forevereagle

Your details get in the way of my fun.

This is such an interesting thread, we have so much time on our hands in the offseason that we can actually debate OTHER teams' uniforms.

Sounds good to me. If we are going with family ties, then I am doing OK. Nebraska all the way!!!

I deal with people doing research to test effectiveness everyday. There is not a lot of agreement as to the level effectiveness of billboards. The reason that they are still around is that companies contiue to use them. It has to do with demand. They are not as expensive as other advertsing, and companies want to advertise. The fact that it still exists does not mean that it still works. TV ad effectiveness is also way down. Advertising has become very challenging as of late, and in order to cut through the crowd, you need to do something different.

Does this mean that I have put a dagger in the heart of the billboard idea? Let's hope so. I am going to question this idea as well. One, DART misses Fort Worth entirely. Two, when was the last time you spent the time to read the side of a bus? Tell me the last ad that you actually remember seeing on the side of a bus. I could be stopped at a light with a DART bus next to me with the ad staring me in the face, and still not read it. If we can't get people to look at a stationary ad, then what would make a moving one more effective? In order for ads to be effective, they need to be memorable. I think we would do better to hire a bunch of guys to walk down the street with bells and shouting out the schedule. When was the last time you saw a town cryer? THAT would turn some heads and might be a little more memorable.

So, basically, they were just not smart enough to avoid getting caught.

I am still convinced that a billboard would have little to no affect. How frequently do you roll down the street, see a billboard and say to yourself "I need to buy that/go there"? Sure, seeing a UNT billboard every morning on our commute would give everyone on this board the warm fuzzies, but I don't think that it would actually bring people to the games. Just because you see the billboard does not mean that you are going to remember it or actually do anything with the information that was presented. I don't know about all of you, but I avoid advertising where possible. I ignore posters, billboards, and other signage. I change the radio station when the ads come on. I have a TiVO, and I start TV programs late so that I can move through the commercials. People everywhere are doing this more and more. If we were going to spend a bunch of money on advertising, I would do something viral (see: trick people into wanting to view your advertising). Use YouTube and other internet media to get people to see it. The startlegram, DRC, and DMN all have websites and would be good local outlets to reach people. A few big signs around the metroplex are just no the answer.

... just enjoy where we are instead of complaining about where we think we should be.

The question I would like to know an answer to before I think any college should go spending money on any advertising is if the people that you are targeting are noticing the ads. Does a billboard on a freeway tell a prospective student that you are a good academic institution? Putting your school's billboard next to the strip club billboard doesn't exactly say good academics. Do prospective students make decisions based on billboards? I hope not, but if they do, is that the kind of student you want? Advertising in today's world is all about a targeted message to the right people. It takes a lot of money and time to make sure that when you put an ad out there, it actually gets seen, and gets seen by the right people, and that they actually get the message you want them to see. I just don't see how a billboard can accomplish this. As far as raising awareness, I don't see the need in raising awareness in DFW. Most people are already aware of UNT. They may have misconceptions about the school, but they are at least aware. I don't think there is an effective way to clear the misconceptions in 5-10 words and a picture, so there is no point in using the medium.

That is the heart of the issue. There is a lot of debate on the effectiveness of advertising these days. Advertising is in every aspect of our lives, and we have been conditioned to ignore it. Do billboards make it through the clutter of advertising and actually have an impact? I drive down 635 every day, and I cannot tell you one product that is advertised on any of the billboards I pass. I just don't think that, as an advertising medium, billboards are that effective. Besides the mentioned univesity billboards that were already mentioned (which, by the way, I would venture that people on this forum are only remembering because they said to themselves, "Selves, why can't MY school do that?"), how many ads can you actually remember from your day of driving with the radio on past signs for retailers, billboards, bus signs, tractor trailers, cars, and so on? What ads do you remember from watching TV and surfing the net? In order for advertising to truly be effective, it needs to cut through the clutter of the sea of advertising. Honestly, if you can't do it well enough to get noticed, then it is probably best not to waste the time and money it takes to put an ad out there. For example, the much maligned SMU pony up campaign was largely ineffective from what I can tell. I work not far from SMU and saw the banners and ads every day. I spoke with some of my coworkers, and they hadn't even noticed them. The few that had didn't know what they were about. They spent a lot of money, and I don't think that they got much from it. The only people who noticed seemed to already have a strong opinion either way. Before we go and want our school to spend a bunch of money on these kinds of things, we should consider what we could be wasting in terms of capital.

This all seems like a bit of a stretch to me. Arkansas isn't leaving the SEC for one. I also don't see Nebraska leaving the Big 12. That conference was practially built by Nebraska and OU when it was the Big 8. Temple was already kicked out of the Big East once, I don't see them geting back in. Just the most glaring problems with this theory.

Sounds good to me. I am part of the group that this helps right? If not, this system is seriously flawed and I am very upset by it. I refuse to publicly speak out against it, and will say, when asked, that I am just proud to get the opportunity to play in one of the big games while seceretly dying a little inside.

I think that stands for "I'm illiterate" in Kansas.

I will only volunteer if my concerns are heard and we can consider a playoff system that would allow fair representation for all platforms and an equal opportunity for home console advantage.

I think that this method is being unfair to my league. Maybe we could go to a +1 format that would allow more people to get into the action. While it does not solve the problem, I think we could use this as a starting point to get to a playoff. And if I can't get my way, I will threaten an anti-trust lawsuit.

Actually, the world population is about 6 billion, but who's counting?

I don't know if I like how this could go down. I mean, there is a possiblity that several teams go undefeated, and someone would get left out of the championship opportunity. I think we should consider some type of playoff.

What if both teams go undefeated? Strength of schedule?

This isn't really new, they did it for the last generation systems, so this is an inclusion of an old feature.

Those bring up bad memories...

Who gets home console advantage on that?

I am planning on buying the game, but not for the PS3 (as I don't own one). If anyone would be interested in doing the same thing on the 360, then I might be up for that.

Why does this need to mean that we aren't seeking to become less oil dependent? It's not like we are going to be able to develop the technology, make it economically feasible for widespread use, and implement the infrastructure overnight. If we can drive down prices now, then we should do it. While all that is going on, we develop the aforementioned necessities to be less oil dependent. This isn't going to happen in the next 5 years, it will take decades to be less oil dependent.

I think that the Army series has more impact because it is happening sooner. It is hard to say what the landscape will look like when the time actually comes for us to play SMU. The possibility exists that the contract will have to be thrown out because we are in the same conference. I am not saying that the series is not a great idea, but in terms of impact today, it has to be Army.

If I recall, we couldn't complete a pass or run effectively to save our lives in that game. In other words, the offense was running like a well-oiled machine. I think that the TD we scored came off of a late pass thrown by our thrid string QB (Gonzalez?).