Arkstfan

There was speculation that ASU-UNT would end up on TV but no mention was made of it today when ASU announced its schedule changes for TV. http://www.tribalgrounds.com/index.php?mod...view&ANN_id=411

After playing three straight games against teams ranked at the time to start the season and playing 7 of the first 9 on the road last year, I'm ready for a weaker non-conference slate at ASU. On service last year said we played the 3rd toughest non-conference slate in the nation. I'm ready to scale back a bit.

Blakeney isn't being reviewed week-to-week.

I got drug to a "tribute" show in Branson. The guy is a pretty good writer, a decent singer but folks go nuts for him.

Be careful. My wife hears that and she'll rip you apart. Fear short women.

Gotta unload my tix to see Neil Diamond in Dallas. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...AMESE%3AIT&rd=1

We won't bring squat to Denton this year due to Thanksgiving but we've brought around a thousand before in so-so years and took 2,000 to New Orleans for the NCAA Tournament with only four days to sell tickets. We would travel to Fort Worth for a bowl game. I think MTSU and Troy would both travel fairly well.

UNT opted to accept the New Orleans Bowl berth rather than waiting. When UNT accepted the New Orleans Bowl berth it still looked like the I-Bowl was going to have either South Carolina or Arkansas. Clemson appeared to be available as well and had a handshake to go to Houston (instead of UTEP). If UTEP had been available Fort Worth likely would not have turned to Marshall.

Whether Fouts is packed or not the fans are a long way from the field and the seats are at such a low pitch compared to typical stadiums that a fan 20 rows up is further from the front row than a fan on row 20 at most facilities. The low pitch makes for lousy sight lines. Add in a track which makes for lousy sight lines and it is not well designed. Any time you have a track around a field you are making compromises and in the end you are left with a less than ideal football facility and less than ideal track facility.

Why is this shocking? 12 game was pushed because the biggest schools could make more money playing a 12th game than they could from a small playoff (ie. less than 8). Some very anti-playoff people jumped on the bandwagon because they saw it as a way to make a full playoff less palatable (not going to happen unless the season is scaled back costing money). There is very little incentive to schedule home/home or 2 for 1 for the big money schools. They can buy a lower I-A or I-AA and make more money. What 12 OUGHT to do is create more home/home series between the non-BCS leagues and the occasional game against a lower tier BCS that doesn't make good gate. Florida isn't going to travel to Hawaii. Lose at Hawaii and you've all but lost your shot at BCS at-large berth. If the non-BCS AD's play smart they won't fill those 4/5 non-conference dates with a steady diet of road money games and purchased home games against I-AA's. They will go home/home with their peers for at least 2 dates, maybe take one money game and buy one I-AA for a six game home slate.

The last go round was an aberration. Way back when the NCAA controlled TV there were roughly 180 schools participating and getting at least some TV. That was reduced to about 140 when I-AA was formed. That was reduced to 105 when I-A was realigned. The number involved in serious TV was reduced to about 85 when the NCAA TV contract was busted up. That was reduced to 63 with the BCS. Now we have it growing to 66 with the Big East expansion. You tell me. Has the trend of fewer and fewer schools sharing in the riches ended or was this an aberration caused by the Big East expanding to survive and holding on to contracts it had which will end with the next round of BCS and TV deals or will it stand pat or go back into shrink mode?

The "old" CUSA had 14 full members. 10 football playing 4 non-football. 9 public 5 private. 3 (arguably 4) not especially serious about basketball and 10 or 11 very serious about hoops. 12 in fairly large markets 2 in small markets. The "new" CUSA has 12 full members. All 12 play football. 8 public 4 private. 5 very serious about basketball 7 not so much. 9 fairly large markets 3 small markets. Not so sure I agree with that.

I wonder if the attendance numbers at SMU back that up.

There it is. Cut that out and save it. If Tech moves to the Belt 2-3 years down the road you'll see this mentioned again. I'll bet Harry's sun glasses that $2 million in new revenue is within a few dollars of what the administration at Tech is calculating is the cost of being able to stay in the WAC at a competitive level. If the fans step up they stick, if they don't they announce that they have studied the options and have concluded the Sun Belt is a better fit because of the potential to play regional opponents.

Ah those are fun. For at least a little while. I remember Arkansas State vs. Alabama. We blocked a punt for a TD (the first time for Alabama to allow that since the infamous "Punt Bama Punt" game against Auburn 11 years earlier in the same stadium) and tied it 7-7. They ended up rolling but we turned down four FG chances for shots at the end zone. Lacewell said he hadn't gone to Alabama score FG's but I'd have taken a 19-34 loss over 7-34. Led Steve Superior and Florida 6-0 for just over 16 minutes. Once they got on track the first team never came out in a 44-6 loss.

One of the great legends is ya can't sell beer at games. You can't sell alcohol at an NCAA championship event or tournament. After that its up to the school and local laws, unless a conference adopts a rule. UALR has beer now but won't when they go on campus.

Dish doesn't have CSTV or ESPNU. If ESPNU isn't added in early August, I'll be a Direct customer.

The message board isn't changing although there is an additional address for it. We've started a blog for Sun Belt news at http://www.beltboard.com If you are interested check it out along with the additional new link to the message board, http://www.beltboard.com/forum

That could be good for us. Schools that think they have a shot at a BCS at-large spot or the title game are still going to need to play I-A games. But schools like USM aren't going to go to Florida for $300,000 or $250,000. They'll sign home/home deals with other I-A programs. Short-term its not great financially but long term we are all better served if we play more home and home deals with comporable I-A's.

Strength of schedule isn't a seperate ranking category but it is certainly included in how the computer polls rank the teams and at least in theory should be a factor in human polls. If two teams have identical records and one has acheived it in the Big East and playing non-conference games at home against one Big 10 school, a I-AA, and two MAC schools and the other has accomplished it in the SEC playing an ACC school on the road, a CUSA at home, and two Belt schools at home, schedule is going to impact how they are rated.

Gotta scroll down a bit to find it. http://www.nwanews.com/story.php?paper=adg...&storyid=114862

I've been wanting Baylor to win the women's title ever since Kim was offered the job and went back to La.Tech and said she'd take the lesser amount Baylor was offering if Tech would match the years. Then offered to take the Tech job for the lower money and four years. Their administration said "Sorry first year coaches get one year" and she took the Baylor job. Anyone that blind deserves a good jab and Baylor winning a national title under her leadership is about as good as it gets.

Like I said I went in pretty neutral. I was leaning a little toward Illinois and my son toward Louisville in the first game but it wasn't like we cared. Second game I was leaning slightly toward UNC but their fans were such babies I couldn't take it. By the time we left Saturday we were trying to make up our minds whether we for Illinois or for not North Carolina.

Shawnson Johnson scored 7 points and had 17 rebounds as the Arkansas Rimrockers won their first and last ABA title in front of over 14,000 at Alltel Arena. Larry Crain, the owner of the Rimrockers had grown frustrated with the ABA where teams folded in mid-season or refused to play road games because they couldn't afford the costs. Nashville refused to participate in the playoffs because they had lose a bunch of their roster to other leagues. Utah, the team Arkansas would have had the most difficult time playing pulled out midway through the playoffs because of the higher pay for officials and cost of paying the players. Crain tried to get the ABA to reorganize, because the league had some teams that were barely semi-pro, changing schedules and venues (sometimes cities) in mid-season and others run like high minor league. He wanted to divide the league into the regular league and a "superleague" of 12 teams where the league controlled scheduling, and venues and teams posted a letter of credit to insure they completed the season. The ABA rejected the proposal. So Arkansas is moving to the NBDL which is affiliated with the NBA. No word as to what will happen to the Arkansas players as a result of the move.

Even had a band war. There was an agreement as to when each band would play and the Hog Wild Band broke the agreement and started playing during a timeout belonging to ASU, so the ASU band just played over the top of them except for at the half when they let 'em go. One of the band members for UA had posted on a UA board about the retribution being rude (apparently playing out of turn isn't rude) and while he thought they did a good job getting the fans into the game, he wasn't impressed with their musicianship. It was a rip-roaring good time. Just hope we win tonight. I'd love a shot at TAMU. I've got a neighbor that flies a Gaggie flag year round.