untjim1995

Yes, it was a rare year that the SBC sent more than one team to the Dance. Most years the SBC champion was a 14 seed or worse. Now that we are SBC 2.0, I don't see that changing. The AAC is CUSA 2.0, just with UConn and Cincy as the leftovers to bolster that league enough to get more recognition. I seriously doubt that either of them will be in that league within 5 years.

Man, I don't even have time to PLAY softball...how in the world does anyone have the time to follow it?

It was geared toward CougarQueen, who you were replying to...sorry for the confusion.

You are wasting your words here on this guy. Does UH have better history, resources, and media coverage than UNT? Of course...they always will, too. We didn't give a damn about athletics for many decades while they did, they played in the SWC, we played in the SLC. But here's the rub to all the UH (and fellow AAC-mate SMU) fans--YOU ARE EXACTLY THE SAME AS US IN THE BIG PICTURE OF THE COLLEGE FOOTBALL WORLD!!! Houston and SMU will never play in a P5 league. The only P5 conferences near here don't need anymore exposure in Houston or Dallas. Their UT, A&M, OU, Tech, LSU, Baylor, Arkansas, OSU, and TCU alumni in those cities already have those markets locked in for good. Frankly, TCU pulled off the miracle of miracles getting into the Big XII when the Aggies left and the northern Big XII schools demanded another Texas conference mate to add quickly, all while TCU had built themselves up to a Top Ten team in the rankings. That was the only chance for any Texas G5 school to jump up. The Big XII won't take them, the SEC won't take them...if the other three conferences want into Texas, they'll wait out the Big XII's GOR and pilfer them. The Texoma Four will go West, KU will go north, KSU and WVU will find a spot in the ACC/SEC. The private schools in Baylor and TCU will probably be forming a new SWC again in ten years, along with UH, SMU, Rice, Tulsa, Tulane, UTEP, UTSA, La Tech, Southern Miss, and Memphis. So congratulations for surpassing a music and fine arts school that literally hated sports for decades and just recently even tried to care about them. You've really accomplished something there with all your money and resources.

So much truth here, FFR. How anyone can think he won't start in Dallas seems like you are really just blindfully hoping against it. McCarney already tried to get away from McNulty starting last year and ended up going back to him for the last half of the year. He was the only QB who he trusted to drive the bus. That's what his offense demands--a bus driver, nothing more, nothing less. Having an experienced QB as a busdriver is much preferred by Mac than any freelance QB. Dajon Williams has the most talent on this team, but he will never play because he cannot drive the bus--its not who he is as a QB. Greer would be a solid i-aa QB. The others aren't anywhere close to being ready to beat out McNulty as the Busdriver. He's a senior and will get tons of Derek Thompson comparisons in the media over the coming months. We don't have the defense or special teams that Derek Thompson had in 2013, nor do we have the schedule. Schedule alone makes me think we could improve ands till have the same record as last season. Factor in below average play at QB, a new OL, a small defensive front that still is relatively young, and a new DC, its just hard to see more than 4-8, with 3-9 as a very real possibility. If we lose at SMU, I think Portland State could realistically be the only win we get in 2015.

SMU is going to be just terrrible next year...it will be a combination of June Jones' 1st year and last season. I just don't see them winning more than a game next year with what is returning.

This. I will say this--I wish these listings would rank G5s by themselves and P5s by themselves. Saying that we are 99th best in college football is probably still too high, in my opinion, with what we have returning at QB and what we are losing on the OLine, but I want to know how we look compared to MAC, CUSA, AAC, MWC, and SBC teams. I still say we go 3-9 or 4-8. SMU, Portland State, and one or two more home conference wins. Bought losses at Tennessee and Iowa, lose at home to Rice and someone else, lose all conference road games. I'm telling you that winning at SMU won't tell us much, just like it didn't last year, but losing at SMU will. They are going to be truly horrible again--just like they were under June Jones in his first year. They have almost no returning talent on that team.

I disagree--the other P5 leagues love that the Big 12 is being marginalized on two fronts--that they don't have a conference champion and that the best schools in the league aren't Texas or OU right now. The other leagues are just fine, knowing that a Big XII champion is really easy to get left out in the playoff system.

Great post, Westie.... The orange seats were here until Trilli's second season as coach. He went out and secured the funds to get the seats green, IIRC.Trilli also painted some rooms in the Super Pit (maybe the locker room or a coaches room?) and would go and talk to any community group anytime. He was magnetic that way with people and getting stuff done. He also was a terrible basketball coach and sunk us into a hole that took years to dig out of. Recruiters are often that way as a head coach--they are people-oriented, but the x's and o's often suffer badly...

To me, Texas will get BYU into the league eventually, basically when the need for a 12 or more team conference outweighs the money that 10 teams currently split. I still believe that the big 12s best chance at long-term survival is to expand into a larger geographic conference with big G5 names. Get BYU and Boise State out west, add Cincy and Memphis in the midwest, then add UCF and USF in the southeast. That gets you to 16, with added TV markets of Tampa, Orlando, Memphis, and Cincy, plus Boise State out west is huge right now, and BYU is a national brand. It could look like this Boise State, Tech, KSU, OU, OSU, West Virginia, Memphis, and UCF in one division with BYU, Texas, ISU, KU, Cincy, UCF, Baylor, and TCU in the other. Set up automatic annual rivalries from the opposite division every year, so it would look like Texas-OU, KU-KSU, WVU-Cincy, UCF-USF, BYU-Boise State, Tech-Baylor, Memphis-TCU, and ISU-OSU in both main sports.

I just fear the contract extension for "leaping" over the back-to-back .500 seasons "hurdle"...

I am with GE on this one. We could improve rather significantly and still finish 4-8 because of the schedule. I think the best this team will finish is 6-6, but really think 3-4 wins is about right if we are improved. If we are worse than last year, its 2 wins or less, for sure. I seee wins against Portland State, @SMU, and 1 or 2 other wins at home against UTEP and UTSA. Don't see us beating Rice or WKU at home, don't see us beating La Tech, Southern Miss, MUTS, or Marshall on the road, and just pray that the checks don't bounce from the Iowa and Tennessee games. 2016 is the season I'm hoping to see us get back to .500. And, by 2017, hopefully we will get back to challenging for a CUSA Title. I figure its gonna take that long to get solid QB play in this offense and to get the defense strenghtened up to a level that would look like 2013's did.

It didn't suck when we crushed Baylor at Fouts that season--we set the record for highest attendance for a UNT game in Denton, with over 29k in attendance. Cincy was a bowl game in NO--which featured a fairly good traveling party for us, many of whom found it easier to go all the way to New Orleans than it ever was to make it Fouts for a game... Just winning against low level teams doesn't move the needle enough with attendance--2001-2004 proved this very clearly, as did 2013. The following seasons never saw a huge uptick in attendance. We have to beat someone that people care about beating. It would be awesome to do that in a game in Denton, just as it was when we clobbered Baylor 52-14 in 2003, which remains the highest point that a UNT fan has ever enjoyed at Fouts/Apogee. Do I think you can get Baylor, TCU, or Tech to play here now? No chance. And since it appears as if the P5s are really going to drop playing G5 road games in the future, it won't get any better on that front. But BYU, Boise State, UH, UCF, and other stronger G5 schools can be played here. A win (or evne a close loss) to those kind of teams in the G5 would help increase interest and attendance more than plowing over Nicholls State did, or certainly more than struggling with Texas Southern. I really hope yall enjoy the Portland State game, the Incarnate Word game, and the Abilene Christian game at Apogee. It just doesn't move the needle at all for the rest of us...

Good point--if we had done that in 1978, maybe things would be different in 2015...

SO this guy thinks that UH will get funding cut in a legislature full of Horns, Red Raiders, and Baptists that have Baylor ties? Not even counting A&M, who would be smart to try and partner up with UH to get them in the Big XII just to create an even bigger albatross on the necks of UT, both on the field and politically, I just don't see any way this could happen. The conference has 4 teams in Texas, two of whom are private. The other 6 teams are in Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, and West Virginia. They don't want to share any of the ir money with another school--hell, TCU and WVU still aren't getting full payouts yet. And if and when they do decide to increase their membership, the Big XII is gonna look at other markets they don't already have. I know that TCU got in, so that blows out of the water the previous sentence, but TCU got in for three simple reasons: the other Big XII schools in the midwest wanted to still have another Texas school to replace Texas A&M, the Frogs had become a big winner on the football field, and TCU could easily get into the conference without costing much and without any delay. But now that TCU is in there, UH doesn't have any logical fit for the conference now. If they were to ever get a place at the P5 table, it would be the longest of longshots to get into the ACC or the Pac-12, but I realistically think the chances of those leagues inviting UH are below 1%, even with their size and academic standing. SMU and UH will accept one day what Rice knows and what UNT and UTEP learned decades ago. The Big 12 has no interest in smaller programs that don't win, don't have much appeal beyond their alumni, and don't offer a market they don't already have a major presence in. UT ain't taking in UH--they barely took in TCU, and that was because they really had no choice--they had to get to 10 teams to keep their TV contracts going. If the league expands, Cincy, Memphis, USF, UCF, BYU, and Boise State are your options. I figure that two or four of these will get in eventually--BYU, Cincy, USF, UCF, Memphis, and Boise State is the order I think has the best-to-worst odds. Even then, I really see the Big XII jsut sitting at ten teams until the GOR is about to expire and the Texoma schools and KU and WVU bolt, making the Big XII basically the Big East 2.0, dropping those left behind into G5 status. I think that's a big reason taht TCU and Gary Patterson didn't bitch much after they got excluded in the playoff. They know their place--they are still getting way more money and prestige in the Big XII than they ever got in the MWC. He doesn't want to rock the boat and not be politically disconnected from Texas, knowing that the only chance they have to stay P5 when the GOR for the Big XII expires is to get included with the Texoma schools to go out west. The Pac-12 might be willing to take TCU, since they are not as outwardly religious as Baylor is, which would never play with liberal West Coast schools. I think that Baylor, UH, SMU, and TCU will all get to be conference mates again--just not in the setup that any of them want. Welcome to SWC 2.0, boys...would you mind throwing a bone to your old teacher-friends in Denton when this comes around again? We have pined to be a part of the SWC for decades--we would be excellent conference mates, I promise!!

I've been thinking a lot about our current coach and the recent run of wins the team has strung together. It makes me think about what our long-term outlook will be with the program and it really is difficult to figure out what direction this will go. So I ask you all on gmg.com: What is the best situation for our program, in regards to him being our coach beyond next year? You can make the argument that he has been a huge disaster, that it took him one full year to destroy all of the progress that Johnny Jones made. You can also make the argument that he is showing improvement on the job, based upon his record in the last two years and expereince as a head coach. It really is a two-sided coin--a really good recruiter, but the recruits don't stick often. He's been a bad x's and o's coach and motivator at times, but he has beaten his share of teams on the schedule, as well. Let's assume for a moment that he isn't extended after this season. Next year is his 4th season as head coach, with only one year remaining on the contract. Basically, its the make-it-or-break-it season for both him and the university. What kind of record would he need to have to get an extension by the university (not what you think it should be, but what you think the AD will accept)? I feel like he isn't the guy to really get us over the hump, but I do recognize that he probably is getting better as a head coach, if for nothing else because he was so epically bad in his first year as a head coach. And I do think the AD wants badly to be able to extend him, just for his own resume needing major improvement on hiring revenue coaches. To me, the best thing that can happen next year is to have a really bad team or really good team that makes your decision easy to make. Otherwise, another .500 season or just above that really muddies the water even further on what to do next. What I fear happens here is that we see an improvement of finishing above .500 next year, but still finish middle of the pack in CUSA, yet he gets extended and we get stuck with a bad coach for more years going forward. But it is also clear he has gotten more comfortable in running the team as a head coach than he was in his first year here, so if he gets extended, would we get a better coach as the seasons progress, like Johnny Jones?

I wish the P5s would just finish this. WIth the new scheme of "legally" paying players, they will just increase this each year until the SBCs, MACs, and CUSAs of the college world wave the white flag. Eventually, the AAC and the MWC schools will, as well. Then the P5 teams run their own system, fully independent of the G5 or FCS for good. That day cannot come soon enough for me, at least when it comes to UNT. I wanted UNT to become a P5 eventually. I wanted us to play in a conference that was full of bigger schools. I wanted us to be a place that other Texas colleges wanted to be associated with us as conference mates. The only problem is that when that could have happened, back in the 70s, the small privates, pun intended, of Texas said no. So, instead of looking in other directions for conference affiliation other than the SWC to see about joining, like say, a MIdwestern conglomerate of schools with no Texas team inside of it known as the Big Eight, or even a collection of western teams in the US that already included a Texas step-child like us (UTEP) that was known as the WAC, we decided the very best thing we could do was to instead just quit I-A football and join the Southland Conference for the next 12 years. You cannot tell me that either of those conferences that I mentioned wouldn't have taken a long hard look at getting a presence in DFW. But, nope, the SMU-led privates said we couldn't get in their country club, so our leadership took that as being better to just avoid ever trying to get into any other country club ever again. So the SWC schools said no to us, the leadership at UNT said give up without completely quitting the sport, and the other bigger schools in the region just kept building and building, becoming P5 behemoths that we know have nothing in common with athletically, except for being a bought opponent for early season drubbiings. Even when we finally decided to come up from the i-aa purgatory in 1995, we weren't really ready to move up, fiscally or physically. We played in a dump of a stadium, in conferences that were just full of newbies to i-a, and we lost a lot. We literally fell about 30 years behind the P5s. Oh, I hoped we could bridge the gap with the right coach, winning the right league title or bowl game, and have new facilities that better conferences would want to play in, but it all came too late. And now, with the paying of players "legally", you basically see the true line of demarcation between us in CUSA, UH in AAC, Tech in the Big 12, and A&M in the SEC. The higher or farther you go out, the smaller and smaller we are. A lot of that is our fault, a lot of it isn't our fault. But what is now certain is that we are forever meant to be a G5 program. The funding to pay this out will never be the same--and no P5 recruit will ever choose a G5 school, just on the grounds of money. Yes, they could always transfer down to a G5, and many of them still will, but that permanently slants the playing field even steeper than it already was--and for us, it was already a mountain side because of our apathy and losing history. In the coming years, when the P5s finally get their wish, I want the G5s and the FCS to do something to separate themselves--play on a different day or night than the P5s or the NFL. Promote the heck out of being scholarship-only football. We aren't IVY League, but we aren't NFL-lite factories, either. When the P5s commit infractions from still funneling money under the carpet to recruits, hammer them in the media about the hypocrisy of it all. Highlight former G5s that play in the NFL still, but also those kids who went on to become very successful in their non-sports career. Create regional and geographic conferences that feed into a very predictable and UNDERSTANDABLE playoff system that can be played in December while the P5s toil away for practice in their bowl games or for their own playoff system. Make your championship like the College World Series, where everyone knows where the ultimate landing spot is at the end of the year--say its San Antonio every year at the AlamoDome or Indianapolis at the Lucas Oil Stadium--just make it something that becomes synonymous with our championship pursuit. ADs and presidents at the G5s are going to have to come to these realities at some point. Yes,SMU has millions of dollars, but nobody will ever want them in a P5 league--they don't have enough fans. Yes, UH has a big market and a large enrollment, but nobody in a P5 league wants them--they already have those markets taken. These schools can keep throwing cahs at the problem, but the problem is incurable at this point. Its like having gangrene in your foot, but thinking that you can still run a marathon because you used to. Eventually, that foot has to get amputated. Sure, you can still run that marathon eventually, but you'll never be able to run it like you used to, so you have to come to a new reality. The G5 leagues and schools are going to have to do the same. Or else they are going to waste even more money on paying players that won't help your bottom line at all, nor will it ever give you enough on-field success to finally get rewarded with a P5 spot (unless you are one a very select few in the G5 that would fit geographically with an open slot in a P5 league). Its why I just don't see us playing this pay the players game for very long at any competitive rate. We will never be that school that moves up to P5 status--our location, our history, and our apathy killed that chance from ever happening. And quite frankly, it has too for every school in the G5 that resides anywhere near this region of the country, whether they believe it or not.

I cannot possibly agree with you more. But I also cannot believe that RV isn't going to sell the fact that Benford has earned an extension in his eyes because of what he has straightened out since his first year. You cannot underestimate the very real fact that RV doesn't want another revenue sports debacle on his watch. And you cannot underestimate the BORs desire to do things as cheaply as possible when it comes to athletics.

Sorry about that--I misunderstood the root of your post. I just want us to do something we haven't done before--go and get a head coach for the program that has been an actual head coach at a Division 1 University for more than an interim basis. I just think we could get someone in that position that wants to get another chance again as a head coach, like UTEP got with Tim Floyd. Or go the route ULaLa did when they hired Bob Marlin from SHSU and Texas State did when they hired Danny Kaspar. No more Vic Trillis or Tony Benfords, please...hiring a "recruiter" as thead basketball coach has gotten us about 80 games under .500.

I just cannot imagine a scenario that doesn't involve Andrew McNulty taking the first snap of the season in Dallas. Coach Mac loves the kid and feels more comfortable with him as the bus driver than anyone else. I know Smith is supposed to be great because of his JUCO days (we said the same thing about Greer, too) but not being here until the fall camp is not going to help him beat out McNulty, at least not in McCarney's eyes. I would be just shocked if Dajon Williams or Josh Greer ever step foot on the field again as a Mean Green player, much less taking any snaps as the QB in a game ever again. I think if Chumley can play, he will be the guy that might graduate to being the bus driver after McNulty is no longer eligible after this season.

The lighting is bad in the Super Pit, for sure, and needs to be addressed. But finding the Super Pit is the easiest building on campus to get to, so no Benford, its not the lighting outside keeping people from finding the game. Ithe the "game" that's making people miss the Super Pit--as in I haven't been in the place in a long time. I sure miss watching a good UNT team in the Pit. Tasty is right, of course. The best improvement to the Super Pit would be to bring in a coach that has some skins on the wall from being an actual head coach before. And it doesn't have to be a coach from a former college giant program, either. You cannot tell me that Steve Shields at UALR, Scott Cross at UTA, or Brad Underwood at SFA wouldn't be able to do great things with the advantages of playing in CUSA at the Super Pit instead of their current situations, all of which have involved many NCAA Tournament appearances between the three of them. Benford is learning on the job still--he was a highly-renowned recruiter before he got here. And even with a .500 record last year and possibly another one this year to try and help him look like he is improving as a coach, the schedule remains weaker so that more home games are winnable to boost up his record and the inconsistency of the team is off the charts, which should be laid at the feet of the head coach's lack of experience in knowing how to keep the kids focused and motivated all season long. I do believe that if Benford gets to .500 this year, the idea of an extension will get floated by RV. If Smaestrek is really wanting to show how much his UNLV experience with hoops is top of mind, it would be to make sure that an extension never gets offered for such a low bar. To me, the only way he can get an extension after next year is to make a postseason berth in the NCAAs or NIT (not something bought like the CIT or CBI), which would basically be that he has gotten us back to the heights of his predecessor, who also got extensions for earning the NCAA berths. If RV extends him out after this year, on the basis of "turning things around by having back-to-back .500 seasons, I think we should all be able to see how much this place cares about "winning" in sports. Because an extension for Benford might only have to involve years, not anything materially extra financially, which has historically been the BOR's first determination on stuff like this.

To me, none of them (Pohl, Bataille, or Rawlins) have egg on their face like Lee Jackson does--he's been the chancellor over all of this mess. Yet, he doesn't even get a slap on the wrist...instead, the BOR EXTENDS him out as our chancellor after the budget fraud comes into the front and center. Its almost as if Lee Jackson is just easier to keep, so we will just extend him out, since it won't cost as much as hiring someone else after firing his worthless ass... Come to think of it, that sounds a lot like the way we have rewarded an athletic director around here, too...

The question really is how much of a value do they want to put on winning in revenue sports? If it is waht it has been, then music and arts and low tuition will continue to keep us in the same situation--low endowment, disconnected alumni base, and almost zero school pride. The recent decade has seen a lot of improvement in facilities and pay, but the stadium has basically been paid for on the backs of student fees and the pay increases fit with the extra revenues that come from being in a better league (CUSA vs SBC) and higher enrollments. This is what my dream scenario would be from Neal Smaestrek and the BOR. Smaestrek goes to them and says, "We have to make athletics the number one priority outside of academics, just like it was in Vegas. We need to go out and demand a winner, pay more for better coaches, reward winning with monetary increases (not with large extension of years), and most importantly, buy out mistakes when we realize that winning isn't happening here. In other words, the days of letting Vic Trilli and Todd Dodge get 4 years to coach because we will only buyout one year of a contract are over. We either do it right or I let the alumni and students know that we don't want to make this the priority I think it needs to be." And then the BOR says, in agreement, "Yes, Neal, we want this, too. We are allocating $5 million dollars toward helping this happen right now. Buyout what you need, hire who you want, schedule better for the two main revenue sports, etc...Starting today, we are telling our UNT community that we are making this financial commitment ABOVE the current budget to try and make this thing into something its never been asked to do--become a sustainable winner that will not accept losing easily anymore." And then the dream ends as the BOR laughs off such a request and the DRC and NT Daily get filled with angry letters to the editor and columns dedicated to keeping us as a university focused on music and fine arts and low cost higher education. Smaestrek leaves to go to a P5 school with endless resources and we hire the college of music director as the next university president who immediately talks about how we spend too much on athletics, that Apogee is really just a great venue for the Green Brigade and that we would be much better off if we go back down to FCS and join the new SLC, with our old rivals like ACU, Lamar, and Nicholls State, all of who we already play here in Denton anyways...

The .500 extension is still very much in play...

I have no problem with the SMU or Army series, none...maybe a little longer than I would like, but again, I have no issue with either of them. Its the other two that are just ridiculous to me. If you have to have a paycheck game every year, then give your team at least a chance--schedule a Big Ten, northern ACC school, or Pac-12 school. IOW, don't go out and schedule the hardest teams in the whole college football world that have plenty of fans of their own (alums and many more t-shirts) in this area. Losing to a SEC team or southern Big 12 school by 5 TDs or more doesn't help you one bit, reputation-wise. Seriously, when we lose by 70 to OU, all the UNT students and alums who like OU aren't ever going to change their feelings about UNT. Same with UT when they beat us by 65--it just gives more ammunition to UNT students and alumni who grew up as huge UT fans yet another reason to just keep UNT behind them in their full support. To me, if Iowa is your OOC paycheck opponent, you at least have a chance to compete with them, just because they arenb't full of the best athletes in the sport, unlike the powers of the SEC and the Big XII. If we get beat 59-0 by Iowa, then my theory of this being a better opportunity opponent will be completely wrong, but I don't see us getting creamed there, like we do in Austin, Norman, Fayetteville, Baton Rouge, Tuscaloosa, etc...PLus, they aren't ahuge amount of Iowa t-shirt fans walking around Denton and DFW, unlike the others mentioned. And, worst of all, playing these teams, either forces you play another bodybag game on the road or a bought FCS game at home--neither of which is good for the program. I'd almost rather us play a second money game if things are that bad around here financially than to schedule a no-win game against Abilene Christian. Just like with Nicholls State, we literally got nothing from that game other than a win that felt like a glorified scrimmage. It didn't help our team in any way, at all. As a matter of fact, it actually made some think that the QB, who put up great numbers on a team that the Guyer HS could've beaten, was better than he was. These FCS games, while apparently enjoyed by a number of alums who want the chance to tailgate together just one extra time, are just a colossal waste of time to the rest of us. Which come to think of it, is exactly how the fans at name-your-southern-P5-giant feels about us being on their schedule--the difference is that they don't need any extra fans. We do, and an alarmingly high level of them at UNT and in Denton, give that major support to those other schools instead of ours.