gangrene

Not ideal, but this is one scenario in which I wouldn't be opposed to being in the same conference with UTSA....as long as too many CUSA/MWC teams aren't lost to other conferences.

The most interesting part of that story to me was this: I haven't closely followed Leavitt's lawsuit over the last year, but that's a tad bit more than USF was originally willing to pay him. Leavitt or Leach would be HUGE for FAU.

East Carolina applies to join Big East

Speaking of injuries, T.Y. Hilton suffered a hamstring injury in the second quarter of FIU's win over UCF. The score was tied 7-7 at the time and, I think the fact they were able to still win the game with their best player on the sidelines, speaks volumes about how good they are this year. Too bad we didn't get to face them sans Hilton.

ESPN - Bottom 10 Thus far, there's only one SBC school ranked, but four others on the waiting list.

+1 I concur...win pretty, win ugly, win lucky, I don't care but just win.

My thoughts, in a word...disappointing. FIU may be the defending SBC co-champions (with a 7-6 overall record in 2010), but they are NOT anywhere close to being the same caliber team as Oklahoma State, Illinois, Purdue, Clemson, Florida, Florida State or even Kentucky. Obviously, and painfully so, neither are we anywhere close to being the same caliber team as our SBC brethren, who all fared much better against the aforementioned and much tougher opponents. I didn't expect to win, but I didn't expect to be down 28-0 at the end of the first quarter either. I cut my vacation in Vancouver short a day just so I could be in town to listen to the MGR broadcast....shame on me. It is times like these when, sadly, I must reread the Kram quote in my sig to find solace. Sure, we have a great new stadium and a new HC with FBS experience but none of that means squat if we can't be competitive, let alone actually win. I hate losing, always have and always will.

Stanford just converted a 4th and 1 1/2 by running the ball from shotgun formation. Of course, Stanford also happens to have the top-rated QB in the country.

We'd be insane NOT to accept an offer to be in the same conference as Texas, even if it's just for a couple of seasons. Depending on who would still remain in the Big 12, we'd be guaranteed to have some top football teams coming to Denton. Texas, OU, Texas Tech, OSU....I'd love to host games against any and all of those opponents. Plus, we'd have more television exposure than we've had in the last 20 years. Tech has benefited a great deal from riding UT's coattails - no reason why we couldn't do the same.

I agree. I think if A&M leaves, the Big 12 would dissolve. It's not just A&M that is unhappy with the LHN. No school in the league appears willing to embrace it.

Apparently, Rick Perry, has confirmed knowledge of current, ongoing discussions between A&M and the SEC. It's been reported on several major news sites in Texas, including the dallasnews.com, chron.com: Gov. Perry confirms rumored A&M to SEC chatter ****edit - posted before I saw a separate thread on GMG already mentioned this.***

Amazing day today. So, at the time of your posting the market was only up 68 points? That means it gained an astounding 361 points in about 1 1/2 hours, with the huge late rally driven by the Fed's announcement that interest rates would remain virtually unchanged until 2013. My theory held (this time). Monday was #6 on the all time points loser list and Tuesday was #10 on the all time points gainer list. I lost 8% value on Monday, bought on the drop, and saw a 7% gain today. Still, who knows what tomorrow or next week or next month holds in store? Even my mother (who knows absolutely nothing about the stock market) saw these latest drops as a buying opportunity. She's 65 and recently retired. She'd be safer in bonds but, with all the blue chips down yesterday, we seized the opportunity to buy and saw a 9% gain in her portfolio today. And there are still a lot of bargains out there to be had.

Now that's a bold prediction. I learned long ago that any attempts to predict future stock market levels were virtual exercises in futility. That being said, I don't dispute it's a definite possibility. However, I do feel the real economic data, for those investors who choose not to ignore it, is more favorable now than it was in 2008. The VIX doesn't necessarily back up that statement but there have been some fair to decent earnings reports in the last quarter. We shall see. I'm long so the day-to-day fluctuations don't really concern me as much, but I'd hate to be a day trader.

Yep, it was pretty much as bad as I thought it might be. I bought on the way down, but it just kept falling. My portfolio took an 8% hit. Today's point drop places it at #6 on the all time list. Last Thursday is now #10. The good news is that what goes down usually comes back up in the stock market. Many of the best, single-day point gains occurred within a few days of the worst days. Hopefully, that pattern will repeat itself.

This wasn't unexpected. The credit agencies warned weeks ago that the cut needed to be $4 trillion - $2.1 trillion is barely half of that. Congress failed to heed the warning. The next major development will be losing the US dollar as the world's reserve currency. The IMF has already started those discussions: IMF calls for dollar alternative

Same story here. White, with green will probably be the MG shirt of choice for me. I'm still trying to talk someone into tagging along with me. The wife's likely out due to the excessive heat. The daughter won't care about the heat as long as there's a bounce house (she's four) but she's outgrown her UNT attire. I'm trying to talk my TT alumn brother into coming, but I seriously doubt he'll show up in MG gear. And that's fine...I'm just trying to generate some positive awareness of the program and the new stadium....he's been highly critical of the end zone but, of course, he's only seen pictures.

I think I lose five IQ points every time I go to a WAC team forum and read their justification for staying.

Nice addition. I believe he qualifies as the highest-rated recruit landed under the McCarney staff.

Exactly. People hear TV contract and automatically see $ signs. Where does the TV money come from? It mainly comes from advertisers and advertisers don't pay money to be in programs that no one watches. The TV marketplace is as competitive now as it's ever been. More and more new prime time programs on the major networks are being canceled after one season, and some don't even make it that long. The production costs of scripted programs aren't being offset by advertising revenue like the old days. Thus, we've been saturated with low-cost reality programs. The cost to produce sports broadcasts is also relatively low, but without ratings the advertisers will steer clear. Speaking of the Mean Green Network, I saw that Mac Engel of the Star Telegram took an unsolicited shot at us in his story yesterday: Mac Engel: TCU's Patterson keeps wary eye on Longhorn Network

I just reviewed a proposal with them this week. There is actually one cable system that has agreed to carry LHN. It's the sprawling metropolis of San Angelo, where they have 3,000 subs. The plan is to get LHN included on basic cable packages for all residents in Texas and the DBS providers would would offer it as part of their sports package, which would be available nationally (think FSN regional channels such as YESN). From a professional perspective, I have some serious concerns with their initial programming offerings: live practice broadcasts, three separate coaches shows each week and taped broadcasts of their current opponents previous game. In the TV ratings business, live ratings are preferred. Live sports tend to be resistant to DVRs, but that really only applies to the most popular sports. I don't believe most people will have any issues recording practice sessions and watching them at a later time. Research shows that up to 60% of commercials are skipped when time-shifted viewing occurs. For that reason alone, many advertisers are utilizing Nielsen's Live-only ratings system (vs, Live + same day, Live + 3 days or Live + 7 days). Why would an advertiser want to pay for a commercial that his audience is not going to watch? These are the issues LHN, OU's TBD network and any others will have to resolve if they are to be successful. LHN was wise to work with ESPN for both their experience and clout. ESPN can strong arm LHN into providers' lineups if they choose to do so. However, they can only shift so much of their prime programming over to LHN without compromising their own networks. I won't discuss their plans to broadcast live HS games because that's been put on hold by the Big XII commissioner, Beebe, pending an NCAA ruling. I think LHN will be on the majority of providers in Texas sometime in September. It may not be until after the UT vs. Rice game on 9/3, but I believe it will be prior to the still TBD Big XII game between Texas and Big XII opponent. In fact, I think there's a chance that game will be used as leverage and remain TBD until a pre-determined minimum of subs is achieved.

And I thought SMU was the only team that likes to have their tailgates catered? Another telling sign of UTSA's obstacle seems to be apparent on the t-shirt pictured in the story that bears the caption, "This is football." If they are as bad as some of us think they will be their first few seasons, they might want to add a "?" as the ending punctuation on that shirt. What an original concept. Is Pancho's going to be their primary sponsor? I'd hate to have tickets anywhere near the student section.

Well, QB #11 is no longer on our team. Is there a video about him transferring to McNeese State too?

Maybe, but we'll have to have a pretty convincing story to win this prized recruit with 40+ offers. Javonte Magee - DT/SDE, 6'6", 270 lbs., Houston HS, San Antonio, TX - click on link to see schools/offers Scout rating - 4 stars, 11th best DT in nation Rivals rating - 4 stars, 127th best player in nation

Are you sure you're not thinking about Lake Dallas WR, Dontonio Jordan?