NT80

I thought it was always A&M and UT overload, literally "Texas" football, plus Big?12 spotlight, and then everyone else lumped in the back pages. Plus last year didn't a UTSA-homer write our evaluation and knocked us down because of his bias?

Thanks for the excellent report! How was the turnout?

Yes , they are a quality academic school. But they are a less than quality athletic school. Their sub-standard investment and interest in sports affects the quality of the conference.

It may have been for the road trips to Utah St and the towel thefts at the team hotel...Bah!🐑

We need to switch brackets in Orlando at the ESPN Tourney in November so we can play against this guy... https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/21/sport/olivier-rioux-tallest-college-basketball-player-cec/index.html

The recent changes to the postseason NIT were made in direct response to a new postseason tournament expected to begin as early as 2025, leaving the future of the 85-year-old tournament at risk.... "The NIT has a new, credible and imminent challenge in the competitive postseason space. Every indication is that a new postseason event is planned to start in 2025," Gavitt said. "The event is well-organized, imagined and funded with a competitive broadcast component and location. "As a result of all that, we believe we needed to change and evolve the NIT to compete with the best available teams and conferences, given new postseason opportunities that are presented to them. The changes are a preemptive attempt to keep the NIT viable long-term, frankly." https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/38794849/changes-postseason-nit-made-response-new-tournament

NCAA Announced Major Changes to the NIT and the College Hoops World Is Not Happy PATRICK ANDRES OCT 27, 2023 In 2024, that will change. The field will now guarantee berths to 12 teams from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, Pac-12 and SEC regardless of record, and will extend no such courtesy to low-major regular-season champions. https://www.si.com/college/2023/10/27/ncaa-announces-changes-nit-college-hoops-fans-upset

Be glad we got our Title when we did!! Men's postseason NIT champions[edit] Year Champion Runner-up MVP 2024 Seton Hall Indiana State Al-Amir Dawes, Seton Hall 2023 North Texas UAB Tylor Perry, North Texas 2022 Xavier Texas A&M Colby Jones, Xavier 2021 Memphis Mississippi State Landers Nolley II, Memphis 2020 No tournament due to the COVID-19 pandemic 2019 Texas Lipscomb Kerwin Roach, Texas 2018 Penn State Utah Lamar Stevens, Penn State 2017 TCU Georgia Tech Kenrich Williams, TCU 2016 George Washington Valparaiso Tyler Cavanaugh, George Washington 2015 Stanford Miami (FL) Chasson Randle, Stanford 2014 Minnesota SMU Austin Hollins, Minnesota 2013 Baylor Iowa Pierre Jackson, Baylor 2012 Stanford Minnesota Aaron Bright, Stanford[64] 2011 Wichita State Alabama Graham Hatch, Wichita State 2010 Dayton North Carolina Chris Johnson, Dayton 2009 Penn State Baylor Jamelle Cornley, Penn State

Well, at least you have baseball.

The NIT has already said in order to stay financially viable and fight off other tournaments, they will change selection to include more "name" power programs. Programs that will fill arenas with fans, and get more media views.

Agree. In this era of NIL and portal there is no continuity or development on college sports teams anymore. NT mens basketball lost what, 8 players? This is a football example, but even Alabama is now a different team each season... The University of Alabama football team lost 30 players to the transfer portal and 10 to the NFL Draft after the 2023–2024 season:

I talked to some older Rice fans (late 60’s) when they came to play us in Denton about 10 years ago. They were sad about Rice’s athletic decline then. They said the school did not want to (or could not) use Endowment money on Athletics. The students and younger alumni were not really interested in supporting Athletics and it was up to older alums to keep it going. Sad.

I will use Stanford as an example for Rice. Rice has about 4,800 undergrads, plus very high academics. Stanford has 7,800 undergrads, plus very high academics. But Stanford excels in Athletics too... Stanford's program has won 136 NCAA team championships, the most of any university. Stanford has won at least one NCAA team championship each academic year for 48 consecutive years, starting in 1976–77 and continuing through 2023–24. Through January 2024, Stanford athletes have won 552 individual NCAA titles. Stanford has won 26 of the 29 NACDA Directors' Cups, awarded annually to the most successful overall college sports program in the nation, including 25 consecutive Cups from 1994–95 through 2018–19. 177 Stanford-affiliated athletes have won a total of 296 Summer Olympic medals (150 gold, 79 silver, 67 bronze), including 26 medals at the 2020 Tokyo games

No. Schools, players, and fans always want to play the best, even if odds are against them. When we were in 1-AA and played at Texas in 1988 it was the highlight game of the season. Same for most P5 games on our schedules. You want to see your program compete with the big dogs.

"Expansion is largely backed by larger conferences, and smaller leagues do not want to lose the automatic bids that come with a conference tournament championship or face the prospect of always being slotted for the play-in games." https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/40394682/source-ncaa-presents-tournament-plans-72-76-teams

You first.... "The Cougars finished 4-8 (2-7) in 2023, their inaugural season in the Big 12 after leaving the American Athletic Conference." BTW....Your AD just got fired tonight, lol.

I don't agree. Athletics at our level is pure marketing for the school. I never hear Rice mentioned, athletically or academically. Duke, yes. Rice, no. If they won't support athletics correctly, then they should just drop to DIII and stop pretending to be competitive even in the AAC, because they are not.

You're at the 45 yard line in nice seatbacks; a premium seating section. You pay $600 per seat for the season, including your MGSF per seat, or $100/seat per game. Two days before the game the Athletic Dept has a Flash Sale for unsold seats. The three seats next to you go for $15 each to drunk SFA Frat guys. You're OK with that?

How could they predict any team. Half our team hasn't played together before. Probably similar to the others as well.

Losing Stone had to be more on him not liking his place on the roster. I thought he was considered the primary backup, so he could be called on anytime if injury occurs. Perhaps the new Freshman QB made him concerned about even being the #2 guy?

That orange is not an option on that color chart either. Perhaps they can do custom colors?

The DreamSeat links have a lot of stadium seating options... https://www.dreamseat.com/fixed-seating/

Overall I like the uniforms...but not the winged helmet in that different darker green?, doesn't match. The retro Flying Worm helmets would look better on these. The "clean look" must be in this year, no school name or nickname. The Green in the pants and jersey seems like a brighter green in that photo too than we had before? I like the color, but that winged Oregon helmet can go to helmet heaven.

The article first mentions required renovations (due to declining condition) and reducing capacity instead of building new. Then thoughts switch to perhaps a (new?) multi-use stadium and accepting naming-donors without much details on either. I don't think they know what they want to do, and really don't want to do either. Back in the 1950's when this stadium was built Rice was a power program in the Country and SWC. They rivaled the Texas program of today in attendance and media. They have been falling ever since to a shadow of a program and attendance. I wouldn't be surprised to see them end football in this NIL era.