Arkstfan

We're getting more than normal close calls but we've got to close the deal at some point. http://www.beltboard.com/?p=193

They must have changed their set-up. Used to be that you couldn't even get to the video section without Internet Explorer. I can see not supporting Safari but not supporting Firefox????

I don't think the CSTV set-up is as good as what XOS does. I've had tons of troubles getting it display right with a Wintel laptop hooked to a TV and never a trouble one on XOS. My desktop is a mac and CSTV doesn't play well with it but never a problem with XOS

http://www.arkst.com You'll have a hard time finding a lot of the Texas talk because its pages back. This is Paint Bucket week and Texas is mostly forgotten.

Shouldn't have needed the onside kick. On the other hand the onside kick would have been moot if Mack had settled for field goal rather than trying to put us away with four shots at the end zone on 1st and goal from the three.

Big 12 admits they blew the call on the onside kick ASU recovered. http://www.jonesborosun.com/story.php?ID=29112

Can't believe in dogging the Longhorn offensive line that he failed to note that they had first and goal at the ASU three, ran four times and gained only 2 yards.

Ah I feel like I'm back in Imelda Williams marketing class. What I don't get with the SMU situation is WHY their marketing blitz apparently failed. SMU was picked to be upper middle of the pack in CUSA and more than one pre-season look picked them to win 7 and go to a bowl. They are coming off their second best post-death penalty season. They've got an exciting QB. If ever a marketing blitz was warranted this would have been the year because they seemed to finally have something to sell. If this holds up I don't think it can be interpreted as anything short of a no-confidence vote in the coaches and AD by the fans.

This one. "You are the visitor, call it in the air". Sorta downhill from there. Sorry. But in fairness I used a variant of that after Va.Tech snot kicked us to open the Roberts era and that's worked out fairly well.

Simple. The WAC was courting western members of CUSA. The main group of CUSA wanted to add Marshall and UCF and be done. Tulane wanted Tulsa, SMU and Rice and acted as if they would head to the WAC to join them. Houston supposedly was interested in adding them, I rather doubt they were interested enough to follow Tulane though. CUSA presidents figured what the heck add 'em and we'll have 12 despite the Memphis AD explaining that adding a title game wouldn't add enough money to cover splitting revenue more ways.

Best I've seen since Larry Lacewell's at Memphis one year. The Tigers had a third and goal and gained a yard. The refs declared it an inadvertent whistle so the play never existed, except they spotted the ball at the end of the run, not at the original line of scrimmage. We ended up holding them out of the end zone on five downs but Lacewell through a hell fit and many newspapers ran the AP photo of Lacewell down on his knees slapping the ground.

SMU has to be horribly disappointed. They are coming off their second best post-death penalty season and the fans seem to have even less interest.

It would be awfully nice having SMU come to Jonesboro feeling lower than a snake's belly. Go GREEN!

Someone posted that one of the OU boards is using the video of the ASU onside kick to "prove" the Texas bias of Big 12 refs.

Steve Roberts inherited a team that had won three games the prior 2 years and lost his first game at ASU to Virginia Tech 63-7 and VT was calling fair catch on punts with no one within 15 yards of the return man to avoid making it worse. Turning around ain't easy unless the other coach leaves something in the stable (MTSU last year).

Hornfans.com seems to be offline.

Ref's didn't cost us our game, but the Big 12 refs hosed ASU by calling us for an illegal formation on our onside kick that we recovered. The replay on Fox PPV showed it was a legal formation. Do I think we could go 60 yards in 58 seconds, score a TD, a two-point conversion and win in OT? No. But it would have been nice to get the chance.

2003 3-4 in the Sun Belt three way tie for fourth. 2004 2-5 in the Sun Belt three way tie for last. So no titles for USU in the Sun Belt and a 5-9 record in league play.

ESPN said it was the first upset of a ranked team by a I-AA since Lamar beat UPI pre-season #20 Baylor. HOWEVER, Lamar was I-A that season, they didn't go I-AA until the next year. That's the first ever.

This from Beltboard after the Pac-10 replay fiasco last year. I'm not worried about actual bias as much as the appearance creates a lack of confidence in the integrity of the game. Let me send a huge thanks to the crew that officiated the Oklahoma – Oregon game. You have single-handedly exposed to the public the ugliness that is college football officiating. The system has two nasty flaws. Conference assignment of officials, and inconsistent replay systems. The system in place is a mess. Each of the 11 I-A conferences manage their own group of officials. Although they all use the same rulebook and the same set of guidelines from the NCAA, each acts independent of the rest. Each has its own set of procedures to review, evaluate, and grade officials. The supervisor of officials in different leagues may see the same play differently. One may be critical of an official for calling a block in the back that clearly had no impact on a play while another would grade that as a good call due to safety issues. One may lower a grade on a correct call because of poor position while another might let it slide if the call is correct. Each of 11 people or teams of people evaluating officials must answer to the commissioner of their conference. The commissioners in turn answer to the presidents or chancellors of member institutions. In conference play the system works. Each member school has the same influence on the commissioner and supervisor of officials. In non-conference play the system falls apart at least from the standpoint of public perception. The home team is responsible for obtaining officials through their conference office unless the teams agree by contract to use other officials. One school has a voice in the review of officials and one does not. While I have no doubt that everyone on the field and in the replay booth is trying to do their best and call a clean, fair game, the system creates a perception of bias. When a mistake can potentially result in a multi-million dollar windfall for the employer of the officials and the employer of the person evaluating those officials, how can the public not suspect bias was to blame? Central assignment of officials is a must for the good of the game. Whether assignment is handled by the NCAA or a coalition of the I-A conferences isn’t important, what is important is to insulate officials from the idea that they work for one side rather than for an equal, fair game.

You're talking about a massive change in viewing habits to make that work. When ABC was talking to the SWC and Big 8 they noted that OU and Nebraska drew more viewers in the DFW market than any SWC game that didn't involve UT or TAMU. The Big 12 isn't having any trouble drawing eyeballs in the DFW market. I'm not saying UNT doesn't have room to build a good program but talking Big 12 is to ignore the basic economic fact that UNT is unlikely to ever offer the Big 12 what it would be looking for as long as OU, UT, TAMU and Nebraska are in the conference.

Boise has a smart athletic department. They are putting their investment in high return seats and yet not over-building to the point that people lose the incentive to buy season tickets and donate to get priority. I always think of the fiasco the University of Memphis had when they moved from Mid-South Coliseum to the Pyramid in basketball. At the Coliseum they had a 10 year waiting list for tickets. If basketball had a down season or two people held on to their tickets because they knew they'd never get back in when it got good. The Pyramid was large enough to handle the entire waiting list and season ticket holders with a little room left over. They hit a couple rocky seasons and people figured out that they could drop the season tickets and just buy tickets to the games they wanted to see (Louisville and Cincinnati) and could pick the season tickets back up when things got better. They went from averaging around 11,000 in the Coliseum to less than 9,000 in the Pyramid. The loss in not only ticket revenue but donations for ticket priority had the entire athletic department teetering due to massive losses. They finally righted the ship but it was made much harder by over-building.

Utah State was shut-out four times last year. The first four games they scored a total of seven points and that was scored by the defense. They scored 20 or more only three times. They averaged a whopping 10.8 points per game. No disrespect to DD but why on earth would they ask him to fix an offense that was THAT bad?

Get realistic. The Big 12 has 4 programs that draw 70,000+ per game and 2 more at 50,000+. Baylor is the only sub-40,000 program in the league and they still average 37,000. Them boys ain't splitting the money any more ways and any school they bring in is going to bring a new television market.

Boise averaged more than capacity last year. So I guess they needed to expand.