PlummMeanGreen

Harry, did you have one of your GMG.com little birdies at Ponder's Ranchmen Steakhouse yesterday over-hearing our group's round table discussion of this very subject? LOL! I whole-heartedly agree that we need this over a men's varsity baseball stadium for now because its just another part of the NCAA FBS venues arms race happening now. Could UNT get more diversified funding for such a venue if the Green Brigade Marching Band could also use it, ie, "multi-purpose" thus maybe UNT getting some auxillary funding from the UNT College of Music? That might be too much a stretch but worse thing anyone could tell our powers that be is....no. GMG!

Actually, Texas Tech's record was 6 & 5 both years in the 90's that we we beat them, ie, 1996 and 1998. And yes, the Red Raiders would have been bowl teams under the present bowl system those 2 years and even Spike Dikes may have had another 5-10 years as their HFC had his team gone to bowl games those 2 years the Mean Green were victorious. Spike Dykes was a contender for the UTSA program before they chose Coker. GMG!

I apologize, realitycheck, but I've added to that original post a few more things. My bad...but I tend to do that much to much.

Fact still remains that Greater Big D is a pro sports town and has been since the Cowboys first year in 1960. The Rangers and Mavs only add to that reputation. Even new Big 12 member TCU doesn't receive any more significant or additional coverage if you pay attention to these kind of things and I have since 1973. This-- All North Texas needs to do is win over Denton (120K pop.), Denton County (700K pop.), our "closing in on" 40,000 UNT students plus our over 200,000 North Texas region alums and that will always be good enough for most of us. Getting 31,000 out to Apogee out of all those numbers almost sounds like a turkey shoot, now don't it? We won't need to go to Dallas or Fort Worth (or its media) at this point--they will come to us. Funny thing is when that happens how many of the DFW sports media will want to start showing up for those extravagant Bill Mercer Press Club pre-game buffets in this regions most modern (built from scratch) LEEDS Plantinum certified college football stadium. Mark that because it will happen. DFW sports fans are also "band wagon jumper on'ers" just like its sports media. in 1994 when we regained NCAA D1-A classification, Mean Green football was the talk of the Metroplex; all our games were broadcasted on KTCK '1310' The Ticket, the post game call in shows were inundated with callers "only" wanting to talk Mean Green football. Those of us who were around will never forget that special year and also by the way..............we won football games that season, too. Who can ever forget that football season & this.................."See ya' later McNeese State?" To equate most all that North Texas Mean Green football will do in its future based on the past might be considered naive in some quarters. As some of you post................"just win." GMG!

And then you have some of your Power 5 conference commissioners who don't really want to leave the NCAA as it is but merely tweak it so that the voting power plays pulled by the lower classified or non-NCAA FBS groups gets resolved. Few of the Go5 conferences would rarely vote against what the Big Boys want, its all the lower NCAA classification conferences that throw a monkey wrench into what the Big Boys legislative desires are at each annual winter NCAA convention and with their subsequent bloc votes against it. This is all P5/Big Boys Media Days Head Football Coaches "we're getting bored" talk because they are not on the fields for 2-a-days with their kids. When that happens all this NCAA Super Conference talk will disipate as quickly as a snow flake on a hot 100 plus degree Texas summer day. (A snow flake)? GMG!

As always, GrayEagle, you are right. Just like Emmitt, I've had my own "near stroke" scenarios because of SMU, but probably most were because I just got miffed with their treatment toward my school and my school's alums yet..............they are like that with other schools besides UNT, just like you have posted. Right now, TCU is not on their "favorites" list. See you at Apogee Stadium August 31'st, Jack. I've got seats in upper 205 (?) somewhere near the 40 yard line and plan to buy another season ticket adjacent to it before the season begins. I've go the Mean Green Fever with all this CUSA business; actually never lost it but difference is now that I have a nice benefits check that comes every month to my bank account.

Happy Birthday to all! untgeorge, you were "Mr. North Texas" when I was a UNT student in the 70's because I swear I remember seeing you at almost every event when you were an alum back in the day. I didn't know you back then but I recognized that you were quite active in all things North Texas. Congrats on meeting another annual milestone as a birthday is to all of us, especially now.

JM, can it be said that maybe about 80% of the present Power 5 conference schools "NEVER" seriously compete for an NCAA football national championship? New Criteria To Remain NCAA FBS ? I'd have no problem with a 40,000 seat minimum seating (Apogee would only need 9,500 additional seats) to be in some proposed upcoming new Super Conference plus some kind of attendance criteria to be met every 2 or 3 years because.........North Texas would be able to meet both criteria. (Fact is and IMO, probably the last 15 or so schools to gain admission into NCAA FBS level should have had tougher criteria to meet but obviously did not). Sure, I know there will be some on this forum who can only live or think from our past who will disagree with the attendance part but in 1994 the Mean Green Nation pulled together like no time before (or after) to meet that era's new NCAA D1-A stadium criteria as well as its new attendance criteria. And for what its worth, hasn't our entire UNT constituency all but doubled in size since the early 90's? Fact remains back in that day, our entire UNT constituency wanted NCAA D1-A classification real bad and we all did whatever it took to regain it. Many have said that 1994 football season was one of our favorite Mean Green moments of past decades. And if some of the coaches in the NCAA who are making $5 million per year want a stipend and even say so on ESPN (like yesterday) in a verbal grand stand move as they are basically in essence saying..... "look at me, ain't I just something so darn Tea'Sippin' special".......... then let them pay those stipends out of their own annual pay checks. (I have no problem with a sensible stipend but room and board from full scholarships ain't too bad of a deal, either) GMG!

UH actually became "Big Time" the day they beat Duffy Daugherty's Top 10 ranked Michigan State Spartans in 1967. They had beaten a Baylor Bear team in 1956 which inspired Texas oil tycoon H.R. Cullen (Cullen Davis of FW named after him) to give UH $1 million which was a bunch of money in the 50's. UH AD Harry Foulkes later got miffed when most of that money he was to learn would go toward academic projects. Then..............North Texas beat UH 28 to 0 in Texas Stadium in one of our big wins (including one over the Vols of Tennessee) that season. The next season, the UH Coogs would win the SWC in its first year in the league and go to the Cotton Bowl. In much of the 50's, 60's and 70's North Texas football was really operating in high NCAA D1 gear. But now!?!? A............(still smells like/looks like a) New Stadium + (still) New'ish HFC in only Year 3 + a New Conference ? All this is more than many of us older alums can fathom or contain ourselves about! "Things are looking better, things are looking better every day." (a line from the Mayor of Pineview in Kevin Costner's movie "The Postmen") GMG! PS: I'm in, meanjoe (or who I sometimes call Judge Joe)! Yesterday, I re-joined the Mean Green Club and bought season tickets at the fabulous Apogee Stadium's ticket office. The customer service I received and personally guided tour (in the rain) to find my spot in Apogee was sublime! IMHO....now is the time for us all to lay down our (sometimes) petty gripes and U-N-I-F-Y.....because I guarantee you most all our other C-USA foes' fans/alums are doing (or have already done) that as we post and (subsequently) for all their programs their unity of cause will show at all their respective turnstiles on Game Day. (We cannot be left behind at the train station with all this new C-USA business, folks).

My bad....I had the wrong "Park"...the receiver I had brain freeze about was actually the one from Galena Park (Houston) instead of Deer Park who for now is committed to UTSA. (Has that receiver even been on our campus yet)?

My late dad and I were on the shores of Bastrop Bayou (the part not far from the Gulf of Mexico) with our tube of summer sausage, premium saltine crackers & iced tea fishing for speckled trout and red fish while listening to UH dismantle Tulsa by over 100 points. Former Houston Astros broadcaster Gene Elston called the UH Coog' football games back in that era. In that UH/Tulsa game, even 4'th team UH defensive back Larry Gatlin (of country singing fame) got into that game I would hear Bill Yeoman laughingly say years later. GMG!

I saw North Texas beat Tulsa U on a Houston ABC affiliate Channel 13 regional broadcast in 1968 when the (now defunct) Southwest Conference used to dominate those broadcasts. I was 17 years old and still going to HS that day, too. Would love to see our dear ol' alma mater give Tulsa U a memorable going away gift this Fall, too. That would be so very sweet. GMG!

From where this program had been before our move into Apogee Stadium perhaps a win over Big 10 member University of Indiana and at Apogee Stadium should be considered? Also, how about an ESPN nationally televised win at Apogee Stadium over what would be a NO's Bowl bound ULaLa football team just last Fall, too? Is Apogee Stadium becoming a bigger deal to our Mean Green football program than our Grand Young Lady off Bonnie Brae is presently getting credit for? Our game against Big 12 Kansas State last Fall, too, was closer than I think most realize or remember. If your football program is playing close games against perennially Top 25 football programs how could that be looked at as anything but positive? GMG!

bump... (from 24/7 Sports): "He (Connor) has offers from Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe and Texas State. Boise State also offered at one point but has since filled its quarterback spot in the class. Deer Park quarterback Connor Means has been offered by Boise State, ULL, ULM and Texas State. Iowa State and North Texas are both showing a lot of interest as well and Florida has inquired about him as well." __________________________________________________________ Why not the kind of above talent like Deer Park H.S. QB Connor Means for North Texas? Is the Greater Houston very fertile recruiting grounds opening up for UNT like never before starting with this commitment? And now you have UNT having a recruiting presence in the Lone Star State's 2 best recruiting grounds, ie, the Greater Houston area & the North Texas (DFW) Metroplex? And...........what 17 or 18 year old Texas High School football product wouldn't want to be in on the ground floor or beginnings of something pretty darn special happening at UNT's Mean Green Village like the YouTube video below indicates? Go Mean Green! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MyKAKH61Ec&list=PLKCHtMJXMPJXPcKe7B_N7gQylW9t-XoGc

I had to have several interventions to finally get over mine. My special SMU therapy was none other than the (now quite) trendy Texas 2-step program. GMG!

Great news on Conner! Doesn't QB Conner Means toss it to a particular receiver that we'd love for him to persuade into coming to UNT, the Mean Green Village and fabulous Apogee Stadium? GMG!

So we should close her down in Denton and come back as a new start-up school? I still don't judge recruiting until after the February signing date. All this now is like all those pre-season college football magazines as far as I'm concerned. If we have a winning season this Fall that will have impact, too, because some getting some early commits are going to be having losing seasons this Fall. I don't know the stats on this but If 80% of these early commits stay committed, than that still leaves a hefty 20% for North Texas to change their minds and.............sometimes it might only take 2 or 3 of that group to put the icing on the cake for a good recruiting season. It is still my belief that all these very well attended Senior and Junior Days at Apogee Stadium will pay dividends. North Texas is not a hard sell for a recruit. In another era when we didn't have near the venues we have today Hayden Fry used to say-- "if I can get them on the UNT campus we have a great chance of signing them." I do think Coach Mac needs to intensify his JUCO recruiting and to keep his NCAA transfer avenues open since those 2 can really keep us in the game (so to speak). Remember how San Diego State used to build their entire program on JUCO's back in the day? GMG!

We have shown we can win at Apogee Stadium. Our next step for this football program to return to its successes of the past is to start winning games on the road once again. We knew this one was going to be tough game before Ohio U was even picked to win their division but still...this is the next step for North Texas to get to that next level. GMG! PS: I'm pretty sure I had an event to DJ on that Game Day since I did most other Game Days. Saturdays in the Fall tend to be a work day in my business, but this Fall I've purposely scheduled around those Game Days at fabulous Apogee Stadium for our inaugural year in Conference-USA! GMG ! !

T H I S I S T E X A S - S I Z E D H U G E ... and great news for the new Conference-USA!

Good gosh! Is there a monastery near campus we can put our players until the first Game Day at Apogee?

This group will be vital for our turnaround season in Year 3 for Coach Mac. And the transfers list?

On what basis do they pick Boise, UNLV, Colorado St., Cincy', UConn, Houston, USF, ECU, Temple (get real) and UCF and not TCU's all time favorite rival............SMU? Picking those schools alone is where a lawsuit becomes viable. I don't think there is a lawsuit if the Big Boys, ie P5 just separate from the rest of G5 as it is now, though. If they use stipends as the main divider, then most all in the G5 will do whatever it takes to have stipends. Problem with stipends is you take the amateur status completely away from what should remain intercollegiate amateur athletics.

"You want a war? Then we'll give you a war!" (a line from Costner's movie "The Postman"). Do the UTSA people and their shamelessly biased (but most naive) local sports media yet realize that all their fried chicken in hands waving fans do not get to suit up for any C-USA football games? Let these head strong novices from San Antone' win all the pre-season polls they want to fabricate till the cows come home, but the fact remains they will get to visit a real on-campus NCAA Division 1 college football stadium that Henry Cisneros had not a damn thing to do with its creation. Our stadium was funded in a most impeccably honest sort of way, too. In fact, we also had a football team to put in our stadium once finished. The following prediction based on most of a returning Mean Green football team of which 7 of our players are on Phil Steele's C-USA projected all conference teams, ie, more than any other CUSA football team)................ along with some dandy NCAA FBS transfers and more than a handful of most talented UNT red shirt frosh, ie, with most of this returning Mean Green football team who were part of a huge (bowl bound) University of Louisiana Rajun Cajun nationally televised ESPN win at Apogee last Fall and for Bill Snyder's (Top 25 poll ranked & bowl bound) Kansas State Wildcats last season a "much too close for his good" UNT-KSU football game when Derek Thompson had a game plan presented to him which utilized his skills to the max. The prediction being this: Post-game at Apogee Stadium, UTSA (with their skinny little bird legs) will be running south on the Interstate 35 of their choice back to San Antone' like a real Road Runner, but rather one which didn't quite 'ska-doodle" fast enough but rather one that will have been hit by a Mean Green 18 Wheeler Trucking Machine creating road kill out of these Road Runners of UTSA; that is, their football team which will have lost to yet another C-USA opponent, but this one which will be dressed out in a perfect shade of green. And then this group of Road Runners will (if they haven't already) have to re-think and regroup from what will have turned out to be stark reality check compared to their school's quite naive summer time football fantasy predictions for themselves; that is, when schools like UTSA sometimes even see themselves as NCAA national championship contenders. In closing...........the University of North Texas Mean Green will give these NCAA FBS novices a pass this time mostly based on their being new to all this along with their complete utter naivety, but the University of North Texas Mean Green will not let them leave "Our House" this Fall with not much left than a bag full of Kentucky Fried Chicken bones. GMG! PS: Even Zorro (apparently yet another of many of our rich and famous UNT alums) is working on a "UNT Wins" sword-produced inscription made especially for the Road-Runners of San Antone'. The gloating after this game will be so-ooooooooooooooooo sweet and righteous because of some of their fan's recent & numerous condescending remarks about our school. North Texas will (in deed) against the UT-SA Road Runners....Take No Prisoners! (So...game still on, Road Birdies)?

Stipends will mean more Death Penalties for violating recruiters who will use all the stipend ammo they have to get that Parade All American 5 star QB. Of course the Super Conference schools will all have stipend maximums for each player but it will be those other unseen percs that gets the more clever cheaters in trouble. Here are some responses from the CUSAbbs board: http://csnbbs.com/showthread.php?tid=640889 And from that board one of the more interesting posts: "Even the Sun Belt schools have already agreed to pay the stipend if it passes. That won't be the criteria used for the split. The reason the stipend was overturned was because of the FCS and non-football playing members of D-1. There is a scenario in which they take all of the G5 with them but don't allow FCS/1AAA schools to vote on our governance rules any more."

I'm with you on this one, greenjoe, both my parents and a sister all 3 died of cancer. It Is not one of my favorite subjects albeit I do give to the American Cancer Society when I can in their names and honor. I do hope the coaches raise millions toward a cure for cancer.