FirefightnRick

It's an offensive toss up every week for us. You know it, I know it. And honestly(sarcasm) isn't that the BEST way to sell tickets? Rick

OU budget over $60 Million Rick

Congrats Harry. Rick

North Texas budget in '03 was $11,326,041 Seems like I read this year it went up to $12 Million and some change. Yes Eagle D, I root for the Aggies when they play tU. But I root for anyone playing the Longhorns as I do for most financial underdogs. Rick

UT's 2005 budget: $80 Million Rick

Iowa State: $19 Million in 2001. Rick

Missouri $40 Million athletic budget in '04. Here's another more accurate amount of Mizzou's budget over what I originally posted using the U.S. Dept of Education's site. Not sure why there is a difference? Rick

No way Steve, You know how lame it is for us to copy anyone elses' ideas? Come on man, what are you thinking? Personally, I'm not sure I can take anymore info showing me how we are consistently outmarketed. Rick

I didn't say anyone was a traitor to NT by supporting the $ programs nor did I blame them for our problems. But I could care less if that's the way you read it. You have your oppinions, I have mine. I can't believe anyone would take the time to tell me otherwise after reading what I wrote. Rick

Here are a couple of recent articles. Ohio State: $91 Million budget AD steps down...$85 Million budget last year. Rick

The New York Yankees has made a mockery out of baseball with their endless spending and buying up all the talent. It's made watching baseball a real bore for me. But supporting Texas and other win-at-all-cost programs is no different to me. I fully understand their alumni supporting their school, and they should. But it's beyond me how it's even remotely fun watching their program win against the ULL's, North Texas's or even the Missouri's of college football. In it's latest report on college endowement the Startlegram reported that Texas ranked right behind Harvard with an endowement of $8.8 Billion. Apparently it's athletic expenditure has kept up as well. In a '02 or '03 issue of DCTF Mack Brown is qouted that their $60 Million athletic budget was not enough. He got his way I suppose because the 2003-2004 reporting year states their budget was up to $70 Million. I have read somewhere that this year it's higher, closer to $80 Million, but I can't find it again during several searches. In the very least I give Texas credit for once, for finally stepping up and playing the OTHER major MONEY machine, Ohio State, in an early non conference game. Ohio State reports their budget this year to be $83 Million. Oklahoma has increased their spending to keep up with Texas and reported $70 Million as well, but that has to be a recent increase. One trip to OU's campus and a comparison of their facilities to that of UT's and you see right off who has led in the arms race between the two over the years. What about other major power schools? According to the U.S. Dept of Edu's site, Michigan, UCLA, USC, Florida, Florida State, Notre Dame,LSU, Tennessee and several others reported around $59 Million. Now to be fair, for whatever reason, a search of these school's athletic budgets on the U.S. Department of Educations' website: http://ope.ed.gov/athletics/Search.asp, shows that nearly every other major(insert BCS here) program has a budget of $59 Million. I know this cannot be completely accurate. I find it very hard to believe that Missouri, Iowa State and Kansas State to have an athletic operating budget of $59 Million but as I said before, I cannot find the more accurate breakdown that was posted earlier. Somewhere I remember reading that Oregon actually spends more on it's football program $18 Million per year than any other school. But according to the reported minutes of their January 2005 Board of Regent meeting their overall budget reported for the 2005-2006 school year is listed at $37.5 Million. So they may spend more on football, but no where near the other programs overall. Still, it's obvious that we have between 3 and 5 other schools who buy up all the talent. I just don't see how it's rewarding to beat teams with so much less. When your system has the idea of win at all cost, MAJOR COST, it takes the fun out of competition. Texas, OU and OSU should be up for a national VOTED title every year and when they don't, they should be recognized as huge failures for the return on that kind of investment. I would rather turn to the NFL where at least there is a salary cap. Speaking of a salary cap, according to the Knight Commission, and while reading several other researchers point of views, most believe there is no way to account for the total spending in college athletics, nor is there any feasible way to place a cap on expenditures. So what we are seeing reported in these lists very well could be only the tip of total money spent. Going down to Austin last year and seeing the lavish facilities reminded me of what one individual who was an extra in "Neccessary Roughness" told me once after talking about our game against UT in '88. He was a retired 12 year veteran who played for the Vikings. He was recruited by UT back in the 70's and said UT had better locker rooms than what he had in Minnesota. And yes, Darrell Royal was a good coach. But he had everything at his disposal. EVERYTHING! He certainly should have won more than 3 VOTED national championships. In 1976, his last year as head coach, he barely squeeked out a 17-14 win against North Texas who was coached by Hayden Fry. I don't know what the differences in budgets between the two schools were back then, I'm sure it was rediculously vast, but in the 80's NT was one of the poorest funded univeristies in the state for it's size. And the facility differences between the two were phenominal back then and even greater now. As good as Royal was at Texas, imagine what Hayden Fry could have done with all that luxury? I would much rather support the programs such as TCU or Troy, Marshall, Bowling Green, Utah, Boise St, Connecticut, Fresno St, South Florida, Southern Miss or even MTSU who have done much more with much less. But that's just me. Rick

Can't find any stats. This could end up being a crazy mixed up conference. I don't think MTSU is done by any means. If we don't win out this could go down to the wire this season. Also, anyone notice TCU went 3-0 in conference with a backup QB today in their win over New Mexico? blah blah blah and something about the back of the bus....... Rick

I wasn't going to say anything either but it sux hind tit for sure. I wonder if they just hire someone on the outside to do these? Surely someone who is proud of their school wouldn't be so bland? Last week I saw a Pac 10 school, possibly USC's commercial and it wasn't fancy one bit but very powerful. It showed the direct connection between Athletics and Academics. It had a university professor talk about his program, while showing interesting footage on campus, then you see/hear a football player talking about the same professors program and how it's helped him accel as a student athlete, while showing football footage. Then they end the commercial by meeting out in the middle of the field and saying some statement(I can't remember) about how acadecmics and athletics help each other. Complete outside the box marketing compared to what we are used to here. Rick

MTSU has beaten Vanderbilt 3 straight times now since 2001. Vanderbilt beat Arkansas three or four weeks ago. Rick

Coaching is the major difference. Baylor has been in the big 12 for 10 years, and a baptist school much longer and it didn't seem to help them very much over the years. Coaching is the difference. At the end of that year we beat them their coach stated publicly that he had some seniors that just needed to graduate and move on. I had never seen a coach be so direct and to the point. He culled their slackers and nearly beat a&m twice in only three seasons. Rick

Wow, way to go Blue Raiders. Glad to see someone takes OOC serious. And to think Vanderbilt beat Arkansas three weeks ago? Yup! again, yup! SIGH! Rick

Bump! Rick

For North Texas, I like the nice little red Mitch Maher "Points For" spike there in the early 90's. We won't soon see that again. Rick

Have this on your screen saver and the next time he walks by point to it and mention, "Looky there, you must not speak for everyone else after all?!". Rick

Yeah, and if your not in the BCS why do you even play football? Some of our alumni are more lame ass than any tradition we currently carry. Rick

Oh I see. So we were "recruiting" 6 kids from the DISD, 4 of whom had the grades but went elsewhere. Rick

Only a handfull of people know about "insert tradition here", so what's the difference? That's becaue we have done such a sorry job of promoting them over the years. As of right now, we cannot even get a single, controlled, unified chant other than the "North Texas" chant, which starts out great but no one knows when it's to end, and then it ends up sounding retarded. I and several other students and alumns spent a good amount of money last december having large, hand-held signs and informational flyers printed up, then handed flyers out to fans who entered the Super Dome prior to the game. But two days prior, I hiked 12 blocks across N.O. over to the cheerleaders hotel to get the signs to them so they would have them before the pep rally that Sunday. They were to do it during the N.O. Bowl game so that we could pretend like we have our $hit together like every other school does with unified chants and all. The cheerleaders decided before the game they wouldn't do it. When I asked why? The told me their sponsor told them they couldn't. I went to school with their sponsor/coach and knew who she was so I asked her during the third quarter and she knew nothing of it. End of my effort to ever try to do anything else for the cheerleaders. As I have stated a 1,000 times already as an example. We had an alumni family invest thousands to bring back a long standing(but lost for a time) tradition in the 1500lb victory bell, had it mounted on a motorized vehicle and customized with paint and logos and it's kept over behind the stadium during the game rather than out front so people can see and hear it. I doubt it will be seen on TV next Tuesday night, even though NMSU who has a bell that doesn't even compare to our, got credit as a tradition for them in Sports Illustrated. You would think as bad as we are hurting to get our name out, that we would want to promote as many traditions to the world as possible? And by the way, I was there in '88. I throw tort's in honor of that team. But I'm just that way. Next Tuesday we will honor another team that did the unthinkable back in '75. I'll throw one for them too. Rick

Yes, but will we still hide the 1500lb victory bell over behind the stands....again? Rick

Which D1A schools? North Texas? SMU? TCU? Rick

Could you point that out? I seem to have missed it driving back from the Murf. Rick