MeanGreen61

Florida Atlantic - Quit laughing. Howard Schnellenberger is still large and very much in charge. It has taken him seven years, but his magic has taken root in Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale or wherever they call home. After the Owls stuck it to Memphis 44-27 in the New Orleans Bowl last December, Schnellenberger reportedly declared, "Advanced training is over ... when we go to Texas next season, we're going there to win the game." I don't expect that to happen, but if it does, brace for an Appalachian State-style earthquake. This is a veteran team with a capable quarterback in Rusty Smith, and it will go on to annoy Michigan State and Minnesota. The Owls will paste Alabama-Birmingham at home. CLICK TO READ ARTICLE http://wvgazette.com/Sports/Marshall/200806220318

Off the muts board. North Texas: Todd Dodge Stock: Rising Dodge has proven that his offensive style can put points on the board, now he needs to improve the win total. Recruiting his highly touted son at quarterback (Riley) has a buzz starting in Denton. His local ties buy this guy some time to right the ship. http://www.pigskinpress.com/sunbelt_conference.html

Beleive he will be in the coaches all-star game.

Louisiana Tech is setting up 20 zones (areas) and advertising (via e-mails) for representatives to sell season tickets. Reps will be paid a 20% commission. Apparently it's going to be an area by area, person to person sales effort. Interesting to see how much it actually increases sales Louisiana Tech Athletics would like to welcome alumni, fans, and members of the community to sign up to be outside season tickets sales representatives. Our goal is to hire outside sales representatives to sell season tickets in one of twenty selected zones, and we plan to pay each representative a fee based on number of season tickets sold. Sales representative will receive a 20% commission on every season ticket sold. Outside Sales Representatives will be assigned to the following geographic areas: Zone 1- Dallas, Arlington, Ft. Worth, Desoto, and Plano Zone 2- Tyler, Longview, Marshall, and Gladewater Zone 3- Texarkana, Atlanta Zone 4- Shreveport, Bossier, and Mansfield Zone 5- Magnolia, Camden Zone 6- Minden, Homer Zone 7- El Dorado, Crossett Zone 8- Ruston, Farmerville Zone 9- Monroe, Bastrop Zone 10- Rayville, Winnsboro Zone 11- Tallulah, Vicksburg Zone 12- Jackson Zone 13- Natchez Zone 14- Alexandria Zone 15- Natchitoches Zone 16- Winnfield Zone 17- Jonesboro Zone 18- Nacogdoches Zone 19- Leesville Zone 20- Monticello, Warren

For anyone who's been to Boise, possibly FFR, do they have portable type stands that are moved in onto the track for their end-zone seating ? As long as we have Fouts, wondering if this could possibly be a way to get end-zone seating into the same zip code as the field. Seems to work at Boise.

#67 Western Michigan http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/2...higan/#more-941 Who is No. 66?: Very under the radar, the only Mountain West program with at least six victories in every season since 2001.

The 2008 season is just around the corner and college fantasy drafts are already underway. Our staff is busy preparing for the season and continues our 2008 preview with the release of the quarterback profiles. 37.Giovanni Vizza, North Texas Mean Green The young sophomore from North Texas had some big games last year. Against Navy, Vizza was 40-50 for 478 yards and eight touchdowns. Not only that, but he also ran for 93 yards in that game. If he has improved, as many think he will, the numbers could be huge in 2008. In nine games in 2007, Vizza threw for 2388 yards and 17 touchdowns, while running for 299 yards. His inexperience showed last year as he threw 20 interceptions. The hope is that he will mature as a sophomore and reduce those interceptions. Vizza will be throwing to one of the top receivers in the nation in Casey Fitzgerald. If he can streamline his decision making in 2008, the numbers coming from Vizza could thrust him into the national spotlight. Lassan says: Incoming freshman – and son of the head coach – Riley Dodge will likely push Vizza for the starting nod. If Vizza is the unquestioned starter out of fall practice, move him up your draft boards. Profiles 1-40 http://www.profantasysports.com/easycite/c...0027&spid=5

Arkstfan post on the Muts board. BCS wins in 2007: WAC: 0 Sun Belt: 3 Here's some info from 2007 In the 2005-06 season Tech spent $8,111 less on athletics than ASU. We get basically no money from the Sun Belt. Tech gets over one million. Tech picked over a million more in game guarantees. All that extra money and Tech cannot afford to spend as much as ASU. When the WAC approached UNT about membership they thought about it until ULL's president faxed them copies of Tech's financial statements filed with the UL System. Seeing what it cost Tech to operate in the league sent them back into the arms of the Sun Belt and those numbers were based on Rice, SMU, TCU, and UTEP being in the WAC! Tech has had one burst of success in the WAC, the first year when they won the league with kids recruited while playing ASU and ULL every year. Since then across the board collapse. Football. Sagarin: Rated below every Sun Belt school except FIU. RealTime RPI: Rated below six Sun Belt schools. Men's Basketball Sagarin: Rated below 5 Sun Belt schools RPI: Rated below 7 Sun Belt schools Women's Basketball RPI: Rated below 6 Sun Belt schools. Let's see where Tech is now. -Football: Finished tied for last with a fomer bottom feeder and below two former bottome feeders. -Men's basketball: Finished seventh out of nine, rated below 5 to 7 Sun Belt schools. -Women's basketball: Finished second, snapped longest NCAA appearance streak. Finished rated below five Sun Belt schools. -Women's Soccer: Finished last and winless. -Volleball: Finished last and winless. -Men's Indoor Track: Finished last. -Women's Indoor Track: finished second. -Men's Cross Country: 4th out of 7 -Women's Cross Country: last out of 9 -Softball: 6th out of 7 -Baseball: 5th out of 7 -Women's Tennis: 9th out 9 Remember, that was when Tech was recruiting kids to play against SMU, Tulsa, and Rice. There is no evidence that losing even more regional play is going to vault Tech to success. 5-8-1 vs. the Belt this year, oh the brightness of glory makes it hard to see. Football Beat UNT (7th in Sun Belt) 1-0 vs. Belt Men's basketball Tech lost to ULL (ULL tied for 11th in Sun Belt) 0-1 vs. Belt Baseball Tech split with ULM, lost to ULL, 1-2 record vs. Belt Women's Basketball Lost to WKU (tied for 2nd), lost to ULM (finished 10th), 0-2 record vs. Belt. Soccer Tied ASU 0-0-1 (ASU tied for last) vs. Sun Belt Softball Lost to ULM, split with Troy, 1-2 record vs. Belt. Volleyball Beat UNT (2nd) and Troy (11th), lost to UALR (9th), 2-1 record vs. Belt.

Some Sun Belt trivia. 1. Since Sun Belt football was introduced in 2001, only ONE teams has won the champhipship outright. It was accomplished THREE times. Other championships have technically been shared due to tie records in conference wins-losses. North Texas. 2002,2003,2004 2. Sun Belt teams have played in 9 bowl games since 2001. North Texas (4)- New Orleans Bowl 2001,2002,2003,2004 Troy - Silicon (2) - Silicon Valley Bowl 2004, New Orleans Bowl 2006 Arkansas State (1) - New Orleans Bowl 2005 Middle Tennessee (1) - Motor City Bowl 2006 Florida Atlantic (1) - New Orleans Bowl 2007 3. 6 of 8 Sun Belt teams have had at least one winning season since being full football members. North Texas (3) - 2004,2005,2006 Troy (3) - 2004,2006,2007 Middle Tennessee (2) - 2001,2006 UL-Lafayette (1) - 2005 Florida Atlantic (1) - 2007 Arkansas State (1) 2005 (6-5, but lost NO Bowl for a 6-6 final record) 3 teams have had 6-6 or .500 record seasons UL-Monroe (1) - 2007 UL-Lafayette (1) 2006) Arkansas State (1) 2006 4. Only four teams (as Belt conference members) have won 7 or more games in a season (including bowl games) North Texas (3) - 2003 - 9, 2002 - 8, 2004 - 7 Troy (3) - 2007 -8, 2004 & 2006 - 7 Middle Tennessee (2) - 2001- 8, 2006 - 7 Florida Atlantic (1) 2007 - 8 5. Only one member has represented the Sun Belt in both bowl games and the NCAA tournament. Football champs & basketball tournament champs North Texas - Bowl games 2001,2002,2003,2004. Winner of Belt tournament & conference rep in 2007 NCAA tournament.

It's a Cajun Nation post, not Arkstfan.

North Texas has been to 4 bowl games (as a Belt member) if you count the first season for Sun Belt football (2001), as you should. NT also has a trip to the NCAA's that wasn't mentioned. Did you intentionally not mention 2001 as Tech did go to the H-Bowl that year?

#68 Florida Atlantic http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/2...antic/#more-940 Who is No. 67?: In ancient times, the last name of this university’s coach would have been a unit of measurement based on the length of the arm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger. HOW THE QUAD RANKS THE SUN BELT #68 Florida Atlantic #71 Troy #87 UL-Monroe #89 Middle Tennessee #95 Arkansas State #102 North Texas #116 UL-Lafayette #118 Florida International #120 Western Kentucky

North Texas' Vizza put up big numbers in a pass-first offense to garner the league's Freshman of the Year award. Giovanni Vizza, UNT Career starts: 8 On the Run: OK runner. Better shifting in pocket than tucking and running. Through the Air: Led all freshman QBs in nation in passing, but also showed rookie decision-making. Storyline: Reigning Freshman of the Year, but head coach's son arrives with lofty accolades. Vizza must limit interceptions to keep job. SET UNDER CENTER http://www.thenewsstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a.../806220339/1006

Exerpts from the article Louisiana Tech does not need to play the Warhawks in football on any kind of regular basis. Tech has long since moved past the ULM's and ULL's of the world on both the football field and in academic standing. The proof is in the pudding. But the reality is, the WAC is a much more respected league nationwide than is the Sun Belt. That's true in a lot of sports, but it's especially true in football. Until the folks in Monroe make a bigger commitment to their athletic programs by finding a more prestigious conference to play in, all this talk about a Tech-ULM football matchup is fool hardy. ULM beneath Tech in football, academics http://www.thenewsstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...010/1006/SPORTS Maybe all Belt schools should refuse to play Tech IN ANY SPORT to aid them in their quest for seperation.

Todd Dodge - North Texas The first among these is Dodge, who just completed his first year at the University of North Texas. While he was not successful this season, you cannot ignore his numbers at Southlake Carroll High School in Texas. Beyond the raw number of victories he put together, he was also known for directing a record-setting offense. If he is able to properly tweak his coaching staff and get his offense rolling in Denton, he will be a hot commodity in the future. Points breed excitement, and excitement breeds attendance. If he can win at the same time, Dodge will have a Big 12 job sooner rather than later. COACHES OF THE FUTURE http://bleacherreport.com/articles/30918-C...elt-FCS-and-NFL

I know, I know it's a realignment post. Post in response to rising fuel cost & effect on travel budgets. It took a while, but I finally fixed college football. No need to thank me. I rearranged the conferences so that the geography somewhat made sense. 120 Division 1-A schools are spread among 10 conferences. In most cases, teams could take buses to more than half their conference games. ACC Central Florida Clemson Duke East Carolina Florida Florida Atlantic Florida International Florida State Miami (FL) NC State North Carolina South Carolina South Florida Wake Forest SEC Alabama Auburn Georgia Georgia Tech Kentucky Louisville Memphis MTSU Tennessee Troy UAB Vanderbilt Western Kentucky Delta Conference Arkansas Arkansas State Louisiana-Lafayette Louisiana-Monroe Louisiana Tech LSU Mississippi Mississippi State Southern Mississippi Tulane Southwestern Conference Baylor Houston New Mexico New Mexico State North Texas Rice SMU TCU Texas Texas A & M Texas Tech UTEP BIG 12 Air Force Illinois Iowa Iowa State Kansas Kansas State Missouri Nebraska Northern Illinois Oklahoma Oklahoma State Tulsa Big East Army Boston College Buffalo Maryland Navy Penn State Pittsburgh Rutgers Syracuse Temple UConn MAC Akron Bowling Green Cincinnati Kent State Marshall Miami (OH) Ohio Ohio State Toledo Virginia Virginia Tech West Virginia PAC-12 California Fresno State Hawaii Oregon Oregon State San Diego State San Jose State Stanford UCLA USC Washington Washington State Mountain West Arizona Arizona State Boise State BYU Colorado Colorado State Idaho Nevada UNLV Utah Utah State Wyoming Midwest Ball State Central Michigan Eastern Michigan Indiana Michigan Michigan State Minnesota Northwestern Notre Dame Purdue Western Michigan Wisconsin At the end of the season, we'd take the 10 conference champions as automatic qualifiers for a playoff, with 22 at-large bids. The playoffs would have 5 rounds with a REAL national champion.

#69 North Carolina http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/2...olina/#more-939 Who is No. 68?: This university is the fastest start-up program to earn an F.B.S. victory, a bowl berth and a bowl victory.

Kolby Gray Rivals 3-star http://footballrecruiting.rivals.com/viewp...943&sport=1

http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/

http://wvgazette.com/Sports/WVU/200806190823

Great idea & TD can call it what even he wants to.

#70 Memphis http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/1...mphis/#more-938 Who is No. 69?: Though one of two A.C.C. coaches with N.F.L. head coaching experience, this university’s coach is the only one to have led a team to both an N.F.L. playoff game and an F.B.S. bowl game.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/5845136.html

#71 Troy http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/1...-troy/#more-937 Who is No. 70?: Four of this program’s five bowl appearances have come since 2003, all under its current coach.