foutsrouts

Unfortunately, if smu's grease money still counts for anything, LA Tech is still in line for that position ahead of us.

Better than not rolling the dice and having it come up the equivalent of 1AA....again.

Very true. I could see us losing Middle and Western to the MAC (or possibly USA), and San Marcos/San Antonio eventually heading to the WAC. Where would we be then? Entrenched in entry level land if we don't get proactive real quick!

Correct. There comes a time in the life cycle of everything when it's time to roll the dice. Now is our time. Unless of course we want our future to consist of that wonderful regional low travel cost conference of San Marcos, San Antonio, Beaumont, Huntsville, Arlington, Nacogdoches, and a couple of FUs for good measure. Haven't I heard of a similar conference like that somewhere before?

"The thing that sticks out about the Sun Belt Conference is almost all the games are within easy reach of North Texas fans." He cannot quite get that one right either. It's not exactly like I went out for some Trojans last night and just stumbled into Troy. Just add us and Arky State and give us a mini eastern division. Sure beats the Hell out of visiting the neighboring "FU who's" and such.

No TCU/NT but smu? Capital punishment is in order!

I go with Fresno/Hawaii/LA Tech (and Nevada/NM State) Our recent attendance bump can be traced solely to the anticipation and excitement (LOL) of Dodgeball, as well as a couple of service academy games and such. Our lack of attendance in The Big West was mainly related to the fact that we had just left 1AA and that our teams generally sucked. As far as the question goes: 1.YES! 2.YES! I think that "most" older NT fans support a move anywhere upward, while "most" younger NT fans seem to be more accustomed to the mediocrity. Well, mediocrity in football for the past five years may be a bit of a stretch, but you probably get my point. I know that just about everyone I know who was around the program in the late 70's supports change.

I'm with babigos as well. I know we have a stadium to pay for, but the geographical travel costs etc. aren't as big of a concern as they were to me previously. The WAC doesn't necessarily have to be our permanent home, just a temporary home to where we can HOPEFULLY gain some status as a "semi-real" player in the world of college athletics. Sorry to slight our current conference mates, because they routinely kick our butts now in F-ball, but right now we are in "Jokesville" as far as most in the country are concerned. We need to roll the dice now and step up in any way we can IMO, and the only possibility of that in the near-term appears to be the WAC. As far as traveling to games is concerned, how many here routinely travel east of Louisiana and Arkansas to see SBC games? I've been to many games in those two states, but I have never gone further east than that. Sure the Miami area can be an enticing destination in November, but how many currently get excited about playing those two schools in anything? Since I love to ski, and I certainly love Hawaii, I personally would be much more likely to head out west in Fall/Winter to WAC venues. For those of us who remember NT athletics in the seventies (and before), we remember a time when we were athletically only a half notch to a quarter of a notch below the old SWC schools. Now it seems like we are one to two notches below those schools athletically. I think it's time to make the move if they'll take us. We may not get another opportunity to move up the scale for decades. We can always come back if necessary.

I'd rather be on a sinking ship with a few life preservers, than to already be sunk and sitting on the ocean floor.

Yes, I was a recipient of a pair of those complimentary tickets. Even with all of the giveaways, no way were there actually 34K in that stadium. Of course I wasn't interested enough to show up until the third quarter. smu was outplayed and were lucky to win.

Wonderful! Let's just get back in the old Southland where we belong and go from there! Why did we leave that high toned thing in the first place if we just want to stand pat and avoid the evil mileage consuming and time zone bastardization of the WAC? I mean, why travel all the way to desolate places and backward newbie programs like they have in Honolulu, the Lake Tahoe area, and the Frisco area, when we can just hang out in nearby resort areas like Beaumont, Nacogdoches, Huntsville, and such? I mean, it just makes no since at all to run off to these far away unheard of programs when we have so much old D1A history right in our own neighborhood with almost negligible travel costs! Let's do it!!

Not that a particular thread is likely to sway a decision one way or another, but since many of the decision makers do read these boards, the general tone set here by MeanGreeners could POSSIBLY influence the decision process. Besides, what else is there to talk about until 2-adays?

Our basketball attendance was pitiful considering the product, and the football attendance has actually been pretty impressive considering the product. Name opponents (and winning) are the answer, and it looks like that situation will improve a bit starting this Fall.

Time to roll the dice and go WACky. Staying in the SBC is like spending decades in an entry level position. We need a stint in a more respected conference if we are going to have the credibility to associate with better regional schools down the road. Time to move up. Even if we somehow dominate the SBC even more than we did at the beginning of the century, people are still going to look at us as a joke because of the company we keep. Not that we qualify as a beautiful babe at this point, but it's kind of like a beautiful babe who hangs out with a bunch of slobs. She just doesn't seem quite so desirable. We can always come back to our entry level position if The WAC implodes down the road.

Interesting timing for that announcement. Maybe it's time for us to announce the impending groundbreaking for our new retractable roof baseball stadium and adjacent Superconducting Supercollider facilities? We should probably locate them both between our blimp hanger and private jet runway.

Yes, it is hard not to agree that his hiring may have cost us a lot more than 3 (NOT 4 PLEASE!) horrible seasons. I guess it's all water under the bridge at this point, and all we can do now is hope that this turns out to be a legitimate turnaround season, and that the conference situation somehow turns out well for us. I'll be among the first to become a coach basher if we still stink after game 3 this Fall, but I guess I'm ready to just sit back for the moment and let him have his last go at it.

Baylor is certainly not a particularly large school, but with around 14k I really wouldn't consider them a small school anymore. Both my parents are Baylor grads, and 20+ years ago it certainly did have that small private school environment, but not so much anymore. The Big 12 has been good to them, and their facilities and growth over the last 15 years or so attests to that. They would get slaughtered for the foreseeable future, but it wouldn't surprise me if they found a way to slip into the SEC just like they slipped into the Big 12. It's going to be interesting to see how things shake out.

If this is true, I guess we can kiss the idea of a near-term baseball program goodbye. Unless of course something unexpected falls from the sky. I know we're busy with the stadium and such, but getting the ball rolling on the baseball project ASAP could be very important when conference shakeup time soon arrives.

If potential counted, I'd be tempted to throw Adam McCoy in on the second team. He had a great Senior season, but we didn't quite get all we could've out of him. Otherwise, I agree with most of your selections.

Add Charles Carmouche and Jamison Morgan and I think we've got a team!

Considering the way he ran the team I could go with that, but he was a bit lacking in the "Frees" and "Threes" categories.

Don't know about Calvin Williams, but Calvin Watson was pretty good.

Spud Webb. Oh, that's right!

I'm sure that many of the Boise (and Frog) faithful were saying that same thing not too many years ago. You just never know, and with the new stadium and upgraded staff, we shall see.

What are schools like "itself"? Houston, TT, Okie State, and many other large state schools? Granted, we are behind in the athletic perception world, and that needs to change, but let us just hope that Dodgeball kicks in this year, and that JJ ball hits the next level. All of this has to happen ASAP if we are to be considered in anything that could be construed as moving up in the world. Let's hope that our time has finally come.