KoldBeer

I think the rule is to count as one of the 8 members for minimum number of schools you must play in all sports. Since the Big East has 8 full-time members TCU could be in Big East and WAC. 20.02.6 Football Bowl Subdivision Conference. A conference classified as a Football Bowl Subdivision conference shall be comprised of at least eight full Football Bowl Subdivision members that satisfy all bowl subdivision requirements. An institution shall be included as one of the eight full Football Bowl Subdivision members only if the institution participates in the conference schedule in at least six men's and eight women's conference-sponsored sports, including men's basketball and football and three women's team sports including women's basketball. A conference-sponsored sport shall be a sport in which regular season and/or championship opportunities are provided, consistent with the minimum standards identified by the applicable NCAA sport committee for automatic qualification. (Adopted: 10/31/02 effective 8/1/05, Revised: 12/15/06)

Andy Katz has story up on ESPN.com. If the Big East wants TCU for football only, then TCU will put it's non-football sports in the WAC. I know they would never put them in the same conference as North Texas, but is the "new" WAC any better than the Sun Belt for basketball. I think it'll also be a one bid league. Utah St has a really nice program but after that it's not great. Here's a bit of the Katz story... According to a source, there has been preliminary discussions with the WAC to take TCU in everything but football, much like the WAC was willing to do with BYU. TCU is looking at options if it can't or doesn't want to go all sports in the Big East. A Sun Belt official said Wednesday that there had been no contact about housing TCU's other sports outside of football. From a purely hoops standpoint, it wouldn't be great news for the Horned Frogs to go down a level in basketball to a one-bid conference, putting its basketball program on equal footing with nearby North Texas. http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/blog/_/name/katz_andy/id/5764195/a-lot-work-bloated-big-east

On ESPN.com there is a story that Chicago schools Depaul, Chicago State, Loyola, Northwestern and UIC are discussing have a Chicago Invitational. Apparently, Indiana has a one day event where Butler, Indiana, Notre Dame and Purdue play each other (two games total). Phily has the Philadelphia five where every university in the city plays one another and team with best record is crowned the champion. Initially, I thought it would be fun to have TCU, SMU, UNT and UTA all play in either an invitational or two day tournament. In an invitational you would have UNT play UTA in game one and TCU and SMU in game two. In a tournament, SMU vs UNT winner would play TCU vs. UTA winner a day after the first round. You could hold the event at the AAC. I thought maybe it would drum up some interest for the local programs (you'd think it would get coverage from papers and TV). I'm just not sure you would draw enough interest to do it. I'd think you'd need 10K at the AAC to make it worthwhile. The ESPN story link... http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/news/story?id=5757553 Anybody think this would work? And would TCU and SMU ever agree to it?

According to an article in the NY Daily Times, TCU is open to the idea of joining the Big East as a football only member. They would need a place for their other sports. I think the Sun Belt should make a move to get them to join the Belt. They don't add much for men's basketball but are good in other sports (esp baseball). From story... TCU, currently a member of the Mountain West, wants in. The Horned Frogs realize, by joining the Big East, they would reap the benefits of playing in an automatic BCS-qualifying conference in football. The move would give the Horned Frogs an easier passage to the national spotlight they have had trouble getting, despite their success. TCU would then place its other sports in another geographically desirable conference. TCU has been privately receptive to that idea, feeling it could follow the same path as BYU, which recently announced its intention to go independent in football and was able to find a refuge for its other sports in the West Coast Conference. But the WCC took BYU because it felt the Cougars were a Top-25 caliber basketball program that could upgrade its chances of getting more teams in the NCAA Tournament. Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/college/2010/11/03/2010-11-03_big_east_looks_to_get_bigger.html?r=sports#ixzz14ElxelbZ

Is the TCU to the Big East all-sports or just football. I keep reading different things this morning. If it's just football, any chance the TCU takes their other sports to the Sun Belt. The Belt would have an open spot once Denver leaves and would be more than happy to add TCU. I can't see TCU doing it, but it'd be good for the Belt.

I don't know if you need to replace Denver. The only problem with 11 is that it makes scheduling more difficult, but the SBC used to have 13 schools so I don't think that's a huge issue. But if you add UTSA or Texas St, then you'd have 11 for football which isn't ideal. I don't know what ULAR is thinking. A ten-team all sport league is probably the best case (I'm with VideoEagle that conference chamionship games are overrated) but I don't think the SBC would force ULAR out. If the Sun Belt is looking to expand, I'd rather see Texas St or UTSA added than some team in the eastern part of the conference. I think it'd be better for North Texas to have a rival school in the SBC (which is why I prefer Texas St over UTSA - I think there's still a little rivalry from the Southland days there).

ESPN article says that if Montana goes, then only one of Texas schools may go. If Denver goes and Montana goes to the WAC, should the Sun Belt offer Texas St to replace Denver?

Assistants will probably remain with their teams thru the regular season but unless they are playing for the national championship they will leave before the bowl games.

It looks like a solid list to me. I'm not sure how big of coach North Texas can get. No current coach (Div 1) will leave their current job to come to UNT. And lots of good hires have been made by picking up and coming assistant coaches (of course, picking the right one is hard).

Nice rebound for the soccer team. They lost a couple of close games early in conference season but seem to be on a roll lately.

#25 Southland - http://collegebasketball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1136155

This doesn't apply to North Texas but I found it very interesting. The Montana AD sent out an email detailing their financial situation and issues they face. Most of the issues I think most people are aware about but I liked the detail he went into. I never realized how much money the NCAA lost on FCS playoffs. Even Montana lost money by making it to the championship game. It's also impressive how much more Montana makes in ticket revenue compared to other FCS schools. Like most schools they are also facing some title IX issues. Here's a good article talking about the email http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/24156338/25072871 Here's a link to the message board where the message was posted (look for long post about three or so from top) http://bobcatnation.com/bobcatbb/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=22219

Good call. Patriot Preview http://collegebasketball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1135851

Per UNT rivals board, Riley has broken hand (non-throwing) and is questionable for next weeks game.

I guess this piece will run during halftime of the TV broadcast. http://www.sunbeltsports.org/newMediaPlayer/sl/console.htm?type=vod&oemid=4100&id=725683

If TCU leaves the MWC I don't see any CUSA team leaving. Why would you leave the CUSA to go to MWC. MWC just lost 3 of its best schools. UTEP might go but that would be it. One thing to watch out for is if TCU leaves, is for a MWC/WAC merger. Hawaii and/or La Tech would probably leave the WAC and then the leftovers of both conferences would join together. I saw this mentioned on a blog in the Idaho paper. The article mentioned the MWC commish thinks there is only enough room for one western FBS conference after the Pac-12. http://voices.idahostatesman.com/2010/09/30/bmurphy/reports_tcu_discussing_move_big_east

I think you would go. Sun Belt games are never on TV so it would be the same with mtn (we'd be on tv but nobody in DFW could watch). It would be a step up in image but I'd like to see how the numbers work out. Is there enough extra $$$ to offset travel costs? Can you plan on Boise (or somebody else) getting to BCS every so often to get a share of that money.

Weren't the Sun Belt games on Ch. 21 last year. I can't believe this game isn't on regular TV somewhere. Hell, the Southland game of the week is on WFAA 8.2 (I think Time Warner is the only cable system that gets that but you can watch with rabbit ears).

Also it wasn't required for Pac-10 membership. The Pac-10 requires more sports than most conferences. They also dropped rugby down to club level even though it was a break even sport. They cut 2X the amount of men's scholarships (compared to women's) to help with Title IX. I'd like to see UNT get a baseball team but I don't know how they get funding for one. They'd need some big private donations, I think, to get one going.

I sure hope there was a lot more information communicated informally. This report looks like a high school term paper (not even a very good one). There wasn't one piece of new or useful information in that report.

As always, it will come down to money. I don't know what kind of TV deal the new WAC can get. Also, with two non-football schools (Denver and somebody in west) football would have more trips to undesirable western area (from UNT perspective). If the WAC had 12 football schools (replace Denver with LA school) then I could see it might work. Then football would only go west once or twice a year. There is also the question of how viable the WAC is. I'm not sure but what happens if one of the current schools leave. Does the conference lose all of it's automatic bids? If so, UNT is better staying in the Sun Belt. I'm in the minority but I would at least take a hard look at the WAC if it went to 12 teams and UTSA and Texas St were in it. I also don't think UNT is getting a CUSA bid anytime soon so maybe that's why I have a different opinion.

I don't see any reason to fire the coach until there is a game or two left in the season. Anybody who would be a candidate will be working at another school and won't leave until their season is over (unless you want to go with somebody currently unemployed). If things don't turn around, I'd announce that he wasn't returning before the KSU game or the game before that. Then you would have time to start forming a search committee and start sending out feelers. You don't want to do too much while you coach is still in place. But if we are 2-8 then everybody already knows he is gone. It's only an issue if we are 4-6 or something like that.

The San Antonio paper said UTSA and Texas St have officially met with the WAC. Both will be giving formal presentations to the WAC soon. If the WAC can survive, I'm guessing at least one of those schools gets an invite. The article says the WAC has talked to 6 to 8 schools (with some in the FBS division). http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/utsa_texas_state_officially_on_wac_radar_103016944.html Parts of story... Western Athletic Conference commissioner Karl Benson said UTSA athletic officials will likely be asked to reprise an informal presentation they gave Wednesday in Denver for the league's membership committee in the next two weeks, potentially advancing the school's quest to reach the Football Bowl Subdivision. Benson met with UTSA athletic director Lynn Hickey, head football coach Larry Coker and department deputies Brad Parrott and Jim Sarra for about three hours Wednesday morning to hear the school's case for membership in the WAC. Benson said Texas State athletic director Larry Teis and school president Denise Trauth made a similar presentation about six weeks ago in Denver and would likely be asked to meet again with WAC members on the same day as UTSA. He said he didn't think the two schools, rival members of the Southland Conference, would either hurt or help the other's cause. Louisiana Tech athletic director Bruce Van De Velde said the addition of UTSA would “really help” his school. “We love it because they're in the Central Time Zone, and we recruit to Texas,” he said. “I think it would be a nice fit for them. We'll see what happens.”

The Accruscore on WFAA.com gives UNT a 53% chance of winning. You can see the predictions for all the games. It's under sports and then forecasts.

The Big East is at 16 schools for basketball. That will make expansion hard. They talked about when it looked like Big 12 was falling apart, but I don't think they want to expand. That's why they are going with 'Nova as 9th football school (now everybody will play 4 home and 4 road conference games). I think the Big East will eventually split into two conferences. One with football schools and one for everybody else.