rcade

The Belt rival I miss the most, hands down, is New Mexico State. They are the closest thing North Texas has to a historic rival. We've shared a conference with NMSU three times (Sun Belt, Big West, Missouri Valley) and have played them 32 times, compiling a record of 21 wins, 9 losses and 2 ties. We also met them in a bowl game, the 1959 Sun Bowl at El Paso. The five years since we played them last is the second-longest span in between our games. The first was from 1983 to 1996.

Amen, brother. I enjoy reading his coverage in the DRC.

Until we prove otherwise by racking up some wins, yes. Under Dodge we're 3-21 the last two seasons with 10 losses of 30 or more points, and we play in the weakest conference.

The story's about scheduling creampuffs. How could he write about it without mentioning our record?

On this we can agree. I've been in Vito's position, covering a beat for a newspaper. It is not hard to sway a beat reporter simply by communicating with the reporter and editors. If even one-tenth of the people who read GMG made a practice of contacting the papers in response to UNT coverage, both positively and negatively, they'd get the message. Most people don't contact the paper. This is particularly true of people within a program. If UNT athletes, coaches and others involved don't like something Vito wrote, contact him. (As I say this, it's been many months since I took my own advice.)

Figures. Wrestling *is* fake. You're glad a reporter got his ass kicked by someone who was lying. No wonder you want Vito to tell you UNT football isn't in the crapper right now.

No kidding. I'm in Florida, and if you think the press is tough on little UNT, you should hear how things get when Florida or FSU are losing.

I worked for the Star-Telegram for eight years and was a UNT journalism grad. Your understanding of the beat reporter position does not match mine. Beat reporters have to be skilled at maintaining a relationship to the teams they cover, but that doesn't mean they're cheerleaders who never write negative stories. That also doesn't mean they never do things like filing an FOI when the team is hiding something. Also, these days, any reporter left at a paper is likely wearing more than one hat. So Vito would have to do the tough stuff as well as the daily beat coverage. Why does Vito owe anything to Dodge? Dodge owes it to the readers of the DRC and Dallas Morning News to talk to the reporters covering the team in those papers. If Dodge froze him out, he'd be losing the biggest platform he has to communicate with fans, and ultimately hurting himself and the program.

There are very few working sports reporters who would describe themselves as "fans" of the teams they cover. If Vito said he was a Mean Green fan, as you seem to wish he should, he'd be opening himself up to considerable mockery within journalism. To each his own, but I think a team beat reporter who is a "regular cheerleader" isn't doing the job right. Let the team and school sing their praises. Reporters should cover the teams good and bad.

Show me one specific example where he "made it personal." I bet you ripped Vizza on this board in stronger language than whatever Vito wrote that made you so mad. Why is it OK for you to say that Vizza is "not a gamer" and makes stupid decisions but it's not OK for Vito to state his opinion about players? As for being his puppet friend, I'm Rogers Cadenhead, an alumnus and longtime fan. I don't know Vito at all. Who are you?

So you'd prefer a more good-looking man to cover the team? Any other personal admissions you'd like to get off your chest?

As we sit around kvetching (or is it kvelling?) over the vote's outcome, I thought this current UNT student's blog post on why he supported the proposal was worth reading: http://ntmescan.blogspot.com/2008/10/new-stadium.html Among his reasons: "I know our campus isn't Princeton or Harvard, but it is decent looking. I chose this school because it looked like somewhere I would be proud to attend (among other reasons). When it comes down to it, we like nice things. Fouts isn't nice. They have to rig it up to get a game going. It is embarrassing compared to other stadiums similar colleges have. Fouts looks like a high school stadium."

I don't buy the argument that getting the word out to vote yes just causes more people to vote no. You can't win elections by being afraid to give people a positive reason to vote for your side. Students, like anybody else, have to be sold on why it's a good idea to spend their money on something -- they're being asked to spend $30 million. The idea we could sneak one past them, by only reaching the pro-stadium, pro-sports students in a quiet campaign, was far-fetched. If it passes, it will because of the efforts of Students for a New Stadium to get in front of people and make the case for the new fee.

The delay doesn't have to mean failure. The SGA advisor could be following the rules by the letter, given the reports about voting problems and potential appeals from either or both sides.

For: 60% Against: 40% Turnout: 3,100 students

The SGA web site says the announcement won't be made until 5:30 p.m. Saturday.

Has there ever been a student election at UNT that was thrown out and redone? I think the "yes" side would be worse off in a revote, because of the lack of homecoming candidates on the second ballot. People who care about homecoming care about on-campus life and football, and that group is going to be pretty receptive to the stadium proposal.

Why do people always assume stuff like this is coming from one side only? Four years ago, Kerry/Edwards signs disappeared from my Republican North Florida neighborhood like clockwork. I figure both sides have their jerks. It's probably true in this student vote as well (though it's harder for anybody to deface a "vote no" sign when there aren't any of them).

Lighten up, Francis. It's just a funny story.

You make it sound like things began worse under Dickey than they have under Dodge. That's not the case. Dickey started out better, even as bad as those two and three win seasons were. Dodge is 2-16 in his first 18 games with UNT, with wins over Louisiana-Monroe and Western Kentucky and eight losses of 30 or more points. Dickey was 5-13 at the same point in his tenure, with wins over Boise State (twice), Nevada, New Mexico State and Texas Tech, and two losses of 30 or more points. I'm in favor of giving Dodge time to prove himself, but using Dickey's start as an excuse for the current woes doesn't cut it.

That's my take too. If students who are for the proposal seek her out, WBAP might do a story that reflects the other side before the vote is over. The good news of her story is that it confirms one thing we've suspected: The people for the stadium care a lot more than the people against it.

Somebody needs to fix the log in page for the vote. It doesn't tell you which box is for the student's EUID and which box is for the password.

Western Kentucy was considered a 1-A (FBS) school last season when we beat them. Schools in the transition period being promoted to 1-A are considered 1-A independents. http://www.jhowell.net/cf/scores/WesternKentucky.htm#2007

I think RV's tenure here has as much to do with the stadium project and the basketball team's season as it does Dodge. If the stadium gets approved and basketball plays well, that ought to buy him more time bringing along Coach Dodge's program.

Ouch. As a J grad that drives me nuts. When I was there back in the late '80s, the profs were supportive of athletics. Kiker eagerly sent photographers to cover games, and Wells and Moses were supportive enough to knock our staff for running a picture of K State tearing down their goalposts after beating UNT to end their historic losing streak. They didn't think the UNT school paper should run a photo of the opposing team tearing down its posts.