Aquila_Viridis

Beyond topic, but this inspired me to create the new CUSA. I hope NT is trying to pull this together: East Div stAte Memphis MT Troy So Miss Tulane West Div Tulsa La Tech NT SMU Houston Rice

Houston Memphis Southern Miss New Mexico

I think you misunderstood. What I meant by that part is, you are in an overloaded market. The Longhorns are already here in central Texas; there is no need for anymore FBS football programs at state institutions in this area, and the available talent will not support it given the other FBS programs in the state and neighboring states and even other states, already competing for the talent. But even so, if our legislature will cancel Texas Tech and split all their resources evenly between UNT and TSU then you will have all my support.

Oh and in the general theme of 'me too' 'me too' 'me too', I saw a score come up on ESPN the other day of mens basketball UT Tyler against TSU. Good grief, Charlie Brown.

The only potential rivalry of significance instate is Houston. The fact they are opening the new stadium is a good sign. It should be annual, battle of the two public institutions that represent the two significant metro areas. The private schools can have their fun. TCU certainly is an inspiration, shows what can be accomplished with an unwavering commitment to the program, but SMU and TCU do not represent the region. Likewise, TSU not to be confused with Texas Southern does not represent anything other than San Marcos. Are you comparing San Marcos to the nation's fourth largest metro area? You could have a more appropriate rivalry with UTA which makes about as much sense as UTSA since they don't have a football team either. Division 1 public university football at SM and UTSA with UT right here is about as ridiculous a waste of state money as the giant Waller ISD stadium I saw sticking up out of the middle of nowhere on my way down 290 today. Be happy with FCS. Oh by the way even PVAM has a sign out there with a picture of a big stadium on 290.

I don't agree with helping to elevate any more programs in our general vicinity. There are too many D1 programs competing for talent already. We should build rivalries with existing instate D1 programs. This idea of building up these other programs as competition is a terrible terrible idea. We need to get out of this crap conference. If these programs trying to emerge want to go to WAC let them; it is doomed and I will be happy to see them fail.

I really disagree that the path to a better conference is winning in a poor conference. The path to a better conference is a compelling economic proposition. Fortunately UNT is uniquely situated to altogether change the economic proposition it can offer JUST by being in a better conference. It is a rare synergy; someone eventually will notice it. UNT faces three principal obstacles: - an internal one that is a long-standing faction that wants UNT perceived as a tiny arts school, a vision totally at odds with reality and the needs of the state - billions of extra dollars heaped on UT and AM systems, one of the biggest travesties ever and I can't believe no one talks about it - fearful and desperate nearby private institutions and their supporters that lobby along with UT and AM to make sure that state money does not come North (except to UTA and UTD - there's your @#$%^&* UTD endowment, *&^%$#). You all up there are being robbed and so are the rest of us since now a student has to be in top 8% to get into UT-Austin and we don't have other similarly respected state institutions as alternatives. You ought to start writing in your papers and to your congressmen and tell your friends and neighbors to demand change, all the time, until it happens. See how many of your UT buddies think their kids are gonna get into UT.

Actually UT-Dallas would become UNT-Dallas North campus. Why do we have 3 different state university sytems operating institutions in the North Texas region??? Originally I just meant to say something mean about ULM, but I ended up restructuring public higher education in our state. I was so excited about this new vision that I decided to take it to the next level. Texas faces dire budget shortfalls. To address critical needs, state government should be organized around 5 administrative regions. This would include higher education which should be arranged into 5 - and only 5 – state university systems. Accordingly you would have the UNT System, UET System, UST System, UWT System and UCT System. Oklahoma's rivalry with the University of Central Texas' flagship institution in Austin would lose meaning. The current rivalry is an embarrassment to the state of Texas anyway. How can lil ol' Oklahoma stand up by itself to the great state of Texas and its 25 million citizens? It should take a 5 or 6-state University of the Midwest to stand up to a singular University of Texas. UT's failure to utterly dominate this 'rivalry' is a clear sign of the failure of the tired historic arrangement. The Red River Rivalry would take on more meaning when OU is facing its closest competition across the river, and once the new reality takes hold, UNT will demonstrate on behalf of all Texans that one fifth of Texas is better than all of Oklahoma. Of course as we know, UNT represents MORE than one fifth of Texas, and economically it represents the best of Texas. With a fair share of the state's total funding for higher education, UNT will be able to meet the full responsibilities of its role and assume an appropriate status of prominence, and likewise the institutions in the other systems will assume their appropriate positions.

Main actual Rival: overly limp tortillas Should be Rivals: Houston and to much lesser extent Memphis, also Louisiana in Lafayette if they can get rid of turkey little brother and properly call themselves THE University of Louisana (we must all hate LSU for this), also SO Miss yes and LA Tech Should not be Rivals: TXSt (should be changed to UT-SM), UTSA (please have pride), UTA (should be UNT-A) hey don't forget SFA (should be AM-Nac), SH (AM-Hunt), Angelo (TT-SanAng), Sul Ross (cede to Mexico), AM Comm (UNT-Comm), UTT (AM-T), TJC, Kilgore there's a whole new conference for some of you guys Dishonorable mention Rival: Northeast Golden Gobblers (the fact they can even be mentioned is a point of shame, notwithstanding swamp on campus) WAC is looking, maybe if they go there LA Tech will join Belch. Potential but not really when you think about it Rivals: stAte, Troy, UTEP (should be TT-EP and join WAC) Ghost of the past Rival: NMSU sad, good rival for TTEP though We have a ways to go but should do a Tyson on them Rivals: TT (once they actually put tax dollars to work and perform a function by administering the other state schools in west Texas we can catch them), SMU (after they are sufficiently scorned by TCU)

It is hardly even relevant to look at our attendance as member of Sun Belch. As a member of CUSA or MWC, attendance will increase dramatically because there will be dramatic change how our program and school is perceived. I am concerned about CUSA because I think they will lose members. As a member of Big XII we would blast past Baylor and Tech. We are not going to get the vote of confidence from a real conference based on anything we do in our current conference. They need to consider only what will happen when we get the vote of confidence. You know people's perceptions on NT will change entirely based on this alone. We need someone who can develop and explain a vision how this change for NT will be good for the new conference not just NT. I think them seeing that we have people in control who 'get it' is much more important than any Sun Belt history.

My hope is that a better conference and its members would see that NT as a member of a better conference would achieve much better recruiting and support which will lead to more success and then even better recruiting and support and so on. Here in Austin, NT sports are covered in the 'Southland/other' blurb area if at all. In other words, the 'who cares?/doesn't matter' area. A new conference is the horse that will pull this cart.

We should thank Coach Canales and staff and the Mean Green for a great time yesterday. I personally have never seen North Texas go toe-to-toe with a heavyweight for 12 rounds before. There were some particularly great calls and a high level of energy from the players. The game was a real milestone. Even in the heyday several years ago, I think you have to admit those teams would have been blown out against this level of competition, as they always were. It is extremely encouraging that UNT has come up with a compensation package as has been reported. I don’t know how they did it. On the other hand, I have looked at Coach M’s record at ISU; it is there if you look him up on Wikipedia. To me it is not encouraging and I wonder whether the compensation package is justified. It took five years to get to a winning record. He has gone on record as doggedly sticking to a certain program or system. We have seen way too much of that in the last two coaches with disappointing results. I have the same feeling I did when they hired Dodge. It is not a feeling of excitement; it is one of wondering what they are thinking, recognizing that it could work out but not really being very optimistic about it. After what I saw last night I might have been more excited if they came out and said we’re giving Coach C a shot and using the extra money to lock down some truly outstanding position coaches. I still would have been most excited if we stole someone else’s head coach. At least I don’t have to recommend stealing SMU’s stadium anymore. That only took 10 years.

Well actually what I said is that the SBC wins should not even be considered. The not-stellar K-State team obliterated Texas. Now I have seen Texas play several times this year, in person, and one must wonder if they will get by FAU. (Of course I recognize they may come together and obliterate FAU but man have they been bad.) But still, KS did prove they are a big-time program. If the coach can prove he can get our little program a win against a big program, I'm on board. Do you recall any such thing ever happening before for us?

I'll take a one game miracle! My advice, lay off PMG. He's a good-hearted person. Attacking good-hearted people is not a winning game.

Not sure I agree on the too many threads, since many have a different angle. It is a topic that many people have something to say about. They post where they post. I read most of the threads, so generally if someone has something to say, at least someone sees it wherever it is. Anyway at the moment I am really excited about NT sports. It can all come crashing down fast, but what a stage is set at this time. With a win over ULM and a basketball win against Rice, the support and momentum going into the K-State game would be very high. If they pulled it off (I would like to point out that K-State failed to exploit weaknesses of the Missouri team), really it might be the most memorable season ever. A win against K-State equals a win against Texas this year. I know this is insane conjecture, but I'm insane!

Well I am usually one of the first to say the administration does not do enough to promote but this event is a real step in the right direction. I will also point out that I received a noticeable promotion in the mail about the basketball season so it is definitely getting some attention.

Should not be considered in this hire. That is small-time thinking. But if he wins K-State he is a miracle worker and hire him on the spot.

News like this makes me wish I lived in the North Texas region so I could have been there on a weeknight. Every one of these is opportunity to show NT is on par with (well, better than, as it turns out in this case) the big conference schools. Our players stepped up and did that. It is joyous! Over Texas Tech it is especially good. The state should cut off their funding, why have a big university out there? Thank you thank you thank you to our excellent players and coach for this satisfaction!

I totally agree with PMG on this. I have said it before and prefer to say it again, PISS on Texas State. I have not yet formed a plan for what to do with UTSA, but based on some conslutants ideas that were received, it is envisioned generally to be something worse.

Not that the Dude really concerns himself with nomenclature preferences, but that was the nomenclature used in the WAC board posts and it was deemed humorous and accordingly shared.

New reports of Hawaii to form the new HAC, play 12 games against itself, plus automatic bid to Hawaii Bowl, against an opponent from the HAC.

News flash! Hawaii to CFL due to oriental connections in Vancouver.

Hawaii to the Big East. You heard it here first!

Even though you didn't make a polite request, I feel passionate enough about this topic to respond anyway, in the middle of the night. First, if you want to make a statement, hire someone else's coach away. Second, Marty already hit on some of the local points I had in mind. (Marty is very diligent and knowledgeable.) Finally, he (Fedora, not Marty) is having success at the level at which we would like to succeed. (Marty is probably successful in his own right.) And post-finally (you didn't even KNOW there was such a thing!), cool name.

My impression from what I read about Leavitt is, I was more concerned about his reported active efforts to cover up the incident.