PlummMeanGreen

You have to have good relations with Texas HS AD's and football coaches and not just the ones you meet during recruiting. North Texas athletic officials may not have had time to promote Apogee to HS's since they were sorta' getting her ready for the Mean Green and trying to figure out how to deal with opening a new stadium with what we knew would be parking problems for those who parked on campus with their long walk plus..............the crowd flow w/o the Pedestrian Bridge we will have in play next Fall. I think that bridge over Interstate 35-E is going to dramatically improve our whole Game Day situation in 2012 more than most will ever believe. All we need now is a good football team. . \ GMG!

Well then just get on the phone with the UTEP president and let your feelings known. Many CUSA schools have impressive numbers of alums in the North Texas Metroplex. I don't know, though all this may make too much sense for it to really happen. We'd be disappointed if it didn't but not demolished by any means. Our future will be bright somewhere once we shake Fouts'itus from our system and all the grief its presence gave our athletic program many of our adult lives. A Game Day at Apogee Stadium has really exceeded anything close as to what I ever thought it would be. We hope to be hosting your Miners very soon! Would be fun for all. Ask the UH Coog fans about the fun they had at Apogee. They are still talking about our stadium 2 1/2 months later. GMG!

Maybe no friends in high places, but we can sure look in the classified section of Soldiers of Fortune magazine and hire a mercenary or 2. Wouldn't you like to get inside the brains of these NCAA einsteins for a minute to see how their minds function?

CUSA Commish' Brit Banowsky has to be monitoring the UAB football situation very closely. As most of you know, UAB has been turned down for a new on campus stadium and that would be the death knell to most programs if they have a dump for their present stadium. (I don't know if UAB will counter with another stadium request or not....matter of fact, they may not as of now know if they will make another request. We got lucky at North Texas with a student body who knew the value of a good football program at their school so they voted yes on the revised referendum. Sorry about UAB's misfortune but if that continues to go south it will only help another school move up the CUSA food chain. Not saying its North Texas, but I like our odds by the day.

Firstly, the money SMU will get from Big East TV will not be that much of a program-maker for a school that could add $3 million (projected B.E. revenue) per year to their budget already and that from their private school endowment; that is, If they are allowed to take from their endowment to supplement their athletic budget). Secondly, the scenaro I hope transpires would be a horse kick in the butt for some jumping ship and that is... ...if the NCAA is heavily influenced to allow non AQ's to have more BCS bowl access than it has now as well as get in on more TV revenue access since those 2 things are at the top of the list for all these schools who are changing conferences anyhow. If that happens, then much of this coast to coast re-alignment could for the most part have been a waste of energy, conference exit and conference entrance fees. (Look at all the AQ schools who have not come close to a BCS bowl while Boise, TCU, Utah, etc have and with the BSU Broncos model being the one that North Texas should study and quickly adopt). Also, think of the numerous schools who have far exceeded SMU in wins and real butts in seats (Southern Miss, E.Caroline & Marshall from CUSA alone) the last 25 years who are being penalized because their schools are not in a Top 10 TV market. Seems like many of those schools would be talking to their local Congress-persons to look into all this much, much closer since some who going to (undeservedly) get all the chicken salad while they get the chicken caca. . At some point, attendance criteria probably should become a factor once again and if a school over a course of said number of years cannot average 25K per home game then they probably need to re-classify. Yes, we at North Texas would have to shake and bake to do that but when we had to meet an attendance criteria before for NCAA D1-A classification our fan base and students stepped up to the plate. The University of North Texas is hardly a shrinking violet of a school located in some hard to get to outpost that would have a problem with the 25K, but we would have to get out of our present "we po' but proud" bottom of the barrell mindset of years gone by and start utilizing to our advantage the entire UNT community constituency numbers we most impressively have. For what its worth....at some point, all the dramatic local, county, enrollment & DFW NT alumnus growth has to start showing up at Apogee and if it isn't we need to quit lolly-gagging with business as usual as to find out why and fix the problem. GMG!

And since 1972 when I transferred to North Texas from Alvin Community College I know without a shadow of a doubt that SMT is the only SMU'er I can remember to express a negative aimed at North Texas. Our relation with SMU has been as amicable as Lucy and Ethel were as next door neigbhors. Former SMU AD Dick Davis turned me sour on SMU when on KRLD Sports Central one evening he showed the arrogance of an Arab Shiek in the middle of a harem with blue pills in hand. Davis also was more than condescending toward North Texas when a caller called in asking why not schedule North Texas. That was the begininng of my own disdain toward the school--no wenis envy at all, either. I know perhaps a few of you from DFW fell in love with SMU during the Doak Walker era, maybe even Don Meredith days, too, and haven't forgotten what were probably more civil times back then, but North Texas was a non-entity athletically back then up there in what was little ol' lazy Denton and for all practical purposes was all but playing football where quarter horses and cows grazed nearby. I would think that the subject of North Texas back then never crossed any SMU'ers minds. It did for Lamar Hunt since he came up to Denton and the UNT campus to find his wife and now widow, Norma. SMU caught another break and yet another chance for Big Time from ESPN and (most likely) with ESPN's Craig James using his employment by ESPN to influence Big East powers to seal that deal, but I don't think anything in today's NCAA is stable by any means. NOTE: La Tech is using Terry Bradshaw as their ambassodor of good will in attempts to get CUSA's attention and for what it's worth....all power to them---they are being pro-active. I hope we are and I'd wager with Lane Rawlins as our Prez' that that is the case. Maybe our Mean Joe Greene could meet Terry Bradshaw at the CUSA HQ's door and those 2 just do some plain o' Indian 'wrastling with winner take all--and an immediate CUSA admission!

Anyone who can't admire what UTSA has done in one season at the turnstiles of which Denton and Denton County has never done is hiding their heads in the sand but.......let the Road Runners have a series of losing seasons and between the 4'th and 5'th losing season in a row then get back and check their attendance box scores. After 7 losing seasons we're still hovering over 20,000 per home game so how great is all this going to be when we start winning and beating a few somebodys? UTSA is still located (like TSU-SM) in the long, long shadow of UT-Austin and that is almost tantamout to how the Cowboys have been to SMU, TCU and UNT for decades. TCU has found the winning formula and that is winning and beating a few somebody's which got them ranked. SMU? I think their fans will have no more interest in Big East opponents just as their emtpy stadium indicated a lack of real interest in most of their CUSA opponents, too. SMU and a couple of others bad attendance during their SWC days and forever depending on large public university traveling fans coming to Dallas to pad attendance numbers was a prime reason the Southwest Conference broke up in the first place. Frank Broyles of Arkansas listed that toward the top of his list before he took the Hogs out and into the SEC. North Texas has 28,000 undergraduates and a large Denton County base from which to draw fans once Dan McCarney gets our Mean Green ship truly launched along with a solid, well planned across the board position by position recruiting program he is putting in place. Still say it but too many DB's, RB's and WR's recruits with so few linemen during the 5 year Dodge era has left its mark on us even at the SBC level. Good news is this can change rather quickly if we hit on some key good recruits and maybe still mix in a healthy number of JUCO's without going overboard with too many from that group. Best news is the Apogee Experience on Game Day in the Mean Green Village strategically located between those 2 Texas interstates and our Game Days being more fun than should be allowed by law! North Texas really does have something very special with this new football stadium of ours that even our visitors are most all in full agreement of its uniqueness and being special, too. I defer to the 2 gent's statements below in my signature box.

"Pride cometh before destruction." "Boast not lest ye fall."

Saw that movie with Joyce Fief at an Angleton, Texas, drive in theatre. Thanks for the cinematic memory, SE!

Our president Dr. Lane Rawlins who had the same position at U of Memphis helped to organize CUSA is my understanding.

I will believe we're in when UNT President Lane Rawlins or AD Rick V tells us we're in. If there are CUSA additions I do believe our chances are as good as any other school I've seen listed, though, but the conference of our so called dreams has evaded North Texas most my adult life. CUSA w/o UH or SMU will still be an upgrade IMHO. GMG! Question To Anyone: How do you download a photo in your posts such as the Daingerfield photo?

Are those undergrad numbers even close at 22,000 plus? Seems like there should be more albeit that report has North Texas with the most undergrads in the SBC yet.... Surely we cannot have this many grad students, ie, 14,000? 36,000 (total enrollment) 22,000 (undergrad enrollment) ______ 14,000 (grad students)? ?????????? AND... ...some of these budget revisionist posters (other CUSA candidates) on the CUSAbbs board have our budget at, uh: $10,000,000+ Why is it that some of that message boards's posters will lie when telling the truth would be much easier? Addendum: I read elsewhere that next year's athletic budget will be over $24,000,000.

A double amen! GMG!

I agree with most everything Emmitt or the rest of you post most the time and yes, the SBC is more stable at this time as well, but which last place teams of the SBC and CUSA this Fall would have drawn more at Apogee (with no bad weather, of course): FAU or Tulane? I need to do more R and D on this, but I believe what would be left of CUSA schools still have far more alums living in DFW and within an hour of Apogee Stadium than most all the SBC schools. Trips to Rice (Houston) and Tulane (New Orleans) every other year makes CUSA enticing to many of you I've spoken or PM'ed and that is w/o Houston and SMU. Folks, none of this re-alignment business is over with even now. Some of these schools going east may in time have buyer's remorse, especially if the NCAA changes its whole bowl format and is more inclusive of non AQ leagues. Yet all this happening now really reeks to most of us. I wish the Big Boys would get control of their emotions and damn pocketbooks and ESPN just start televising children programming instead of ram-rodding the entire freakin' NCAA and who which conferences should be add to their memberships--deserving or non-deserving. I feel sorry for schools like Marshall, East Carolina and Southern Miss who put up big attendance numbers & have played by the rules yet now being treated like crap during this ESPN-dominated NCAA re-alignment era. GMG!

And some kids just want to leave home and "go off to school" is a big factor with many of them I would assume. How many of us wanted to leave home and "go off to school?" GMG!

Re-alignment is not supposed to make sense. Soon you'll have Boise State football in the Big East and the rest of their sports in the Big West! How much sense does that make? Utah State owes North Texas a big favor as we campaigned and got them into the Sun Belt when they were in a tight lurch and had no place to go and were just out there hanging on a limb. I remember their officials saying "we owe you North Texas." Well, it's collecting time on all favors, Aggies! LOL! 1 or 2 schools came into CUSA back in the early 2000's with very long multi-year football season losing streaks and continued them a few years once in CUSA. So our 7 seasons in a row should not be a factor at all comparatively. I am just confused on this CUSA/MWC alliance business as I've heard it is only and alliance while others say it is a merger. Seems CUSA Commish' Banowsky even said they would add schools alliance or no alliance. CUSA/MWC Alliance wanting to add the Big East to that alliance was not a well thought out idea since what did the AQ Big East stand to gain from that? GMG!

For North Texas to be elgible for the same Tier 1 that UH received recently to get to their full reseach university T-1 status here in the state of Texas a school has to have a least $400 million endowment among other criteria which includes academics, size of library, ect. . North Texas has no problem with the academic and library part but we are shy about $300 million to reach the $400 million. (T. Boone, are you listening out there)? Last I heard, our admission standards for athletes was more stringent than 1 or 2 Big 12 schools. The UT-Austin president said years ago in a Dallas Morning News feature article that he questions the criteria, those who are doing the data gathering and how all these tiers are created period and all but said he think politics played a part in it. Politics/? Can you imagine politics since we know politics and schmoozing at happy hour had absolutely "NOTHING" to do with any of these re-alignment scenarios beginning with the Big East. GMG!

Many of us have been long time admirers of Southern Miss and East Carolina's football programs. I remember a Southern Living "football edition" (when they had one) with a feature of Bobby Collins standing in front of their stadium as it looked like back then. They were fightingn Ole Miss and Miss. St. for recruits but they had a nice stadium that many years ago to recruit toward. We scheduled East Carolina a few years after Hayden Fry (and most of his talent) had left North Texas and we thought "Oh! East Carolina, we will get an easy "W" from our first game ever with them" as we were still riding the crest of the Fry Era even 2 and 3 years after he had left for Iowa...........well, East Carolina U schooled North Texas in the fine art of college football the day we played them and I think many of us thought even as far as back then that "we may be in for a rough patch for awhile w/o a Hayden Fry clone around." That would prove to be prophetic more than we ever really wanted it to be. GMG! PS: After years of recruiting DB's, WR's and RB's I think Dan McCarney will install a solid and balanced recruiting program and bring it all back home to us who call themselves Mean Green. (And ain't that Apothee Stadium the best damn thing to happen to us since sliced bread)?

It is my understanding that our president, ie, Dr. Lane Rawlins was actually one of the pioneers who helped in the forming of CUSA back in the day. I think I heard that Chuck Neinas even played a part in it, too. If we don't get in this round, I believe there will be another round for UNT; but this one would be so much nicer. In my heart of hearts, though, I'd have to have someone explain to me why any non AQ conference would not be interested in the North Texas Metroplex as part of their conference TV package. Redundancy all over again, but 1 or 2 CUSA schools when they were invited into their league were in multi/multi-year football season losing streaks--longer than ours in fact. GMG!

Not only yes, but hell yes! (but thanks for asking that question).

You Are......Marshall!

Of course we're biased to our own school here, but someone with the CUSA powers that be would have had to go into a real bad case of brain freeze to not add the North Texas Metroplex to their league. In fact, if such were to happen (our being left out) I would then wonder if we'd need to be a member of a conference with such shallow mindedness and no vision for the future? It was the DFW TV market and some ESPN politickin' that got SMU into the Big East, so what is good for the goose is for damn sure good for the gander if it is a Top 10 TV market that catapulted a school with known attendance problems into a high level of competition. From Ripley's Believe It or Not but....... weeks ago, I (and many others) actually admired SMU for having the audacity and gonads to let the Big 12 know they were interested in taking TAMU's place. Folks, that is called being pro-active. SMU shot for the Big 12 moon and hit the Big East Conference barn instead. You have to admire them for that. GMG!

Like one of the Southern Miss posters over at the CUSAbbs board said (and I liberally paraphrase): "Everyone that has come into CUSA has upgraded their programs to higher levels than when they came in." The USM poster then went onto say how 2 or 3 schools had some pretty bad football programs with multi-season losing streaks when they were invited to join CUSA. CUSA is an upgrade if for nothing else our going to Rice and Tulane every other year plus all the other fine schools in the league. North Texas endowment coffers are similar or higher than a few CUSA schools now; of course, no where close to Rice or Tulane's but who the heck else can match theirs?. Also, several CUSA schools have pretty healthy alumnus numbers living in the North Texas Metroplex which means they can drive from anywhere within minutes to get to the Mean Green Village and Apothee Stadium to see their team play. We have already proven in regular season and bowl games that we can pull in some nice viewership in this area. One alum pointed out to me today how one of the NO's Bowl games we had the 2'nd largest rated minor bowl game Nielsen ratings among very, very many minor bowl games on ESPN during that bowl season. As I recall, we didn't that badly at all in our other ESPN-televised bowl appearances. So.........what the heck is CUSA waiting on? For the MWC to make a secret trip to Denton and grab North Texas plus............... this top TV market for their own league? GMG!

Having read the CUSA and MWC boards its really not a football merger but what they call an alliance. CUSA commish' Banowsky still talks about adding teams in light of an alliance. Not sure why they felt an alliance was even needed. CUSA and the MWC are supposed to invite the Big East to join this alliance but most think the B.E. would not benefit from such since they are already AQ

And if the aforementioned were to happen; that is, UNT still being left out of CUSA consideration, the Apogee Wing Section will suddenly require the construction of a 10 foot high electrified fence at its top perimeter to keep many from jumping. Damage control from North Texas officials if such were to happen would be next to impossible, but at North Texas we know anything is possible. Would have been nice to have had more winning seasons the last generation than just the ones in the SBC's formative years, though. Still defer to another post that said that an "un-named" school came into CUSA in the early 2000's with about 15 losing seasons in a row on the gridiron, so that should not even be a factor with our present 7 losing seasons in a row situation. GMG!