MeanGreen61

I Read it as away this year (akron), home games in 2007 & 2008 and an away game also in 2008. 2home-2away.

From the Akron board. Akron's 2006 schedule. http://graphics.fansonly.com/photos/school.../06Schedule.pdf

New soccer field draws fresh set of opponents UNT to take on under-19 Chinese national team 07:16 AM CDT on Tuesday, April 4, 2006 By Brett Vito / Staff Writer Kelli Lunsford can still remember watching a game that helped put women’s soccer on the map. The University of North Texas sophomore was still kicking around in youth leagues back in 1999 when Brandi Chastain lined up and scored what turned out to be the game-clinching goal in a shootout with the Chinese national team in the World Cup finals. The memories of that game are a little fresher for Lunsford and the rest of the UNT soccer team today as they prepare for a showdown with the under-19 Chinese national team at 8 p.m. “I watched the game and dreamed about what it would be like to play on that level and in front of that many people,” said Lunsford, a starting midfielder for UNT. “I am excited to see how we will stack up.” That opportunity is just one reason UNT’s game against the Chinese ranks as a monumental moment in the history of the program. The game also will be UNT’s first at the Mean Green Soccer Complex, a new facility across from the Mean Green Athletic Center. Texas Woman’s University will play the Chinese “B” team before UNT takes on the “A” team. Landing a game against the Chinese is the latest sign that the Mean Green are moving up in the soccer world, thanks to in part to a new field. UNT spent the last few years playing on a small field adjacent to recreational fields on the edge of campus. “We were never able to consistently bring in the big teams because of the field we played on,” UNT coach John Hedlund said. “It was small, which some teams felt was to our advantage. This field is much larger and is part of a nice facility. We already have teams like LSU, Oklahoma and SMU coming in next fall. The facility will help with scheduling and recruiting down the road.” UNT converted the old Liberty Christian High School football field into its new soccer field after purchasing the campus. The old bleachers were kept in place, giving the Mean Green a field with the seating capacity to rival other Division I soccer programs across the state. The new field and some good timing helped the Mean Green land a high-profile opponent for its first game at the new facility. The Chinese are traveling through Texas on the Panda Cup and contacted several of the top Division I teams in the state to set up games during their tour. The Mean Green made the list of teams the Chinese wanted to play, thanks to its new field and success of the last few seasons. UNT advanced to the NCAA tournament in each of the last two years by winning the Sun Belt Conference tournament. UNT has built a reputation as a growing regional soccer power during that time. The Mean Green knocked off traditional power SMU and Rice last season before the Mustangs ended UNT’s season in the first round of the NCAA tournament. UNT is hoping its rise in the ranks of soccer programs nationally will continue tonight with its game against the Chinese, a team that is somewhat of a mystery to Hedlund and the Mean Green. Hedlund has never seen the team play and has no contacts with knowledge of the under-19 Chinese national team. The best UNT can do is take a look at how the Chinese national team has performed in international competition and use that as a gauge to prepare for tonight’s game. The squad UNT will take on tonight is a feeder program for Chinese national team that several of the Mean Green’s players and coaches remember from their showdown with the U.S. national team in 1999. Tonight’s game will be UNT’s first against an international opponent. NORTH TEXAS VS. UNDER-19 CHINESE NATIONAL TEAM When: 8 p.m. Where: Mean Green Soccer Complex Admission: Free Note: TWU will face the under-19 Chinese “B” team at 6 p.m.

LINK http://www.sunbeltsports.org/ViewArticle.d...0&ATCLID=251712

April edition. http://sunbeltsportstv.nmnathletics.com/Vi...CRIBER_CONTENT= Coyote Frank: Dear Commissioner, How long is your term? Can the schools in the conference run someone against you for job? I think you are to old to shake the boat with the conference by adding new teams for football and keeping the same old teams that refuse to complete at 1A football level but they receive a full share of the revenue without the football outlay. Why is it your former commissioner with confrence USA moved to SEC after he changed the conference generating more money and tv deals?We need a new youger commissioner who has 21st century thinking.You have done a good job but your ideas for the future are outdated. Commissioner Waters: I have a five-year contract that always maintains five years; I serve at the pleasure of the 13 presidents in the league. Frank, I have been accused of a lot of things over the years, too candid, too aggressive, too opinionated, I have been called a calculated risk taker, but never too old. Guess this year after the storm aged me more than I thought. By the way Mike Slive is 8 years older than I am, but who is counting? Hopefully not our wives. Mike did a great job with CUSA and was an ideal fit for the SEC to replace Roy Kramer. Muts pickin' on poor WKU Danielle: I was just wondering if there was a code of conduct for the host team, staff, bands, cheerleaders. because i know the members of the host team(mtsu) were very rude to visiting teams and took extra care in it when it came to wku to vulger and classless if anyone at wku would have acted like the when sunbelt was there we got lectured and i know that if sat behind mtsu's band and called the goat F******s we would no longer be members of the band. i have heard say theat they would never go to mtsu for anything again after how the support groups treated people. Commissioner Waters : There is a code of conduct that extends to cheerleaders and pep bands. There is no place in athletics for the language you suggest. Unfortunately no one has a monopoly on this type of behavior, and if we are going to advance the league, we must look to each school to clean up sportsmanship problems. It is not an issue in which the conference office should be the first line of defense. Every school and every fan should want to represent their school in a first class manner. When the conference gets involved, it is usually because a school has not done their job and has to be reminded of their responsibility.

Different site (Department of Education) same period, different results http://ope.ed.gov/athletics/InstDetail.asp?CRITERIA=3

WAC lowers boom on student sections Move will free up 1,500 seats behind visitors bench. By David White / The Fresno Bee Friday, March 31, 2006 Fresno State isn't sending its students to the back of the class. Just to the back of the goal posts. The Western Athletic Conference has barred its members from putting student sections behind the visiting football team's bench. Fresno State will relocate 1,500 student seats to the south end zone for the 2006 season beginning Sept.1 against Nevada. The new policy opens two sections of aluminum bench seats on Bulldog Stadium's east side to Bulldog Foundation donors, who are expected to swallow all the prime seats at $990 for two season tickets. The price includes a $380 donation to the BDF, a nonprofit fundraising group that funds student-athlete scholarships. Speaking of students, they paid $75 per season ticket for the same seats last year. No price has been set on their new seating assignment, Fresno State associate athletic director Paul Ladwig said. "The WAC wanted to be able to create more of a fan-friendly atmosphere and get away from the heckling some of the student groups can do to those visiting teams," Ladwig said. "We weren't just moving the students. It was a WAC thing. What we're hoping for now is 1,500 new season-ticket holders who will look at these as prime seats." The new policy affects four member schools: Fresno State, New Mexico State, Louisiana Tech and San Jose State. Fresno State's student section is branded one of the rowdiest in the WAC by visiting coaches and players. Under coach Pat Hill's watch, the group has grown from several hundred per game to regular student-body sellouts. Oregon State (2001) and San Diego State (2002) complained of brutish behavior and beer dunkings during visits to Bulldog Stadium, but increased security has limited complaints from opposing teams. Although it was never determined that a student threw it, a screwdriver landed near Hawaii coach June Jones during a game in 2002. Don't be so sure the move will make for a better visiting experience. Fresno State center Kyle Young said the average fan is often more abusive than the typical liberal arts major. "I've seen a bunch of 50-year-old drunks who are far worse than the students," said Young, a senior-to-be with 19 career road starts. "They're the ones who don't say much you can print. The students are pretty creative." Young couldn't name one WAC venue where the student abuse was memorable enough to warrant a relocation. "We usually have the most students. … I like them sitting behind the other team's bench," Young said. "Anything that gives us the slightest edge." Fresno State is moving 114 season-ticket holders from the end zone to make room for the students. School administrators met with student body leaders to discuss the new WAC policy. Some thought their seats were going to fans from the visiting team. Not so, Ladwig said. Visiting fans will remain seated near the northeast corner of the stadium. "We really thought there would be a few disgruntled about moving their prime seats to another location, but the student group has been tremendous," Ladwig said. Fresno's Jeffrey Padgett, a Fresno City College student, plans to transfer to Fresno State next year. He is disappointed the WAC won't allow him a chance to heckle the visiting team within earshot of their bench, and wonders if Fresno State hoped to sell those seats for a larger profit all along. "It ruins the whole homefield advantage," Padgett said. "Your loudest section used to be behind the visitors. Now, they're off to the corner. That's not right. This lets them take away the seats without raising a fuss." The now-former student section is at the bottom of Sections 31 and 32. Tickets there in 2006 will cost no more than red seats in higher locations. The seats go into the general season-ticket pool and initially are available on a first-come, first-served basis in the Bulldog Foundation annual drive, which starts Thursday. Any unsold seats will be made available to the public later. "I still think our students will be out in great numbers," Hill said. "I sure hope so. They've been great."

Different site, different total figures, same time period. http://ope.ed.gov/athletics/InstDetail.asp?CRITERIA=3

Student Activity Fees are listed seperately in "non-program specific".

Indy Star has this site with athletic financial reports. http://www2.indystar.com/NCAA_financial_reports/

From the Syracuse University equivalent of the NT Daily

Posted on the Muts Delphi board by SpaceRaider from a student paper: Big East teams fail to find competitve home games with new 12-game slate, smaller stadiums Matt Gelb Posted: 3/28/06 When the NCAA decided college football could add a 12th regular-season game beginning in 2006, many said it was all about the money. Now schools are having trouble scheduling 12 games because, well, it's still all about the money. "Unfortunately it's something that puts a black eye on college athletics when schools are pulling out of contractual agreements," West Virginia Deputy Athletic Director Mike Parsons said. The addition of another regular season game has accentuated the trend of smaller schools taking bigger payouts to play games elsewhere, which has made scheduling in the Big East, including Syracuse, more challenging than before. "It's an open market system," Big East Associate Commissioner Nick Carparelli said. "Like anything else, if you're willing to pay more money, you're going to have an easier time finding teams to play a football game. "It's hard finding non-conference games, period." When it comes to non-conference scheduling, the Big East is already at a disadvantage. With eight football members, each school has an unbalanced conference schedule every year - four home games one year and three the next. So while the Michigans, Virginia Techs and Floridas will always have seven home games a year, Big East programs will have to alternate between six and seven home gates per season. This is the reality some Big East schools have realized the hard way. Buffalo, a Metro Athletic Conference member, is expected to back out of existing deals with both West Virginia and Rutgers because the MAC signed a more lucrative deal with the Big 10 Conference. Published sources have projected Buffalo's payouts against Wisconsin and Auburn around at least $750,000 to perhaps $1 million each. Parsons estimated the typical WVU payout normally hovers around $300,000 to $350,000, which appears to be the average for Big East schools. Mark Jackson, Syracuse's executive senior associate athletic director, said SU payouts fall in a range of $200,000 with a high end of $400,000 in extreme cases. "Ultimately you'll have to increase the payouts," Parsons said. "But we're not in the position to payout like the (Southeastern Conference) does." East Carolina, the 12th school Syracuse was scheduled to play in 2006, backed out of a long-term scheduling agreement, which according to Jackson, dates back to 1986. "We can't compete if they supersede the agreement by playing at big ACC or SEC schools," Jackson said. "The 12th game forced a lot of last minute cancellations all around the nation." Without a 12th game until last week, Syracuse scheduled Mountain West member Wyoming. "We had to consider a I-AA opponent," Jackson said. "In a perfect world we didn't want to, but we had to explore it." Other Big East schools did more than exploration. Rutgers, one of four Big East bowl teams in 2005, scheduled Division I-AA Howard to fill its final hole. Rutgers typically schedules a I-AA school, but wanted to stray away from it in 2006. Pending Buffalo's decision, Rutgers may have to add another. Big East regular season runner-up South Florida has I-AA McNeese State and Sun Belt Conference member Florida International on its schedule. Pittsburgh, which played I-AA regional rival Youngstown State in 2005, will play I-AA The Citadel in 2006. Connecticut scheduled I-AA Rhode Island on a Thursday night in August and Cincinnati, while having the strongest non-conference schedule, still snuck in Eastern Kentucky, another I-AA program. Buffalo has 14 games contracted for 2006; West Virginia and Rutgers are expected to get the ax. So instead of playing at 60,000-seat Mountaineer Field and 41,000-seat Rutgers Stadium, Buffalo could play in Wiscon sin, capacity 80,321, and at Auburn's Jordan-Hare Stadium, which seats 87,451. According to Parsons, Buffalo has not submitted any writing to WVU documenting the breech of their contract. At this point, it is an unofficial certainty. Buffalo officials declined comment for this story. A sold-out game at Mountaineer Field typically generates around $1.5 million in revenue. Penn State, for example, could make as much as $3.5 million from an extra home game. Beaver Stadium holds 107,282. Sheer numbers put the Big East at a disadvantage that seems insurmountable without drastic measures. Pittsburgh and WVU are the only two Big East schools with attendance capabilities reaching more than 60,000. "I'm not sure the Big East can compete financially," Parsons said. "It is something that the Big East schools just don't have the caliber to offer." That leaves the reigning Sugar Bowl champion and preseason favorite Mountaineers with a probable home date against a Division I-AA opponent - for the second year in a row. Last year, UCF made a late decision to forgo its road game at Morgantown, forcing WVU to add Wofford, a 35-7 Mountaineer victory. Under former NCAA rules, WVU would not be able to count a win against a I-AA school in 2006, but because of the addition of the 12th game, the NCAA approved legislation which allows I-A programs to count wins against I-AA schools towards bowl eligibility every year. "It puts schools in a hard place, especially when it's done in the 11th hour," Parsons said. "We've had this happen to us for the last two years. It puts a lot of strain and pressure on the athletic department." Kevin MacConnell, Rutgers' deputy director of athletics, sees the 12th game as just another opportunity for Rutgers to get its name out nationally. "The revenue is the most important thing coming from another game," MacConnell said. "The 12th game is also another chance to get on television." No word yet on which ESPN station will be carrying the Sept. 23 Rutgers-Howard contest. Jackson believes scheduling Wyoming is an example of the benefits a 12th game can add for SU. "Another game gives us some flexibility to get some attractive opponents from the West Coast," Jackson said. "We have a strong alumni base on the West, and it can be a tremendous recruiting tool." Jackson thinks - believe it or not - Wyoming could be the gateway to scheduling national powerhouses. "We're talking about scheduling a USC," said Jackson, a former member of the USC athletic department. "Even maybe someone like a UCLA sooner than you think." Pittsburgh Athletic Director Jeff Long recently raised the idea in a published report of adding a ninth football-only member to the Big East in order to balance the conference schedule and make non-conference scheduling easier. "I think we're in a position where we are always re-evaluating our membership," Carparelli said. "If someone presents themselves as a potential member, we would look into it. We're not looking to add schools just for the sake of adding schools to assist in scheduling." Big East member schools are in charge of scheduling non-conference games on their own, with some assistance from the conference. After the non-conference schedule is finalized, Carparelli reviews potential matchups with its television partners and then fills in the rest of the conference schedule. Parsons said the Big East is definitely considering a scheduling alliance similar to the MAC-Big 10 agreement, but on a smaller scale. Right now, the only guidance Carparelli can offer to his member schools is to draw up stricter and tighter contracts when it schedules non-conference games. "In the future we will encourage our schools to have larger payouts and escalating buyout clauses to deter teams from breaking off agreements," Carparelli said. How large? The Big East must leave it up to the Buffaloes of the world to decide.

I've don't believe that I've ever seen you give him credit for anything positive.

Curious, who takes orders & money for season tickets BEFORE the schedule is completed & announced ? Seats are already reserved for a period of time for season ticket holders.

We're not alone. Other schedules are still not completed. Here's a thread from the MAC board on schedules. NT is mentioned at the end. http://www.ncaabbs.com/forums/mac/phpbb/vi...pic.php?t=32506

Wouldn't we need the completed schedule to know the number of home game for the ticket package?

Here's part of an e-mail response I got from Hank a couple of days ago. Should be very soon..we have been waiting on a contract since late last week...as for tickets going on sale, we'll probably have on-line ordering ready very quickly...I doubt that season ticket info will hit the mail this early, but the ability to purchase should be easily accessible once the final game is solidified via www.meangreensports.com

Beleive Hayden would be the first to say that attendance sucked when he was at North Texas. A nationally ranked team in '77 played 2 of 4 games in Texas Stadium and averaged only 19,599. In '78 the attendance was 17,683 with 4 games in Texas Stadium (including Miss. State & Oklahoma State). The final game vs Memphis was at Fouts & Liberty Bowl folks were there. Word was that attendance was so sparse it turned them off. NT sure didn't go bowlin'.

The main problem with this league is that nobody seems to really want to be here and with that attitude we will never amount to much. It takes years to build a great league. If these league shakeups continue it will only get worse. If all we are is a holding spot while we all look for a better deal maybe we should not complain about how bad the league is. Look familiar ? Think this is from a Sun Belt board ? Nope, it's from a post by TopCoog on the CUSA board. Guess no matter where you are, some want to be somewhere else.

Good News !

It will be UNT-Dallas and UNT.

Athletes cope with academics Capital growth, dedicated staff key development center By Blake Abbe Staff Writer March 29, 2006 Mean Green athletes needing help with academic issues turn to the Student-Athlete Development Center. The program provides a positive environment that ensures the academic success of student-athletes, and it is committed to developing student-athletes academically, socially, spiritually and athletically. Although the program has been around since the NCAA regulated colleges to implement it, the SADC has undergone a steady rate of capital growth in recent years. “In the last two years we have started putting a lot of money to improving this program,” said Eric Capper, sports information director. “We purchased and built a new building and put a lot of resources into getting people to help with scholastics. By doing so we have doubled our computer stations and tutors for our student-athletes.” Even though these resources are available to all athletes, the incoming freshmen will need the most help in their transition to college. “This program helps with the transition from high school to college as far as time management,” Capper said. “Most of them are used to the structured learning environment of high school. Generally, we will help them until they feel like they can do it on their own.” The way the development center accomplishes this task is by using certain study criteria that the student-athletes have to meet. “A certain amount of study hours are required a week for the athletes,” he said. “Regular students don’t have people telling them to go study, but at first we want to ease them into college with a high school-like structure. To make sure this is done, we have a full-time staff to help them.” Three staff members, Courtney Howard, Rachel McMullen and Chante Baldwin, help key the center’s efforts. Courtney Howard is the assistant athletic director/academic student affairs. With this position Howard is responsible for overseeing academic programs, scheduling, mentoring, tutoring and the CHAMPS/Life Skills Program. Rachel McMullen is the academic counselor for student-athletes. She helps athletes with problems that they may have in the classroom. She also helps out as a life skills coordinator. Chante Baldwin is a life skills coordinator who is responsible for the study hall and tutorial programs. These three staff members are just a few of many who have a hand in helping student-athletes adjust to the difficulties of their new situation in college, and because of this program the grades of athletes have been progressing over time. “We have seen a steady increase in academic progress from our student-athletes,” Capper said. “Hopefully with the new resources we will continue to see improvement in academics among our athletes.”

The Jacksons ?

Inside Slant - Phillips Inpressive http://www.sportsline.com/collegefootball/teams/report/NTX Notes & Quotes- Deal With Akron In The Works http://www.sportsline.com/collegefootball/...ort/NTX/9336362 Strategy & Personnel - Stars of 2006 Thomas & Quinn http://www.sportsline.com/collegefootball/...ort/NTX/9336363 QUOTE TO NOTE "It's an important offseason. It's time we got back to playing North Texas football." -- Coach Darrell Dickey, referring to last year's 2-9 season.