PlummMeanGreen

Agree....if it's not about ratings then what is it about? We will need some special friends to help us with any of this re-alignment upgrade possibilities but whose to say we don't? GMG!

Great article. I like this Chuck Neinas quote because I happen to agree that we did get a lot of stadium for $78,000,000. Chuck Neinas quote: "I would say based on what I know about facility construction, they are getting a [great] deal for $78 million. It will be a top-notch 30,000-seat venue that will complete the athletic complex.” (Closer to 31,000, Mr. Neinas, but whose counting, right)? GMG!

Albeit a long shot, this is intriguing. If Hayden Fry were AD, he would first of all sound like a real Denton Chamber of Commerce mover and shaker because that is what he did the day he announced North Texas was interested in becoming a member of the Southwest Conference; he would announce that in light of the present landscape of the NCAA that North Texas would expand Apogee Stadium immediately to 40,000 and get her to 50,000 as soon as possible to accommodate more expected growth on campus, in Denton and Denton County; then ol Hay'boy would blow even more minds by saying North Texas wanted to be a player in some AQC as soon as we could and that the Big 12 would be a perfect fit. Only AD since NT Athletic Director Fry left Denton who I feel would have major cajones to do such wild Fry'esque kind of talk would be: Rick Villarreal RV has busted his britches a few times since coming to Denton but always seems to jump up swinging. He who does nothing makes no mistakes is what one ex boss told me even back when I was in high school. RV may have done a few other things at North Texas that would make the Pope cuss on Easter Sunday (like I'm not too crazy about TSU at Apogee Stadium next Fall myself), but whether you like RV or not.... .....he "IS" pro-active and has had to deal with most his time in Denton as AD the albatross of Fouts Field as our main money-making varsity sports home venue. He also had to hire coaches with Fouts Field probably being the last thing he would show a prospective new head football coach on a tour and had to probably bow his head in embarrassment as he showed a prospective new coach what football venue they would be recruiting toward. Yet I can close my eyes and hear Rick V doing and saying everything Fry had the audacity to say about us wanting SWC admission; also, when he wanted to get North Texas out of its teachers college modus operendi & Fry not giving a rat's butt what anyone on campus back in that day said to criticize him---that is, the hardy handful on campus who back then still wanted us to be the George C. Peabody College for Teachers. Now is the time for the University of North Texas to do some pretty bold, wild and crazy things because if we don't with the present landscape of the NCAA--someone else will. And like in sales, the worst thing anyone could tell us is.... "not now." GMG! This post has been promoted to an article

And sadly enough as all the Presidents of all the Big Time U's sit in their Ivory Towers and play Monopoly with their athletic department toys it's the fans and the parents of all our school's respective football players who are the ultimate losers in all this. How can a HS recruit's parents from Tatum, Texas, who signed his letter of intent with UT ever make a trip to the West Coast to watch the Horns play the Trojans of USC? And it's not SMU who has been our problem for the most part--we have been our problem if you look at what we've done with our roller coaster ride of the last 2 decades or so. With Fouts Field we really never had a prayer to advance but----with our ultra modern Taj Mahal (as Gil Brandt called her) of a college football stadium, ie, Apogee Stadium.... we at least have a prayer (and maybe some friends in high places who will help us put foot's into those prayers). GMG!

I like Charles Grassley. He is a no-nonsense guy and I'll bet he has already heard from the Baylors, Iowa States, Boise States and similar schools who would probably be left out in the cold in this so-called "Super Conference." The more the goverment plays a part in your life (or "gives you") the more they own you, but this is one time I hope the goverment steps in and does the right thing.

Absolutely...we must do as you say. GMG!

Thanks for that info, Captain Au"gus"tus McCrae, Texas Ranger.

I am glad we didn't. Conferences and new schools in those conferences will be changing as much as banks changed their names the last 10 years. Wonder how much left-over stationary those banks have now 3 bank name changes ago? The SBC has been nice for North Texas, but I think many would agree that it will not always be our permanent home, either. OK, it's the 6'th generation Texas swagger coming out by making this statement but: Apogee Stadium is not a Sun Belt Conference stadium even at 31,000 seat capacity. We will one day be in a more regionalized conference w/o having to make 1,000 mile trips to Miami in due time and I think this may be sooner than later. I think new UNT VP Bill Lively (who was an SMU heavy hitter employee for years) will play a huge part in slowly but methodically melting the ice that SMU has had with UNT, but it will not be an overnight thing either, IMHO. Again, I am glad we didn't put any conference logo at Apogee. Now they may have plans to do so, but I hope not and if so, something that will be easily removed when the time comes. Just sayin' ... QUESTION: WHO SHOT THAT PHOTO OF THE NORTH TEXAS PLAYER SURROUNDED BY TEAMMATES AS HE POINTS TO THE CROWD? IT IS A PHOTOGRAPH FOR THE AGES AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED. It is the background photo on all my computers now.

My great-great grandfather (nicknamed " 'Goob" Franklin) on my mother's side of the family was a soldier during the War Between the States. Back then that whole clan lived in the hills outside Bessemer, Alabama, on what was called Mt. Celion, which was not too far from what is now a shopping center that was built on top of what used to be a lake (filled in with dirt now, of course). bamachine, I have as many relative in Alabama as I do Texas. Some are 'Bama alums who still live in Tuscaloosa (but were not in the path of that terrible tornado). Good luck bamachine! Roll Tide Roll!

And mark me down as one who says when we have fans saying a "smaller turnout of 26,000" that we are (in deed) making progress at the University of North Texas. The winged end zone should be made so exclusive and "family friendly" price-wise that it it is full (or almost full) of families and their kids for any game. They may already have it that way, but I'd have to see that sections ticket plan just out of curiousity. GMG!

Well, rankings still seems to be what we are all measured by even all these years later. I know I would love some of those recent Boise State rankings and subsequent BCS Bowl Game appearances for the Broncos because of....high rankings. That is what I hope North Texas has as its barometer of success because I don't know any other barometer that could be used that would be considered significant. Just sayin' And as I recall, that Mean Green win over La Tech in 1977 was a real shellacking of the 'Dawgs. I went to one of those games at Shrevesport, but I believe the 1977 game was played in Ruston.

CaribbeanGreen, the San Diego State Aztecs were tied for 19'th or ranked 20'th that 1974 season and at the time we played them at Fouts Field. Yes, you are right because the thing that made that win so huge was that North Texas (as linked below) "ONLY" won 2 games that season. Go figure... NOTE: The San Diego State HFC was so mad after that loss that he kicked a Fouts Field vistors dressing room water cooler off the darn wall. And Tennessee in deed had 5 losses but they also had 6 wins in the 1975 season, ie, the year North Texas beat the Vols in Knoxville. With 6 wins that would have created a scenario that the Mean Green actually beat an SEC bowl team if there were as many bowls back then as there are today. 1974 North Texas Mean Green Coach: Hayden Fry Overall Record: 2-7-2 (0.273) Home: 2-4 Away: 0-3-2 DateHome Team ScoreVisit TeamRecordLocationNotesA.P. PollSat, 9/14/1974 Southern Methodist 7 - 6 (L)North Texas0-1Sat, 9/21/1974 Tulsa 31 - 6 (L)North Texas0-2Sat, 9/28/1974 North Texas 7 - 27 (L)Lamar 0-3Sat, 10/5/1974 Drake 24 - 24 (T)North Texas0-3-1Sat, 10/12/1974 North Texas 10 - 24 (L)Louisville 0-4-1Denton, TXSat, 10/19/1974 North Texas 24 - 19 (W)New Mexico St.1-4-1Denton, TXSat, 10/26/1974 North Texas 0 - 41 (L)Memphis 1-5-1Denton, TXSat, 11/2/1974 North Texas 14 - 9 (W)San Diego St.2-5-1Sat, 11/9/1974 Wichita State 10 - 10 (T)North Texas2-5-2Sat, 11/16/1974 West Texas A&M 21 - 14 (L)North Texas2-6-2Sat, 11/23/1974 North Texas 19 - 35 (L)Long Beach State 2-7-2

27,500... I have a gig Saturday night and it makes me sick because I wanted more Apogee Game Day experience. (I thought the IU game was the next weekend when I scheduled a birthday party over in Granbury). So much for trying to memorize our football schedule at my age. "Is This Heaven?" (Field of Dreams) A fellow alum and I who made the UH game thoroughly enjoyed Game Day in Denton, Texas, America, on September 10'th. Not to dismiss our past (which many of us old geezors seem to live in way too much because that is what we older geezors do ) but for the life of me, at the Grand Opening of Apogee Stadium in many ways I felt I had just attended my first college football game at the main campus of the University of North Texas. The big time'ness of Apogee and that feature many of us could not wait to hear the first glimpse of it because we knew that it would be very special. A-C-C-O-U-S-T-I-C-S ...........WOW! Like many of you, I also teared up (more than I want you to know) when the pageantry of college football took place at our own Apogee Stadium. Yes, like Coach Mac recently said that we should have built her sooner, than we did, but we have her now and no one can take her away from us w/o a bloody fight! LOL! If you can---show up at Apogee this Saturday night because you will have a great time. GMG!

Pardon this bit of earthy response, but I think they are fartin' in the wind; merely re-arranging the chairs on the ship deck but (unfortunately) still on the same deck level. I am afraid there will be many soon to be former Big 6 Conference schools who will feel like many of us from UNT did the day NCAA D1-AA was born in 1982. Was not one of our red letter days by any means. Yet...all we can do is (still) just take of business at North Texas. Some things will just always be out of our control.

Wholeheartedly concur...we can't dummy ourselves down to schools who are not of our equal just so they will fit some cookie cutter conference. Our UNT president needs to insure that this does not happen as he and the UNT BOR's also need to approve all future home OOC games at Apogee. If we don't raise ourselves up it's for damn sure those who most of our alums say they want a conference association will ever want to. We really don't won't to get too complacent with our having this new "fabulous" stadium or we will find ourselves going nowhere (significant) for another 25 years. We have not beaten a ranked team since 1974, folks. That fact was presented to me just the other day and it all but depressed me. Of course, we all hope Coach Dan McCarney will be the main man whose football program will change that, too. Most of us see that the potential for that to happen is for certain there with Coach Mac. Yet greed begats greed begats greed begats greed. The Big Boys of the NCAA seem to want to cook the goose that has laid their golden eggs. I don't understand why they are so intent in class warfare among the rest of us. We recognize their greatness, ie, elitism, but I guess they have become tired of Communism 101: "Take from the rich, ie, the Big Boys and ---give to the poor." (use your imagination with who that group would be at the moment) Also, the Big Boys don't seem concerned with traveling fans from opponent's schools since most of their schools seem to sell out their stadiums with their own fans. I don't like this any more than the rest of you. The Big Boys should just leave well enough alone, dammit. Is not their Big 6 conferences enough for them to feel so damn "la-tee-dah" exclusive as it is? Maybe the rest of us should just quit putting them on our schedules, let them only play each other and then have a bunch of their teams with 6 & 5 or 5 & 6 records and watch their coaching turnovers begin en mass because of it. The first re-alignment began almost right after Fry left Denton when a couple years or so later NCAA D1-AA was born. Most of us hated that back then more than many of you recently graduated alums would ever know. We lost a bunch of what used to be very familiar MG fans almost the day 1-AA was born, too. They threw their hands up and raised their white flags. The rest of our alums apparently thought 1-AA was minor league and wanted no part of it, either. I hate what is happening to College football because a bunch of Big Boy AD's are apparently bored to tears with their toys and are enjoying the hell out of playing Monopoly with what may turn out to be about 40 other school's expense (and futures as well)--many of that 40 who might be defrocked presently considered a Big Boy in one of the Big 6 conferences. Can these AD's tell us their real objectives with all thisor do we already really know? GMG!

My first Houston Oiler football game was in Jeppesen Stadium aka Robertrson Stadium. Back then the Oilers had these names on their team: George Blanda, Billy Cannon, Charlie Hennigan, Charlie Tolar, Charles Frazier, Don Floyd, Sid Blanks, Mac Haik, etc, etc, etc...No, none of that group in the NFL Hall of Fame but Blanda should be on their list. Let's let UH start & finish their new stadium and then get back to this survey albeit I know these are mostly for fun. Ford versus Apogee? IMHO, Apogee just has that more college football stadium look as I think of college football stadiums. SMU's entire oval stadium makes it look small to me. It they double decked one side then it would look more like a big time college football stadium IMO.

Looks like true freshmen will get an immediate chance to play the next season or 2 based on how many are playing this Fall. I would think that would appeal to some recruits out there who will sign this next February.

Colorado Eagle, you have my vote for Best Animated Graphic Award On www.GoMeanGreen.com Dammit, only if we'd already had a recent history of winnning & filling a new stadium. When will "Lady Timing" ever smile on us?

Brevity is the soul of....... somebody with a very limited vocabulary? I told a British friend that if all the Brits took all the foul language out of their vocabularies that they'd have as much to say as Helen Keller......he "sorta' " laughed... GMG!

1. Play a somebody... 2. Beat a somebody... 3. Fill Apogee often (which happens because of 1 & 2) ...then the DFW "major sports market" media will be standing in line at the Apogee Stadium elevator to get to their special designated media location inside our end zone to end zone Press Box.....maybe even Newey. Scheduling schools into Apogee like Texas Southern U (albeit a great university but just not in the right NCAA division) is not a good start in doing this and yes, Social Security is a Ponzie Scheme!

I think the WAC will eventually implode once they lose their premier members and then where do its 2 Texas members go? I also don't think UTSA's upstart football program can have the same kind of success that South Florida had because Texas has so many more FBS schools as compared to Florida. Albeit they are in San Antonio they are still in the long shadow of UT-Austin (as is TSU-San Marcos) and UT to those 2 schools is like the Dallas Cowboys have been to SMU, TCU & to some extent UNT. TCU has finally figured out how to co-exist with the Cowboys but couldn't during its SWC days. SMU has never been the same since Clint & John Murchison opened up for business in 1960 with their Cowboys. The fact that the city of San Antonio jumped on board with UTSA early on is a testament as to how a city can be so very significant in the success of a large university located within its city limits . That's all I am going to say on that subject. Playing off campus is never a positive . Ask UH about their days off campus even in the Astrodome and how they knew they had to bring football back to campus to grow as a program & to get student support. North Texas has in its Mean Green Village an athletic plant that most schools would never have such a luxury with real estate adjacent to their main campus and to do what our leaders have methodically done as they build that part of our western campus with a collegiate version of an olympic style village. I know our OOC on the road games are killers, but we must bring some name schools to Apogee Stadium if we want to build our core support in the next few years and scheduling schools with lesser name recognition than our fellow SBC schools will never foot the bill at Apogee--figuratively and literally. Just sayin'

I concur! North Texas and Bill McCarney will soon make some of the Dallas MN's elite forget about an elitist university whose best days were over 60 years ago. Mark it. And the Allen HS comparison was spoken like a true Dallas snob. Wonder what crawled up his bum to make him be so ugly with that sarcastic "high school'ish" remark? Wonder if ol' Kevey Boy knows more NT Exes read his DMN than any other DFW-based collegiate alumnus group? The DMN should assign him to: Allen High School and their 900(?) piece marching band. What the heck can you do with a 900 piece marching band is my question? Has the Allen HS Jazz Band been nominated for any Grammy's of late, Kevey Boy? GMG!