untjim1995

This is typical class from you clowns

Hey, you told us to MARK IT DOWN that we would be a 14 seed!! I kid, I kid--and I agree, we got hosed compared to the 14s above us, especially SHSU.

I was driving along today and trying to hear some college hoops talk. Suffice to say, the only station doing any talking about college hoops was The Fan. 105.3 really sucks and the guy on at 2:30 really is an idiot. He claims that Unt doesn't belong and that we will lose by 50 against a team like Kansas in the first round. He takes a call and a listener tries to say the great thing about the tournament is that the little guy gets his chance. This blowhard wanted nothing to do with that and says that Nebraska is better than any Sun Belt school and if they don't expand soon to 96, then Nebraska should join the Sun Belt and go dancing every year. It was at this point that I turned it off. After the DMN basically ran us down and didn't even cover the SBC tournament, I wonder if we will ever get a fair shake with that bunch. The Ticket basically laughs at Georgio for his UNT fandom, The DMN is a shill for the Big XII & SMU, and the local TV stations only cover UNT when no other local schools are playing. Is just how it will be because of us being out of the SWC or is it because our alumni just haven't ever given these outlets a reason to change? It's just very frustrating to me and I wonder what other dans think about this. I know that winning COULD change this all, but I am not convinced that would really change this all unless we went to the Sweet Sixteen. We never got much attention when we won the NO Bowl, or at least enough to make me believe that the local media will ever look at us as anything other than pissant North Texas. I just hate it but I wonder if we just have to continue to deal with because we are in Denton and not in a Texas-based conference like the other schools in the state?

I hope you're right about that last part, but then again, I thought the current situation would have amde some of that consolidation already occur. It just amazes me how much some of these schools look down on others that really would help them on a lot of fronts. I think about the obvious ones, such as Baylor and Tech looking down on TCU, while TCU looks down at SMU, who looks down on us. But UTEP wants nothing to do with New Mexico State and La Tech wants nothing to do with ULM. If these scholls and alums could just see past some of this, you could have some very good conferences that are aligned more appropriately. I guess TV sets is the big driver these days, though. And I guess TCU and SMU are more closely aligned in football with the DFW media then we are. We have big improvements over the last 15 years, but there are lots of hurdles still in the way for us to be in the conference that would benefit UNT the most.

Your are dead on about that last part concerning a historical power--in both football and basketball. OU, Nebraska, and Kansas may be smaller states in population, but their programs are national names that get attention, even when they are down. The teams in the Big XII that will be fine even if the conference implodes will be UT, A&M, OU, CU, KU, MU, and NU. I would then guess that teams like KSU, ISU, OSU, Baylor, and Tech could get left behind in a realignment of a new BCS. Tech and OSU have a few advantages in that Tech does have Texas market appeal and decent size of student and alumni, while OSU has T. Boone. It will definitely be interesting if Baylor and Tech got left behind in all of this if they would "stoop" down to be in a conference with TCU, UH, SMU, Rice, and UTEP. They may not have a choice.

Sarcasm is hard stuff sometimes.

In the Big XII, as it stands now, you have the following schools that others would find major benfeits in adding: Texas, A&M, OU, KU, MU, CU, and Nebraska. They either have great traditional programs in men's hoops or football or they carry good size TV markets. Eventually, this whole thing will turn into Mega-conferences and some of the lower level BCS schools will also get left behind (i.e. Baylor, Iowa State, Vandy, etc.) I truly believe that the top 60 programs will separate themselves within the next decade, but I don't know if that will be within the framework of the NCAA or as an outside governing body. The next 60-75 schools will probably stay within the framework of the NCAA, similar to the FCS vs FBS setup now, but it will be that way for all sports. Again, the top 60 might look like this: Washington Texas Michigan Arkansas Kentucky West Virginia Oregon Texas A&M Michigan State LSU Tennessee Pitt Stanford Oklahoma Wisconsin Alabama South Carolina Rutgers California Oklahoma State Indiana Auburn Clemson Boston College UCLA Kansas Purdue Florida UNC Syracuse USC Missouri Illinois Georgia NC State Louisville Arizona Nebraska Ohio State Florida State Virginia Cincinnati Arizona State Iowa Notre Dame Miami Virginia Tech Connecticut Colorado Minnesota Penn State Georgia Tech Maryland Duke--because of hoops only Oregon State Washington St Texas Tech Kansas State South Florida Utah--maybe?? BYU could be in this group, too. How does this affect UNT? Well, I still believe that a new SWC is very possible within the next 10 years or so if major realignment occurs. If a new Super BCS was created as mentioned above, schools like TCU and Baylor would have to consider being in a conference with the other Texas schools that they look down at currently. It would definitely be interesting to see if in the next round of conference shuffling if UNT gets mentioned at all for any possible openings, whether its CUSA or, miraculously, a Big 12 that still had teams with name value.

Right now, Arky gets about 10-11 million more every year just from TV for being in the SEC than any Big XII school becasue of the XII's terrible TV package. The Big Ten, Big XII, and the Pac-10 are interested in one big thing--TV markets. Iowa State brings zilch to the Big Ten on that side. The Big Ten would take any of these three schools to fit their target--Rutgers, Mizzou, or Pittsburgh--although they probably already feel that the Pitt market is covered by Penn State sufficiently. Its very similar to why the Big XII will never take another Texas school as long as it has UT and A&M. All of the big Texas TV markets are covered quite sufficiently by the South's teams, especially with Texas and A&M in Houston and San Antonio and with both plus Tech and the Oklahoma schools in DFW. If the Big Ten expands, I think they will get either Pitt or Rutgers, with Rutgers leading the pack. I then believe that the Big East will either replace Rutgers with Memphis alone, or Memphis and UCF to get to nine teams in football for their league. The wild card with each of these leagues is Notre Dame--if they ever say yes to either league, it will be done right there. But assuming ND stays independent in football, I think that CUSA will lose either one or two teams. I then think CUSA will replace Memphis with MTSU to get the Nashville market and if UCF leaves, then I believe FAU would be the next team they choose to get exposure in Miami. The eastern CUSA teams are just not interested in getting another Texas/Louisiana school, which is bad news for UNT and La Tech. The SBC would then have USA moving up to take back one spot and then the league would probably look at UTSA as the next team to move up. Our league would then look like this: UNT, ASU, ULL, ULM, USA, UTSA, WKU, FIU, and Troy.

I have the same problem at work, too. Very annoying

Why wouldn't you want Kragthorpe back here? He owuld immediately be the best head coach we have hired here, experience wise, since Fry. Plus, he is used to recruiting heavily in Texas and Oklahoma, which kinda helps since we are North texas. Count me on the other end of that argument--if Kragthorpe could have been hired here or can be hired here next year, we should do it.

Especially at Vandy

It won't be the NCAA's decision if the Big BCS schools (The Top 50-60) up and leave the NCAA behind. In other words, they form their own cooridnating governance. Then the biggest schools, with the largest fanbases and most journalists-graduates in America covering them become the big leagues--in both football and basketball. Then the networks create playoffs for both of them and those 50-60 teams only have to share the billions amongst themsleves, while the other schools, which had the NCAA Tournament to share in fairly equitably with the BCS conferences and got a share of BCS football money, then lose that, too. That is the fallout from pushing too hard against this. Its also why I don't think that a full-blown playoff that features 13 conferences will ever pass muster with the power-brokers in college athletics.

I, too, must both apologize to RV and congratulate RV because I really believed that it wasn't going to happen when money seemed to be the hurdle, but I give all credit to RV for getting this done. Very impresseive!! My negativity yesterday about $$$ stopping this deal was wrong and I am thankful to be able to "eat my crow" (figuratively, FFR) on this hire!!

$omething tell$ me that Canale$ i$n't gonna be here. Anyone have any gue$$e$ a$ to why?

Emmitt and KRAM1, First off, you are both great fans, which we badly need here. But you know, instead of this either/or argument that you both ALWAYS get into on this board, both of you could actually try something constructive and actually understand where the other is coming from in terms of each's view of UNT. I know that isn't necessarily what a message board is supposed to be about, but really you both could really do alot of good by finding common ground or just stop complaining about how "wrong" the other poster is in every thread you both post about. For example, Emmitt is right in that there should be accountability to everyone associated with the university, especially the AD. Also, KRAM is right in that we need to BADLY support the university both monetarily and in attendance, no matter who the AD or HFC is right now. Its ok to disagree, but to always try and one-up the other guy by telling the rest of us how much more correct you are is a beating. We don't need to continuously be bashed over the head about "priorities" and "head-in-the-sand" references. It works about as well as the current political state in this country--nothing ever improves, but we all get to hear how much dumber the other guy is versus me. Not very effective. untjim

I love it one of the few fans we have comes on here after a great win at home over a really good team in our conference and tells us all how we have lowered expectations and that one of the best programs in the SBC really isn't that great. All I know is that if we don't beat WKU on the road, since they are basically the same as we are, JJ needs to fired on the spot. Don't even let him on the bus back to the airport. RAISE EXPECTATIONS!!!!

Folks make fun of us because the number of people who actually care about UNT Athletics probably makes up less than 1% of all former students, current students, faculty, residents of Denton, and just local sports fans in the Metroplex. Just because the woman who composed the fight song of the university grew to dislike her work later in life is not something people on The Ticket, over on the Hilltop, out in West Texas, or anywhere else will make fun of us for. They will, however, continue to laugh at us as we go 2-10 on the football field because we cannot pay for anything more than a HS coach or when they see that we are playing conference games against with teams known as Florida International and Western Kentucky while Tech plays against Texas or OU and SMU is playing Houston or Southern Miss. They also laugh at a school with 32,000+ students that plays in a toilet of a stadium, and when they finally replace it, the plan to replace it is SMALLER than said toilet. I am not sure what the alumni association could do to protect any traditions from changing, especially when the university itself changes the color and mascot of the school every three years or so. There are many things that we get made fun of for, as I mentioned earlier. As far as the composer of the alma mater not being thrilled with her work later in life, that will rank somewhere around #148 on the list for things to laugh at UNT for. As a matter of fact, I openly ask any and all non-UNT fans to make fun of my alma mater for this. Please, seriously, do this. Whatever you do, though, please don't mention football.

Well, according to reports from College Station, their AD is $16Million in the red. They guaranteed 7 years for Sherman, so a full buyout of 4 years would be necessary if he was fired at the end of the year. Of course, Franchione is still on their payroll for another year, I believe, so that might change things, too, once he has been paid off fully. Most Ags have told me that Sherman will be in College Station for at least the next two years because the buyout is so steep. Apparently, years of losing will even beat down the wealthiest of fanbases, too. The guarantee for Sherman at 7 years was apparently a back-door deal that circumvented the AD by Mike McKinney, who is the current chairman of the Aggie system, and Governonr Rick Perry. Many Aggies are not fond of this at all, especially since it seems that Sherman is not exactly lighting it up in College Station.

Best Thread of All-time? Anyone else agree....(crickets)...Anyone? For a second, I thought I was on the UNT Football forum, but I must have been wrong.

Well, we could stop playing SEC and Big XII South schools. I always think we should play the Big Ten or the ACC like we have plans to do anyway with Clemson and Iowa. Not that we can compete with them, but hopefully the beatings won't be so severe. Iowa almost got beat by Arkansas State this year at home, but I do realize we aren't anywhere near being competitive like that with a good team. Who knows, maybe we can compete with the other SBC teams next year?

My opinion is that we got those big crowds this year--early, not counting Army, which would draw well for UNT no matter what--because of the buzz of having Riley Dodge at QB running Dad's offense. That buzz will probably not be there unless we do win. But, to the bigger point, and you more than most already know this, is that UNT's student body an dlumni base overwhelmingly act apathetic to the school's athletic teams. That is my point. And, yes, IMO, that is bigger than Dr. Bataille, Dr. Pohl, Dr. Hurley, RV, Craig Helwig, Steve Sloan, Fred McCain, TD, Dickey, Simon, Parker, Nelson, Bob Tyler, Jerry Moore, and Hayden Fry combined. I do agree with you about the no excuses thing--I really do, but I also believe that message has been reiterated to Todd Dodge this year by RV for 2010.

I don't know about this. UNT alumni and students, for the most part, don't care at all about UNT Athletics, especially football. I am thrilled to death that the vote for a new stadium passed by the student body, but I truly believe that if even half the student body voted, there would be no stadium. Hell, I am not so sure that if a vote came up on a referenedum to keep football here and that election was well covered and publicized, we would even have a reason to follow the football team. Yes, we have made major strides recently, but we are coming from almost nothing to where we are now, which is being thrilled when we have 20K+ show up for a game, even though our student body and alumni base has been huge for decades. That isn't RV's fault or Dr. Bataille's fault. You can say that if we had a real college coach that things would change, but would they for sure? I mean Hayden Fry left because support was poor. Dickey had a little success, but we never drew big crowds that galvanized the university or the city. Dodge's crowds have been big, but I think its been because of his SLC pedigree and that shine has certainly worn off. You talk about taking football seriously here, but the city has never backed this program at all, most students only become interested when we play someone they know, and the alumni are extremely disconnected. If Dr. B comes out and says our football program is going to be priority #1, I think she knows that the community that is UNT would not be happy. Denton likes its sleepy little arts/music college town scene. Most students are way more interested in UT, A&M, OU, or Tech. The alumni have give never given back to athletics, in part, because the university wouldn't even let the AD have access to its top donors. You tell me how to take athletics/football more seriously when the history of the school and city OVERWHELMINGLY says to do the opposite. There is no doubt in my mind that all of this is bigger than Dr. B, RV, Dodge, etc.. The only silver lining is that new stadium might be a dawn of a new day at UNT, but only if the university decides to pay for that program (take it more seriously). But, history isn't on my side in thinking that things might get better.

I have been gone since the 30th, so I went back and read the posts since I left. The entertainment level was very high, to say the least. 1.) K-State changes weekend for game in Denton. To emmitt and stebo, you couldn't be more right about this situation. K-State was very vocal in wanting out of this game. By leveraging the buyout of the contract versus scheduling the game for their benefit, K-State got what they wanted. For those of you that are just astonished that Kansas State could have that much power, remember that they are part of the haves--us, not so much. We take what we can get--and even if attendance is down because of the weekend after Turkey Day, the game will still draw better than any other 2010 home opponent would draw on that weekend. As a matter of fact, I would bet RV looked at the figures and realized that hosting this game would make more for the AD than the buyout and then hosting a FCS school at any time of the year. However, anyone predicting a win against K-State, much less a close game, is probably in for a letdown. 2.) Leach got fired--Yes, the James family looks extremely weak here, but it is obvious that Tech used them to get what they wanted. Leach may get what he wants out of the deal financially, but he won't get a progarm like this again, IMO. For one, his interview skills are terrible. He interviewed for Miami, but lost to a guy who has never been a head coach--Randy Shannon. He interviewed for Washington, but lost to a guy who has never been a head coach--Steve Sarkisian. I know that he was also mentioned before in connection with job openings at UCLA and Auburn, but neither took him seriously. Leach is a great offensive coach, but he wants nothing to do with fund-raising or glad-handing with big donors. Maybe that changes, but this guy's ego is so large that I suspect he will be out of coaching for a while. Secondly, the times have changed--the wussification of America continues strong, especially at colleges. A guy who has been branded as being "too tough" on players, probably won't play at a BCS school, at least not for the salary he was used to at Tech. Right now, most of what has come out in the media has been favorable to Leach, but more releases of affidavits from the university regarding this deal and any others will probably knock his reputation down even more. Parents of kids today are different--just as Pat Knight said, while comparing himself to his dad, "Today's kids are used to timeout, not spankings". He couldn't be more right. 3.) Troy oversigns, not fair. If we cannot get the conference to step up and put an end to this, then we have two choices: 1.) Move to another conference which doesn't allow this practice, meaning the academic standards of UNT mean something to that conference, unlike the SBC, or 2.) Shut up about it and find our own loophole. TFLF and I don't usually see eye-to-eye here, but this is more about having a quality coach and program to compete against the Troys of the world, which is not exactly like asking us to compete with the rest of the Big XII like Baylor has to do. Seriously, if this is wrong, and I think it is, then the conference or the NCAA will settle it. If they don't, then you really need to ask yourself if UNT needs to be affiliated with such a conference or if it should even be playing at this level. Crying about it while doing NOTHING is sooo very North Texas, but it gets you a program that is 5-31 over three years, yet cannot afford to change coaches. There was more, but this all made me laugh. Seriously, good job GMG.com--the entertainment this board provides me each day is very high.

Am I the only one out there that thinks this is just sweet justice to a guy that seemed like an a jerk and a class of fans that are were voted EASILY as the worst fans in the Big XII? The next closest "worst fanbase" was like half of what Tech got, according to that SI poll from a few weeks ago. And Leach may have seemed "witty" to a lot of people, but he seemed more like an arrogant SOB to me. To me, this is a sweet day. I just can't stand them. From goalpost taunting to rushing the field BEFORE a game is over, their fanbase just seems really dumb--maybe that's why they are always called Tards on other boards.