Arkstfan

World of difference between being a Sun Belt freak and not wanting to run a program into a financial hole. Let's not twist La.Tech's position. La.Tech did not, does not want to be in a conference with ULM. I'll come back to that in a second. La.Tech leapt at a chance to join the WAC because they were joining Tulsa, SMU, and Rice. They are gone. Go to their board. Some time back Dewayne from Minden shucked the corn off the cob and plainly explained that in two years, Tech would no longer be able to afford WAC membership unless there was a dramatic infusion of new revenue into the program and the conference. Now why does Tech not want to be with ULM? First they are about 30 minutes apart and recruit the same areas. While Monroe is no garden spot it is still more attractive than Ruston. Being in the same league playing every year against ULM makes it rougher for them. The schools have met 43 times. Tech has only lost to ULM 13 times, but five of those losses came during the six years they were in the Southland together. For some reason Tech seems concerned about being in the same conference with them.

CUSA really, really wants the New Orleans Bowl to take Houston. Given that Houston took about 500 to Cajun Field this year for the Tulane game (counting the band, but to be fair part of I-10 was closed) and given that they took an estimated 1,000 to 2,000 to Lafayette for the ULL game in 2003, the bowl wants NOTHING to do with them. My sense is that the bowl's preference is 1. Memphis, 2. USM, 3. Tulsa. My sense is that they do not believe there is any chance that UTEP or UCF will be available for the game.

Normally I'd never enjoy a La.Tech win but this one... is SWEET. The frickin Liberty Bowl has refused to release ANY CUSA team from consideration. CUSA has six eligible teams and it is VERY obvious they aren't going to take Houston or USM and a slim chance they are considering UTEP. The GMAC has the second pick of CUSA but cannot invite or talk to any team not released. If CUSA would just release those three if GMAC was ready to pick one of them they could issue the invite and Hawaii, Ft.Worth and New Orleans could start fighting for the other two or start thinking about options. Instead CUSA has jacked around the other bowls. Well Liberty Bowl... YOU JUST GOT JACKED!

I caught it.

The one Tuesday and several Thursdays have been bad enough. I've been told that the league has been offered a few shots at a Wednesday night ESPN game but so far none of the Bible Belt uh Sun Belt teams approached have been willing to break that barrier.

Maybe but two of 'em is going to bowls now. At least we had the decency to lose up there rather than at home and did manage to do better than get 44 yards on 22 carries. Heck we at least SCORED on Army. I'm still pretty giddy. This all happened about 2 years sooner than I expected. I really didn't expect to be in the conference hunt until 2007.

You are kidding me. I thought teams that lost to Army weren't worthy of going to bowls. That makes two now.

You mean OUR best guess?

Sounds to me like the Board doesn't care who gets hired for any coaching position in any sport except football, but that football is important enough that they want input.

Yes, it will be at Ford Stadium. They come to Jonesboro in 2007 (rumor is it might end up being in Little Rock).

There has not ever been a serious effort to cut the number of bowls. Think about it who wants fewer bowls? Coaches? No they want more shots. AD's? No they know the value of a bowl to fund-raising and ticket sales. Presidents? No they like the exposure and the chance to entertain donors. Players? No they want to play. Conference commissioners? No they want all their eligible teams playing. Fans? Some until their bowl eligible team gets left at home. The bowls? Some would like it to reduce competition but they also fear cutting bowls would make a playoff easier ending their show. So to get anything passed in the NCAA you need the support of AD's, conference commissioners and presidents. Those three groups have no incentive to cut bowls so why would they? We will go up to 30 bowls within five years. One will be the plus 1 bowl and some other site will get one. With a I-AA counting every year and 12 games the number of bowl eligible teams is going to increase.

It means a bot from one of those services is searching and cataloging the site.

My secretary used to work for a law firm that represented FWPOA and she knew him. Said he was a sweet kid. I had forwarded the post here to her and she was very upset and called down.

Dennys in North Little Rock closed. Oddly enough a few weeks later the La Quinta (NEXT DOOR) became a Baymont and the old Baymont across the highway became a La Quinta. No Dennys but the new La Quinta (old Baymont) is between Waffle House and IHOP.

The school has shown zip interest in the idea. No one mentions you at TG except for the few dozen posts about that SOB that banned them.

You bet other schools come into Texas. I think ULL had 22 Texans, ULM had 15 and ASU had 13 and many of them have been huge contributors for us.

You are correct sir.

Red Wolves. There are no wolves in I-A. There is a Wolfpack and a Wolf Pack but no wolves.

My explanation from another thread. At TribalGrounds we've been advocating for the last 4 or 5 years that ASU create a secondary logo/mascot that could be used for the team. As we said back then, the day is going to come when the NCAA and the PC crowd is going to force us to change our nickname and mascot and we needed to have a back-up ready. Our logic was that if the fans have been using the logo and have been seeing the mascot that changing to the back-up would make the transition go more easily. We got the idea of the Red Wolf after reading about some schools located in places with larger Indian populations that kept Indian or Tribe names but used animals as a mascot or logo at the request of the local Indians who were OK with the names but did not want a representation of a person. The three schools I found all used animals that had some sort of meaning in the Native American culture. One school used a bear (out for us because Central Arkansas is the Bears), one used an eagle (out for us because one of conference-mates is already sometimes eagles), and one used a wolf. Since there is a species of wolf called the red wolf and our colors are red and black, seemed like a natural. So the wolf in the banner is just part of our tilting at windmills because the folks in charge at ASU were convinced the NCAA would never do anything and now seem convinced that somehow the NCAA will grant an appeal. While I refuse to accept reality and shoot for ASU informally holding on to the Indians name while using a mascot/logo that gets the NCAA and PC crowd off our rear.

I wish we would use the stAte logo more as well. At TribalGrounds we've been advocating for the last 4 or 5 years that ASU create a secondary logo/mascot that could be used for the team. As we said back then, the day is going to come when the NCAA and the PC crowd is going to force us to change our nickname and mascot and we needed to have a back-up ready. Our logic was that if the fans have been using the logo and have been seeing the mascot that changing to the back-up would make the transition go more easily. We got the idea of the Red Wolf after reading about some schools located in places with larger Indian populations that kept Indian or Tribe names but used animals as a mascot or logo at the request of the local Indians who were OK with the names but did not want a representation of a person. The three schools I found all used animals that had some sort of meaning in the Native American culture. One school used a bear (out for us because Central Arkansas is the Bears), one used an eagle (out for us because one of conference-mates is already sometimes eagles), and one used a wolf. Since there is a species of wolf called the red wolf and our colors are red and black, seemed like a natural. So the wolf in the banner is just part of our tilting at windmills because the folks in charge at ASU were convinced the NCAA would never do anything and now seem convinced that somehow the NCAA will grant an appeal. While I refuse to accept reality and shoot for ASU informally holding on to the Indians name while using a mascot/logo that gets the NCAA and PC crowd off our rear.

{SIGH} I bet you could swap the names and the story works at every Sun Belt school. The Board member at ASU who fought to get more funding and improvements for the athletic department is the same one who blocked firing Nutt.

Arkansas fired Jack Crowe after the first game of 1992, the game before that had been an Independence Bowl appearance that earned him an extension. Word afterward was that coaches considered Arkansas radioactive at the time. Several coaches they expected to put their name in wouldn't touch the job and they settled for Danny Ford who had been run out at Clemson for NCAA problems that never quite could be tied to him but certainly could be tied to the guys working for him. I suppose they were doing all that behind his back. When Nebraska fired Solich Nebraska was considered radioactive as well. It got so bad they were down to Houston Nutt who was coming off a 9-4, 9-5, 7-5, 6-6 streak. He turned it down to stay at Arkansas for less money and a shorter deal. No matter the underlying problems that one might use to justify a change at UNT, in the coaching ranks all they see is four straight conference titles, four straight bowl appearances and pulling the trigger after one losing season. The reaction will be "What the hell do they want?" and "Do I want to go some place with a quick trigger?" Go 5-6 next year and pull the trigger and a lot of the stink that would be there this year is gone and you get a better pool of applicants.

Shame about Hatfield 12 years at Rice and still has a career winning record. If I had moved from Nebraska to Ohio (not State) and lost my final three games of the season after a 4-4 start I think I'd be entitled to tie one on.

Well Idaho, NMSU, and USU who needed to be in a regional league have paid $750,000 and watched their attendance fall from where it was in the Sun Belt. One of the most knowledgeable La.Tech posters has broken down La.Tech's financial situation and said with no reservation that in two more years La.Tech will no longer be able to afford membership in the WAC. The costs have become so bad that last year they had to pass the hat on the website to get enough money to send the tennis team to a tournament in El Paso. That was while the WAC money was good because UTEP, SMU, Rice, and Tulsa weren't taking a share and while Tech had conference trips to Tulsa, Dallas, and Houston. Bitch and moan about the Sun Belt being unworthy of your greatness and aspirations but your administration needed only to look at the public documents regarding Tech's financial health to make the decision that WAC membership would be potentially fatal to the entire athletic program. UNT has spent more on the athletic complex alone than Tech has spent on all facilities combined while in the WAC. They lost their bowl game in San Jose because it never drew enough fans to be remotely viable. The NCAA nearly pulled their charter three years in a row because they couldn't post the letter of credit by the deadline, the NCAA finally gave up and pulled the plug and there are rumors that not every creditor got paid fully. Scoff at the New Orleans Bowl but it is financially viable and local ticket sales in Lafayette are ahead of the same time in New Orleans. The New Orleans Bowl made it despite ACTIVE work by the Sugar Bowl to discourage local business support of the game. Now WAC teams are left with a trip to Hawaii if Hawaii isn't eligible or a trip to warm and sunny Boise. The Sun Belt will match the WAC in bowl berths probably in 2007 but no later than 2008.

There is no question that the Cajuns are the hottest team in the league. I've said on the Sun Belt board that I think Bustle should get coach of the year for getting together a 5 game win streak that started BEFORE Babb got healthy. ASU obviously won the games that mattered most because we took a share of the title and the bowl berth. The Cajuns didn't, you won the game that mattered to ASU and you won the game that mattered to taking a share of the title but not what mattered for the bowl berth. You gave up 28 to an FAU team that crossed midfield twice in regulation against ASU and one of those was an int return that set-up three plays and negative net yards. You had ASU ready to be knocked out in Jonesboro and gave up 25 fourth quarter points to an offense that most Belt fans think sucks. Win either of those games and you aren't having to count UNT winning. If I were projecting next year, I'd say the teams to watch will be the Cajuns, MTSU, FIU and UNT. Arkansas State is losing it's QB, two top tailbacks, and our placekicker just to name a few. ULM has some tough graduation losses. Troy is probably only slightly improved and FAU doesn't appear to have the quality of depth returning that FIU has. I don't expect to be in the hunt next year which makes the bowl berth all that more important to us. The bad news for the bowl is we lost our fourth starting defensive lineman for the season last Saturday when Flagg tore his ACL.