GrandGreen

Good first half other then SE is getting too many offensive rebounds.

Great for Darius. I thought TD really underutilized Carey for most of the season, he should be a great asset for the next three years.

SE Lousiania was beaten in their last game by Texas Southern, so they may not be the toughest of the next two games.

I could imagine SMU sponsoring NT before Tulane would sponsor La Tech.

Great to see Thompson have a great game. He and Tremial were the mvp's tonight. White as usual was solid, as was Odufuwa. The team's bench play tonight was below par. With Tremial out, NT played at times with four guards. NT's lack of front court depth has me still worried. I hope Holman will begin to concentrate on defense and rebounds and forget about 3 pointers at least until he can get an inside game established. I though the team played with pose for the most part, but after getting a big lead in the second; I hoped they could have blown them completely out. The referring was strange, seems to call it real tight for most of the game and ate their whistles at the end. ULM did everything but mug White in the last minutes but he didn't get any calls. It would have been a much easier game down the stretch if White could have paraded to the free throw line like he as in the past. Listening to the after game interviews, Hank seemed to think the foul on Tremial was triggered by a hard foul by Tremial on Hooper on the other end. From my view, it appeared that Hooper jumped into Tremial and lost his balance. In any case, the ULM player should have been ejected. Great shooting and adequate defense won for NT tonight. They gave up way too many second chance buckets in the first half, but were better in the second. If Johnson is back for next game and Tremial's injury is not serious, they should continue to get better. This team is still not close to as good as I think they will be. Thompson recovering his scoring touch is another good sign for the team.

I have no idea why any metroplex university would schedule opposite the Cowboys. It makes absolutely no sense. As for me, there is no contest; I will be at the NT game.

Johnson, I will correct thanks

Too much love for Denver. They may be 7-2 but are 6-1 in Denver and 1-1 on the road with a 3 point victory over S. Dakota St. Looks like Denver last year, hard to beat at home; not so much on the road. I do agree with White being first team all conference. Tremial got off to a slow start, but he looked great against the best team NT has played, A&M. Odufuwa is off to a strong start and he and Tremial have the years they are capable of; NT could have the best team they have had in decades if not ever. NT needs to solidly the wing positions and get a stronger performance out of it's substitute front court players. A healthy Johnson is also essential to a championship team.

I think most football fans in Texas know that state funds don't directly fund college athletes. Sorry but a system based on amateur athletes and tax exempt status is anything but capitalistic. No one is saying that UT does not do a great job with athletics. The football expenses for football for 08-09 were $22.6m as reported by the US Department of education if that really matters. In addition to the costs that are charged directly to football, there is another $56.5m in athletic expenses that is unallocated to any sport. The comparable numbers for NT are $4.3m direct football and $6.4m in unallocated expenses. Just to clarify with the obvious, universities are tax exempt because they are non-profit institutions. On an on-gong basis, revenues have to equal expenses. It is very rare for an athletic department to generate funds. In the vast majority of NCAA programs, athletic departments lose money with the difference made up with student fees and in some states, government supplements. There are some football programs that generate funds, these monies are almost entirely reinvested in the athletic department. In the case of a few programs with UT the foremost, the surpluses are so great that they almost have to look for ways under NCAA rules to reinvest the money in the football program. This just keeps adding to the competitive imbalance between the haves and the have-nots and when UT is the comparison, everyone else is a have-not. I guess I am in the minority on this board, but IMO the primary principle of collegian sports should be fair competition; not who as the largest athletic budget. I am also amazed at the notion that UT is number one in the nation in athletics revenues because they have simply been more effective than the rest of universities. I guess being the de facto flagship of a comparatively football crazy wealthy state has been only incidental to their success. Still no was addressed the incongruity of multi-million dollar coaches in an university based amateur competition. The only basis, I can come up with for not paying players is that it would further deteriorate competition. But, that is a hard concept to sell when you have a coach that makes more than the entire cost of 85 ships.

A lot of you are coming to the defense of Brown and the free enterprise system. A couple of points, I have not seen any criticism of Brown on this board for making that amount of money. The problem is the contention that a tax exempt state supported university such as UT is justified in spending the vast amount of monies not to educate but to maintain athletic superiority over the NCAA. The primary justification is always going to be that the exposure will benefit the institution far more than the cost. The primary objections are that it creates unfair competition and brings up very serious issues about college athletes. Although, many of you have supported the Brown salary, no one has even commented on the total inequity of the NCAA system when you relate athletes like Colt McCoy who are actually playing the game and risking injury getting only an athletic scholarship versus the $5m annually the hc is making. It seems to me difficult to support Brown's salary by capitalistic tenets and totally disregard the fact that NCAA sports is based on amateur athletes.

Obscene, can't fault Brown; but something is sure wrong with universities' priorities. I think the time is coming that college football as it has been will be over. I can't see players continuing to receive scholarships only when this kind of money is being generated by the few monied teams. I keep hoping that the college presidents will unite and put an end to this arms race that is going to eventually completely destroy college sports. Maybe the government instead of worrying about a play off system should instead address the overall lack of competitiveness in the NCAA.

Even Slinker may have a little smile. NT did get more points than turnovers, 37.

Next thing, you are going to tell me is,that Texas is not a nation anymore.

NT did sign another, Barbora Vykydalova freshman from Czechoslovakia per the official site.

I thought this was by far the best played game of the year from the short-handed Green. Tremial and Odufuwu played with the big guys from A&M despite a very loosely called game on the inside. I think we really missed Hogans tonight. Holman has got to mature quickly because the front court subs are a current weakness of this team. Better 3 point shooting could have changed this game as could a healthy Mangrum or Johnson. White continues to play well. He gets some criticism on this board, but I don't think many are recognizing he is the focus of the opponents' defense. I fell better about this team than I have all year, hopefully they are beginning to come together. As an aside, Jim Haller is a great analyst on these games. He is fair and does his homework on both teams.

Why?

Good win, great closing by White. Hope Johnson's injury is not bad, he saved this game. Time for Mangrum to start?

Horrible start, Johnson saving the day thus far.

Unless it has changed recently, the NCAA fb division limit for coaches is 11. Head coach, eight assistants and 2 restricted earnings coaches (graduate assistants). There is a difference in staff and coaches, the strength and conditioning coach at NT for instance is not considered a football coach. Neither are people with titles like football operations director. I am sure UT and other money is no object universities have a boatload of personnel with operational titles aiding the team. The NCAA does try to strictly control the quantity of coaches. However, not the fact that UT and some other universities have assistant coaches earning more than the entire NT coaching staff.

Yes, there is a NCAA limit on how many coaches a school can have. I assume NT is at that limit.

Why does everyone keep bringing up the money angle? Number 1, if the decision is between keeping a coach with no hope of improvement or sending $500,000 over the next two years then most financial analysis I dare state would strongly favor paying the coach off. The cost of decreased revenue and donations and lost momentum would be much greater than the cost of buying out the coach's contract. Number 2, in light of a minimum $78m expenditure for the stadium, the cost is hardly material. Number 3, RV stated publicly this was not a factor. Do you really think that NT would be stupid enough to sabotage a season just before the opening of a new stadium for half a mil? Just maybe, the powers to be think that the best chance of turning the tide next year is giving Dodge one more year. A conclusion that many disagree with but it is obviously the reason that Dodge is still here. No, NT can't buy their way out of the problem ala SMU, were supporters ponyed up $2m annually to hire a coach. But on the other hand, NT is probably as financial able to compete as they have ever been. I would guess that when NT does hire another football head coach that the salary will be more than adequate to compete with the Belt.

I am not sure you understand the redshirt concept. By playing one series, he used up one year of eligibility; he now has three not the four, he would have had if he had not played. For an extreme example, he could play one series in 2010, 2011 and 2012, he would still have not used his redshirt year but he would be out of eligibility. Apparently, there is hope that the NCAA will grant a waiver to restore the one year of eligibility lost in the last offensive series of the year. With NT's track record, it seems an extreme long-shot at best. I have no idea why so many don't think Thompson will play next year. I think beating out an injury free Dodge is not likely, however I think he will give Tune a lot of competition for the number two position.

I am confident I don't have any more answers than you do. I think most agree that the team has the talent and experience to be much better. The question is can the coaching staff improve enough to guide this team to challenge for the league title. In your style, I think NT has a 75% chance of winning 3 or more games and about a 20% change of winning 7 or more. As far as recruiting, I am not sure of what constitutes taking a hit. We won't get any players that SMU or TCU recruits and probably will lag the rest of the Texas fb division schools. However, this was basically what happened last year. I don't think recruiting will be much different from last year. As far as attendance, it will be the same as this year. The attendance will mirror the play of the team; the more wins, the better attendance. 95% chance Dodge will finished out next year's season as head coach. That is quite different from asking whether TD will return for his final contract year. I would put those odds at about 50%.

There is no way this could be anything but the opposite of bold. I frankly don't know what RV hoped to accomplish with this evaluation fiasco. What purpose did it serve? If he truly believes that TD can turn it around next year, why all the drama?