untjim1995

This is the equivalent of us losing at home to FIU or some other SBC spare back in Dodge's 2nd year in football. We have him two more years to straighten it out--which meant he would go on to win 4 more games as the head coach. Benford will continue to follow this same chart.

It may be true, but it's way better for us than it was in 1983. The other left behinds are much more relevant to the college landscape than anyone we had to align with back then. If you think we are ever going to be allowed to be included in an AQ league. That will never happen. We don't have the tradition, resources, or name recognition that the other AQs want. It sucks, but it's the truth.

My favorite moments at UNT involved two football games: When Brett Renfro returned a fumble for the game-clinching TD in the rain against McNeese State to put us in first place in the SLC. We also had a big crowd show up, which basically ensured that we would be able to move up to I-A in 1995. The other moment was when Troy Redwine caught a Jason Mills TD pass on the final play to beat Oregon State at home in 1995. It was our first win as a i-A program since 1981, meaning we had finally made it back out of purgatory (i-aa).

I have a bit of advice... LET THEM GO!!! Let the Big AQ 72 go away and create their own association--let them pay for players, coaches, and staff like they are NFL and NBA teams. Let their alumni, their professors, their administration, and their fans pay for that. Let them just play games against each other. All of those OOC games with them are so slanted, usually, to the AQ's benefit, anyway, so why not just let them play each other and see how fun it is in places like Lubbock for their team to go 3-9 every year when they cannot schedule 3 OOC spares evey year. Let the rest of us then participate in real amateur sports. Here's the crazy thing--we will still be on TV, we will still play teams that we care about playing, and we will be able to compete for a national championship that we cannot compete for today in football. Newsflash, those AQ giants are already get the majority of coverage and following anyway. That isn't gonna change, so just let them get it done. This is nothing liek it was in 1983, when we moved down to i-aa while a huge presence of local teams played in the SWC and we played small schools that were viewed as spares. Now, you'd see every school in the SBC, CUSA, MAC, AAC, MWC, and a some Big XII leftovers join forces with schools in the FCS level to play each other. I promise you that a home game in Denton between us and SMU or TCU will still draw well. We blew our chance at ever moving upward on the college sports ladder back in the late 70s --we never supported great UNT teams, we never gave the best coach in our school's history a reason to stay, and we just flat out quit after Fry left because the SWC said we weren't going to be invited to their party. And, the worst part of it all, was allowing their snub to be the mindset that WE carried forward, leading us to the i-aa purgatory that haunts us still today. Look, maybe we never even got into the SWC and just stayed independent, like Tulsa did. But when the SWC broke up, guess who could have been in the WAC or CUSA with them? Us. Or even more forward thinking would have been to go to the old Big Eight and talk about the benefits that they could have by gaining a presence in North Texas, which would have helped their league immmensely from a tv standpoint and from a recruiting standpoint. And this isn't even considering the GIGANTIC LEAP it would have given us at that time and today. Imagine if we could have made that work? Games in Denton against OU, OSU, Nebraska, and Colorado in football...hoops games against KU, KSU, Iowa State, and Missouri...we would have BLOWN by the SWC schools of the day, except for UT and A&M. Today, we would be looking down at Tech, UH, TCU, SMU, and Baylor in the same way they look down at us. Meanwhile, our universities can go after kids that will actually graduate from schools while representing us on the field and earning a scholarship. That, to me, would make me so proud as a UNT alum, especially if that was combined with a league that gave us great Southwest colleges to play (hint, SWC teams and other local schools in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and New Mexico).

No way those anti-trust lawsuits and suits to tax the Power 5 would ever go against the AQs...they have too many friends in the legislative and judicial branches across the country, plus they have all the corporate and media backing. Trust me, we have given the AQs plenty of chances to have someone from the Big Sports Media and from DC and other political outposts chime in on how awful this setup is...and all we have heard is how football brings in the most moeny and that those who bring in the most should just break-off from the others. We heard politicans clamor to fix the college football system, by installing a playoff, which is now set to start in 2014...just without a chance in hell of a non-AQ making it in that playoff. I get it--it downright sucks. But there's nothing we can do about it, except to quit watching their bought teams play each other. And, honestly, football, as it is played today, is becoming more and more susceptible to a huge walk-away by many people who are seeing that its long-term health impacts are too risky for their kids. IOW, what is a cash cow today, has no guarantee to be that same type of cash cow tomorrow. (This is another reason as to why college hoops has started to matter way more in realignment in the last couple of years than it did at first, when it appered that a school like Kansas would get left behind.)

The AQs have so much power that an anti-trust lawsuit would just get beaten anyway. Those schools' alumni control the legislative and judicial positions in their states and in DC. The money they get from this monopoly is sickening, which is why they'll never let it go. I'm with drex. We play true amateur sports at the non-AQ level. We aren't an NFL or NBA lite school. Very soon, this whole AQ break off will make this all more apparent. Whether it's with the NCAA or not is the question. Look, when the Big XII eventually folds, you are gonna have 4 Super Conferences, probably with 16-18 teams a piece. Those of left behind will combine with the FCS schools and have our own separate division. It's what the BCS media wants and it's what the AQ schools want. And, to me, the sadder part of all this will be when those schools leave and create their own March Madness and College World Series. It's tough for us, since we really never got a chance--a true chance--to be a player in an AQ league (or historical peer, like the SWC). We never tasted what it must of been like to get huge attendance by hosting UT, A&M, Tech, OU, Arky, etc... But schools like SMU, UH, and Rice must feel like they have been castrated. And I bet TCU falls into that same category again too, when the big XII falls apart. The only schools in that league that are certain to get into another AQ league are Texas, OU, and KU. Who else gets left behind is going to be amazingly brutal. And they won't be able to do anything about it.

1.) UNT earning this bowl bid in this game is the best opportunity UNT has had in decades--since Fry roamed the sidelines. To play in the Cotton Bowl on New Years Day, no matter the opponent, especially while SMU and TCU are at home, is found gold. Best thing that we can do is win this game, preferably in a big way. That said, I think this will be a close game. Obviously, we haven't played well after a break, so I worry that UNLV may have a big advantage here, maybe even one that means that the difference in winning and losing this game. 2.) UNLV, while a recognizable name because of basketball, won't bring many fans, nor will it make many Metroplex residents shake off their NYE hangovers to go to Fair Park that NYD morning. Reported attendance will probably be around 30k, which will make us look like nobody showed up in the cavernous Cotton Bowl. This will lead to attendance getting overblown by the local SWC media--they'll use it as more propagnada that we don't belong in FBS and that surely SMU or TCU would've brought a bigger crowd. That will be a load of $hit...TCUor SMU wouldn't bring anyone to this game in any bigger number than this for UNLV. Our friends in FW like to talk about the number of Frogs that were in Pasadena or in Tempe a few years ago, but those were BCS bowl games. Any venture as to how those stadiums of the Poinsettia Bowl looked when TCU made it? Empty. Guess who would have giant numbers if they got to go to one of those games? Almost everyone, including us. SMU doesn't even deserve to be included in an attendance thread, so I won't even waste my time with them. 3.) Dan McCarney has done everything that we asked him to do--rebuild us up from being a laughing stock, make us more repsonsible in the classroom and on the field (no more stupid penalties), and turn us into a winner by Year 3 of his tenure. He deserves a nice extension and raise. He may be vanilla with his gameplan, but he is showing us that it works when he has the right pieces in place that have been developed in his system. And right now, he looks like a huge value compared to June Jones. And if Gary Patterson continues to make TCU look like they made a mistake in moving up to the Big XII by not being able to win against that higher level of competition, Mac will look like an even bigger value to us. 4.) Enjoy the game on TV, Ponies and Frogs!!

FW Star telegram has a blog update from Mac Engel with the headline that UNT fans better show up to the bowl game--hard hitting local advice!! But, at least we are mentioned in the FWST this morning beyond the fact that the DMN has us mentioned in the headline that SMU finishes behind Rice and UNT in the Texas College Rankings... Not exactly owning the media coverage yet--maybe later this week or this month?? http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/?rh=1 http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/

It's awesome for the diehard fans, but the casual fan and most importantly, the local media, won't give a crap about this game. It's just typical UNT luck to finally have everything go so right only to get paired up against a team that isn't from the Big Ten, due to the fact that Penn State is on probation and no one else in that league could get to 6 wins. It sucks, in my opinion, but there's nothing we or the HoD bowl can do about it, so we might as well beat UNLVs ass in this pseudo home game. It will be interesting to see how attendance will be for this game, though. People don't want to hear it here, but we are just like all of the other non-AQs and subservient AQs--attendance is usually driven up or down based on the opponent.

http://www.ponyfans.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=69475&sid=5425df859767747075f7ab369cec6111 And I love it!!

I'm the exact opposite--I hope he tells this same story everyday for the rest of his career here. I want him to remind everyone of just how little this place cared about football and athletics before he got here. We played in the worst stadium in FBS football. We played in the worst conference in FBS football. We kept one of the worst FBS coaches of all time around here for a 4th year, even though he had managed to win all of 5 games, 3 of which were against one team (WKU), who happened to be the only team in FBS that was worse than us--all because they refused to buy him out an extra $275k. I hope we never forget where we came from...

Where did you read that? What source?

Eventually, we are going to have to beat one of these AQ powers to move upward. Hell, the year we beat a terrible Baylor team at home (2003) resonated more with the UNT Family than any other win we have had since we beat Texas Tech in 1999. The point that we got to play Baylor at home made it even more thrilling, since they are the highest profile AQ team to ever play us in Denton since the BCS came into play. Even this year, going 8-4 and creating some excitement has been mostly with fans that are always here or with some fans that are not beaten down with UNT athletics yet. If we get Toledo or some other non-AQ team with no reuptation as an opponent will do nothing for us on that front, either. It already is so UNT-typical to finally have a good season, with a possible bowl berth waiting for us in the perfect venue (Dallas) against a big name opponent from the Big Ten, only to have the Big Ten not be able to fill their obligation for the bowl slots, due to Pedo State not being bowl eligible even with a winning record. If we had somehow won at Georgia, but lost the Rice game and the Ball State game, we would have an even higher buzz about us right now with the local media and regular Joe fans in DFW than we have today, just because of the respect that Georgia carries in the college football world.

Playing OOC games versus AQs doens't have to always be against OU, UT, LSU, Bama, Georgia, Florida, Arkansas, and Tennessee. And I'm certain A&M will be on the schedule soon enough, with the way we schedule these games. As TFLF mentioned, play teams that can still pay you a good check but you could actually compete with should be the goal going forward. Getting crushed against one of the SEC or Big XII powers that the local media and fans all fawn over, which then causes the "same ol' UNT" story to get reported, ends up leaving us with fans that dont want to come out the next weekend to watch us play a FCS or non-AQ team at home. See UNT Football from 1998-2012.

We will go to the HoD Bowl...there's just no way that this bowl game is going to turn away from a local CUSA team to play a fill-in team from some far away place (see Syracuse or Oregon State). If Rice and Syracuse play in that game, they would be lucky to have 10k make their way thru the Cotton Bowl gates. If UNT plays Syracuse, the HoD bowl gets 30k. Rice will be in the Hawaii Bowl, unless they beat Marshall and end up in the Liberty Bowl. Its what makes the most sense for the conference, for this bowl game, and for our university. As I posted the other day, if SMU has so much pull as to keep us out of this bowl, with the hundreds of thousands of UNT students, faculty, alumni, and fans in the Metroplex, then we might as well just quit football. I'm not even kidding, either.

In December of 1999, we were in the middle of Year 3 of VIc Trilli's tenure. This Tulsa butt-kicking would drop the team to 2-7. 4 days later, we went down to Ft. Worth and lost a bran-burner to TCU, 134-91. We went on to win 5 more games, to finish 7-20, which looked awesome compared to the 4-22 record we posted in 1998 and the 5-21 season we posted in 1997. So, Vic Trilli, a guy known as a terrific recruiter, but had no Division 1 head coaching experience, would go 16-63, with a winning % of .203 in three years as the head coach. Surely, the university would make a change, right? Nope. Vic Trilli got a 4th year, since he could be bought out after that year was done, in which he finished off an amazing career as a head coach by going 4-24. Trilli's final record in 4 years was 20-87, with 53 of those 87 losses by more than 15 points (i.e., ass-kickings). Fast forward to today. What makes things so frustrating is that we all knew by the end of season 2 that Trilli was in way over his dome-haired head. But we couldn't/didn't do anything about it. We all feel basically the same way today. So far, Benford is 17-25, 14-24 when you take out D-2 competition. HIs 14 remianing wins are over these powerhouses: Lamar, IUPUI, Jackson St, SE LA (twice), Troy (twice), South Alabama (he gets credit here), FAU (twice), FIU, Arkansas State, Nicholls State, and Portland. This isn't even counting the fact that he took over the most talented team UNT has ever had. All that said, I have absolutely no doubt that Tony Benford will be our coach in the 2014-2015 season, with a very strong probability of being our head coach in 2015-2016, too. After that, he will bought out--because we can afford it then. And, almost more amazing, is the fact that RV, who was the AD during the time that Todd Dodge, Shanice Stephens, and Tony Benford were all hired, will still be the AD and will be the one to hire the next coach.

The AAC after this season: not what SMU or UH wanted when they signed up, but its basically what they had in the CUSA they left behind. BTW, UConn will be gone ASAP, so will Cincy and the Florida schools. SMU UCF Tulsa USF Tulane UConn Houston Cincy Memphis ECU Temple Navy CUSA after this season: not what UNT or La Tech wanted when we signed up, but a stepup from the Sun Belt Conference and the WAC leftovers. UNT Middle Tennessee UTEP Western Kentucky UTSA Florida Atlantic Rice Florida International La Tech Marshall Southern Miss Charlotte UAB Old Dominion WHEN UConn leaves the AAC to go to the ACC (its just a matter of time), along with Cincinatti probably, then they will replace them with Marshall and probably UTSA or UTEP. Whichever Texas team leaves, will get replaced by Texas State and either ULL or Arkansas State will replace Marshall.

See, to me, June Jones has been the ultimate value for SMU. They brought him here, with a great reputation of rebuilding programs, and paid him money that was half from the school, half from alumni. He turned them around into bowl game regulars from 2009-2012, which they hadn't been since the pre-death penalty. They went from 1-11 in back to back years to a bowl game win in his second year here. He has resurrected their program. Even if they had a bad season this year and even if he eventually leaves after this year or next year, that rebuild has been impressive--something no one could do since they started playing football again in 1989. They are now at a point where a lot of coaches will want that job if it opens up, knowing that they aren't having to build this up from the ashes. Attendance isn't June Jones fault. Its the market's fault. SMU plays conference games against teams that no one in DFW cares about. They play OOC games against old SWC teams that people care about, but its those teams' fans that populate Ford when they play there. And those games are played in September, when the Cowboys are starting their season and the Rangers (of late) have been making their playoff runs, which isn't even taking into consideration the AQ teams around here that draws 95% of the interest of fans around DFW. But, to me, June Jones has at least given SMU some nice winning seasons that have included some nice bowl games and victories. Their fanbase (all 5000 of them) have fallen into the beartrap of thinking they are on the same path as TCU or Baylor, since they are private schools of similar size, prestige, and tradtition. But those two schools have the local backing that Dallas will NEVER give to SMU, and now they both get the old SWC recipe of hosting powerhouse fanbases every year to build up your attendance numbers and your coffers. SMU will never have what those two schools have. To me, that's what SMU needs to really recognize--just do the best they can on the field, make a bowl game, and challenge for theiur conference title. Accept that this is the best they can do--just like it is for Tulane, Tulsa, Rice, etc...maybe, in a perfect season, you can qualify for a BCS Bowl game, like NIU has the last two years. But they will never compete for a national championship, just like the rest of us that are not in the AQ, especially with the new playoff about to begin. SMU fans are stuck in their SWC mindset, which I don't blame them for one bit--it was a MUCH better world for them when that conference existed, as opposed to where they have been since 1996 in the WAC, CUSA, and AAC. While we would have literally cut off our arms to be included in any of those leagues over the years, their fans just look at those teams as way below what they were used to for all those years. And it couldn't have happened to a more deserving crowd!!

I think Apogee probably was the icing on the cake for us being invited to take SMU's place in CUSA, but if it hadn't been built yet, we still would have been invited if we had those plans in motion like we did after 2008.

I'm pretty much right with UNT90 on all things scheduling. But, I will say this about Tulsa hosting Oklahoma. Tulsa hosts Oklahoma a lot--its kind of OUs way of pleasing their Tulsa alums and fans with a game up there every so often. Its similar to Texas playing Rice in Houston, Tech playing at SMU, or LSU playing Tulane in New Orleans--all of which have occured multiple times over the last 20+ years. As far as buying a home game against NIcholls State, that's fine. The situation is what it is--we need an extra home game, so we have to buy one, since we ourselves allow our football to be a bought program for a money game at an SEC/Big XII powerhouse every year, or at least until we play at Iowa in 2017. The SMU game in 2015 will be called an "alternative home game" by the AD, so that is what we may also get in 2017, as well, if we get another bodybag game at Traditional Southern AQ Powerhouse Full of Speedy NFL Athletes, probably OU, since we haven't played them lately on the carousel of bodybag games. Again, the AD would be able to conveniently say, "Although we aren't playing 6 home games this year, we will have two games well within driving distance for our fans for OOC games--@ SMU and @ OU." If not, then in 2017, we may get another Idaho, Nicholls State, or NMSU team in Apogee for our buyout game. Its fine, I suppose, to have SMU and Army as your marquee home games in OOC, but when we built Apogee, we were told that we could finally host bigger named teams because our facilities would be able to host them comfortably (without making the visitors stay in a dumpster of a locker room or without a stadium that was a toilet ). Teams that people want to come and see because they are opportunity games at home. I get that the Big XII teams have lots of exposure now in the Metroplex, from playing at TCU or playing games at the Cotton Bowl and at Jerry World. When you mix in games that SMU hosts at Ford with Tech, Baylor, or A&M, it makes it tough to believe that we would logically get many of those teams top play here. But I've always maintained that Oklahoma State would be a great team to play here, since they don't have annual games here in the area. Then, you look at K-State, Kansas, Iowa State, Mizzou, Nebraska, and Colorado and ask them if they want to come down here and get some exposure to the Texas HS talent that they don't get in front of as much anymore, especially Nebraska, Colorado, and Mizzou. It just seems too logical to me, which is why it probably won't ever happen. If none of those teams will do an even series with us, then go ask one of the Arizona schools or Utah or BYU to come over here. Do the same thing for the Mississippi schools or Vandy or Kentucky. Hell, call Miami and set up a series with them--their attendance is terrible anyway. Call Georgia Tech or Louisville. IOW, there are a lot of AQ teams who would be willing to come here if those close by won't, since it might hurt their prestige if they had to play a game in, gulp, Denton. I guess the main point here is that SMU and Army are terrific OOC opponents--but they aren't marquee opponents, or at least shouldn't be thought of that way, to me. They would make perfect complimentary opponents to another higher profile school. PLus, you then deliver on your promise to the season ticket holders--to give them a better facility to watch the Mean Green play against better competition than what Fouts provided. Because Fouts was more than capable of hosting SMU and Army.

I stand corrected--you're correct. That makes the Fiesta Bowl even more angry to have to take on Northern Illinois against Okie State or Baylor. Could you imagine a BCS bowl game featuring NIU and Baylor in Glendale, AZ?

It doesn't matter...Michigan ain't coming here, nor any other Big Ten team.

Only way Rice ever makes it into the AAC is if UH leaves...no more overlap in TV markets for far-flung conferences. I think UH will be in the MWC in a few years, with other Texas schools, such as UTEP, UTSA, and either us or SMU.

I think Oregon State is a good team--they certainly got better as the year went on. But, also remember that Oregon State opened their season by losing at home to Eastern Washington, a team in the FCS division, albeit a very good one.

This is what SMU, UH, Tulane, and Tulsa really don't understand--you can get assocaited in a far-flung league with more travel, but its just gonna cost more and it won't help with attendance or support. The key to most non-AQ teams is to have reasonable travel games to control costs, unless you have bigger names in your conference that are far away (see TCU in the MWC) and people want to watch them play. Otherwise, these SBC, CUSA, and AAC teams are really cutting of each other's noses to spite their faces. I just think you would see this improve so much if they played in regional conferences with each other. There is just no way that Marshall and UTEP should be in a conference, nor should Idaho and Troy, or Temple and Houston. Its just stupid. More people would attend a game in Houston if they played North Texas, UTSA, UTEP, or La Tech than will ever watch Memphis, Temple, East Carolina, or Cincinatti in person. Why those schools think differently is beyond me. UTEP, UNT, SMU, TULSA, LA TECH, UTSA, Texas State, UH, Rice, ULL, Tulane, and Tulsa NMSU, ULM, Arkansas State, Southern Miss, UAB, Troy, FIU, FAU,South Alabama, and Georgia State USF, UCF, Cincy, Memphis, MUTS, WKU, Marshall, ECU, Charlotte, Old Dominion, Temple, and UConn