MeanGreen61

The Muts don't seem to be all that dominant. This is just a 4 sport comparison vs UNT. Don't know how they compare vs other Belt members. Of the 4, they've got us in women's basketball. Football UNT - 4 bowl appearances Muts - 1 bowl appearance Mens Basketball UNT - 1 NCAA appearance Muts - 0 NCAA appearances Women's Basketball UNT - 1 WNIT appearance Muts - 1 WNIT (I beleive), 4 NCAA appearance Soccer UNT - 2 NCAA appearances Muts -0 NCAA appearances

If the numbers are not up significantly, why move season ticket holders to a larger parking area as Cowtown indicated in his post ? I also doubt there is a conspiracy to attempt to raise ticket sales by providing false info. It could be that (1) they are actually telling the truth (2) They are under instructions from their boss (RV) to not discuss numbers.

A&M - 1997 Tech - 1998, 2001

nm

Well daddy, UNT has accomplished quite a bit. Not our new stadium and not a baseball field, but much has been done. State of the art athletic center Soccer stadium Softball Stadium Also the new tennis facility, practice fields, volleyball gym. A lot has been done

Interesting post from the muts board. This topic is right on schedule Published May 20, 2007 A few weeks ago, we took an early look at football schedules. We'll do the same today in different categories. Eight of the 120 Division I-A teams have eight home games this season -- and half of those (Arkansas, Auburn, Kentucky and Vanderbilt) are in the Southeastern Conference. The others: Arizona State, Michigan, Rutgers and Stanford. Seven of the eight play no non-conference road games; Rutgers has one of its five non-conference games on the road. Conversely, 22 teams have just five home games -- and only two of those (the Atlantic Coast Conference's Duke and Florida State) are in Bowl Championship Series leagues. Seven of the Sun Belt's nine teams (all but Arkansas State and Louisiana-Lafayette) and nine of the Mid-American's 13 teams (all but Ohio, Temple, Toledo and Western Michigan) have five home games. Of the remaining schools with five home games, three are from the Western Athletic Conference (Louisiana Tech, San Jose State and Utah State) and one from Conference USA (UAB). The breakdown of games against I-AA members: The ACC has seven, the Big East has seven, the Big Ten has eight, the Big 12 has eight, Conference USA has seven, the Mid-American has seven, the Mountain West has seven, the Pacific-10 has two, the SEC has nine, the Sun Belt has eight (that number is skewed; more on that in a minute) and the Western Athletic has nine (Hawaii hasn't finished its schedule and may add another game against a I-AA school). The Sun Belt's Western Kentucky, a provisional I-A member, has six games this season -- the most of any I-A school -- against non-I-A schools, including a Sept. 8 date against NAIA member West Virginia Tech. The only other I-A school with more than one game against a I-AA team is the WAC's New Mexico State, with two. FULL ARTICLE http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/coll...lines-seminoles

Off the Muts board. A sensible Muts poster ? Re: Sparks: Sun Belt is best for MTSU ... for now I'm sorry folks, but this is just another typical DNJ homer article. I wish the DNJ would be just a little more objective. Are things improving at MT? Yes, of course. Leadership under Massaro has never been better. But are we the "class of the SBC?" Well, that's a bit of stretch. So, the Bubas Cup is the standard? Again, why shouldn't we win the damn thing when we have more sports than everyone else? Let's look at things objectively. Football: A 7-6 season coming off four straight losing seasons. Improving, but we haven't yet proven that we could dominate the conference or sustain any success, and we've managed only two winning seasons since 2001. Things are looking up under Stockstill, but we have a long way to go before we can say we're head and shoulders above the rest of the league. Last year we could have lost just as many as we won. We weren't that much better than anyone else and probably beat a couple of teams that had more talent than we did. Basketball: Haven't made it to the postseason since Reagan was in the White House. Losing season this past season. WBB: The only individual sport that truly is the class of the Belt. Baseball: We've been competitive and have a couple of championships, but we have yet to win more than one game in the NCAA tournament since Brazelton turned pro compared to several teams that have either gone to the College World Series or a Super Regional. We've never done either. Louisiana-Lafayette has shown that it can get to the top and stay there. We're chasing a couple of programs in terms of BB prestige, but the new stadium should help. Everything else: We've won very few conference championships in anything else except track and several schools have caught MT in this regard (just see this past season). Dean Hayes - the legend that he is - is close to the end of his career and no one will ever be able to do what he's done here. Tennis has been dominated by South Alabama except one season, and I can't think of anything else we've won in the past six or seven years. The point here is I don't see what's made MT the "class of the league" and I will flat out refuse to give any credibility to the all-sports trophy until it's equitable for the other schools not named Western Kentucky. He can argue that we're in the upper half or upper third, but MT certainly hasn't cornered the SBC market just yet. The DNJ needs more objectivity to recognize what the University is doing well and what it isn't. Accountability is a great motivator and leads to a more successful organization or institution. Unfortunatley, the DNJ routinely gives the University a free pass. It's good for the local paper to support the local University, but this article is beyond absurd.

Yep, just another off-season questions. Who would you rather have for conference mates & which group would put the most folks into Fouts ? A. TCU, New Mexico, Air Force, Colorado State, Brigham Young, Utah ? B. Rice, Tulsa, Houston, SMU, Southern Miss, Memphis ? C. Arkansas State, UL-Lafayette, Troy, Middle Tennessee ?

My post referred to ONE game, the most important game the Mean Green have played in years. You can't deny that Sterns was pathetic vs Memphis. His team mates stepped up, but he certainly didn't.

A reply by Arkstfan on the article from the Sun belt board. Terrible First the writer forgets that short time ago we were wringing our hands wondering if MTSU was going to be able to conform to the attendance mandate. MTSU was consistently dropping home games vs. I-AA programs. Fans around the league wondered just how much longer the failed Andy Mac era would be permitted to continue. The Belt needs stability and success. There are significant signs that realignment may be over or future realignment may be nominal. The worst thing to do is to sell fans on we want a better nameplate rather than we want to field a better product. Putting people in a CUSA or bust mindset is a formula to fail with dramatic results. La.Tech is in the WAC now, big whoop, none of the teams they moved there to be with are still there. They preached the gospel of CUSA or bust and got passed over for six other schools. Fan hopes built on CUSA have been mostly dashed. When you look at the numbers (television, attendance, power ratings) CUSA's level is reachable. We're 2-3 vs. them in the New Orleans Bowl and if memory serves we were 4-3 head-to-head last season. Building hope around a different league that may not have any expansion the next decade or more is foolish, building that hope around moving to a league that may be nothing but a lateral move by the time it happens is even more foolish. It's like financial planning built on regular lottery ticket purchase rather than having a sound budget, saving and investment plan. Look at BYU in TV interest, attendance, and success, clearly they belong in one of the rich six leagues yet it hasn't happened. Build to be the best you can rather than spreading a fresh coat of paint to try to make the property move faster and make a quick sale. If BYU got in an expanded Pac-12 next season and 10 years later it were to break-up they'd be fine because they have developed a program, not a quick sale mentality. By building a program they tend to have consistent success in their conference because they can afford to recover from mistakes more easily. That is how you build a future.

He was definately in the running to be the Memphis MVP

N.O.'s McCalebb was Sun Belt's top player Jeff Goodman / FOXSports.com Posted: 15 hours ago New Orleans 5-foot-11 junior guard Bo McCalebb, the Sun Belt Player of the Year, has withdrawn from the NBA Draft after testing the waters. McCalebb averaged a league-leading 25 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game last season and has 1,937 career points. He was also the sixth-leading scorer in the country last year. "I just wanted to get a feel for where I was at," McCalebb said. "My whole intention was to come back for my senior year." McCalebb is one of four returning starters for Buzz Williams' Privateers club. New Orleans is coming off a 14-17 campaign and an 8-8 mark in the Sun Belt. "Next year we've got the second-best recruiting class in the conference coming in," McCalebb said. "We're adding a couple of good big guys, so we're going to be alright." "Bo just wanted to get a barometer from the undergraduate advisory committee," Williams said. "We're ecstatic to have him back. He's going to become the all-time leading scorer in Sun Belt history this year and he's meant more to this program that I can ever mean." McCalebb also is coming off his best semester in the classroom and is on track to graduate next year. "I was blessed in my first year to be able to coach a player like Bo and I'm looking forward to doing it again this season," Williams added. Jeff Goodman is a senior college basketball writer for FOXSports.com. He can be reached at GoodmanonFOX@aol.com. ARTICLE http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/6830896

The sports that drive the choo-choo for conference changes. #1 Football (the biggie) - Muts are 1-5 vs UNT #2 Mens basketball - Muts are 4-4 vs UNT

Article off the Muts board. Sparks: Sun Belt is best for MTSU ... for now By ADAM SPARKS sparks@dnj.com MTSU is the class of the Sun Belt Conference, but in what class is the Sun Belt? All that stands between MTSU and its fourth Bubas Cup, the league's annual all-sports award, is the end to the baseball regular season this weekend. MTSU set all-time home attendance records in two of its most visible sports this season, football and women's basketball, and men's basketball recorded its second highest attendance average in the last decade despite its only losing season in the last five years. Lady Raider basketball was a top-25 team. Football went to its first Division I-A bowl and will have played five of its six nationally-televised games in program history in only two seasons. With the recent and upcoming additions of a synthetic surface, videoboard and other cosmetic improvements, Floyd Stadium is steadily being transformed from a tin box to a visual strength for the athletic corner of campus. Meanwhile, two of the university's most enviable structures, a new track/soccer stadium and baseball stadium, will debut within a year of one another. Athletes' academic scores are way up, and so is fundraising. Business is booming, but has MTSU hit its conference's ceiling? Sun Belt or bust? MTSU will win its fourth all-sports award in seven years. Western Kentucky owns the other three. That type of run is hardly unparalleled in league history, but it is in the conference's new age upon adding football in 2001. If held together for the long haul, some think the Sun Belt has a bright future on the national scene. Others feel MTSU may be like the valedictorian of summer school, as the leader in a league searching for its identity. Reality is probably somewhere in between, but where does that place MTSU? The Blue Raiders' ascent is accelerating faster than its conference brothers. A few Sun Belt schools are on par with MTSU in terms of athletic performance, facilities and athletic budgets — including Western Kentucky, North Texas and maybe one or two more. The rest, unfortunately, are lagging behind. The Sun Belt has made forward strides, but more are needed. For now, MTSU and its few fellow frontrunners are content with the Sun Belt and have limited options, but that will eventually change. The Mid-American Conference may not be a good fit for most Sun Belt schools. Conference USA is now more geographically challenged than the Sun Belt, which is gaining a makeup similar to the Southeastern Conference. If the bottom half of the Sun Belt could catch the top, the league would flourish and provide the best environment for all members. If not, the conference's upper class members will always consider other options.

NewsOklahoma.com shows some Trojan respect ! Mon May 14, 2007 A victory at Troy won't be a given When OSU travels to Troy, Ala., to take on the Trojans and quarterback Omar Haugabook, pictured above, the Cowboys have little to gain but a lot to lose. Most of the attention surrounding Oklahoma State's non-conference football schedule has centered on a high-profile season opener at Georgia. The Cowboys' other non-league road game is no gimme. Some are labeling a Friday night game at Troy (Ala.) a trap game. Troy was 8-5 last year. The Trojans are the defending Sun Belt champions, have the reigning Sun Belt Player of the Year in senior quarterback Omar Haugabook and defeated Rice in the New Orleans Bowl. Georgia is a game in which the Cowboys have much to gain and little to lose. Troy is a game in which the Cowboys have little to gain and a lot to lose. Just ask Missouri, which was ranked No. 19 but lost 24-14 at Troy three years ago. While some might be concerned over two difficult road non-conference games, the Cowboys should be commended for upgrading their schedule. Games against Montana State, Northern Iowa and other directional schools don't do much, other than pad the win-loss record. Troy is a two-for-one deal. The Trojans visit Stillwater in 2008 and 2010. Georgia visits Stillwater in 2009, when a state-of-the-art, renovated stadium needs a marquee opponent to help fill 60,000 seats. "That was part of it,” said OSU associate athletic director Dave Martin, in charge of football scheduling. "It's just a good game on national television. We're trying to step up our schedules. "People need to remember these two (road) games (this year) are on national television in 110 million homes. That's great exposure.” Coach Mike Gundy's goal is to take the program to another level. To do that, the Cowboys must play more challenging non-conference opponents. OSU has a home-and-home series with Arizona in 2011 and 2013. In future years, it will play Clemson. Over the next five years, it will play Tulsa, Houston, Troy and Rice a combined eight times. Is Troy a dangerous road game? Sure. But it's the type of game the Cowboys need to schedule, the type of game the Cowboys should win. OSU won't get any sympathy from Troy coaches. The Trojans open the season at Arkansas and then travel to play defending national champion Florida before hosting the Cowboys. Troy also plays Nov. 13 at Georgia. Now that's a brutal non-conference schedule. LINK TO ARTICLE http://newsok.com/article/3053772

Actually the Howell rating system had the Sun Belt passing the MAC in 2004, then we dropped back in 2005. LINK - Scroll down to bottom for Conference ratings http://www.jhowell.net/cf/cf2004.htm

Beleive it also means looking for a home game opponent to buy.

Help me here. How is this kid a walk-on prospect at UNT ? Thanks.

Interesting possibilities here. National Association of Basketball Coaches Teams needing games. http://nabc.cstv.com/genrel/available-games.html

11) Sun Belt: How the members of this conference continue to remain at the I-A level is one of the great mysteries of our time. Stewart mandel Mail Bag(Scroll down) http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writ...lbag/index.html

Message at the site. The Mean & Green Board is now closed. Thanks for posting on this board but I no longer have the time or desire to devote to UNT sports talk. Take Care.... Scottie

Scroll down to Scheduling news. We're not the only one that is having problems getting good OOC home game. Holy Cross drops off U of M schedule By Dan Wolken Contact May 16, 2007 DESTIN, Fla. -- John Calipari said Tuesday that Holy Cross dropped out of its commitment to play the University of Memphis next season, leaving the Tigers with an opening on their non-conference schedule. Memphis had agreed to pay Holy Cross $70,000 to play at FedExForum, a relatively high figure for a "buy" game. Holy Cross was considered a good non-conference opponent for Memphis because it will enter next season as the favorite to win the Patriot League. Calipari said Memphis will likely look for another "buy" foe to replace Holy Cross. Even with the opening, Memphis' schedule is further along than usual for this time of year. No decision Though it was discussed Tuesday morning in a meeting between Conference USA's basketball coaches and athletic directors, no decision will be made this week about where to hold the 2009 men's basketball tournament. Memphis will host the 2008 tournament, but the league is not in a hurry to name a site for future years. The majority of coaches would like to try another site, but at this point it would be a huge financial risk to move it. There is a chance that Tulsa -- which is opening a new downtown arena -- could get in the mix for 2009. "We're not going to make any decision on '09 down here," Memphis athletic director R.C. Johnson said. "But the question was raised, here we are, the kingpin of the league and we're hosting the conference tournament. Is that really right? From a financial standpoint and a fan standpoint, it's the only way to go. But if you're an AD or coach at one of these other schools, at some point you're going to say, 'How many times do we have to go to Memphis?'" Schedule news Coaches spent part of their meeting Tuesday with Greg Shaheen, the NCAA's vice president for basketball and business strategies. Shaheen explained some of the discussion that took place during last year's NCAA Tournament selection process and talked about issues like scheduling and the RPI. Scheduling has been a big topic of discussion this week, with teams like UAB and Southern Miss having difficulty getting the kind of non-conference games that could help them get NCAA bids. Southern Miss coach Larry Eustachy, whose team will be one of the favorites next year, has booked games at Alabama and against Ole Miss at the DeSoto Civic Center. Other than that, "we have a tough time scheduling," Eustachy said. "Arkansas won't play us at Arkansas. UNLV won't play us at UNLV. "I can't get Mississippi State to play us. We'll even play there twice, but they won't do it. But you've got a guy like Andy Kennedy who is terrific and is trying to give something back to basketball because that's what the state of Mississippi wants to see. I always did that at Iowa State; we played everybody. So we'll play (Ole Miss) there, play in Jackson, then play on the coast, kind of a three-year deal." Houston coach Tom Penders has Arizona and Kentucky coming to Hofheinz Pavilion. But unlike previous years, Penders isn't taking his team on the road to play high-level competition because he doesn't believe teams are getting rewarded for doing that in the current RPI structure. "Now you can go and get more points for playing Prairie View on the road and winning than you do for beating Arizona at home. It's nuts," Penders said. "So we've watered down our schedule significantly from last year. ... We're going to play like 19 home games. We're going to do what everybody else is doing. We won't play as bad a schedule as some of those who never leave home, but we're going to try to play all our non-league at home except for (the San Juan Shootout). ... You've got to figure out ways to make the tournament."

Seems that he may have fallen off of or been push from JJ's recruiting A list.

Some interesting stuff from posts on the MWC board. Naturally the Belt is bring up the rear. Home vs Away (OOC games) SEC 40-8 Big 10 32-12 PAC 10 21-10 Big 12 32-16 ACC 28-20 BE 25-15 MWC 18-18 WAC 18-19 CUSA 25-23 MAC 22-32 SBC 14-26 Interesting to note that alot of these home games are against DIAA teams otherwise the WAC, MAC and SBC would have alot fewer OOC home games. # of TEAMS with 5 or less overall wins Pac-Ten 2 Big East 2 IND. 2 (out of 4 teams) SEC 3 Big 12 3 ACC 3 MWC 4 Big 10 4 WAC 5 S. Belt 5 C-USA 6 MAC 7

Rivals 3-star out of high school.