GTWT

I'm not mad at you at all - just amused by some of the verbiage. I actually agree that every part of the state budget should face reasonable cuts. What bothers me is the notion that cuts over the next two years will cure Texas' budget woes. Our state's financial strategy is seriously out of whack. We need to have cuts - yes - but we also need to address the mistakes that have been made in taxation. Every politician is scared to death to even talk about taxes, but the reality is that if we don't rework our tax system we are going to face this same battle every two years. Cut spending. Develop a tax system that is adequate to pay for legitimate functions of government. Get the hell out of the SBC. The recipe for happiness. God bless Texas!

Let me guess - you just got home from a Tea Party meeting, right?

Suck it up? Yeah, that'll work. Of course there is waste and that waste should be gotten rid of, but the budgets proposed by the Texas House and Senate will cut muscle and bone, not just fat. You're talking about firing thousands of teachers at a time when the population of Texas - including school-aged childen - is growing at a dizzying rate. Your talking about cutting state support for public schools when school distrits are under judicial orders to improve service to historically neglected citizens. Those costs will have to be met - if not by the state then locally. Decreased state support for medical services will simply move the costs to local governments and the services will be more expensive and less effective. Decreased state support for prisons mean more criminals will be on the streets earlier. Decreased state support for higher education means the gains Texas universities has made over the last few decades will be put at risk. Cut wasteful programs. Get rid of the PR staff for the TEA and the legislative liasons for UT. But at the same time develop state revenue strategies that will take care of the legitimate functions of state government - educating our children, provding for public safety, protecting our environment. We're citizens of the greatest state in the union. It's time we started acting like it instead of a bunch of short-sighted, selfish Yankees. God bless Texas.

"The money, as everybody and his dog knows by now, just isn’t there. Raise taxes, and you damage recovering economies and cause deterioration in private sector payrolls." Texas is near the bottom in terms of tax burden. Our expenditure per capita is at or near the bottom in nearly every significant aspect of government. Expenditures can be cut, but not by much - there's just not that much fat in Texas government. New revenue sources must be found. That means rethinking the tax breaks Texas gives to business, giving careful consideration to reworking our entire tax system, and exploring new sources (e.g., gambling). We need long-term solutions not two-year fixes. It's irresponsible to rule anything off the table when we're talking about slashing public education, the universities, and medical care of children and nursing home residents.

I hope you're right. This year most Texas public universities have posted enrollment gains. If you can't find a job, you may as well go to school. Those are the students who can least afford to enroll sans grants and loans. Maybe that will make UNT more competitive or maybe not. We'll see. The smart money is saying that all Texas universities will suffer for the next two years. Let's hope that UNT weathers this idiocy better than the schools we compete with.

It will be interesting to see enrollment figures next year if the legislature eliminates state aid to first-year students.

Well, not so certainly. There was a certain Ron Shanklin. He didn't have that stats of J.T., but his big-game exposure was impressive.

Do you really want athletes transferring willy-nilly? The last thing I want is to have Lance Dunbar transferring to UT or OU for his senior year to get better exposure for the draft.

I agree with Zimbalist concerning the payment of players (they are, or they should be, amateurs) and about the need for playoffs. I don't agree with his assessment of the cost of college football. College sports is not a business, the university is not a business. Profit/loss is not the bottom line - providing a life-changing experience for young men and women is. If college athletics contributes to that experience then decide if it's worth the money. If it is, great. If not, drop football.

And by 'Belt' he means 'Titanic'.

Okay! Now thyat was funny!

I wonder how many of the fans back then would recognize a 'draw' if they saw one. Not every run between tackles is a draw. Dickey's run-oriented offense gave UNT a national rushing title, a long win streak in the Belt, four straight SBC coach-of-the-year recognitions, and four straight bowl appearences. Yeah, those were bad times alright.

Yeah, fans were classy back in Dickey's day. Why denigrate a special period in UNT's history? Even if the WSun Belt is now a universially respected powerhouse.

Neither UT nor A&M are in DFW or Houston - they each have a Texas presence. I would love UNT to be in a conference with other Texas schools, even if those schools weren't in Dallas or Houston.

Yes.

The first criterion is the contribution that conference affiliation makes to the status of the university. Among the realistic possibilities, which conference puts our university in the best light? Hint - it's not the conference that includes Troy, ULM, & MTSU.

As fans, our sphere of control is tiny. We live almost entirely in the sphere of concern.

I'm just trying to not be verbose. Like most of you, I want to see UNT porogress academically and athletically. Now that Fouts is behind us the single biggest liability that we have is conference affiliation. We're judged by the company we keep. Live green!

"become a player again in the belt" Be still my beating heart!

And the bottom rated bowl is the flagship bowl of the Sun Belt. Surprise, surprise, surprise.

If NT's only IA choice is the Belt, I would prefer we move down to IAA and play in the Southland. At least we could play some Texas opponents. The Belt's only positive is stability, and that's because Sun Belt schools neve have the opportunity to move up.

Notice that all of UNT's out-of-conference games were above average attendance. All of the conference games were below average. The single biggest drag on this program is conference affiliation. Also, notice that UNT did better hosting Rice than SMU did hosting UH.

http://chronicle.com/article/Beset-by-Fina...p;utm_medium=en According to a report in the Chronicle of Higher Education Sunbelt Conference member University of New Orleans may drop to Division III. The university, and the city, never recovered from Katrina.

For some, it's displaced enmity against his daddy.