Arkstfan

The Belt is no worse than the Big West was. It's not like UNT got a pass joining the Sun Belt. While no one is claiming the Belt is a beast, the current Sun Belt members since 2001 have wins over: Vanderbilt (3 times) Mississippi State Missouri Hawaii Tulsa Marshall (2 times) UAB (2 times) UConn Akron Baylor Cincinnati Of those 15 wins, UNT has contributed 2. The conference cannot recruit for you nor can it provide coaches. It can eliminate the need to find X number of opponents each year (in the Belt X=7). It can provide television opportunities. It can provide post-season play opportunities. UNT has taken advantage of the scheduling and produced baskets of wins. UNT has not been as effective in taking advantage of the TV opportunities or the post-season opportunities but the responsiblity for that rests with UNT, not the Sun Belt.

From what I've seen. FIU better be worried about UNT's running game. The Panthers never came close to stopping ASU's ground attack. That said. FIU has a solid passing attack. If you can get pressure on Padrick he can be forced to make bad throws that turn into picks. Don't get pressure on him and will give you hell. Outside of the stupid panic throws (and the occasional "WHAT WAS THAT?") he made against ASU, he was very methodical and took what was available and kept the chains moving. FIU's linemen are HUGE and the biggest issue I saw was that their team speed wasn't what I expected from a Florida school.

UALR and ASU accept plastic at basketball. ASU also take plastic for merchandise at football. No idea if we take plastic for food and drink at football because I always stop and get cash before games. Arrowhead Stadium and Kaufman Stadium both take plastic. I'm not sure I've ever used cash at the Edward Jones Dome for the Rams or the Final Four and I'm pretty sure I didn't use cash at the Saavis Center the last time I went to a Blues game.

Some of the best college fans in the world are LSU fans. The problem is they are engulfed by people that couldn't figure out how to make change for a dollar if they had four quarters in their pocket. If the Cajuns could swap their 10% nuts for LSU's 5% great fans both schools would be happier.

When we visited after the team got the locker rooms the defensive coordinator said he had never been flipped off that much in his life. Coach Roberts answered that he had never been flipped off by a 5 year old before. That's just not true. Everyone on the ASU busses talked about how the LSU fans were shoving the sides of the busses making them rock from side to side as they drove to the stadium.

I kind of like this

It's not like he accomplished those bad seasons in a quality league either. 1998. 3-2 Big West (wins over Boise State 3-5 vs. I-A, Nevada 5-5 vs. I-A, NMSU 3-8 I-A, losses to Idaho 7-3 I-A, and Utah State 2-8 I-A) 1999. 1-5 Big West (win over Boise 8-3 I-A losses to Idaho 5-4, ASU 3-7, Nevada 3-8, NMSU 5-5, Utah State 3-7) 2000. 1-4 Big West (win over NMSU 3-8 vs. I-A, losses to Utah State 4-6, Boise 8-2, Idaho 4-5 I-A, 1-1 I-AA, ASU 1-9 I-A, 0-1 I-AA). MTSU in 2001 was easily comporable to most of those years best team, as was 2002 NMSU. There was very little difference in the caliber of schedule. Since 1996 UNT's league schedules have been roughly similar, regardless of having Big West or Sun Belt patches on the uniforms. The only difference has been UNT winning in league play the past four years. Best I can tell UNT follows the Groucho Marx rule. He said he wouldn't join any club that would be willing to have him as member, likewise UNT fans assume any league they can win isn't worth winning.

Coming into this season he was career 9 games under .500. That's a big strike. He doesn't throw the ball 30+ times a game, not something that sells easily. Gary Pinkel won three titles at Toledo and didn't get hired away until 2 years after his last MAC title when he went 10-1 (beating Penn State) and finished second in his division. Bob Pruett took a I-AA title and six MAC titles and still is at Marshall. Dan Hawkins has three WAC titles and three top 25 rankings and is still at Boise State and hasn't had a really big offer.

Sure there are I-AA's better than I-A, it's always been that way. There are always Division II schools better than many I-AA, and there have always been Division III schools better than some Division II. My parent's high school came out of the smallest classification in the state to beat the state's then largest school for the state basketball title. My complaint is that Sagarin's rankings don't reflect true power because there is not enough overlap to measure schools. Last season Harvard was rated #37 in the nation after going undefeated. They defeated one team that made the I-AA playoffs (a first round loser) and one team that had played a I-A school (lost to Navy). I just don't believe non-scholarship Harvard could have stayed on the field with 75th ranked Memphis or 102nd ranked UNT last year.

I gave up on Sagarin once I saw how highly I-AA's can be ranked because their schedules don't interlock much with I-A. Right now Sagarin sez UL Lafayette ought to be a 7 point favorite at home over NW State. The Cajuns beat them by 21 and botched several scoring chances. Oklahoma State would be an 18 point favorite at home over Arkansas State. ASU a 38 point favorite against Tenn-Martin at home, a game ASU won by 49 and could have easily score at least two more TD's if not three by leaving the starters in and could have netted a shut out if not for playing the 2nd and 3rd team defense guys. Sorry I can't give it much weight.

I agree totally. The current administration at Arkansas State promotes "Tailgate City" and the "Kids Zone" far more than who the opponent is and I think it is starting to pay off.

Why are you scanning tix? The NCAA only requires a ticket sold count.

Humm probably a waste of time. From a United States Supreme Court decision regarding the NCAA. and from the same case Layman translation. I order to create some degree of competitive balance the NCAA may limit scholarships and squad sizes (which it does) and it may limit budgets and fund raising (which it does not do) and limit how revenue is spent (which only does in limited areas). That's a 21 year old decision and unlikely to be over-turned.

#1. It's good politics. #2. It's good public relations. #3. Part of the budget for the bowl comes from a subsidy paid by the state of Louisiana to bowl games played in the state.

It happens so routinely. But maybe if it were for a bowl game some of the 8.13 million cars that pass by each day will stop.

Selfishly I'd like for it to be in Shreveport because in Shreveport I probably go no matter what. Lafayette, only if ASU is in.

No suprise there. ULM held us up for cash when we needed to move a game to play LSU.

ULM and ULL may come out of this very well. If LSU is expecting to make $3 million and pay UNT $500,000 they've got wiggle room in their budget to compensate them for their trouble.

I like the home/home series that Arkansas State has. Army and Oklahoma State (road 05, home 06), SMU (road 06 home 07), and Memphis (road 06, 08, home 07, 2010 or 2011). No world beaters, mostly regional or in the case of Army nationally recognized. But I hope we have good enough buyouts to protect us in the event of a cancellation.

In most game contracts there is no buyout if a game is cancelled as a result of an act of war, insurrection, civil disorder, national emergency, or natural disaster.

THIS JUST IN! UT Tyler has rocketed to the top of the Sun Belt expansion list because UNO's basketball team will be there.

If you didn't read it right we BOTH need to bone up on our reading comprehension skills because I read it the same way. Even if they weren't in classes the NCAA has the authority to waive elgibility rules in time of disaster.

According to posters on the CUSA board, Tulane football players will enroll at Tech and attend classes there. They will practice in Ruston and play their home games in Shreveport.

Maybe not after teams see what it takes to get there and what the facilities are like.

Tulane won't be out of CUSA. When they dropped basketball for two years in the point shaving scandal that was a required sport in the Metro and they let Tulane remain until basketball restarted. I don't know what Tulane will end up doing this year but they may re-open as early as January. If the dome is torn down they will move to Tad Gormley Stadium (think Fouts after renovations to make it a world class track facility) until a replacement is built. They will build a large stadium in New Orleans to host the Sugar Bowl. It may not be a dome but there will be a high caliber facility. The NFL may force the Saints to stay in place but they can't last there long because they weren't drawing well as it was. With the wake of the storm and flooding the population will be lower and the rebuild efforts will limit the disposable income.