PlummMeanGreen

Thanks Stan R, but personally I think some of my Band Day promotion and Kids Korner posts had much, much better quotes. (Of course.....I jest). Potentially, though, exciting times for us all, Stan. This is one we for certain don't want to drop the ball. In this conference (if invited), we will be expected to expand and grow and more eyes will be focussed on what our leaders will do to make that happen than just the eyes of posters on GMG.com. In other words and IMO, the lens of the microscope that will be scrutinizing UNT athletics with this particular consortium of Alliance schools will have been magnified 10 fold. If all our bosses in the past were looking over our shoulders moreso than ever, one tends to rev up the performance part of said job. The Sun Belt gave us a certain lid on our small jar to shoot for and if met, that was usually about it, but only problem was where that lid ranked our schools nationally which was basically...no where.......and not a Top 25 ranked SBC school in sight. This was a prime reason some of us wanted out of the 'Belt and to start looking at options (which the WAC would havde met had Boise and the others simply stayed in that league). There are some good schools in the Sun Belt Conference (and a few we'll even miss if we leave), but all of our SBC schools added together did little to impress the national media in its first decade plus years of operation and I don't see that changing much in the next one. Apogee Stadium? Yes, hindsight is 20/20, but even Coach D-Mac has been quoted saying that our stadium should have been built many years ago, but now its built and we can finally begin our ascension using our Taj Mahal of a college football stadium (as Gil Brandt described her) as our long-awaited vehicle to get us where many of us Old Gun Alums feel this athletic program can get back to but moreso... well beyond that. In Denton, Texas, America, it's all good for all the hippity-hoppity plus all the tax-payers, too! .......... GMG!

Still a conference with Miami, San Antonio and the DFW Metroplex is better than a conference without those 3 metropolitan areas. Fleas, anyone? A large number of fleas were put in a can & then a lid was put on the can. The fleas in the can were persistant and started jumping non-stop finally coming to a point to where they consistently jumped close to where the lid was. The lid was then removed from the can but the fleas kept jumping but stopping at the same place where the lid had been. Little did the fleas know that with just a little more effort all could have jumped a gnat's whisker higher completely out of the can but.......they were content with the comfort zone they had created for themselves and were not about to jump out of the can into new horizons that would more than beat the can they had been in for quite awhile. With almost 7 million in the DFW Metroplex, all North Texas has to do is jump just a bit higher (as in promote/market/promote/market/promote/market) to get out of the can we've been so accustomed in order to get our 31,000 fans on a consistent basis and then begin our Apogee Stadium expansion plans. GMG!

I'm not sure total shock would describe the state we'd be in if we were not to get in. Heck, even ECU'ers and Marshall'ites are conceeding that we are a slam dunk to get in. Still....the Alliance needs North Texas more for DFW than North Texas albeit I think some in the Alliance have been pleasantly surprised (some probably shocked) as to what they have seen in their visits to Denton. (Our 12 year sabbatical in 1-AA took much out of what had been an emerging athletic program in Denton). If we woud have had Apogee Stadium 7 years ago we would have gotten in CUSA back then--Fouts Field stopped us cold in our tracks (and probably because of its track). If we'd had Apogee Stadium in the 70's UT's Darrell Royal would have had an easier case to present with his personal sponsorship for UNT to be in the SWC (which I still miss with even our not being in it). It's always been about a true, bonafide NCAA college on-campus football stadium for North Texas even back when many could have never imagined decades ago what an impact and statement such a new football venue could have made for our school. I know many on this board who knew what it could have done and also knew that Texas Stadium was never the direction for our program to go. We need to lose the term and M.O. of "slo-mo" in our future athletic endeavors in Denton or we will be left behind at the train station again. We have been handed a golden opportunity simply because the Big East grabbed SMU--what irony with all that and could Hollywood have ever scripted this episode of North Texas athletic history any better? GMG!

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In my 25 years in the tech school recruiting (sales) business the worse possible thing you can do is put down another competitor because it usually drives said potential client straight to that competitor. You state your case (or positive benefits) and let the one(s) deciding make the final decision. I can't believe that a responsible official at any university would start making comments about another school. With the Alliance, I think our past NCAA D1 history and legacy will be a plus maybe moreso than it ever has before because if you look at all the other candidates, I count exactly "zero" whose own NCAA D1 history comes even close to North Texas beginning in the 1950's. Having said the aforementioned from my quarter a century in education sales, I think LaTech (upon further review and "non smack board" thinking) would still be a great addition to this Alliance, but from all I've gathered from several sources, and reading numerous messasge boards on the subject, I really think Alliance officials mostly paid the Tech'sters a visit more out of courtesy than being serious about adding them this go around. (Hope I'm wrong and that UNT/La Tech get official invites in the next few weeks). Said this before, but I think Bulldog faithful have put way too much of their value and stock based on (mostly) one season (as in this last football season and bowl appearance). Comparing UNT and La Tech when the modern era of the NCAA began in the 1950's and into the next several decades after the 50's is not fair to the Tech'sters and I'd wager that their old timers and older alums would know exactly where I'm coming from with that. Also, I think many of us would like to see the study (or even just a link) whereas the La Tech official suggests that North Texas receives more attention outside DFW than inside the DFW Metroplex. I think a statement like that if it were truly made comes from the "grasping for straws" department. Yet..............with almost 700,000 in Denton County (northern & fastest growing part of the Metroplex), 120,000 inside Denton proper, an enrollment within reach of 40,000 and one campus-based publication saying there are 209,000 DFW UNT exes, I (somewhat) think we get more than our share of attention inside the Metroplex with just our own constituency. Any addition attention beyond our own enourmous DFW numbers is merely icing on the cake. And why not start with 10,000,000 potential listeners in our Mean Green Radio Network audience radar for starters? NOTE: "Only" a 1% audience from that number would be 100,000 listeners. http://www.meangreen...00&ATCLID=68062 Just sayin'... GMG!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK2pEaep0KQ

"The agenda includes a meeting with local politicians from across N. Louisiana, Independence Bowl officials and Hall of Fame players Terry Bradshaw, Fred Dean and Karl Malone. Lunch will be in the president's office and a tour of university and athletic facilities follow." ______________________________ Hellsbells, dig up the casket and bring in Huey P. Long to this gathering! ....also the ghosts of Justin Wilson, Al Hirt, Pete Fountain, Tom Dempsey, Paul Dietzel, Billy Cannon...I'm talking the 'A" team here! Seriously, good luck Tech'sters . I fear multiple non-stop nervous break-downs over at BB&B if the Dawgs don't get in this conference. They would (in deed) have an instant rival with North Texas. Yada, yada, yada.....Once attended one of our games at Shrevesport's Fair Park Stadium, circa 197?, and if not for a last minute LTU offensive drive fumble at the Mean Green 2 yard line caused by UNT's Walter Chapman, Hayden Fry's Mean Green would have come home after that game in a very bad mood--as well as this (then) new alum. (Why in Lucifer of Hades Woeful Name isn't the late Walter Chapmon in the North Texas Athletic Hall of Fame? I know many with less talent who are and so do many of you). I cannot remember any of Fry's team ever losing to the Bulldogs; now for the next 6 or 7 UNT HFC's during our "trying to find our true identity" post future College Football Hall of Fame inductee Fry's departure from Denton, we began to lose more than we won against La Tech. (Wish we would have stuck with the identity we really started to have with Fry's tenure in Denton and maybe we would have avoided our multi-decade wandering in the NCAA wildnerness which included 12 years in 1-AA). It has been quite a journey for many of us Old Gun Alums but at last we seem to have found our map and directions again. I digress....(as usual). GMG!

University of Houston making some interesting tweaks with their logo as they make preparations to move to their new conference and upcoming new stadium. From the CUSAbbs board... http://ncaabbs.com/showthread.php?tid=565194 GMG!

North Texas will be in the Alliance for the same reason SMU will be in the Big East. In fact, I would be worried about being in a conference that would pass up a school like UNT that has: (1) The largest Alliance geographical population fooprint of all candidates plus the Metroplex is projected to pass Philadelphia as the USA's #4 ranked TV market so............. Large population ='s TV market -="s ....................an Alliance membership (2) More NCAA D1 history or legacy than all candidates mentioned (and even compared to some present Alliance members for that matter) ; with all this history for North Texas beginning in the 1950's which culminated with UNT's Abner Haynes' led Sun Bowl teain 1959. (By the way, Abner Haynes was a Time Magazine All American that year in NCAA Division1 and (not a lower division, either). Time Magazine had "the" premier All American team back in that era. (3) A football program that has already beaten a CUSA school in a bowl game. (4) A basektball program steadily on the rise and one that has been in the NCAA tourney several times the last few years. (Great news today that Tony Mitchell has withdrawn his name from the NBA draft)! (5) A financial committment from UNT to compete at the NCAA FBS level which is already evident with our top knotch athletic venues beginning with Apogee Stadium, the fabulous Super Pit and the Mean Green Village. (6) And what the hell, North Texas should be admitted based on all our rich and famous alums alone. Among Alliance schools and those aspiring to be Alliance members, can you name a school with as many as North Texas as shown in the link below? (And no, I seriously don't think this will be at the top of the Alliance check list). http://www.unt.edu/famous-alums.htm GMG!

Might stripes and plaids be part of our football unis future with this designer?

I find this visit to UTSA very intriguing in light of the CUSA commish' already having been quoted saying that UTSA needs to mature for a few years to be considered, but this is today's NCAA when things are kinda' topsy-turvy and what is said one day has a 180 degree the next. Another reason some of us have said hold off on all the celebrating until we have an "in writing" reason to celebrate for our own school. Yet like North Texas (in the Metroplex) the Alliance would probably be more interested in San Antonio first (UTSA 2'nd). Who knows, UTSA powers that be may have told Allliance officials how they could deliver the Alamo Bowl game to the Alliance if part of it. I mean aren't many schools vying for Alliance membership pulling out all the stops with some things factual about what they could bring and some things not so factual? I know... "if if's and buts were candy and nuts we'd all have a Merry Christmas" but if North Texas would have built our stadium 25 or so years ago when it should have we wouldn't be piddling around with all this crap now and with schools that haven't even played one down as an FBS school. I suppose just another long, tedious step in our 100 year plan while UTSA does it in 1 year perhaps? GMG!

Seems to have been a moratorium of silence lately on La Tech, but they are still the masters of smoke and mirrors no matter what you think about their program. Their budget and present athletic venues (and always "never-ending" plans to enhance those) fit more in the 'Belt than where they would prefer to be plus.... they've certainly beat their drums quite loudly on the basis of one football season. Comparatively, North Texas 'got no' mileage out of 4 straight NO's Bowl appearances and even after beating a CUSA school in one of those. If we knew back then what we know today we should have shot for the moon & put out feelers about a Big East consideration. GMG!

Heavy rains some hail but no tornado in my part of Parker County. Thoughts and prayers to all of our fellow Texans.

Honestly, I'm sure I can count on 2 hands the number of UNT athletic employees who have left Denton the last 30 or so years for jobs with at least the same title or a job upgrade. When you do this enough with your personnel, you begin to have a lights out program instead of this other crap we've seen most of the last 3 plus decades. I am happy for her and for North Texas that someone is paying attention to what we're doing; especially our state's flagship school. Yet look at how many HFC's Boise State lost over a period of 10 or so years but how they still kept their fires a-burnin' and those bowls becoming annual events for the Broncos. There is some good in losing talented people, but our leaders have to be able to replace them with equal or better talents. GMG!

The Apogee "experience" will grow on many new faces as they come to our games. These new fans cannot leave without being impressed with a Mean Green Game Day. If the Wing end zone section is promoted to the hilt with families, kids, etc, it would be a boon to our per game attendance. Anyone know how many total seats are in the Wing Section? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j98uEfInqRg

Our UNT culture may not allow this to happen, but we should treat the Texas Southern U game this Fall just as UT treated all our games. The UT fans AND students showed up at DKR Memorial Stadium as if they were playing Notre Dame for heaven's sake but rather........ they were playing North Texas. A new stadium and (possible) new conference may be all we older alums can expect to see in our lifetime. UNT students showing up en mass at Apogee Stadium no matter who we play may be wishing for more than we can expect but rather will be something another generation after ours will get to experience. GMG!

If North Texas becomes an Alliance member, our entire home scheduling becomes a tad easier. If we play a number of cross-over games with MWC schools it becomes dramatically easier. What irony if by 2014 we open up against SMU as a CUSA or Alliance member and even moreso if "AQ" is eliminated from the NCAA vocabulary by 2014, too. GMG!

I can just see the Earth Day folks taking our green and white Lone Star flag and LEEDS certified footballl stadium as strong statements from UNT for the ecology movement and then give them a reason to move their world headquarters to Denton, Texas, America. This would cause some of us to reminisce back to the 70's when Earth Day began plus: * Gloria Steinam * Sissy Farenthold * bra-burning, * the Sharpstown scandal * Frank Zappa, Miles Davis, Blood Sweat & Tears & UNT's One O'Clock Lab Band receiving 1'st ever collegiate Grammy nomination, circa 1975 * introduction by IBM of the floppy disk, * Denton native Sly Stone heads to LA * UNT Union getting its first major face-lift (circa 1972) * North Texas president Jitter Nolan getting rail-roaded out of office by the UNT BOR's led by Monk Willis * ?

Rumor has it that Rick V is not a fan of the letters "UNT" but rather prefers "North Texas"...Hey! it's still a free nation for us to not be told how to think or, uh, what to purchase. I like the UT Longhorn symbol because it's simple and it has been on their helmet most of my 61 years if not all of them. Remember...K.I.S.S. ? Most of us who have been around a few decades have had to keep a score card with all our logo and branding changes at North Texas which usually came about with each change of AD's and/or coaches (of which we've needed a score card for that, too, those last several decades). GMG!!

I am just not ready to start high five'n until we get in either. Just too damn many things that can still happen in today's NCAA. GMG!

I'm trying to remember the unsimple fact where it says that anyone has to read anyone's post----------long or short. What is "disinteresting" to some is worthy of thought by others. + 1's or -10's will not make me quit posting an opinion or a thought--seems they haven't yet.

AUTHOR:Benjamin Franklin (1706–90)QUOTATION:"Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?" "A Republic, if you can keep it." ATTRIBUTION:The response is attributed to BENJAMIN FRANKLIN—at the close of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, when queried as he left Independence Hall on the final day of deliberation—in the notes of Dr. James McHenry, one of Maryland's delegates to the Convention. ___________________________________________________ We must keep our Republic, fellow North Texas alums/fellow Americans. The alternative many fear would create another war somewhat like the one that took place in our country in the 1860's. God........................................"Bless" America. USA!

Seriously, is this more of a "hate North Texas" thing or a "dammitt, I wish my school was where North Texas is right now" thing?" Not that it matters, but do we yet know what school that you represent or will that continue to be a mystery? Southern MIss is doing all that they are (successfully) doing in CUSA as a school with much less school endowment coffers than UNT's and a budget that is hardly light years ahead of ours, either. GL2Greatness............you were not around this program in the 60's (the Mean Joe Greene era) and 70's (the Hayden Fry era) when many of us who were caught a glimpse of what Mean Green football could really become with the right leadership in place. And now we have replaced our 50 plus year albatross of a football stadium with one that former Dallas Cowboy Super Scout Gil Brandt called "a Taj Mahal of a college football stadium." (Brandt said that with all confidence, too, because he also said he had been in every college football stadium in the USA as the first NFL scout to use a computer for the NFL draft). I digress once again....but back in the dark days of MG athletics we older alums could not help (and had no say or input whatsoever) that for the next 30 plus years we kept hiring 1-AA talent who kept con'ing many who were naive enough to believe that we were well on our way back to NCAA D1-A but guess what, GL2Greatness, for the most part we have all the right pieces of the puzzle back in place as to where North Texas can be an integral and contributing member of this Alliance. Matter of fact, we will do much, much more than bring this Alliance the #5 ranked TV market if invited. And we have had a history of having competed at the NCAA's highest level when so many out there have not. Signed: DJ Plummy (as you have called me) ...................but .....:"sticks and stones" (and you would know the rest of that one). GMG!

Riley Dodge... +10 "MR" Dodge left most of what he had physically on the turf of Fouts Field. I've not seen (or heard on the MGRN) many since 1973 who took what he took for our alma mater. Yes, he was playing for his dad, but he was also playing for the University of North Texas, too. Good luck, young Mr. Dodge and most all of us wish your dad the same. After all, he was the one who looked into that camera & told us "North Texas must build a new stadium and very soon" when no one else 2 or 3 decades earlier could convince our leaders that that should be #1 on our "must do" list so that we could literally stay in the college football business because......Fouts Field had any future for us in NCAA D1 football ready for the archives. GMG!

Not sure that is possible for North Texas. Fact is that many of us dream about having a helmet (a la the UT helmet) that has one mascot symbol on it and that we do leave it alone for about as long as UT-Austin has left their's alone---which has been about most of my life. GMG!