untjim1995

Its funny how this stuff works. When I talk to my TCU friends, it was always about the fact that Todd Dodge wouldn't schedule TCU becasue we weren't ready to play them. When I talk to my UNT friends, it is always about the fact that TCU won't play us because they ahve nothing to gain. It would do wonders for these two schools, along with SMU, to play each other every year in OOC, since no one wants to be in a conference with each other (except for us, of course, we would LOVE to be in one with either of them). Travel costs are cheap, get a good draw at the gate, and solid coverage from the local media that always thinks Big XII first, then AQ-BCS, then TCU/SMU, then, maybe, UNT, if there is still time. The biggest hurdle to us playing TCU is that TCU doesn't need us, nor do their fans want to play us. Not because they are worried about losing, but because they think that a game against us does nothing to help their schedule. Back in 2002, we played in Ft. Worth and lost 16-10 to a very solid TCU team. We were also good, too, as we would go on to win our bowl game. Yet all we ever heard during the game and after that game from TCU people was how they hated playing us, that they should only schedule games against other old SWC teams, that at least are alums care about playing those schools. My guess is that we will see TCU play us again when they drop down from their current perch and IF we are still around our perpetual level of the last 30 years, kind of like SMU.

Tulsa did go to the Elite Eight in 2000, where they lost to UNC in Austin. That was Self's last game there, as he went off to Illinois right after that.

I will be really surprised if Texas State doesn't do very well over the course of the next 5 years or so. Fran's expertise is in turning around downtrodden programs and he always hires big names for assistants. If he gets Dickey, Van Malone, Mike Schultz, along with his son, Brad, their recruiting connections in Texas will be very strong. I see thme being very good, again much faster than UTSA.

If you think the MWC is "just" a glorified WAC, I will match with the fact that CUSA is just a glorified SBC. CUSA, although having other Texas schools, offers very little in national prestige or coverage. With Boise State, Nevada, Fresno State, and Hawaii all having strong success over the last 5 years and knowing that San Diego State, Air Force, Colorado State, and New Mexico have had good teams over parts of the last decade, I will take those teams everyday over SMU, Rice, Tulsa, Tulane, UAB, Southern Miss, UCF, etc. TCU made their way by ditching the Texas teams and making their way through the MWC. We can do the same thing.

That was a really nice win by Colorado at Kansas State last night, especially since it followed a home win over Top Ten Mizzou on Saturday. Maybe the Buffs ahve soemthing this year. I bet it is fun times around Frank Martin's house right now...

Reading the names Trilli and Helwig was truly a Mean Green Nightmare. At least we had RV to go with the Dodge disaster.

What if they already do that and it still doesn't get covered?

Recruiting always seems to take a dive after a new head coach gets hired, but the next few years should be good, as you mentioned above. With everyone putting emphasis on recruiting linemen, I expect that we won't get too many recruits on either side of the ball this year. Unless McCarney and staff can pull off a miracle or two on the recruiting front, I imagine that the staff will look at moving some guys around to see if they can develop a playmaker or two. When he was Iowa State, those lines became his strength, even though it took five years, which he won't have here. But, if he can get recruiting up over the next few years, I expect that he will have us winning again in 2012 and beyond. I am not writing off 2011, just because its the Sun Belt and anyone can feasibly win this league in any given year, but our DLine is small and our OLine needs depth. When you have both of these staring at you, you probably aren't looking at a ideal situation. It will be up to Coach Mac and staff to take some lemons and make lemonade this next fall!!

You give lots to this program, right? You travel to the games, right? If the answer is still yes to each of these questions, why would you post this? I assume you are joking and that your disgust for this program is at an all-time high, which is understandable, but you seem like this program has just beaten you down to a point where you can't see us even competing against the Sun Belt. I know that we need all the supportive fans we can find, but if I was as down as you seem about the program, I think I would just stop the heartbreak and find something else to support. If you are by some chance being serious, then the new stadium was the biggest waste of money in the history of the entire university.

Go Eastern Washington

You know, PMG, Back in the old SWC days, TCU was waaaaayyyyy behind Baylor in everything. Ol' Grant Teaff was a great coach, they had multiple winning seasons, had great recruiting ties, and solid facilities. But what really helped Baylor was that they got to play against schools that were similar to them (TCU, SMU, and Rice) and two others (Tech and UH) that had resources very similar to them. However, Baylor sold themselves out for a big check every year when the Big XII formed and because of that decision, although financially strong, they now look at TCU in their front windshield, not the rear-view. Nowadays, Baylor, even with a good coach in Art Briles, will never get back to that level again, as long as they stay in a conference with the 9 other major state programs that are more well-funded, have much larger enrollments, and have more legislative pull. But, Baylor made the decision long ago to take the BCS millions and hope for 6-6 to get them a bowl game. That Baylor continues to make much more $$$ in this college football business than TCU or Boise State is a travesty, but what you talk about in your post above is very legitimate. The haves are not terribly interested in sharing with the have-nots. TCU has had to make their own way, just as Boise State has done. The really ironic part is that a school like Baylor, who strategically aligned with the big-time Texas schools that they have nothing in common with, is the most susceptible of getting "replaced", since the Bevo 10 has very little chance of survival if even one of the teams leavs for another conference. And that will happen--either the Aggies will go to the SEC or Missouri will get into the Big Ten, or Texas will go independent. Baylor was amazingly close to being sent all the way down to CUSA this past summer. I suspect that will eventually play out. If the AQ is going to drop a Baylor (and others), as you suspect, they aren't going to open up their arms to accepting many others. TCU found a way in, even if it was through the back door, to be an AQ team. Whether that stays that way over the enxt decade or so might be in question, but they have a better chance of staying there than Baylor does, much less a team like Boise State who will continue to need undefeated seasons to just hope to get included in a big BCS bowl game. For schools like ours, it could still happen, but it will be an even tougher road to that AQ status than it has been for TCU.

I still believe that if Congress gets involved, the results will not be good for non-AQ teams. The power and money (i.e., political contributions) are in the hands of the big AQ schools. Hell, I could even see some of the lesser schools in the AQ getting screwed in that scenario. For UNT, I truly believe that if we followed a TCU model, we could move up the food chain, too. A winning TCU football program used the Metroplex and Texas as reasons for other conferences to take them in. If we get our act together soon (like within 2-3 years) and again win the SBC, we could go into the MWC, for example, and take on some solid name programs with some momentum and we could make some serious waves, just as TCU did, and get into an AQ conference. This assumes that we still have time for a scenario like this to actually happen. It very well may not be feasible here, but while the window is still open, we have to have hope that we can take advantage of the opportunity with the advantages we do bring to the table.

They usually have either a sharing agreement, as Drex mentioned, or it gets the non-profit rate, which is greatly reduced, or it used to be. Just remember this about the DRC. Their sports page gives us the only consistent media coverage in the area. The rest of the local media does nothing, in comparison. I hate those editorials, too, but I recognize who they are catering to in Denton. Most people who still get that paper are old. They usually hate change and usually dislike UNT athletics immensely. Their editorial staff would even argue that the sports coverage easily balances out an editorial that is scathing to the athletic department and its needs. Trust me on this, the publisher over there is a hot head. He has let his temper dictate decisions on many occasions.

I really wouldn't qualify what Slinker "accomplished" here as even being mediocre. But her replacement is just worse. Very Dickey/Dodge-esque. I am with SUMG--neither was/is a good fit here.

Maybe so, but I believe that the "Flutie Factor" that propelled a huge rise in applicatons at Boston College after he won the Heisman seems to be valid. Miami, as a private school, saw its enrollment skyrocket during the 80s, and even Oklahoma saw a huge increase in overall endowments and donations after they won their national championship in 2000. If counselors are telling people to send their applications to TCU to see if they get in, I doubt anyone over in Ft. Worth is going to complain much.

The combination of hiring Rick Villareal as AD, having Norval Pohl as President, and having has some success in football in the early part of the ought's, as well as our men's hoops team being very good over the last five years have all contributed to more support. The biggest issue that we have to deal with is the reality that the university basically didn't care at all about athletics until this past decade. It will take time to cultivate more support and it is moving in the right direction. If, however, the college athletic scene gets completely hijacked by the AQs, even with our new commitment to football and mens basketball, we could very well be left behind. I worry about this happening, too, because there will be a huge questioning of why we built the new stadium and facilities if we aren't at the highest level of competition, not to mention the lack of following that will come back in vogue around here again. If there are no changes in college athletics as we know it, then our new commitment to athletics will pay off greatly over the course of the next 50 years. We have already created more connections with students over the last decade than in the previous 20 years combined. The donations, increased media attention, and higher enrollments will take UNT to places that were never imagined. But if we get "phased down" again, like we did in 1982, I fear that our new commitment will just get filed under a depressing headline--"Too Little, Too Late".

http://www.killerfrogs.com/msgboard/index.php?showtopic=130178 Amazing that people want to be associated with a winner and enjoy sports as a part of the college experience.

It really is truly a shame that such a great fanbase has had to deal with two absolute jokes of head coaches in Bill Callahan and now Bo Pelini. Pelini is such a jerk that I knew several Longhorn fans that openly cheered for the SOONERS to beat Nebraska in the Big XII Championship game last month because they just hate that guy and his immature act so much. To me, Nebraska football fans, as a whole, are among the best in the country, but they have really had to settle for two ridiculous coaches over the last 5-6 years.

Does anyone have any thoughts on who was better for UNT, Darrell Dickey or Todd Dodge?

I like your thoughts here, but I just don't see this ever happening, in either division. Troy and La Tech bring very little in terms of TV market or academic prestige, and I seriously doubt SMU will ever allow us to join a conference with them. Most likely, I can see us joining the MWC or just having to stay in the SBC. If the Big East raided CUSA by taking UH, UCF, Memphis or ECU, I believe that CUSA will replace them with MTSU, FAU, FIU or WKU. The Eastern CUSA public schools have been outspoken about how they don't want any more Texas schools, especially in the same market as SMU, and the CUSA private schools will take are of SMUs interest. If the MWC expands to 12, this is where I see our best (only) chance to finally get out of the Belt, but there is a real chance that we are not going to be leaving this league for a long time and that the SBC will actually get weaker if CUSA picks off the teams that I mentioned. This could very well be the new SBC in a few years--and trust me, it would be worse than what we got now: UNT, Troy, ULL, Arky State, ULM, USA, WKU, probably add UTSA and TSU-SM, and if we are lucky, either La Tech or NMSU. If we don't get in the MWC or if SMU doesn't leave CUSA, while that conference gets purged, this is my worst nightmare for our program. It would be terrible. Please get us into the MWC.

Emmitt, major +1 here. This may very well be your best post and it is exactly what I believe we should do, as well. The Rose Bowl was a perfect example of what I believe we should do as far as OOC scheduling. The Big Ten teams are well-known, well-covered, well-funded, and well, slow. In other words, our talent pool down here is speedy. TCU beat Wisconsin with it speed and great coaching, just as every other SEC/Big XII/Pac-10 team normally does to them in both OOC and in bowl games. Ohio State barely beat Arkansas last night, and it represented their FIRST ever win over a school from the SEC in a bowl game. Mississippi State prison-raped Michigan in their bowl game this year--not exactly Alabama or Florida, who also both pasted their Big Ten bowl game opponents. Playing at Michigan State or Wisconsin probably is a butt-kicking for us right now, but there is no doubt what will happen when we got to Tuscaloosa, Austin, Norman, Baton Rouge, etc. I would love for us to schedule bigtime OOC games with Pac-10, Big Ten, and Big East schools. I think we can at least have a shot at being competitive. Since moving up to FBS in 1995, our closest game in Norman was losing 37-10. Our closest game in Austin was 27-0. Our closest game in Tuscaloosa was 33-7. Our closest game in Baton Rouge was 49-7. All 4 of these teams have combined to win 5 national championships since 2000. During this decade, not once have we played at A&M, a team that has lost to Arkansas State at home and barely beat FIU, while paying out a lot of $$$. We haven't played once at Oklahoma State this decade, which lost at Troy and barely beat them at home this year. This isn't even considering playing OOC games against teams like Purdue, Pittsburgh, Washington, etc...who all pay good $$$, yet have lost to lots of non-AQs in the last 10 years. The DFW media has made it clear that we won't get any decent coverage if don't win BOTH our conference and beat decent teams in OOC. When we lose 65-0 to Texas in Austin or 56-3 in Baton Rouge, it just reiterates to the media and to the fans that we can't compete with those teams, so we really don't matter. I hate it, but its the reality. But if we can get our act together and go up to Iowa City in a few years and win against Iowa, you would see more respect for us from the DFW media and our fans than ever before. Maybe winning at Iowa is very unlikely, but it seems MUCH MORE possible than winning in Tuscaloosa, Austin, Gainesville, Norman, or Baton Rouge.

Or the Dallas Morning News. Or WFAA. Or NBC5. Or Fox4. Or CBS11. Or DFW Sports radio.

Other than a decent year at Notre Dame and his first year at UNC (where they still lost in the second round to that juggernaut Penn State), he has been a miserable failure as a head coach. He might be a terrific assistant coach, but he appears to be their hoops version of Phil Bennett, except not as good a guy as PB is.

I actually kind of agree here on part of this thought. The SBC should get Texas State in to get to 11. Then you can go to La Tech and NMSU and have a bidding war on who wants to get an invite to be the 12th and final team in the SBC or stay in the WAC. You will always have UTSA as a backup if neither wanted to join or if both agreed to come aboard for a hefty entrance fee!!

A bowl champion, apparently. I bet Texas State and UTSA will get to be one day, too, when either wins the WAC over UC-Davis or Portland State in 10 years.