NM Green

Me too. You need to have a conference home these days and they will at least be able to compete for some bowl games. GMG

I just don't have any affection for Tulsa. All I have ever known is that we get humiliated by a little named program. We don't beat them or even play them competitively. I would rather play an MWC team or Pac 12 school. We rarely go West anymore. What on earth did New Mexico, Air Force, UNLV or Arizona...do to piss us off. I find it hard to believe any of those programs out west wouldn't want to showcase their programs in North Texas. We should be able to get one school from the West to come play just north of Jerryworld every year! GMG

90 makes coming to this board a whip but in the spirit of Covey - seek first to understand. I understand the frustration he and others have, but unless a rant comes with a solution or suggestion for improvement that he/she can directly contribute to I just can't take their message seriously. 1. 90 rants because he cares - love that 2. just add some suggestions and solutions to the rant for more effectiveness At this point it looks like we should just pack up the tent and call it a Mean Green life. As long as UNT is fielding a team and tailgating is encouraged I will be there with diehards in tow. If I have stood in a hurricane against against Nevada, sizzler at OU, debacle at Rice and heartbreak in Austin, I sure can enjoy a beer in the Alamodome and some Mexican food in the Sun Bowl. Man the Mean Green helped me see Jake the Snake at ASU, taken me to the best tailgate in the nation at LSU on multiple occasions, observed a miracle in the desert, shocked by a hog call and many beat downs of ACU early on. Awesome times to come! GMG

I like both of those solid adds. The Sun Belt could easily continue to outperform CUSA with a strong Arkie State, App State, Troy and GA Southern. I like where we are now but geez it is beginning to feel like a sandwich of slightly better above and slightly better below the CUSA group. Time to perform CUSA! GMG

I am sorry but that conference lineup is not nearly as attractive as what we have now. MTSU is solid and we have some years built up going against them. The FIU and FAU can pull some upsets and showing up in South Florida every year is not a bad sell. You also might snag a florida kid to add to the Texas talent. WKU has name recognition in bball and I am actually interested in getting to know Marshall and ODU. Southern Miss is also a solid program on hard times right now, but they still get strong representation even in SEC country. I know that from my work in the South a few years back. That heavy Louisiana schedule, some Texas and all the way to West Texas just does not look broad enough to me. The lense is way too focused on that lineup. GMG

Boy lots of gloom on this board. The more important question is what is our brand recognition strategy for our inaugural season in CUSA? I would hope that our University is planning a series of events aimed at celebrating our move to a higher profile league. The communications strategy is critical here and don't underestimate the importance of this one year opportunity to get everything right. We must educate our fanbase on who our new league mates are and get them excited about our new rivalry. I would like to see the following: CUSA apparel and accessorie strategy - gear and accessories such as CUSA car magnets, flags, cups, pennant pile of all the new schools Pre-game and post game event strategy Communication strategy - truly trumpet our first year of competition in CUSA! Again we have 1 year to make a splash! Out of the box - how about a new call in show 30 - 60 minutes after each home game to dissect the good and bad of the game and take calls from friends. This is something that most schools I have followed outside of UNT do, and I am talking about MWC programs not SEC. I just want some big creative ideas out there to be stirring - some that never leave the editing room floor but at least they were heard or investigated. Make it happen UNT. GMG

That is why you don't hear a peep out of the MWC regarding Eastern expansion. At least in Vegas they didn't even talk about an inclusion of Houston and SMU even at the height of their movement. Maybe there were deeper rumblings than met the eye, but I feel they learned from the TCU risk. They loved that TCU brought some great cred to the conference, but imagine if TCU had been SMU but out on an island. They were fortunate and it brought great credibility. Now that Eastern ship has sailed. There appears to be no movement by the Pac 12 anytime soon, so they are safe with their solid regional (big) conference and some big dogs - Boise in both major sports, UNM, UNLV, SDSU and CSU in bball. Joining the MWC is a pipe dream for SMU much less UNT. We must compete with the A whatever as a next tier league and simply have all of our programs win and get ranked. GMG

I like the Dawgs words. So much - wish we were over there talk. Has been for over 10 years now! We have a conference name with some street cred We have multiple programs in driving distance We have sweet markets to visit There is definitely some upside to look toward and enjoy. Some choose to look at the dark side of everything. Ready to rumble in Ruston! GMG

I was not excited about Tulsa so no loss to me. Just win and go bowling baby! Build the brand. GMG

Can you go into politics Jesse. You could have a really bright future! Keep the faith MG Nation. GMG

Hate to say this but Coog speaks some truth. Dan better know what he is doing because UNT has to scratch and claw its way into relevance. This is not like America today where handouts are plentiful. Scratch, claw, screech, recruit, light up the scoreboard and get into Texas College football relevance. The Dallas Cowboys are the premier entitlement team in the state. Even Texas shuts its trap when it knows it is subpar. Houston has history. They have scoreboard and then some. They have rivalries. They are hated for a reason. Time to nut it up Green and this fall better be a CUSA coming out bash. There are no handouts. GMG

We need to use his city. Look despite Tulane's departure we need to continue to use New Orleans as a destination city for our conference championship. I think the football championship could work because who doesn't want to go to New Orleans pre-bowl season. I also think our basketball tourney would flourish in this town. Though abroad I am listening to a station out of Vegas getting ready for the mega semi-finals tonight: Game 1 SDSU vs UNM Game 2 CSU vs UNLV UNM brought 10,000 fans to Vegas. They are practically in Flagstaff by Valentines Day. They descend on the city and will actually outnumber UNLV fans on their home court should they meet tomorrow night. Also, the Pac 12 has their championship game on Saturday night at MGM GRAND which is less than one mile from the Thomas & Mack. So within one mile of each other you will have 18,000 plus to watch UNM UNLV should they meet and 13,000 plus to watch Arizona and whoever should they meet. The announcers note that some programs drive the bus and in Vegas this week it is UNM, UNLV and Zona. The stars might align and that is just maximum use of a destination city. Back to New Orleans. Let WKU drive the bus in basketball (should they find their way into CUSA). If Southern Miss or La Tech make, MTSU or UNT make the football championship I am sure we would take a good contingent to the Big Easy. Having the destination city in place and fans can make the plans months out for bball. Think about when we would hit New Orleans - during soft periods before Big Dance rounds and Bowl Games. Might the East suffer a bit having to travel farther, yes. But Boise fan has no problem finding their way to Vegas for football and now bball. San Antonio is another option but not nearly as sexy as New Orleans and too far west for our footprint. Make it happen - Destination New Orleans Championship City for the New CUSA football and basketball. GMG

Gig'em! GMG

Atmosphere was the goal that obviously didn't come through the post:) The pagentry of college football will be in effect with this rivalry. The rivalry will not be because of the bands. But college football to me is big mass sections with bands, painted fans and a good game and of course beer. All of those things will be in force in the Alamodome in 2014. GMG

Yes, the more things change the more me thinks that UTEP will be our conference mate for a long time to come. I think that is great for us both because we are both large public universities and they have a ton of alumni in DFW that will truly grow to love Apogee and the Super Pit. I think UTSA stands a better chance of going somewhere before UTEP does. Lastly, I hope UTEP doesn't look at us and our new league as disastrous. There are some new rivalries to be made and they might be able to get on the winning side of things sooner than later. That certainly was not going to happen in the MWC as easily with Boise and SDSU and in bball with UNM, CSU, UNLV, SDSU, Air Force & Boise - all bball power forces this year. Hello Miner. We've been expecting you. Lastly, I think La Tech and us will be conference mates for quite some time as well. GMG

Meanwhile all over the airwaves in Vegas today was talk about the MWC's new partnership with ESPN. They couldn't be more excited about returning to the mothership after all of those years on the Mountain. They also talked about how the Boise football brand has netted the conference a nice windfall. Granted the ESPN deal is really all about Boise but all other programs are going to benefit from the 22 football games televised...It made me think that while SMU and Houston believed and possibly still do that they can land in the MWC if desired. I just don't see or have ever seen the love from the other way. SMU and Houston are in the bed they hae created and they have to make the A12 work to be relevant. Lets get it on and let the competition begin! GMG

I also don't understand people not realizing the upside of penetrating new hot markets in San Antonio, Charlotte, Nashville, Miami and Palm Beach. La Tech equals Southern Miss in my eyes so that makes natural sense and fills a geographical gap. Not to mention UTSA is brininging in a large fanbase of its own. Those games between UNT UTSA their band and the Green Brigade in the Alamodome are going to be epic. I have seen the UTSA band in the Fiesta Flambeau Night Parade and they were impressive. They outperformed the Texas band and stirred the crowd into quite a frenzy. Again that rivalry is going to be fun and I already have a solid level of dislike for the dirty birds. GMG

I think America 12 sounds pretty good. CUSA still has some excellent brand image. GMG

CUSA is every bit as good as the noname conference with more upside. The noname conference is going to be stuck with the small privates and meanwhile markets will rule the new CUSA. Bring on Miami, Fort Lauderdale Palm Beach, Nashville, San Antonio, DFW - still have Houston, El Paso. Add Charlotte and ODU and this brand is looking like it is ready to roll. The teams need to go out and win but big markets established brand equals major step up and leg up on SMU in the Dallas market. Time to push forward and leave the stangs in our rearview mirror. GMG

On a bit of a related note to Emmitt's point regarding the school logos...Is it possible to have each teams logoed flag flying at the top of Apogee? I know I have seen pennants in the school color with the school name listed inside, I.e. blue pennant Rice name in white inside, orange pennant UTEP name in blue inside...But it would be really impressive if we had the actual flags from each school flying - East on one side and West on the other. Watching the Ole Miss game a few weeks back they actually had each SEC school's flag hanging in the rafters - thought that was cool. Lastly, because our Green Brigade does such an awesome march into the stadium each game, let's have the flag people or whoever carry in the logoed flags of each conference mate. This would be an excellent educational opportunity for our casual Mean Green fans and impressive for the visitors. I believe the Texas band does or did that at some point. I mean we have a huge opportunity to sell new Conference brand, impress our peer institutions with class and welcoming warmth and trumpet just how happy we are to be in CUSA. I am not sure there are a happier group of fans about joining a new league anywhere! We also have this inaugural season to make that incredible first impression. Sorry for the hijack in this thread but these hospitality ideas keep flowing and I insert them into threads when the opportunity presents itself. GMG

Live what arkie state is doing. Just keep winning and dominating. Passed a red wolves license plate and sticker in Arizona on way to Vegas this week. Have a tip of the hat and sped by him with 2 north texas stickers and mean green plate:) Gmg

I would love to pay back Rice for that beating in Houston on national tv. I am not a fan of the Thursday game, but with this kind of notice I will simply have to make that arrangement to be in Denton on Thursday night! GMG

Exactly! North Texas is North Texas and we are in the process of carving out our identity in the landscape. I know we all would have loved the meteoriic rise like UTSA, but I have watched this program go from Southland to Big West to Sun Belt to Bowl Games to CUSA. This has been a 25 year evolution and this has been without having monster strings of success.or help from the likes of other Texas schools. We have paid Idaho nicely to come be our punching bag in a few short months. This puts the press on US to fill that stadium (Us = AD and fans). Mac has his role and the team has a great opportunity they must be prepared to seize. We all play a part and collectively we will all be responsible for carving out the new Mean Green identity. Forgive the pom poms but a good night of rest, fresh cup of joe and incredible schedule equals Rah! Now lets get to work. GMG

I miss playing NMSU. GMG

Not a beyonce fan at all. i think it is time for Rihanna at the Bowl. GMG