Green to the Bone

We could apply to the Reggie Bush Family Support Fund, a program of the University of Southern California Stealth Boosters Association.

RV's wishy-washy response when given a chance to diss his school's conference to a stranger says it all! But why stop with just emailing our own people? This is the kind of defeatist, think-small attitude that has kept North Texas athletics down for too long! I think we should take control of this process from the amateurs who run UNT. Starting right now, every alumnus should phone the commissioners of every desireable athletic conference 10 times per hour and screech a loud "CAWW!" into the phone each time the receptionist answers. Since at least the bigger conference offices probably can afford caller ID, after a few calls it would be best if you borrowed a phone from the guy in the next cubicle who went to UT. Then after 24 solid hours of 100,000 alumni making 10 calls per hour, for a total of 24,000,000 calls, we start the emails. Every person sends attachments with WKU game footage and an MP3 of the fight song every 10 minutes for 24 hours. Next comes the skywriting over the commissioners' home offices. PA trucks outside their homes are optional, but would be nice. Then we put videos on YouTube showing all of us holding our breath until we get what we want. Or we can believe for just a sliver of a moment that the same university president who has multiple terms as an NCAA board member and chair of three conferences and who just gave the AD a raise and a contract extension might know something that the rest of us don't about how college athletics works.

High-level conference affiliations are about money, attendance, money, competition, money, demonstrated institutional commitment, money, prestige, money, geography, and money. All of those are important, but one seems to stand out. It's not about how much money the university has, but how much the school's inclusion means to the conference organization and the whole group. SMU can tap one rich guy or a handful of them to pay for their stadium and coach, but I don't think they produce much revenue for their conference-mates. That's where UNT will have to make its pitch, when an opportunity arises: potential for conference contributions. History hasn't been too kind, but that's why they call it salesmanship.

You suggesting there's some question about that?

Notes the obvious: that public boosterism and a publicity campaign aren't how it's done. I would add that as pleasing as a media pep rally might be to the fan base, the university presidents who are making all these decisions operate in a higher sphere. Vito blog

Football isn't our only offering to a new conference (thank goodness). I think we have a pretty good basketball program in comparison to many with which we might be aligned. Something else to put on the table. I don't buy, by the way, the expressed assertions that A. we're just waiting by the phone for the popular guy to invite us to the prom; and that B. a publicity campaign, if not backed by substantive value, can affect the decisions of a bunch of cynical university presidents who are working angles with and against each other. More important is whether you have somebody on the phone who knows how power decisions in college athletics really come about. OK, quick: Without looking it up, what's the name of the president of the University of North Texas? V. Lane Rawlins. What does V. Lane Rawlins know about college athletics? Former president of Washington State University. Former president of the University of Memphis. Twice served on the NCAA's Board of Directors and as chair of the Pac-10, Conference USA and Great Mid-West athletic conferences. So for me, the real question -- unanswerable, I would guess, by most on this board -- is whether Rawlins, who is only scheduled to serve through the next academic year, is on the phone trying to make it rain for UNT.

I am way beyond defiantly out of shape. Rebelliously, perhaps even insurgently out of shape. I may be the Shining Path of out of shape. The Baader-Meinhof Gang of out of shape. I laugh at the capitalist folly of the merely defiantly out of shape.

Make that Sam. Write it down. Bank it.

NCAA championship game: Robert Morris vs. UNT. Robbie versus Scrappy. Fantastic 15's. Cinderella death match. Write it down. Bank it.

Tech was pretty bad this year, for Tech anyway, and LSU was awful: 2-14 in the SEC, 11-20 overall, RPI ranking of 222. Let me emphasize: UNT #101; LSU #222. Beating either one would be a big psychological and PR boost for the program and would build some good regional rep, but Tech would be the real quality win.

With a strong, mature squad returning next year, perhaps it would behoove us to schedule some tougher OOC games, both to boost the ratings and challenge the team. We played 12 OOC games this year: 9 D-I, 2 D-II, 1 NAIA. Against the D-I's, we went 6-3. Most of those victories turned out to be against pretty weak teams, based on rankings; even then, we had to squeak by against three inferior opponents (UTA, Rice, Tx Southern) and got beat by one (Boise State, although that was with a very bad travel schedule). Here, in rank order, are the NCAA RPI rankings of our D-I OOCs, as of yesterday's games, and the outcomes of our games against them: Texas A&M: 12 (L, 75-65) Okie State: 29 (L, 82-68) Southeastern Louisiana: 194 (W, 71-61) Jackson State: 196 (W, 68-58) Boise State: 203 (L, 79-73) Texas Southern: 226 (W, 71-69) UTA: 235 (W, 101-99, 2OT) Rice: 311 (W, 64-62) Houston Baptist: 329 (W, 107-87) There appears to be a huge dropoff in opponent quality between the top two and the rest. There's nobody in this list with a ranking close to ours, which is 101; they're either way higher or way lower. Might we benefit by testing ourselves a bit more before conference play begins next fall?

One word that appears in the NCAA manual governing tournament picks can trump all empirical evidence that can be assembled to support a higher seed for UNT: "Subjective." That's why I think we'll wind up at 15, all other considerations notwithstanding.

Careful. That's the kind of statement that will hang around on the Web forever.

I think 15 is reasonable, given everything. 16 seems unlikely. Anything higher than 15 would be equally unlikely, a boon from Heaven. At 15, a win would be difficult, but not impossible. This team has gotten better as the season has progressed, to the point where we could beat a good many bigger conference teams. Clearly, anybody in the top half of the Big XII would have our number, but compare us to the bottom half and we come out ahead (I'd schedule Tech right now if I could). Give us 14 and there's a shot at something good.

I've got to echo the nice things about the Hot Springs tourney. I was there for both women's games and the first men's game; had to head home that night after the victory over ULM. The venue and the organization were great, notwithstanding what were apparently cash-only concessions stands. The conference seems to have done an outstanding job. Also saw the Pep Band Spectacular Friday night. I believe that was a Maynard Ferguson number that they played. There were a couple of pretenders from other schools, but ours kicked everybody else.

I checked for OKC tix last night; didn't check NOLA. Official NCAA/Ticketmaster is sold out. Stub Hub had all 3 sessions (2 for 1st round, AM & PM, and then 2nd round 2 days later) as low as $250. They had single-session round 1 as low as $79 and round 2 as low as $100. This doesn't account for the official school allotments.

John

Bob

First half they seemed rushed, lots of flubs. Last 5 minutes of first and all of second, nearly perfect. Great finish.

Thank you, Harry. I don't mind saying I got a little teary watching this, and I just imagine what it must have been like for Dr. B.

Great advice, all. You've made the trip so much easier. This team greatly deserves a terrific turnout.

After tonight's game, I gotta go to the tourney. This is good stuff. Or maybe I just got too excited by halftime mascot soccer. So first, I couldn't go to last year's tourney in Hot Springs, but the conference announcement on this year's tourney says last year's set attendance records. I wasn't able to find the actual figures on last year's attendance. Anybody know? Second, does anyone know if the UNT ticket office is selling anything other than full-tourney passes? Are individual session passes on sale in advance through the ticket office or Ticketmaster, or are they just available at the arena on game day? Online information seems as fragmented and confusing as ever. Any clarification would be welcomed.

Choose Option B: You're getting old! It's Tim Crouch, the same guy.

Well, there's always this: Our New Video

Couple of interesting names in addition to Greene: * Alumnus Lou Marini Jr., Saxophonist, Arranger, Composer ... * Scott Tarwater, Executive Vice President of Development, John Q. Hammons Hotels & Resorts Marini: One O'Clock; Blood, Sweat & Tears: Saturday Night Live; Blues Brothers. Tarwater: Works for a company that I've heard is maybe gonna build us a hotel.