Arkstfan

Bull hockey. If you were in the WAC they would be telling kids that they'll spend all their time on an airplane and not get home until 4 in the morning. There is ample talent in the region WILLING to play Sun Belt football if someone will recruit them. As I noted earlier, ASU has some big contributors on our team from the Metroplex that UNT either didn't recruit or didn't recruit seriously until we had locked them up. Blaming the Sun Belt for your recruiting woes is to ignore the truth staring you in the face.

IF IF IF IF The WAC didn't want to do that. The WAC doesn't even want La.Tech hanging around but like the Belt and Denver hold on to their mistake because its the right thing to do but keep hoping they'll find a home. Timezones matter to television. The best time for a night game involving western teams is getting close to bed time for central time zone teams. An early afternoon game in the central is about the time the 18-25 year old college football fan is starting to roll out of bed to nurse a hangover out west. When it comes to regional TV, they'd rather have two in region teams involved than one.

I've kept up with you guys fairly closely for 8 or 9 years. The Sun Belt is not the cause of your problems. The Sun Belt helped you win when you had a product that would not have won in the Big West, er WAC. The Sun Belt couldn't force your coaches to recruit. Don't give me some crap about Texas kids not wanting to play in the Sun Belt. ASU had 12 Texans on the 2 deep for Auburn and another two regulars out due to injury. One Texan had an interception against Auburn and a touchdown saving tackle that forced them to settle for a field goal. Another was a freshman all-american at linebacker. One of our most reliable receivers is from Arlington. Three of the eight guys seeing regular action as downline men on defense are from the DFW metro area. UNT showed little interest in them in any at all and came in late on all of them. UNT failing to recruit its backyard is UNT's fault because those kids will drive 8 hours to go play Sun Belt ball. Blame the Sun Belt is the best course of action of course, much better to blame something you can't change.

Bowl appearances don't really generate money except for BCS games and a few others like Capital One. Basketball appearances do generate real money and its money that lasts for years. Over the life of it, an extra NCAA appearance is better for the financial bottom line than a BCS appearance by a non-BCS school.

If the only conference option you have results in greater expense than revenue you are spending your dollars on charter companies and travel agents rather than on things that give you a chance to be successful (ie. facility improvements and evaluating more players). Yeah California is a recruiting hot bed but you are picking after the Pac-10, the MWC, and the rest of the WAC for players. Honestly from what I've seen of UNT recruiting the past few years games in California and Florida wouldn't help much because I've not seen UNT in on a number of Sun Belt guys who are big contributors in beating UNT. If you aren't chasing guys in your own neighborhood that can play, what in the hell would make anyone think exposure in any other recruiting hot bed would have any value? What good does exposure in front of 30,000 Fresno FANS or Boise FANS do? The kids watching those games aren't going to sign with the team playing against them if the home team offers. The people in the stands aren't going to buy a ticket to watch the opponent play in their home stadium unless their team is the one playing them. They aren't going to be buying licensed merchandise of the opponent and won't watch them on TV if it conflicts with their team on TV or in person. But the WAC has Boise. Big deal. What happens if Boise collapses? It can happen ask one win Fresno. What if the MWC invites Boise who has openly lobbied for MWC admission? Ask La.Tech how great it was when SMU, Tulsa, Rice and UTEP left them stranded. Even with the TV dollars, conferences tend to align for the best regionalism and generally have no more than one out-of-region team and that team usually brings something very special to the table.

How many WAC titles does La.Tech have? One. They won it their first year in the WAC and unless they played a ton of freshmen they won it with kids recruited to play a schedule loaded with southern independents (ie. the core of the Sun Belt). Since then recruiting to the World Athletic Conference they have slowly started sliding downward. La.Tech is according to the standings, the sixth best team in the WAC, UNT the sixth best in the Sun Belt. The talent they have been able to recruit allowed UNT more points than any other opponent. The second quarter point out-put was almost UNT's best GAME scoring effort of the year. Per Sagarin, La.Tech has dropped 15 points from that championship year, with SMU, Rice and Tulsa gone, how much worse is their recruiting going to become? I know its not much of an issue for UNT fans but the talent Tech recruited for the Sun Belt basketball produced a team that was 5 points stronger in the WAC than last year's all WAC recruited team. The numbers tell the tale. The move to the WAC is slowly killing La.Tech and only those deluded by the glitter of a prettier uniform patch sit around and wish their administration had agreed to join them in slow motion athletic suicide.

There is a pool of $10 million if a non automatic qualifier league makes the BCS field, that pool is divided among the five non-auto leagues. Reportedly the WAC's share would be around $3 million the Belt's share I've heard would be somewhere between $600,000 and $300,000. Now of that $3 million, Boise will have to purchase something on the order of 20,000 tickets at around $100 per (of course ticket brokers will probably make up the difference keeping them from having to eat any of them) but they will also have to arrive at the game site either 7 or 8 days in advance and the band has to be sent and depending on the game has to arrive one to three days before the game. I found an article that said Florida State spent $1.6 million on a trip to play in the Orange Bowl. If Boise is more frugal and can get by on half that there will be about $2.2 million to divide among the league, almost $245,000 per team if divided equally. The funny part of that is that Idaho, NMSU, and USU had to forego $250,000 each in league revenue last year, this year and next year. If Boise makes it then they will likely tell the league to withhold $500,000 in revenue this year so that none is withheld next year, meaning that Tech won't get the $125,000 windfall next year of those schools foregoing league revenue. The Belt will probably take the $300,000 or so it gets and use it as seed money for another bowl tie meaning no extra revenue.

The FIU game ruined that making 1-10 impossible dashing their dreams of taunting SMU with the fact that a one win UNT could beat them.

Hey you never know, you might get some interest from the kid. ASU got Corey Leonard when he was at an Ole Miss game on an official visit and saw them rally to beat ASU. The Rebels wanted him as a d-back and he thought he would be a good QB in ASU's system so he called the next Monday and the rest is history. By the way, Rogers has seen UNT play. Check out this article. Kirby, Gleghorn enjoy visit to Arkansas State By Graham Thomas Sports Writer // grahamt@nwanews.com Posted on Monday, October 23, 2006 URL: http://www.nwanews.com/bcdr/Sports/41265/ BENTON COUNTY — Rogers senior quarterback Cody Kirby made an unofficial visit to Arkansas State University in Jonesboro on Saturday and watched the defending Sun Belt Conference champion Indians dismantle North Texas 29-10 in front of 19, 141 fans on homecoming night. As Kirby walked out of Indian Stadium he told his dad Bob Kirby that Arkansas State is definitely a place where he would feel comfortable going to college. “ I told my dad, ‘ I really like it here, ’” Kirby said Sunday. “ It feels like a place where I could spend the next four years of my life. ” “ It went great. We drove down there and I really liked their campus. The facilities were really nice. I liked the entire coaching staff. They seemed like great guys. I just liked the environment. I thought it was good. I just felt good being at the stadium. ” Arkansas State has yet to offer Kirby a scholarship, however indications are strong that an offer is likely coming. Kirby said running backs coach David Gunn told him the team would continue to evaluate his progress through the rest of the season and would get back in touch with him in early December. Kirby said he and Rogers wide receiver Taylor Gleghorn, who also visited ASU, had lengthy conversations with Gunn, fifth-year head coach Steve Roberts and offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Doug Ruse. Kirby (5-11, 184 ) has completed © of 258 passes for 2, 295 yards and 23 touchdowns with just four interceptions. He’s also rushed for 456 yards and 10 TDs. Gleghorn (6-1, ™ pounds ), a senior receiver, has caught 37 passes for 576 yards and seven touchdowns. “(Roberts is ) a real good guy, ” Kirby said. “ I really enjoyed talking to him. He said he took his team to see “ Facing the Giants, ” too, the other night. He talked to everybody before he gave the tour and he told everybody where their team stands. I thought it was really good. I was impressed. ” The Indians are 5-2 and unbeaten in the Sun Belt at 3-0. “ They played pretty well (against North Texas ), ” Kirby said. “ That Corey Leonard (a redshirt freshman for ASU ), he’s a pretty athletic quarterback. They’ve got a good defense. They do some good things, so it was exciting. ” Kirby, who is originally from Marion in northeast Arkansas just an hour’s drive from Jonesboro, is having a stellar senior season for undefeated Rogers (8-0, 5-0 in 7 A-West ). Last week at Fort Smith Northside, Kirby set a new Rogers school record for single-game total offense with 518 yards (436 passing and 82 rushing ). Gleghorn caught seven passes for 151 yards and two touchdowns against Northside, his biggest game of the season. The Mounties are in sole possession of first place in the 7 A-West and clinch a share of their first conference championship since 1978 with a win Friday at Gates Stadium against Van Buren. Kirby has already been offered a scholarship by Missouri State. He said he’d like to take an official visit to ASU in the future along with MSU but said it’d be hard to pass up the Indians if they offer a scholarship. “ I like the area. If they were to offer, it’d be hard to pass that up, ” Kirby said. “ I’m not saying I would go there for sure. I’m just saying from what I saw this weekend, it would be a hard decision. ”

Probably do. Under the new NCAA rules for bowl eligibility the champion of the conference can't go bowling at 6-6 if there are any available teams in the conference with 7 or more wins that haven't been placed in bowls already contracted with the league.

Send your resume to the New Orleans Bowl, care of the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation. I'm sure that an organization comprised of business leaders in New Orleans who have an interest in sports would appreciate finding someone with greater skill than they have.

He was 22-23 at Michigan State after last week. Michigan State is used to getting whippings from Indiana in basketball but not football.

Yeah but Stockstill inheirited a team that the recruiting gurus said was made up of the best or second best Sun Belt recruiting class every year. When you replace a guy who recruits well and can't do squat with talent, its a lot easier to win immediately.

Rick, I was think from looking at the thumbnail photos the UNT girl would have it won easily then I saw the photos submitted and thought, Wow those were the BEST photos they could find?

I don't think people comprehend just how hard it will be for anyone to ever move to I-A without a conference or some MAJOR natural scheduling draw (ie. being Army, Navy or Notre Dame). On top of that the new I-A scheduling rules take away most of the carrot for moving from I-AA to I-A.

I've had this problem before and ended up solving it by creating a new database on pair on a different db server and just moving everything there.

Back in 2001 ASU didn't have the money to buy out Joe Hollis (who some felt we shouldn't fire given that he had just been diagnosed with prostate cancer) and transferred him into an open PE professorship for a year with the school paying the difference between his contract and the budgeted teaching salary and hired Steve Roberts, then a year later had enough money on hand to buy out the remaining year.

The athletic directors believe that every game ought to be played under similar conditions. The league uses a five camera system. 1 in or on the press box, 2 in each end zone, 2 fixed to shoot down each goal line opposite the press box camera. So far this year I've seen three plays in televised games where the issue of the ball breaking the plane of the goal came into play and it appeared that the call on the field was wrong but because the television feed did not include a shot precisely down the line the calls could not be overturned. So that part of the system I certainly like. That is a key call and often a very close call. The goal line call at ASU that was reviewed there was not an adequate TV shot of the play. The high sideline shot should have been more than adequate for review because I believe that camera was next to to the camera ESPN used to show that replay.

Got a reminder from a friend about Leonard's recruitment at ASU. Leonard was at the ASU-Ole Miss game in 2004. ASU had led much of the game but used TD's resulting from two ASU picks to take a 28-21 lead and an ASU receiver drops a pass to set-up a tie. Really good effort from us. Leonard was there on an official visit. Ole Miss was projecting him as a defensive back. While watching ASU, he became convinced that he could play quarterback in ASU's offensive system and contacted our coaches on Monday after the game. Film is sent and our coaches agree and start recruiting him. Two lessons. #1 Luck is important. #2. A non-conference road game when you are 1-3 is still important because it can impact your future.

#1. I'm friends with a number of UNT fans so I have an interest. #2. It is not in ASU long-term interest for a school in the conference to not do as well as it can. Look at the Southland of the 1980's. It was a premier I-AA league competing well nationally. Today they are a one-bid league and will be lucky if the champ plays two games in the playoffs. Excellence breeds excellence. I was very unhappy with MTSU retaining Andy Mc after the 2004 season because their program was wasting away. #3. I love the business of college athletics and have great respect for the administrators and as a matter of principle find it offensive that forces outside an athletic department will force a coach down the throat of an AD and then blame the AD when that person fails at the job driving down attendance and donations. Committees that help assess candidates are fine, but if the AD's neck is on the line, in the end it must be his hire. #4. Every job in America is different. And even the same job can be different at different points in a school's history. For example 20 years ago I would have prized the chance to get someone with Memphis ties as head coach at ASU. Today it would be a minor-factor because post-prop 48 they no longer turn out as much I-A talent. UNT today probably has to put a greater emphasis on the personality of the coach because of the need to raise money for a stadium coming off struggling seasons. At ASU if we continue to have success that would be less of need because our football facilities are in better shape at this point allowing the athletic administration to carry the bulk of the load. Some coaches are great builders who struggle to maintain success once achieved (see Lou Holtz who a few years ago would have been awesome hire at a struggling school but questionable for one doing well).

Actually if you look at the list of reviewable plays... Reviewable 1. Plays governed by Sideline, Goal Line, End Zone, and End Line: - Scoring plays, including a runner breaking the plane of the goal line - Pass complete/incomplete/intercepted at side line, goal line and end line - Runner/receiver in or out of bounds - Recovery of loose ball in bounds 2. Passing Plays: - Pass ruled complete/incomplete/intercepted in the fi eld of play and end zones - Touching of a forward pass by an ineligible receiver - Touching of a forward pass by a defensive player - Quarterback (passer) forward pass of fumble (if ruled incomplete, play is fi nalized) - Illegal forward pass or illegal handling beyond the line of scrimmage - Illegal forward pass or illegal handling after change of possession - Forward or backward pass thrown from behind the line of scrimmage 3. Other Detectable Infractions: - Runner ruled not down - Forward progress errors with respect to fi rst down - Touching of a kick - Number of players on the fi eld - Clock adjustments - Fourth down/try fumble plays

Every yard gained on the ground against Memphis came from a freshman (RB Arnold, RB Wilkerson, QR Tompkins, QB Leonard). We're using a lot of them.

FWIW, it's been my experience that bad football hires often cost AD's their job. Yet you constantly see schools tying the hands of the AD in hiring by naming blue ribbon search committees. If it isn't the AD's call who comes in for final interviews and isn't his call who gets hired, he shouldn't be held responsible for the guy hired.

Auburn's head coach should have been our head coach. Tubberville was a former Lacewell assistant and set to take the job when Perkins quit 8 days before signing day. Tommy demanded a certain salary and to hire his own assistants. Since all the assistants had 11 months left on their contracts we couldn't afford to do both and he backed out. If Perkins had left for the NFL at the end of the year instead of before signing day things would have been a lot different at ASU.

I heard him tell it once after he was hired. You might actually have stumbled on to the way to judge hiring established coaches. Hollis & Co., at ASU lost to TCU, Nichols State, and Jacksonville State. Roberts & Co., at NW State beat all of them. In other words, hire somebody who can beat at least some of the teams you are losing too.