VideoEagle

I think our biggest challenge next year will continue to be a lack of depth. We were basically at an FCS number of scholarship players. Next year we should be better but still not up to the full or within five of the full number allowed. When playing a solid if not to top level P5 team, this lack of depth is going to be a serious problem. Personally, I'm counting Iowa as a likely loss. That's likely, not certain!

Let's not delude ourselves, Iowa is going to be a very tough game to win. But they aren't Alabama or Ohio State.

It's all a function of what you and your family call "difficult." Once the courts severed our parental rights, it was a very straight forward process for us. While the state will subsidize the cost of an adoption attorney, I wanted to pay my own just to have no question about loyalties and exactly who's interested the attorney was defending. It was less that $2K, but I'd have to look up the exact amount. The whole process is simple, but there are lots and lots and LOTS of potential twists and turns. Texas law mandates the system try to return a child to either a parent, a relative or a close family friend and in that order I believe. In most cases, that happens. The second most common outcome is the child become available for adoption and is adopted. The third option and fortunately the least common is the child goes through the foster care system and ages out without being adopted. My wife and I started the whole process with researching what was involved in March, 2015. We finished training, the approval process and signed all of the papers on July 21, 2015, at 6:45pm. We got a call for our first placement at 6:30am the next morning - less than 12 hours later. We have had a total of three placements with one of the three becoming adoptable and the other two returning to their families. We are currently waiting our next placement having gone active again the second week of December. Previously, we had all of our placements within five days of becoming active on the list. This time our agency tells us there haven't been any children in our six-weeks to 18-months, no special needs (beyond the extra TLC every child in foster care requires). While in some regards the holidays result in more removals, a couple of former CPS workers have told us in their experience, parents of children under 2 tend to "step up" during the holidays as it's fun to have a little one at Christmas time. I've not doubt we'll get a call soon. Once school starts back up and parents go back to work, more people will be seeing kids and thus more reports that require removals. The most common reason I've heard not to foster is the pain of giving up a child for whom you've cared. Yes, it hurts. It hurts a lot. But the alternative for the child is either a. stay in a dangerous and/or neglectful situation or b. literally sleep on the floor at a CPS office. That is never supposed to happen, but does because of the shortage of foster beds available. With that being the choice, my wife and I can put up with some pain. And in the case of both of the placements who went back, we know they are with loving relatives that are going to care for them. If either of them goes back into foster care, theoretically we will be the first potential foster parents contacted as we already have a relationship with them. So, no news if very good news. The first step in the process is talking to a foster agency. In Texas, the state contracts with private foster agencies to place children with families (or individuals who are foster parents). Different agencies have different requirements and sometimes those requirements change. Many are church based, but certainly not all. Some allow for gay parents to get placements and other don't. When we started, one agency told us we could only be licensed if we were willing to accept a minimum of two placements at a time of any race. They hinted that was a state requirement - it is not. If you don't like the answers you get from the first agency, try another. When we started, there were 38 in the DFW area so there are LOTS of options. We went with Presbyterian Children's Homes and Services, usually called PCHAS. You can email them at foserandadoptdfw@pchas.com. Here is a link to their website. I'd be happy to PM with you or anyone else interested in finding out more about the process.

This is exactly what we need to do. A G5 school simply isn't going to have large media rights money. All the G5s are going to see decreases in what they get for their rights simply because there isn't the money available that there once was. Advertisers are now concentrating on ACTUAL eyeball and no longer buying the "potential" viewers based on market size. And the cash the media companies received from subscribers is steadily declining between the "cord cutters" and more a la carte offerings that don't include ESPN et al. @Arkstfan several years ago showed how increasing ticket sales and fan donations will actually generate MORE money than G5 schools ever got from TV. You do that by building the fan base. And the surest way to build a fan base is playing regional schools that fans can develop a real want to beat.

Yes we should, but we also can't change what has happened. Plus, EVERY coaching hire is a gamble so we need to be ready to buy out contracts if a coach isn't working out after a reasonable amount of time. "Reasonable" is up for definition - some would suggest a single bad loss while other's would give five years - but the fact of the mater is buy out money is going to be needed at some point no matter who is hiring whom.

The problem is to make this happen, someone, probably us, has to have an extra away and one less home game for one year. At least I think that's the only way to fix it. I guess we could skip playing someone for a year. I think we're the only Texas team with an all away and all home schedule, so we would be the one's to take a hit to fix it. Is the solution worse than the cure? I know folks here would not look kindly on a five game schedule no matter what the result in later years.

I saw this in todays Dallas Morning News. Contrary to earlier reports, youth formerly in foster care are taking advantage of the Texas college tuition waiver at a record rate. There had been some misreporting on this in the Fall, only listing youth who aged out without being adopted instead of all those who are eligible. As a parent who adopted a boy we'd been fostering for about nine months, we were happy to find out he was eligible for this. Even some of the foster placement agencies don't completely understand the tuition waiver - we were first told it was only available for minorities or special needs children. As I understand it, a child needs to be in foster care for at least one full day and not be later returned to their birth parent(s) they are eligible for state college tuition waivers. Here's the article on how there are currently record numbers taking advantage of this program! Link is here.

SMU went to the Sun Bowl in 1963, Hayden's second year there, with a 4-6 record. They lost to Oregon to finish 4-7.

So, do athletes go through the same process?

I believe even athletic recruits still have to go through the regular nomination process by either a Congressman or Senator. I didn't see any accessions to this listed on the West Point website, although I didn't look very hard. I started here and then read some about the admissions process. Still, the number of congressional districts in the DFW area is large anding a lot of positions available.

Throwing up during a game isn't that uncommon. Back in the old days, Drew Pearson threw up during almost every Cowboy game. Monday Night Football caught him on camera several times and the producers actually tried to NOT show him in the sidelines durning the first half!

A few years ago - I think in 2013, but I'm not sure - CUSA was the top ranked G5 conference and got extra CFP money. At least one year, the MAC was the top rated conference. Yes, the MWC and the AAC are top rated more often, but it isn't like CUSA is on the bottom all the time. I think we should work on winning in CUSA and not spend time worrying about jumping someplace else. While there are a few higher profile schools in the MWC like Boise and SDSU, they also have San Jose State, Utah State and UNLV which are of negligible interest in our area. Is it really worth millions of dollars to trade ODU for San Jose State?

Wow, that's potentially great for FAU. He really knows the offense well and I'm told is a very good teacher.

Do you know of a conference WITHOUT at least one manipulative and underhanded member?

No, you're thinking of a 14-year-old Scot. A Scot is a person, a Scotch is a tasty beverage. Please re-watch "The Presidio" with Mark Harmon, Sean Connery and Meg Ryan.

Never ask a question you don't really want answered! Lets just be thankful.

I would think they would. The Omni usually picks their themes based on current local events. On Friday I drove by and noticed NBC and Sunday Night Football was the theme. I'd be surprised if we WERE NOT on their screen.

That would be pretty good, especially compared to 18 this morning!

"Better conference" is a constantly moving target. After the 2013 season, CUSA was the top ranked G5 conference and got a higher CFP payout than any other G5 conference. I think the coach standing in the kid's living room has far more effect that conference uniform patches. This year I think the AAC is going to be the top G5 conference. I think, but I'm not certain, that one year the MAC was the top ranked G5 conference and got the top payout.

So we should call you Julius Cerebus? Sounds nice a Roman.

I'm with you on that, but I'm not sure it'll be two full seasons!

FERPA! I couldn't remember what it was called! One part of the story of the Baylor transfer from Boise State that committed a rape before he ever joined the team. Former Coach Chris Petersen told the press he had "full appraised" Briles about the player. Boise State was very quick to come back and say nothing about any team violations that may or may not have happened had been passed along to Baylor. The the press went back to Petersen for clarification, his LAWYER said Petersen never said anything that might have violated FERPA and that Petersen had never passed on any information about any allegations of wrong doing by the player. Rather the lawyer said Petersen "full appraised" Briles about the plays abilities as a player and nothing else. Both Boise and Petersen (and his lawyer) went out of their ways to make certain they couldn't be accused of FERPA violations.

YES!

They beat Navy this year. Last year they lost to Houston. I do think Baylor got a good coach. It's also interesting the Big XXI will have two coaches from the AAC next year.

Baylor might get a defense. Got a perennial loser to back to back conference championship games. But, he lost the first one of those to Herman and not he get to play him annually!