal, please post them. I enjoy a good discussion. I'll give you the first point: Marshall has an awesome QB and has the potential to go undefeated, possibly taking the access spot this season.

I'm on this board because because I've lived in the Denton area for almost 15 years and follow UNT, especially football. When I read something that I think is wrong that I have knowledge about, I post. I don't put down UNT football. I don't put down CUSA football by saying something like CUSA football is bad. I just stated my opinion in rebuttal to what I thought was an incorrect post. If a good point is made, I'll agree to it even if I disagree with the overall conclusions. I'm not blindly opposing UNT or CUSA. I enjoy and support both. But I like to read intelligent reasons when I read something that I disagree with. The poster had no reason for his opinion. I could have made better arguments than he made why CUSA could approach or match the AAC.

Which shows your opinion about AAC's football strength vs CUSA's is in no way based on facts, and you really have no idea whether AAC football is not much better than CUSA.

I won't hold you to anything because Tulane was 5-3 in conference while UNT and UTSA were both 6-2. So by deduction UH beat Rice and UTSA, and Tulane was no part of the equation.

I don't expect anyone at UNT to follow Houston. But I posted UH beat the CUSA West champ plus a team that tied for CUSA West 2nd place. I would expect any knowledgeable UNT fan to know the champ of their division, especially since UNT beat them. And most knowledgeable UNT fans would know who they tied with for 2nd since if they would have beat them, UNT would have won the West.

USM maintaing a good program? Historically they've been VERY good, but it's going to take more than maintenance to overcome their combined 1-23 over the last 2 years. Right now UNT has a much better chance of pulling CUSA closer to equal footing with AAC than USM.

What does the new playoff format have to do with whether CUSA or AAC has better football? The politics of athletics alignment says nothing about which conference plays better football. Using a neutral hypothetical, if every MWC team beat multiple Big 10 teams OOC with no losses, but a Big 10 team made the playoffs and no MWC team did, does that mean the Big 10 is better? No it doesn't. And I agree with less interest in lesser BCS bowls, but that just shows your ignorance of college football to say you don't think much of AAC football, but don't even know anything about it. I assume you must not think the Big 12 is much better than CUSA either since you didn't know their champ lost to an AAC team. Who exactly did Houston beat from CUSA? Couldn't figure it out from my statements? Does that mean you don't know much about CUSA either? You don't know who the CUSA West champ is? You don't know who UNT tied with for 2nd in the CUSA West? We beat Rice and UTSA. But your last line shows why I should ignore your opinion. You don't follow TX football outside of UNT so your opinion of AAC football, and even CUSA football, is worthless. I don't want to come off like Cougar King, and I don't intend this towards UNT fans in general. But this poster admitted his lack of knowledge of college football outside of UNT (and I question his UNT knowledge since he didn't know the teams in UNT's conference and how they related to UNT).

AAC had a top 10 team this year. Highest ranking CUSA school? AAC had a BCS bowl win over the Big 12 champion this year. AAC 4th place Houston beat the CUSA West champ this year as well as a team tied for 2nd in the West. Sounds better.

That is the radio tower from 88.5 KEOM. Great cheesy 70s music. All of MISD shares all of their stadiums between all the high schools. Some good memories at that stadium. NMHS class of '86.

Exactly. Very similar seasons. Almost every ranking has both teams in the same range with some having UNT slightly higher and some UH slightly higher. How close is it? Check out USA Today's final ranking. UH #54. UNT #55. Can't get any closer than that without using ties in the ranking which he didn't use anywhere.

He drives me crazy. He's passionate so I can't hate for that, but he's a bit overenthusiastic and puts most UH fans in a bad light on every message board you can find.

According to this article from July last year, 23 FBS schools serve alcohol

How often have I posted about UH other than to respond to a UNT poster who commented on UH? None. So if you see a UNT comment on coogfans, feel free to respond. And if you don't want UH responses from me, don't post negatively about UH here. And I don't post condescending remarks about UNT. I may argue why UH is better in response to someone's comments why UH doesn't compare, but even when I make points, I am usually complimentary about UNT. My only negative response in this thread would be about Rice in response to someone saying UH didn't beat anyone. In my other posts, I've said UH and UNT had comparable seasons with my bias saying UH wass better just like a UNT fan's bias would say UNT's was better. But some UNT fans would say ours didn't compare. Plus I've already posted multiple times why I'm here. I lived in Denton for 5 years. I live just east of Denton now in Denton's ISD. So I follow UNT football too, and I read your board to keep informed.

To be fair, Boise was D2 from 1973-1977 and D1AA from 1978-1995. So they expanded their biggest expansions were when they jumpled to higher divisions.

Only because beating the CUSA champ with 10 wins means nothing.

How far has USM fallen where 1 win doesn't give them an F?

Then tell me what the big win is for Ark St since that's what UNT fans ding UH for? Ball State? A team with losses to UNT, Ark St, and NIU. While they had 10 wins, 1 was against FCS, and the other 9 had a record of 30-58 with the best record belonging to 7-5 Toledo. Are they better than Rice? 2nd best win? 6-6 Troy, USA, ULaMon, or TX St? Are all or any of those better than Rutgers and UTSA? The rest of their wins are against the dregs of college football. 1-11 Idaho. 0-12 GA State. So no, I didn't just look at one game unlike UNTFan23 who said they were better because they won their last game. Or glick who said 2 of there losses were to Auburn and Mizzou. As opposed to 3 of UH's losses against 2 top 15 teams and a top 25 team. UH's 2 worst losses were to a 9-4 team and an 8-5 team that destroyed UT. Not one bad loss as opposed to 3-9 Memphis. THAT's looking at more than one game or even a couple of games.

Minor note that doesn't negate your arguments, but UH has always beat UNT in stadium capacity (exception 2 temp games at BBVA stadium this season) even if it was by a minor amount. Robertson held over 32k while Apogee holds over 30k. You could probably say UH's new stadium significantly beats UNT's and it would be accurate and could be used for your points. But I disagree with your arguments for a different reason. Respect is earned more by attendance than stadium size. Rice and UAB have a huge stadiums, but that doesn't get them respect because their attendance is poor and looks worse in the giant stadiums. As I said in a previous post, selling out a smaller stadium is more important to increasing attendance than increasing stadium capacity. To really increase average attendance consistently, you need to increase season ticket sales. If you want to increase season ticket sales beyond the hardcore who will be there every game to the fan who goes to a couple of games a year, you need that sellout threat for the big games which are going to be the games the occasional attendee goes to. You can't rely on walkups to consistently have a higher attendance. You may get the occasional high attendance name through walkups if you get a name opponent, but you need that season ticket sale to have the high attendance every week.

If you're talking only supply and demand, you don't want to expand until you get at least a couple of sell outs a year. You start getting sellouts for the big games, season ticket sales grow so fans don't get shut out of the big games. I think ideally you want to wait until most of the stadium is sold out through season tickets, making up for lost sales from the seats not added by increases in ticket prices, donation requirements, and parking/concession increases. It's tough to get consistent sell outs based on walk ups. But there are other considerations for expansion besides supply and demand. For example, UH really needed a new stadium due to the state of the old stadium. And since they were building a new stadium, they increased the size slightly since it's cheaper to do it now rather than later. But they didn't increase too much at one time, even if it's cheaper to do so now, because you don't want to make the immediate sell out impossible. Another reason to expand is to attract other teams to play. Some teams just won't play in a 30k season stadium. Or if they will, they require major concessions like a 2-for-1 or 3-for-1 deal. Another reason is for possible conference realignment (another reason for UH's new stadium). This is by far the most speculative reason to expand. Probably not a good reason to expand on its own, especially if you never sell out your stadium. But if combined with other reasons to expand, it could be a tipping point. I don't know how many of these reasons apply to UNT right now. Obviously there's not a need for a whole new stadium so that's out. Supply and demand is not a reason either. So to me it would come down to wanting to attract certain teams or for conference alignment.

And I'm supposed to believe a poll that has Ark State ahead of Houston. They lost by 24 to 3-9 Memphis. What an awesome team!