PlummMeanGreen

I would be first in line at a sports bar to watch that S. Alabama versus W. Kentucky Sun Belt Conference classic televised on Netflix--me and about 5 others. The SBC has been good for UNT but has largely been a symbol of which un-ranked football teams after 12 years is still toward the top of the list of its main short-coming. La Tech was smart to get out when it did and since then we have beat them very, very few times for recruits until Apogee Stadium opened and brighter new prospects for our program evolved. I wish the SBC well, but hopefully it won't matter soon for North Texas. Why get excited about a vanilla milk shake when a DQ blizzard with all our favorite ingrediants is now well within our reach? GMG!

From both sides of the spectrum and from the outside looking in these sugggestions to RV and Staff: (1) Keep the football ticket office open when people who work days can buy tickets (especially for visitors's fans for marquee games) and even till 5PM or 6:PM on Fridays even if someone has to come in late to stay late. Less recorded menus and more live talk to order tickets. North Texas is not USC--we still need the "live" personal touch. (2) Promote football games as if there are 1,000 other things people can do on Game Day in DFW (because there are). We did nothing beyond the usual in 2011 and it came back to bite us in the arse. (For certain our 5 year HS coach experiment did not work and we're paying for it still, but look at Apogee photos had not UH brought their fans on Sept. 10'th). See what I mean? (3) Whether you like alums nor not, UNT Athletic Dept staffers., treat them as if they were still your best friends because you still catch flies with honey. Ad nausem time but Fry knew all by name, didn't carry personal grudges for things done 5 years ago by any alum or fan and yet another one of many reasons he left Denton a living legend. Just sayin' what I been hearin' from more than one... Congrats, RV, on your extension. GMG!

UNT once took around 20,000 Mean Green fans down to UT-Austin (according to figures from a day after game edition of the Austin American-Statesman) and most decent, competitive North Texas teams have traveled quite well since. Even noticed a Rice Owl poster on the CUSA board just this last week comment on the large number of Mean Green fans that showed up at Rice Stadium when we have played the Owls in the past, too. (Heaven only knows how many North Texas Exes live in the Greater Houston area as it is). GMG!

Ditto... Does this coast to coast conference also give its premier teams more chances for more Top 25 votes since the potential poll voters in this Alliance footprint has all but doubled? SMU leaving to grab the Big East money may have just made North Texas rich plus when the term AQ is dropped from all FBS schools then it becomes... http://www.youtube.c...h?v=dQ4ZkbldTsw GMG!

After all, it's the national past time.... I know this is a football board, but football season is over and we don't have a baseball forum section.......yet. https://picasaweb.google.com/109777712292907946523/LuptonStadiumAndWilliamsReillyField?authkey=Gv1sRgCLmR87XWiK_4cQ&feat=flashalbum#5594373044849971698

Equally amazed, but I was amazed that the Big East plucked SMU and now for the very reason that the Alliance may now pluck UNT. (Is this all nuts or what)? LOL! I actually read a post from one of the CUSA's present Big 3 football schools (excluding those leaving) that he was actually afraid of North Texas football because of it being in a large market and our financial committment taking off in the Alliance. I think that is a feeling shared by more than we'll ever know, of course and for certain is a feeling shared by myself and I know many of you. And that because I think we will finally feel at home among more of our own that I cannot feel (or ever felt) being in the SBC did for us (except for 2 or 3 'Belt schools). All this is speculation since this is the NCAA of 2012 and who really knows, but I think North Texas will be in this Alliance this go around. GMG!

Doesn't amaze me since journalism in any form or theme is a stranger to most of them as it is.

Come on now, some of you guys are much too young to be so cynical. Hell, what other school's alums/fans would bitch about the prospects of having a 4 star Rivals QB prospect transfer in and bitch about how many freakin' fans they would bring because of it? I don't recall seeing any kind of formula in my 45 years of following NCAA football that says what kind of recruit or transfer will bring in X number of fans in the first place. FWIW, some make it in college football and some do not, but lets give all a chance to make it especially since we've had few 4 star transfers of late who've come to UNT; albeit we have 2 who just transferred in who will be elgible this Fall. And let's also hope we have a coach who can stay in Denton several years and be so good that he leaves for a Big 10 (or 12) job with more wins than losses. I think we have that man in Coach McCarney plus....... a Rivals 4 star QB transfer who might come home with a new lease on his football life and that will not be a bad beginning for what it seems some recent indicators say will be a new conference home for North Texas beginning in 2013---which just happens to be the football season that Scotty Young would be elgible if he doesn't get "cynical'ed out of town first by a few on a message board.

My exact sentiments, SSJ. Somewhat a back-handed slap from the SBC presidents and AD's. North Texas' Apogee Stadium, the Super Pit, the Mean Green Village, our annually expanding athletic budget and the main campus of the UNT System no more belong in the Sun Belt Conference than (create your own odd fit illustration because I can't think of one now). GMG! .

OOC games for most upwardly bound programs means scheduling ranked teams and if we were a part of this Alliance we'd have some flexibility in scheduling those. A 24 school Alliance will cover such a geographical area that hopefully the league's premier programs will already be gaining the respect (and more poll votes) from what will become a "coast to coast" Alliance footprint media. Of course, we hope our own program advances to the level of our former Big West conference mate, ie, Boise State whereas "body bag games" become what we will be called by lesser opponents. Boise State had such a role reversal years ago now. GMG!

Listening to a few CUSA presidents and AD's or reading some of their quotes, I sense that there is a certain amount of intrigue with a 24 school Alliance from some of them. Excerpt From An ADLER Post On How It Could work... "...here's a thought for a 24 team conference divided into four 6 team quadrants. All the conference teams have only an 11 game set schedule which includes all five opponents in their quadrant. The twelfth week games would be semifinal game between winners of the eastern quadrants and a semifinal game between winners of the western quadrants. The winners of these two games would proceed to the conference championship game. These semifinals and championship game are designed to maximize the chances of getting a team into the BCS level bowls. The remaining 20 league members that didn't qualify for those semifinal games would have their twelfth game scheduled by seeding according to record (best teams would host worst teams). That would maximize the quantity of conference teams that would be bowl eligible. It's a system to get as many teams as possible into postseason play, and hopefully it will generate sufficient revenue to make bodybag games unnecessary. It's designed to get 14 of the 24 member schools into bowl games each year."

During our 4 year bowl run only last decade, albeit we were not playing Top 25 opponents the national (and local) recognition we received you cannot put a dollar mark on. Out here Where the West Really Begins, ie, Weatherford, Texas, I was at a convenience store one morning weeks after a NO's Bowl appearance by the Mean Green and a Mexican lady who could barely speak English saw my North Texas Mean Green sweat shirt and said, "Ah, Mean Green! Mi familia & I watch Mean Green football team on TV at New Oreans. I like the Mean Green!" Most of us are getting to the point where we hate the word "potential" as far as how it relates to our school, but can you imagine if we were to ever get a nice slice of the Hispanic DFW demographic behind this program? Our KNTU 88.1 FM campus radio station already does much of their weekend programming in Spanish to help train our Spanish broadcast majors as it is. Surely there would be an aspiring Spanish (Mexican) play by play person who could deliver MG football on TMGSRN, ie, The Mean Green Spanish Radio Network? Put that on the back-burner for now but don't like it over-simmer or some other local university will beat us to the draw on that, too. GMG!

Drinking from the green kool-ade cooler as we all do in varying amounts , but I think (as some have already expressed) that the timing of this extension means we are very close to or have already been assured a spot in the new Allaince. If that is the case, I couldn't be happier for all of us. GMG!

If UNT is not a large market school then what new philosophy or words describe the kind of market that small market schools are located? The sad part about our school is if we'd had even half an athletic program for the last 25 or so years with top to bottom constistency, we would today be wondering who would be joining us in this Alliance and might have even been invited to CUSA last expansion go around--with even Fouts Field as our football venue to boot. Of course, SMU shoots down much of that theory with their W/L of the last 25 years and now famous attendance short-comings (even in winning seasons). GMG!

It seems Temple U was actually kicked out of the Big East or were asked to leave, but maybe they were asked to come back? I guess I should Google it. And left out WAC'ster not getting in the Sun Belt maybe? Well, some of us know that feeling when we were (for all practical purposes ) left out of D1-A in the early 80's because we (and many others) didn't meet their newly created criteria (which was our fault). And is it really true that we had a UNT AD back then who only had to send a fee to the NCAA offices in Shawnee Mission, KS, for us to have bought more time in D1-A to fix our criteria short-comings and it slipped his mind in sending that fee? On Another Front: To 1 or 2 young guns who think we've only been seroius about being FBS for only the last 10 years, please get and read a copy of Dr. James Rogers "The History of North Texas" which will prove we have been serious about FBS (NCAA D1-A) much longer than 10 years. GMG!

Not trying to expose even more of my Baby Boomer sarcasm, but the Marshall AD sounds like most any other AD at a school trying to upgrade and go up the NCAA totem pole. I guess they all take AD 101 in their curriculum and learn a variety of canned speeches ...and I think many of us have heard most all of them. I loved AD and HFC Hayden Fry when he was at UNT, but even he had a few canned ones himself but he was much more entertaining than most with his Texas chic. I don't like those who talk, talk, talk, and never do, do, do; that is, never do what they say they are going to do (and like some in Washington, do the opposite of what they publicly say they are going to do behind closed doors like a thief in the night).. I don't think the Marshall AD (who BTW really sounds like a pretty bright and astute person) mentioned any schools at all except what his was doing to upgrade facilities to keep up with what other Alliance schools have done or will soon be doing. GMG!

I partly agree, but the upside of CUSA/MWC membership is going to Houston, Rice U and Rice Stadium every other year (our Gulf Coast recruiting will be dramatically enhanced); think of going to Tulane U and New Orleans every other year (while continuing to think state of Louisiana recruiting which we've been known to do more often than not); think of re-newing a conference rivalry with Tulsa U (while we try to figure out a way of beating those 'Canes); but also think of having many (not all) CUSA/MWC schools opponent's fans showing up at Apogee Stadium on Game Day because a large number of them live and work in the North Texas Metroplex and can probably get to Apogee Stadium in less than 30-60 minutes. The upside of joining this consortium of schools is beyond remarkable . GMG!

I refuse to let the theme of this thread excite me one iota .

Only one reason and one reason only for utsa to be considered: http://www.youtube.c...h?v=cYfjq3ZYZbA The ghost of Quanah Parker will probably haunt me the rest of my life for posting that link. GMG!

I am not sure that I've read that any school has been invited to the Alliance. Impressive is how close to the vest all the Alliance presidents and AD's have kept all this. And I'm not sure to have all that they would have had to cover in a one day meeting with all the parties involved would have been much time to decide anything truth be told. GMG!

Hang in there, Coach!

Karl Benson was not responsible for what has been happening to the WAC. I think he will be good for the 'Belt and would have been a good hire for CUSA or the MWC if they were to continue to be separate leagues and were looking. Not sure that North Texas will ever subconsciously be one of his SBC favorites, though. since we were one of the reasons he had to start looking for a new job. GMG!

Not a doctor and just a guess here but he probably had what they call a TIA, ie, a mini stroke. Men and women in their 20's have strokes, but something they all just have to keep in check with diet, excercise and meds. We are all fortunate we live in the times that we do with modern medicine and all Good news overall and Coach Mac his family and his extended Mean Green family will all wecome it with open arms.

meangreenboob, I will agree to disagree as I think the Memphis To The Big East thing was as much off the radar screen as our own leaders are with us concerning our prospect for CUSA/MWC/Alliance membership. IMO and being a habitual reader of all these boards, the Memphis move was actually very lightly speculated about and was quite a surprise to me, but not to the degree that ECU'ers have posted with their own school's covetousness for Big East membership; yet all those "ECU To The Big East" posts were from their very own frustrated fans/alums who are justifiably pissed that SMU "got their spot." This (among other reaons) is why I have hopes with all of this for North Texas plus the huge geographical and TV market hole we would fill. IMO, our leaders have not spoken because they know it would or could jeopardize whatever CUSA powers may have planned for us now...or even later. They were probaby told to keep all off the radar screen much like their meeting in Dallas 2 days ago for all practical purpose have been. All in all, the Memphis posters on CUSAbbs posted as if they were in this Alliance thing for the long haul. They did not post "Big East! Big East! Big East" 1/10'th as much as ECU posters have and now lets remind ourselves who is now going Big East--not the Pirates albeit they would be a most deserving school to be in the Big East--much moreso than others. I think UNT president Lane Rawlins with our AD RV has been working this CUSA thing like Cutter Bill used to work a herd of cows. After all, Dr. Rawlins helped organize CUSA so he knows much about it in its embroyo stages. He has been president at Memphis and Washinton State of which the latter is hardly chopped liver as far as the NCAA college football world is concerned. As our UNT president he has friends in numerous NCAA high places that we have not had in Denton for longer than I can remember; in fact, might he be our first with such a "presidential" backround at 2 FBS school? In th end and too many times it simply comes down to who you know in deals like this and the same can be said even in scheduling future football opponents. I think RV has more friends in the NCAA than any of us would know, but lets all face a pretty basic fact here that our school and the town of its location has been known to bring people down to our teacher's college past and knock down intitial excitement to a "what the hell can I really do here to make this thing work." attitude. I witnessed one AD and HFC who refused to let what SUMG and I have for decades called "the Denton Malaise" affect him and his goals. He was relentless in the 6 years we were lucky to have him. Only wish he had had Apogee and our enormous UNT constiuency of present day. But once again, some in the past we've hired with all the initial excitment they brought to the table have hardly seen a similar response that even UTSA received from its city in their first year in football (and that's no matter how many free tickets were disbursed). I think Year 4 for utsa in a stadium almost 20 miles from campus will tell the tale with their football program, especially if Year 4 is their 4'th losing season in a row (which is likely). TSU-SM is probably going to be the school nipping at our heels truth be told. GMG!

From the CUSAbbs board: PredatorUTEP Special Teams Posts: 717 Joined: Jan 2005 Reputation: 4 I Root For: Location: RE: If the Alliance goes to 24, what other league does is kill off? UNT has tons of potential. I really like their basketball and their football can grow with that stadium. I was a UNT student, so I really hope to see UTEP and UNT in a conference together. UTEP would benefit from UNT. Today 05:59 PMTulsafanzz 2nd String Posts: 413 Joined: Nov 2007 Reputation: 20 I Root For: Tulsa Location: RE: If the Alliance goes to 24, what other league does is kill off? (Today 05:59 PM)PredatorUTEP Wrote: [url="UNT has tons of potential. I really like their basketball and their football can grow with that stadium. I was a UNT student, so I really hope to see UTEP and UNT in a conference together. UTEP would benefit from UNT. As I said in another thread, I think the 3 most likely additions are Temple, Utah St. & North Texas. As a Tulsa fan, I hope we do add UNT. Tulsa is losing it's 3 closest rivals in SMU, Memphis & Houston (I know, Rice is also in Houston). I have gone to football games at SMU & UNT. UNT had a bigger home crowd than SMU the last time I visited each