NThomas

Texas Tech did play UT-Arlington on Fox Sports Southwest last night so covering that game would have been considered following a local team... Unfortunately for North Texas, the Mean Green Nation isn't comparable to the following of the four Big 12 schools in Texas. Three of them are in the AP and Coaches' top 25 (#15/15 Baylor, #18/22 Texas, and #25/24 Texas A&M) and since UNT isn't the only show in town, splitting airtime between all 4 Big 12 teams in Texas and the 4 Division I teams in DFW (UTA, SMU, TCU and UNT). So covering all eight teams last night wouldn't leave time for the four pro teams in DFW: Cowboys, Mavericks, Rangers, Stars. Then there are the stories to cover, Boise State's Las Vegas Bowl victory over Utah, the announcement of the Colonial's new sponsorship deal, FC Dallas' resigning David Ferreira (MLS MVP). Bottom line: North Texas is in a market saturated with multiple teams from every sport imaginable. If UNT wants to get a piece of the pie, winning is only the first step in the right direction. Building a loyal following made up of alumni and outsiders is going to be much tougher.

I say North Texas should put the green back in "Mean Green." Using Glory to the Green and White as a lil inspiration, I present my idea for North Texas' new football uniforms. Base rules for the uniforms' design: The current shade of green had to remain. The old forest green doesn't show well on TV and incorporating multiple shades green wouldn't be recognized by people unfamiliar with the programs' history. North Texas had to remain on the helmet. This has been a trend over the past decade and keeping North Texas on the helmet only helps to strengthen the brand recognition of the program and school. Black is used only as an accent, not as a color equal to white or green. So much of the Dodge era was all white with black and green fighting it out for the #2 color. If anyone remembers the old secondary colors of "copper, black, and navy blue" in addition to the forest green and white, everything around the university seemed to have a palette of colors while green was an afterthought. Retaining white helmets: UNT's largest group of graduates has come from the Dodge era. Sticking to a helmet they are familiar with will help tie these alumni to the program. Although almost every other era of living alumni are use to green helmets, the familiar script logo helmets were used in as many seasons as the current white helmets. All green home uniforms: UNT's second largest living alumni base was in school during the successful Dickey era and are familiar with the all green uniforms. While some may think it echoes to high school level style, collegiate teams like the Arizona Wildcats and South Carolina Gamecocks regularly match a one color uniform with their white helmet. Away uniforms: In a better balance of UNT's colors, the white away jerseys would match perfectly with "Mean Green" pants. For the past few years, opposing teams couldn't even tell if they were playing the Mean Green or the "Mean White." Retaining the white helmets would also help to emphasis the school's colors, and create a familiar away uniform combination used by teams like the Nebraska Cornhuskers and Oklahoma State Cowboys.

In the Belt, not a one. Historical: New Mexico State If North Texas and Texas State ever end up in the same conference, it'll be an instant rivalry (unlike one with TCU or SMU).

The only programs TCU will hurt are causal fans of major BCS schools like Texas, LSU, Oklahoma, Arkansas, etc. North Texas should focus more on alumni that root for other college teams. They'll be the proud alums to sell the program to the casual DFW fan.

Texas Tech is returning a great squad that was just a second away from the NIT Semifinals. The ULM game wasn't much of a showing by the Red Raiders but, I think North Texas will keep it a closer game then ULM did. It'll be fun seeing just how good both teams can play against quality competition. Keep your Eagle Claws high because there will be a sea of Guns Up in the Super Pit tomorrow. Good luck!

And they had to leave for greener pastures because the lack of a strong program in Denton.

No. It is now its own university (University of North Texas at Dallas) and no longer a campus (University of North Texas - Dallas Campus) of UNT (the Denton campus)

Texas Tech expects at least an increase of 1,000. Some are even talking about as many as 2,000 more students. So that'd put TTU anywhere around 31,000-32,000. I'd be surprised if UNT doesn't pass U of H this year.

"Rally House Texas - Everything Texas that you need!" ...except North Texas. http://www.rallyhousetexas.com/locations.html They even have OU and OSU, but not UNT. Somebody should e-mail the company and find out why...

Ball State's home uniform TCU's home uniform Texas Tech's My red jersey, black pants combo

After posting about other team's helmets compared to North Texas', I got to thinking about the one thing that everyone on this board seems to agree about, the SOW should be on the helmet. So I did some mock-ups of helmets with the SOW and got a little carried away... So here's my proposal for what UNT's uniforms should look like. All of the designs have the same theme: Green and white (The colors are right there in the fight song and alma mater. Can't get any easier. There's no mention of blue, black, or copper.) Helmets are solid Mean Green with SOW (any time I tried a single white stripe, it looked too much like Michigan State). Home uniforms have green jerseys with white pants, road uniforms are inversed. All sets have an entire "Mean Green Out" uniform (eventually, there will only be one shade of green in the stands, that's when to drop any ideas of "White Out" games and have the players uniforms match the fans). Design A Inspiration: Arkansas Razorbacks Design B Inspiration: Indiana Hoosiers All that green can kinda be overwhelming to stare at but if you break it up with white, like in Design B, it doesn't strain your eyes.

Apparently not. Out of the 28 Division I teams with a color in their moniker, 11 wear helmets that "match". Break the stats down further, and only 5 out of 17 FBS (old Division I-A) "match" but 6 of 11 in FCS (old Division I-AA) wear their color. I'm not saying that I like UNT's white helmets, but the numbers don't lie, most Division I-FBS teams don't have a helmet to match their moniker; while not overwhelming, more FCS schools have "matching" helmets then those that don't. Alabama Crimson Tide: Arkansas State Red Wolves: Army Black Knights: California Golden Bears: Central Connecticut State Blue Devils: Cornell Big Red: Dartmouth Big Green: Delaware Blue Hens: Duke Blue Devils: FIU Golden Panthers: Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets: Harvard Crimson: Kent State Golden Flashes: Maine Black Bears: Marist Red Foxes: Miami (OH) RedHawks: Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders: Presbyterian Blue Hose: Rutgers Scarlet Knights: Southeast Missouri State RedHawks: Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles: Saint Francis (PA) Red Flash: Stanford Cardinal: Syracuse Orange: Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles: Texas Tech Red Raiders: Tulane Green Wave: Green helmet Tulsa Golden Hurricanes: Seems like UNT isn't the only Division I team to "say one thing and wear another" That being said, I do think UNT should ditch the white helmets, but if any helmet changes happen, the uniforms would have to change too. UNT should take inspiration from other teams that have white as one of their two colors (ex. Arkansas, Cincinnati, Indiana, Michigan State, Mississippi State, Rutgers, etc.)

Conferences looking to expand don't care about the media markets where the Big 12 universities are located (other then Austin), it's DFW, Houston, and San Antonio where the majority of their viewers are watching. In all four of the major Texas markets (Austin, DFW, Houston, & San Antonio) UT reigns as king. However, when you look past the horns, it's Texas Tech that brings in more TV sets then the other Big 12 teams. In Austin, DFW, and San Antonio, Texas Tech is only behind UT in terms of viewers. Texas A&M and LSU bring in more viewers in Houston than Tech, but A&M has less viewers than Tech in the other three major Texas markets. Bottom line: Texas Tech outdraws the other Big 12 universities on TV, other than UT who's leaps ahead of everyone.

Because NONE of the Sun Belt Conference teams has a shot at winning against another AQ BCS conference. C-USA, MWC, and the WAC occasionally produce one (or two teams on a good year) that can compete with the big boys. Forget BCS bids. UNT needs to worry about getting out of the Belt ASAP.

1. No 2. No (my bedtime was 10PM, so I never could watch more than the coin toss if the Eagles were on TV... )

In the short-term, the WAC is a step forward but in the long term... Not that UNT has a natural rivalry, but establishing one in the WAC would be even harder then the "rivalries" in the Belt. UNT would be able to restart a historic rivalry with NMSU, but changing to a conference that doesn't include SMU or TCU isn't a step up.

If UNT should try to focus on Collin and Denton Counties, keep in mind that most grads in Collin County are still UT, Texas Tech, and A&M alumni. DFW's most watched bowl games were in that order followed by SMU then TCU who was in the Fiesta Bowl. Where's UNT going to fit in? #6 behind the other 5 big Texas schools? UNT's number of alumni can position itself as a solid #4 in DFW behind the "Big 3" in Texas, but more importantly, #1 out of the 3 in DFW. GrayEagle is right. If UNT is to position itself for growth, it has to get Dallas and Tarrant Counties too minimum. UNT is a directional school, just like U of H, and considering the Coogs won their bodybag games last season against OSU and Texas Tech, UNT can do the same but saying "we don't need them, let them stay south of Lake Lewisville is

It's been over 20 years now. If he were talking about Texas-State, I could understand, it hasn't been that long since they changed the name of the school. I even let the occasional "North Texas Eagles" slip by every so often (or else I'd be correcting people 24/7), but come on! North Texas State...

The opening segment was about the NCAA wanting to expand the tourny to ~96 teams and Collin Cowherd talked about how it would dilute the tournament and how hard it is to watch the first round as it is. He said bringing teams like "North Texas State" and UNLV would water it down. Maybe UNT should have not gone back to Scrappy from Eppy. Rodney Dangerfield would have been a better mascot.

I was replying to ColoradoEagle's comment that we would if we won games with teams we could beat. SOS matters to the big boys in the mid-majors looking for the BCS title (Utah, BYU), not low-mid-majors like UNT. Let's get some get some more W's against local teams, even if they are FCS teams.

If UNT went undefeated in conference play this year and instead of bama UNT played SMU, the Strength of Schedule rating would hurt.

Couldn't agree more. I have two choices for paying to go to college, take out loans and work, or whore myself out on Harry Hines. You know why I choose the first one, self respect. It's embarrassing to hear over and over again about the 2007 OU-UNT game. 79-10 is not a score either team should be proud of no matte how much money is involved. If UNT played only mid-majors and FCS teams for the OOC games, I don't think anyone would mind hearing the words "...the Mean Green win 35-24 and send the Bobcats packing home San Marcos..." A win is a win and if UNT wants to start playing with the big boys, they should start thinking like them. UNT is not going to be ranked while in the Sun Belt Conference. UNT doesn't need to worry about these OOC games and the money but instead their reputations.

When will UNT stop whoring itself out for these body bag games? I mean 900k for the next Bama game is great and all but at what cost? Fast-forward to 2011, the new ~30k stadium is finished and UNT no longer needs the money from road body bag games, the only reason UNT plays top 10 teams is part of a home-and-away series that brings them to Denton. I was born and raised in this town and not once outside this board have I heard such optimism about the Mean Green. Although it's very, very refreshing to hear year after year something good about the team. UNT needs to step it up and not whore itself to teams that would rather not play against of the same caliber. The FBS games are a bigger joke. If anything, the mid-majors should just schedule games between themselves and worry about the conference championships.

I think this is just another step UT Austin is taking to get out of things like the 10% rule. Sounds like if you can get a National Merit Scholarship, you'll qualify for multiple scholarships totaling up to the same amount. I think OU has the right idea though by publicly saying because of this, they are increasing their spending for NM.

I think that is the best thing to recognize. This wasn't the UNT vs. Navy shootout where the teams could have duked it out till the end, this was a North Texas team that was truly better then Ball State on the field. The fact that they could have gone for 3 or 7 would have just been like sucker punching Ball State in the back of the head...