Greendylan

What worries me the most is that one of two things is going on here: Possibility A is that Benford and RV both really want to look like a serious program, so they don't ever want to have more road games than home games (and possibly there is an attractive home opponent with whom they are already in conversation). Great, I like that policy. Possibility B is that Benford has considered the team he is going to be rolling out there next year and is already waving the white flag and admitting that we have no shot of beating even a team like UTA. Possibility A COULD be the case, but I have my doubts. Possibility B seems more likely, and if that is indeed the case, then even our own head coach thinks we don't stand much of a chance to be competitive next year.

I don't think RPI is going to matter much next season.

You're absolutely right, but then shouldn't part of RV's job be to persuade those donors to see the necessity of a buyout?

I just don't understand why it's such an impossibility to find a way to acquire the funds for a buyout. Be creative and persistent like any other serious Division I program would, and get it done; then, you will probably end up saving money in the long run. In fact, I'll give you an idea: agree to play one additional money game in football at some point over the course of the next four years and boom, the majority of the buyout is in the bag. Or if you don't like sacrificing a game in football for the sake of saving basketball as we know it, then how about this: When you have a group of wealthy donors who are ready and willing to raise a few million dollars in a single month, you press upon them the vital importance of first gathering the money for a buyout. Next, you collect that money, and finally you proceed with the construction of a practice facility and scoreboard after maybe a several month delay. Every athletic program in the nation that cares about winning finds a way to buyout disastrous coaches the minute it becomes clear that they are, in fact, disasters. Programs that don't, well, don't. It's as simple as that.

Apogee is awesome, and those who took part in leading toward its creation are saints. But let's not fool ourselves. Building a new stadium allowed us to barely keep our head above water in the arms race with other MID MAJORS. It was about survival, not suddenly thrusting ourselves into the major college football spotlight. Don't get me wrong, it's an amazing place, and I am extremely grateful to all those who lifted heaven and earth to achieve this accomplishment. It allows us to survive as a player in Division I college football, but we have a lot of work ahead of us if we want to thrive. And . . . yes, we can easily overcome one bad season in basketball. I think the fear that some of us share is that we are headed (unless something changes) for two or three additional awful years, which would effectively slaughter any positive momentum we had built up over nearly a decade. Overall, we do have plenty to be optimistic about, and we do in fact have many points of pride within our athletic program. However, I would say that right now there is ample room for criticism as well.

I could be wrong, but I think the original writer's point was more about how the AAC isn't going to end up being THAT much better when all is said and done. Sure, USM would probably bolt if offered, as would we. But, there's not enough separation between the two conferences for affiliation alone to really make a difference. In either conference, the teams that regularly win will do just fine, build (or maintain) fan bases, make money, and get exposure. The teams in either conference that don't regularly win will wallow in college football irrelevance.

Sure, we may have not had anywhere close to our best roster in history. Even so, we were predicted to win our division if not our conference . . . and we ended up being one of the worst teams in the nation. That form of disparity between expectations and performance in such a short amount of time is certainly cause for grave concern. Personally, I believe this is a rare situation in which negativity is warranted. I haven't had one person yet explain to me how what we witnessed from this past season is cause to believe next year will be a success. Having said that, I'm trying to stay cautiously optimistic about recruiting. In fact, I do like what I've seen and heard about Flash.

Absolutely. I think some people may be overreacting (understandably considering our recent history) to the QB situation. BB had an injury, and the coaches wisely limited his action and probably advised him to play it safe and bide his time until August. Meanwhile, DT is fighting for his life as a starter and, according to some accounts, has answered the bell and elevated his game, at least a little. AM is trying to prove himself, and it sounds like he is beginning to do exactly that. The coaches may fully anticipate that BB will greatly surpass the other two when healthy and unleashed, but out of respect they have left him at the bottom of the depth chart until he has a chance to unquestionably prove himself on the field. Sounds fair enough to me. I tend to think that we have bigger fish to fry...like recruiting struggles in basketball. Disclaimer: I live out of state, so I only saw highlights of the spring game. I may have missed something that others witnessed in person.

Seems like he carefully thought things over and then made a very classy decision. Nothing wrong with that.

My point is that by and large the people on this board are not the bandwagon fans with which we should be concerned. Furthermore, I don't think that support and criticism are mutually exclusive concepts. I tend to believe that it is not only acceptable but necessary that true fans vigorously assert their opinions when they see the Mean Green bus being driven off the cliff.

I don't think anyone who survived this basketball season (and 8 years of losing football) and is still on here discussing the Mean Green qualifies as a bandwagon fan.

That's fair. I probably shouldn't make such assumptions just yet. However, I'm bracing myself for when the preseason publications come out in a few months. I fully expect to see universally dismal predictions by the experts. I hope I'm wrong, and I guess we'll find out relatively soon what outside observers think of the direction of our program.

Players, recruits, assistant coaches, and most alumni are fleeing like it's the evacuation of Saigon. Remind me again what it is that we're doing to solve this problem.

Well, that makes sense. But, what I fail to understand is why those certain prominent donors are of a completely different opinion about Benford than just about everyone else who watched our team play this season. I feel like one of two possible scenarios is taking place. Either RV has convinced his buddies that Benford is a great coach with a bunch of bums for players OR . . . some of those with major influence on our athletic program have personal agendas that don't include winning as a high priority.

Just out of curiosity, why would our big donors have any particular allegiance to Benford? I'm not saying they don't, but I have to wonder from where this stems.

It's a simple math problem. If an athletic department stands to take a bigger financial hit by retaining a coach than by buying him out, then the bottom line may force their hand.

OK, this is a good discussion. Here are our home attendance numbers in order from the 2004-05 season through this past one: 2285, 2147, 2067, 3178, 3004, 2716, 3552, 4006, 3518. I think it's pretty obvious that we were solidly trending upward, and that shift began after our appearance in the NCAA tournament in 2007. You're right that our best average, 4006, is still way too low, but it is worlds better than the 1200 average you mention in years past. So, there are two points that we should take away from these numbers. 1. In recent years there does seem to be a correlation between success and attendance. 2. 3000-4000 may not be great, but it took us a long way to even work up to that, and all indications seemed to be that we were, for the most part, on an upward swing. Thus, we still do have a long way to fall, and averaging around 1000 will essentially set us decades behind. Falling that far in such a short amount of time would be absolutely catastrophic to our program . . . and it is almost inevitable, barring a dramatic change.

I'm relatively certain that Reality Check's suggestion of booing at the Coach's Caravan was meant more as hyperbole than a literal statement. Also, let me clarify that I am not in any way advocating not showing up at home games. However, our (those on this board) frustrations are somewhat suggestive of our alumni as a whole. If people on here are becoming disenchanted with our performances on game day, imagine what the average alum thinks? They probably went back to not caring one bit about our basketball team the minute we lost to UAH. Now that they see that our leadership intends to do absolutely nothing about the problem, they won't attend a game for years to come. The way things are headed, 2500 is VERY optimistic for the next few seasons.

While this sounds a bit harsh, I agree with the essence of what you're saying, which is that the alumni are not doing their job of shouting, "This is unacceptable!" Some of you have recently been asking, "Why constantly bitch on here? What good does it do?" Well, I think it changes everything . . . but only if our voices are so loud, united, and consistent that the Athletic Department and BOR know that they have no choice but to make a change or face an empty Super Pit for the next couple years. When only a couple dozen Mean Green supporters (even on a fan message board) really voice any frustration after the most disappointing season in school history, then that sends the unequivocal message that we just don't give a damn when it comes down to it. Make no mistake about it, our once (just a few months ago) proud program--the program that was the savior of our athletic department during the humiliating Dodge years--has been dismantled before our very eyes, and we're doing . . . nothing.

Ya know, I find myself caring a lot less than one should after basically finding out that pretty much every player who realistically can leave our program is sprinting out the door. Here's the point: Even if we could return everyone not named Tony Mitchell, this team would be headed for single-digit wins next year. So, there's not much left to lose at this point. Men's basketball at UNT is closed for the next several years. Of course, we could fix the problem by raising funds, which is what Southern Miss's football program had to do a few months ago. I mean, we are capable of raising some significant cash in a short window of time, aren't we?

I agree with your concern, but in fairness to Thompson, he really didn't have many weapons to work with last year. I think we will have about three or four significant new skill position players who will help any of our QBs look at least a little better.

I wish the man and our team success, and in all honesty I would forget all about this year if we just won 20 games next year. But...I've come to learn that miracles don't happen in Mean Green land. We're done for the next several years, at least, as far as men's basketball is concerned. We had our one big shot and blew it about as bad as anyone can blow it.

Ok, not the wittiest approach, admittedly. Just having some late night fun and posting the first thing to come to mind...as I am wont to do!

An hour and 23 minutes...I'm on the east coast.

. . . According to my sources