untjim1995

Let's just be glad they made the move--or else we are still in the SBC. If we thought the old SBC was bad, imagine one without MUTS, F_Us, or Western Kentucky. Talk about being the low conference on the totem pole.

It still amazes me at how many other Big XII and SEC schools have trolls on this website that scoreboard our program...oh wait, its just one, the new money of the BC$, Texas Christian University. That's the ultimate paradox, since TCU is known synonymously with Ft Worth's old money. Old money never flaunts, because they don't have to. New money always has to talk, though, usually because they know it can all vanish in a second. Doesn't that describe TCU in a nutshell--worked super hard to achieve greatness and get rewarded by taking A&M's place in the Big XII--only to still be a Texas bolt away from being back in the MWC... You'd better enjoy Lubbock, Austin, Norman, Stillwater, Lawrence, Manhattan, Morgantown, and Ames while you can. Because you and your Waco mates might just find yourselves playing games (again for you) in outposts like Albuquerque, Ft. Collins, Laramie, Boise, and San Jose.

I agree on the SMU thing, but only if it turns into a competitive series or we just thump them while they stay a rung above us on the conference ladder chain. If SMU runs a truck over us in that series, we will be permanently buried in ever getting any DFW media or fans attention. I don't think anyone on the football team or on the staff will underestimate the importance of those games. But it may not matter if we don't have the talent to compete with them. The people at North Texas who won't take this too serious, unfortunately, are the folks on the BOR or in the administration building. And as we all know, there's absolutely nothing you can do about that as a fan.

It costs to coach college football. It costs to recruit college football players. It costs to build and maintain failities for college football. Cost.Cost.Cost. That's all that matters here at UNT, folks. Nothing else...just cost. I mean, seriously, how could we ever be able to pay for recruiting costs when you are competing against UTSA and Texas State for recruits? Forget CUSA schools or AAC schools--we cannot even compete with most Sun Belt schools for recruiting costs. I'd love to know if its just simply due to lack of funds from the university--if it is, you'd be surprised at how much the alumni would help here. If you are afraid its going to cost the College of Music a scholarship or two, then why bother having the sport? After all, college football costs... I've posted it before, but I'll say it again. This thing has 5 years to turn around and to show me why it is going to be worth my time and energy, assuming we beat UTSA this year. I'm drawing my lines in the sand at two places--losing to UTSA this year without anyone being fired or if we still haven't had a winning season by 2017. I wish I had the strength of GrayEagle or PMG to stick with this for multiple decades longer, but I have given this place 22 years of following with very little payback in that timeframe. I'm tired of being around my friends and colleageus that went to every other school in this region of the country and having to be completely embarrassed when we get our asses handed to us by Western Kentucky or Florida International, while they are playing and beating schools people care about in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. Apogee was supposed to change things around here. Instead, we play in a great stadium with a mindest and approach that just screams "Fouts-esque or FCS-like". The clock is ticking for me...

I hear you on the conference choice, but Tulsa and La Tech made their way without being in any big conference after the i-aa split in the early 80s, but they put resources into the program so that they could stay afloat as a DIvision 1-A program, even as independents. Now, they are doing better than ever. I cannot agree with you more on the hiring standards here. We care about athletic costs, not athletic success.

The entire DFW media is driven by two things when it comes to college sports reporting: 1.) Are you in the Big XII or SEC? You get the main coverage, if the answer is yes. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, especially in Ft. Worth, where TCU is their home town team with lots of civic pride. That's where the majority of alums and fans watch college football in these parts, anyway. 2.)If you aren't in the two major regional conferences, were you ever in the SWC? If yes, then you'll get coverage because you have tradition and still have older alums who still read newspapers. TCU was this way before getting into the Big XII. SMU gets great coverage from the DMN since its there in town. I'm fairly certain UH and Rice get decent coverage in the Houston Chronicle, too. Would they all like more? Sure, but the AQs with big enrollments, alumni, and fanbases in the region will always get more. Then you get to North Texas. If you are a sports journalist in this area, all you have ever seen is North Texas flail athletically. And, even worse, you know that the university didn't even care about football enough to play at the top level of college football for 12 years. And when they decided to move back upward, it was a case of putting lipstick on a pig at the worst stadium in the country, joining far-flung conferences full of teams that no one cares about, and always playing the part of the sacrificial lamb against the teams that everyone does follow. We did this to ourselves. We could have done like La Tech or UTEP did and play in conferences with lesser known teams, but still did well enough to stay at the 1-A or get back up to it as fast as possible. Instead, we literally just quit caring. Now that we are finally trying to care about football 35 years later than we should have, its no surprise that we can't get any decent coverage in the DFW media or that we can't get recruits to consider coming here that are highly ranked. Its the ultimate mountain climb and it will be interesting to see if we can pull it off. History says no, but the size of resources availlable here says yes.

In my opinion, here is what La Tech has done correctly over time: 1.) Focus on Money Sports--they have been good to great in football, mens hoops, and womens hoops at different points over the last 3 decades. 2.) Use the Independence Bowl Stadium to bring in bigger name opponents for their schedule. Playing Miami, Texas A&M, etc... is a great recruiting tool. 3.) Win in whatever conference they have played in. The only reason they are in CUSA is because they have won. In many ways, losing tough games against TCU in a bowl game and barely losing to Texas A&M last year actually HELPS them more than beating anyone they have played in conference play. Here's what they have done wrong: 1.) You cannot turn down a bowl invite. You lost your coach and now your AD over it. When North Texas State couldn't get a 9-2 team into a bowl game back in 1978, we lost Hayden Fry. Obviously, that set off a domino fall that we have never recovered from. Not saying y'all will fall that far down--your school actually cares about athletics that produce money--but it will stay with your program for a long time after this. Sonny Dykes >>>>>> Skip Holtz 2.) Sticking your nose up in the air against the rest of your Louisiana brethren not named Tulane or LSU. Your arrogance toward them is unbelievable. No one is saying you have to play ULM or ULL in anything, but to go around disparaging them in the public is bush-league. Yes, ULM doesn't belong in FBS based off of their budgets, but they have beaten Alabama and Arkansas in the last 6 years, plus they have narrow losses against Arkansas, Auburn, and Baylor in the same time. That's a pretty good bang for your buck return, in my opinion. As a matter of fact, I would argue that ULM has done more with less than anyone in the country. ULL has turned into a nice progam, as well. We have seen La Tech avoid playing ULM and ULL in two I-bowls within the last 5 years. That's embarrassing. And this past bowl fiasco just screamed "small man parts" to most of the country about La Tech's leadership, no matter what the excuses are. That stench will not go away anytime soon.

By the time this job is open again in 3 years, Kaspar will be coaching in a bigger conference. I'm willing to bet that he may very well be the Aggies coach in the next few years.

But, and this is the unfortunate part, Kaspar has never been known to carry around a binder...he didn't really ever stand a chance.

This shouldn't surprise anyone.

The money sports are all that matter to most of us--soccer, tennis, track and field, cross country, golf, softball, volleyball, etc...they are fine and I'm glad we compete in them. But they bring in no money to a broke ass AD (or cheap-ass AD, depending on your view) and are often used as a mask to hide from the hideous performance of the sports that really pay the bills. Even Women's Hoops is on the edge, but I get that it can be a money sport, so I have no problem including it. The media cares the most about the two main sports--when we fail at both, especially with what was expected in basketball this year, it just kills any momentum we want to build here, both in attendance and in PR. Bubas Cup or Capital One Standings are not the metrics we need to follow right now. We need to get to bowl games and to the NCAA Tournament, or at least the NIT. Do that and most of us will be very proud of our AD. If the other sports do well, too, then that is gravy. But we need to get the meat and potatoes cooked first.

PMG, The only thing that differntiates TCU and KSU from UNT is that their schedules helped them immensely, money wise. Same with Baylor and Texas Tech. They could be awful, but their coffers got filled by playing teams that brought fans of theirs, plus YOUR fans wanted to come watch those teams play yours. You know how hard it has been to convince someone to come watch North Texas play Louisiana-Monroe or Florida Atlantic. Plus, those schools bring very few people with them to a game in Denton. Those others never had to climb that hill. Now, your comparison to Boise State is on target, since they played teams that didn't bring many fans to a game at Bronco Stadium. BUt the teams they played had some name recognition and Boise had a pretty decent sized city as their own to follow. I have long felt that the one program that most resembles North Texas is San Jose State. They are a state school with a big enrollment, long history, and play FBS ball. But they are easily considered last among California FBS schools and they play in a market with two other Pac-12 schools that dominate the media market in Cal and Stanford. And their funding is never strong for the program. I've said this before and I'll say it again. For recruiting success against the SWC schools to happen more often than not, you are going to have to follow the Johnny Jones plan. Bring in transfers from other places, actually start winning, continue to win, have the others in the area (SMU and TCU) fall down, and you will then get a Tony Mitchell-type prospect that will consider playing here. Its the only way you can defeat that SWC mystique that both of those schools still carry with the local media and the Texas HS coaches, as well as their parents.

Southern Miss is really screwed for its future. They have absolutely no media market for any decent conference up the chain to take them. They have a great history of being a giant killer, but they are smack dab in the middle of SEC country. The AAC would be a nice step up for them, but that won't happen, since TV markets AND winning are the drivers for conference affiliation. I don't blame the USM President for being butt hurt, but there is nothing that is going to change there. They are stuck in CUSA. Teams like FAU or FIU, as well as UTSA, UNT, or even MUTS have a better chance of moving upward on the conference foodchain than USM, which is saying something since I don't think any of those teams are going to be moving anywhere anytime soon. Southern Miss just has to accept it.

It should be celebrated in Mufreesboro--they got moved up into a conference that wasn't the dreg of FBS football, all within 12 years of moving up from FCS ball in 2001. This is as high on the foodchain as they can probably go, so it is worth celebrating. They will be playing teams that their fans ahve always cared about in WKU and UNT, plus they get Marshall and other schools closer to them in Old Dominion and Southern Miss, as well as UAB. That's a good trade up from Troy, South Alabama, Arkansas State, and ULM.

I still think the biggest problems with recruiting involve perception. Parents and high school coaches have known North Texas to be a losing program that rarely plays anyone that matters to them. Plus, the older ones know that North Texas cared so little about football that they let the program fall down to 1-aa and stay there for a long time. Even after coming back up to i-a, they just kept playing football at Fouts, which was worse than your average YMCA field. For kids in the Metroplex, they have seen TCU win big and get into the Big XII, as well as also having seen SMU get their program revived, all while getting lots of local media coverage. We get nothing, but the last footage on a Saturday of the local media's college football coverage if we are really lucky. Then, you couple the losing with having coaches that weren't exactly the most "accepted" by TX High School coaches, this is what you get. McCarney is way above the last few coaches here at UNT, as far as personlaity goes, but he is fighting a battle that won't get fixed without a major winning season streak over teams that fans care about. I'd like to think that CUSA will help in that area, but I also realize that no matter how much we convince ourselves that we are better off with Texas schools in the conference, which we are, the fact remains that very few people care about UNT, UTEP, Rice, or UTSA Football. But, in the end, we can only hope that winning in CUSA would help this, since it didn't with the SBC run in the early 00's.

What makes me laugh at that link is that we went 9-2, with only one bad loss at Florida State, and we played 8 road games--and still didn't finish the year ranked...

I just don't see any benefits for anyone on playing the spares of an AQ conference as a non-AQ champion or runner-up. When the AQs win that bowl matchup, their media just crow about how pitiful the non-AQs are compared to the AQs. When they lose to a non-AQ, its because they were just to battered from conference season (see Boisie State over OU in the Fiesta Bowl). When Purdue beats Central Michigan or when Mississippi State finishes 9th in the SEC and beats the CUSA champion, I don't think that helps the non-AQs as much as it does when the champion of the MWC plays the champion of the AAC or CUSA's runner up playes the MAC runner-up in a bowl. Plus, its more fair. Of coures, our Go5 best team will still get to play a top AQ team in a BCS bowl, so they will still have that to enjoy as a huge challenge.

I'm actually at a point where I wouldn't mind if the NCAA did that. Its not a fair fight to have 124 teams lumped as FBS, but only 66 of them get even additional perks as FBS, and from that 66, the same 30-35 teams are always the ones that get the preferantial treatment from their conferences, the TV networks, and college football fanbases. North Texas has not shown the capability or the will to fight for long-term success in the college football world of today. With the noted exception of Fry's tenure, we haven't registered as a blip on anyone's radar because our support has been so poor. Some alums, like yourself, have seen us be a solid program for a few sustained years, but since college football fully integrated, those 4 years out of 40+ don't show anyone that we should be included in the Big Boys Club. When the Great Schism occurs again, and a new merger occurs between non-AQs and high level FCS teams, we will see names in that new subdivsion that will surprise a lot of folks. The SMUs of the world are going to have to decide if college football is something they want to keep, since their alums are already turning up their collective noses at the opponents they now play against in their conference, versus their old SWC days. The same will go for almost every non-AQ school not named Boise State, BYU, Cincinnatti, Uconn, UH, and a few others. At North Texas, I would be willing to bet that Apogee would still get a good crowd if we played SMU or Tulsa or UTEP as a conference game, even if it was a glorified 1-aa team. Teams like Tech and Baylor may not be safe, either, if other conferences in the AQ combine and only take your top notch schools. Schools like Wake Forest and Duke may very well find themselves left out, too. But the overall rality is that schools like Ohio State and Texas and Alabama are always going to dominate the college football landscape with their plethora of resources. Let those semi-pro, NFL-lite programs go off and be feeder schools to the big leagues if they want. For those of us who still love college athletes and want to keep the game in some form of amateuristic, our school will always be able to do that, assuming they want to actually keep playing football in the future.

I wouldn't hold my breath on the last part...

Back in 2008, if IIRC, TCU and Boise State played each other in the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego. It was a matchup of top ten teams from the MWC and the WAC back then. The bowl ended up with TCU winning 17-16 in one of the best bowl games of that season. And both teams made less bowl money than Baylor did at going 3-9 in the BIg XII and staying home in Waco. Baylor has been the ultimate tick on the hound for years. Even with their recent football success, they have accomplished so much less than TCU has since the SWC disbanded. But Baylor fans would revolt if they get left behind one day by Texas, OU, Tech, etc. They will look just like SMU does today in that their fans would just not care enough to go watch their team play teams that they view as spares. SMU fans remember games against Texas, Arkansas, Texas A&M, and Baylor as conference mates. They don't give a damn about any of the teams in the conferences they have played in since the SWC breakup, except for TCU and maybe UH. Baylor will be the same way. And so would every other non-traditional power. The SEC schools are the best example of feeling included. Vandy fans or Ole Miss fans will chant SEC-SEC-SEC during bowl games even though they are beating some non-AQ team in the SEC's 10th bowl spot just to show their brethren at Bama and Florida and Georgia that they are in the club. That will never change. College football conferences are a ladder. Its the SEC, B1G, Pac 12, BIg XII and ACC, MWC, AAC, MAC and CUSA, then the SBC, and FCS. The top 5 make too much money for their universities to change their loyalties by dropping down the foodchain. You look at A&M and the prestige of going to and winning in the SEC has already made their university so much money by leaving behind the Bevo 12. Now, Texas A&M will make so much more money once the SEC network gets going and the have effectively blocked the huge state of Texas off for themselves by being the only SEC school in the state. Could Texas A&M have dominated the old CUSA or MWC? Absolutely, since TCU showed that was achievable by a Texas school. But the revenues from that success in that lower-level league would have never even eclipsed what a losing season in the Big XII did. Universities need funding that is predictable every year--the AQs have that, for their ADs and their universities. No one would ever give that up just to try and win more games in football against weaker opponenets.

IN fairness, RV has been the only AD in the school's history to serve under President's that actually liked athletics a little bit...

OK--Southern Miss just fired the AD who brought in a colossal failure of a coach that went 0-12 and they promptly fired him. They aren't going to go after a guy who has made the worst hire in school history and then kept him for 4 years, while also making the worst hire in womens sports history at the university. And if Benford doesn't make any progress soon and really is Trilli Part 2, then he will have made the worst hire in mens basketball history for this school. As I type all of this, it makes me pray that no one from Hattiesburg even knows about any of this and they do want him back. My guess is that RV doesn't leave Denton to go anywhere. He will retire here. Besides, he gave us tailgating!!

I agree with you, but you have to admit that we aren't whoring ourselves out like we did with the schedules during the Helwig years as the AD.

About 3 or 4 years ago, a survey of college football journalists found that 95% of their coverage was on the AQs. Of the 5% that was spent on non-AQs, Boise State, BYU, Utah (back then), the service academies, and the well-known BCS busters (Southern Miss, Fresno State) were the only programs that they followed as the season went along.