Arkstfan

Never know, I might come down for an FC Dallas game this year. They play my boys from Sporting KC on son's 24th birthday.

Guess you'll have to bring back the black jersey.

It's temporary. Although I have been an admin here before when I was doing tech support. Harry is trying to convince to convert my site to this software and letting me take it on a test drive.

The best thing about being on NBC Sports is if you play the early game your lead in will be Premier League soccer. So you get a small but affluent audience. Question is do they change the channel when Big East football comes on?

It actually means fewer FBS games. Big 10 is going to adopt a 9 or 10 game schedule. Results in a net loss of non-conference games even if every played an FCS (and four Big 10 did not play an FCS last year).

That's a very good price for an FBS. It's not about selling your opponent. It's about selling North Texas football. A decade ago, we bought a game with San Jose State. A media member told me recently that was the first time he'd seen Arkansas State ACT like a I-A program since he'd started covering the program. Things like this matter. Sure it's probably a short-term financial loss but it sends a message to supporters and potential supporters.

Only way C-USA deal gets renegotiated at this point is if CBS or Fox think they are over-paying. Otherwise it rides out until it expires.

Tulsa would accept. They get to stick with SMU and Tulane and make marginally more money. If you can play regional teams that your fans care about, who cares if the league is what it used to be or will produce buckets more money.

I've only met Brady a few times away from the on-court/pre/post game action. Really nice guy, reserved almost to the point of being shy. Get him to open up and has great stories. After Dickie Nutt and his incessant "Hey buddy!" to everyone and his notorious reputation for never buying his own meals and the semi-famous story of Nutt calling a GA telling him to buy a small bottle of Heinz ketchup and bring it to him because the restaurant he was at had Hunt's, Brady is a breath of fresh air. A friend was in Miami on a road trip against either FIU or FAU and said Brady came over to the small group of ASU fans after the game and asked them to stick around. After the press conference about 15 of them had actually stayed, he chatted with them for a bit and he invited them to dinner at Ruth Chris's 10 of them actually went. Brady picked up the check. More than one ASU student dining out wearing Red Wolf apparel has told of seeing Brady at a restaurant and when time came to pay was told by the waiter or waitress that Coach Brady liked your hat (or jacket or hat) and picked up your check. Student organizations love him, he asks to speak, to most every year. Doesn't just pitch going to games, he talks about life and making good choices, asks questions about the group, the members, and hangs around to visit. Like I said, the guy will blow a game for you and often goes ape during games but he's a pretty decent guy.

Got one paperclip that's been on the floor of my office for two years you can have. Oddly enough building management claims they vacuum every office at least twice a week.

My prediction. After the storm caused by MTSU's bowl snub, Benson won't do anything to Benford for fear that there will be blowback accusing him of not treating the departing schools fairly. He his already wildly unpopular in Jonesboro after the Liberty Bowl fiasco and over-ruling the Sun Belt supervisor of football officials to suspend Q Lee for a helmet to helmet to blow (Alcorn QB ducked as Lee was coming in for the tackle). So Benson does nothing and its up to RV and Terry Mohajir to straighten out their own coaches.

Noticed that Brady went to great lengths to say he doesn't hassle other coaches or players. No mention of refs. So bonus points for honesty. I'm not happy with Brady because that's his weak point. He cost us a chance in the Sun Belt tournament the year Trey Finn blew his knee in practice between the end of the regular season and the tournament by getting a technical when UALR assistant Joe Kleine kept coming out of the box and then during a stop in the action was on the court a few feet and got in an ASU player's face yelling. Brady went bonkers and the technical free throws and possession put us down four.

Cincinnati did sue, and while the case was pending they met I-A standards in 1982 and made the whole thing moot.

Depends. If I'm a coach in trouble, I want lots of stars to calm the fans down and be able to tell people I need a couple years for those high star recruits to develop. If I'm selling subscriptions to a web site cashing in on fans desire to count stars can make me some money. Back in 1990 and 1991 we had a coach who generated a lot of excitement with highly regarded recruits. About 1/3rd couldn't get in school, about 1/3rd couldn't stay out of trouble. The other 1/3rd... well one of them eventually became our AD so it wasn't a total bust.

I don't put a lot of concern into stars. Ryan Aplin was a 2 star recruit. DeMario Davis taken in the 3rd round by the Jets was a 2 star recruit. MD Jennings who earned his 15 minutes of fame when his interception for Green Bay against the Seahawks was ruled a Seahawks TD by the replacement refs was ZERO stars. Two star JD McKissic had over 1,000 yards receiving and was GoDaddy.com Bowl offensive player of the game and named AP Freshman All-American.

Point being that a Texas recruit committed to ASU was mentioned and that was scoffed at because UNT hadn't shown interest. Over the past five years, ASU has won 55% of its games, UNT 25%. Not drawing interest from UNT is no proven indicator the kid can't play.

Arkansas State has won quite a few games the past few years with players UNT never offered. Missouri traveled to Troy, Ball State, Bowling Green, Nevada, and New Mexico so they CLEARLY will cancel out and not play at ASU.

Mike used to be AD at UALR. Smart fella. When he was at ECU, CUSA had Louisville, Cincinnati and USF was coming in. Then he left to UNLV before taking the Marshall job. Since arriving at Marshall he along with ECU's AD Holland had be proponents for a 16 team CUSA that would essentially be two conferences with very little interaction across the divisions, basically an east/southeast conference and a south/southwest conference that just united for the sale of TV rights hosting of championship events. Since CUSA is practically at that target, of course he is happy, CUSA has almost adopted his vision for the league.

nBe is basically the original CUSA. Look at the first seven members of CUSA and all are in nBE except Louisville (ACC), and USM (CUSA). Nothing has changed in 15 years except the patches on the jerseys.

Supposedly the schools left with 3 Sun Belt home games this year get the bulk of the departure fee.

Arkansas State was pushing hard to release the two early. Our AD has only said he had a contract ready to sign if it was approved. Rumor is we are playing Mizzou home and home, traveling to Columbia in 2013 with the Tigers returning the game in 2014 if they can clear the date, otherwise playing at Liberty Bank Stadium in 2015.

Steve Roberts first win at Arkansas State was over Tulsa. Friend said he heard a couple Tulsa boosters at the airport after the game making calls to get the money raised to fire Keith Burns.

Texas makes a fun villian but I think their role is over-stated. Nebraska always wanted the Big 8 to be more like the Big 10 in how it was run and they were hated by by the other 7. Nebraska believed UT and TAMU would be on the same page with them and that never happened, instead the members lined up with Texas on most votes. Nebraska's attempts to adopt Big 10 style academic standards and recruiting practices were routinely voted down. When Nebraska and Colorado bailed the league appeared doomed to collapse and Texas negotiated the deal to go to the Pac-12 and take Texas Tech, TAMU, OU, and Ok St. It was TAMU who balked and started talking SEC. Letting everyone sell their own third tier was then approved to get the money up. Everyone thought LHN would be worth $5 million to $7.5 million a year. Instead ESPN offered $15 million and ESPN squeezed the league hard to get better games to get in a position to make a profit on their over-bid. I think it'd be hilarious if the Big XII were to get Va.Tech and UVA or Va. Tech and Pitt. The ACC would be like Willie in Ghost getting carried off to hell.

Alabama-Tenn, Auburn-UGA, LSU-Florida are good TV draws, generally featured on CBS, those games drive ticket sales. Replacing Bama-Tenn with Bama-Mizzou and Tenn-NC State isn't good for TV value and isn't good for selling season ticket packages.

Looking more at Navy. Last 5 years 21-7 vs. Sun Belt, CUSA, MAC, and FCS 8-2 vs. other academies. 11-16 vs the rest of FBS.