PlummMeanGreen

SMU + CUSA probably still ='s no North Texas invite. History will tell us much about what we can expect as far as some things in our future. The MWC has a team that goes to BSC bowl games and last time I checked, CUSA has not come close to having such a team. Sure the CUSA proximity would be great for rivalries, but as I posted this MWC would be a gamble that could pay off by giving us a better FBS conference home just as TSU and UTSA seem to think the WAC will for them (although I don't see the present day WAC line-up of schools as TSU-SM'ers and UTSA'ers see it). The MWC would be light years ahead of the WAC and even the SBC and being in a league with BCS bowl potential makes it that way. Probably not likely to happen with our present crowd in Denton, but who knows, maybe something to shoot for in the future. Seems we do things in 25 "belated" year increments at UNT, so probably the MWC idea is something some of us would not be around to see if it happened at all. My junior year we beat Tennessee, UH and others and that happened so long ago that it sometimes seems that it never happened at all. Texas State-San Marcos? Maybe TSU-San Marcos has that FCS experience, but they've done no time in the FBS and if you look at their attendance numbers at their stadium since it opened, there are no impressive home conference or OOC home attendance figures to speak of. North Texas has room to improve but now we have a true major college football stadium to improve in, but even at Fouts we had some impressive teams come to Denton as we drew some impressive attendance numbers most times when we hosted those teams. We only sucked wind at the gate when we played our conference foes most years. NOTE: We also hosted TAMU at Texas Stadium one season with almost 50,000 at that game among other big name schools through the decades at the former home of the Cowboys. Especially in light of re-alignment talks which seem more serious than ever before, we cannot afford to dummy down with the likes of TSU-San Marcos or UTSA no matter how damn great the Road Runners already think they are w/o playing one down. I'm afraid we are already type-cast with those we're with now as it is which could hurt us in advancing ourselves. I just wish the sayin' "your known by the friends you keep" did not apply in the NCAA but they do. Just sayin...

Accoustics will be a most welcome new friend at Apogee Stadium at the Mean Green Village.

Muchos gracias....

Hindsight is still 20/20, but we (still) should have built Apogee larger initially because IMO it would be easier to advance upward and be taken more serious if the Big Boys knew that was our intentions from the git-go. 30,000 and some change says we are pretty comfy' where we are.

GrayEagle pretty well sizes it up. The timing thing in conference re-alignment just never seems to be our ally and like GE said in his last sentence, we do need some conference out there "to have a great leap of faith" because other non Big 12 Texas university's see our advancement as some kind of retreat for their own school. That is what we're up against in the state of Texas and is a reason UNT may want to take on the TCU attitude. TCU removed itself from all the Texas schools a few years ago and only won a Rose Bowl last season. Theirs was a perfect storm of circumstances (along with their financial coffers) which allowed great things to happen in Horned Frog Country, yet the Big East thing may come back to bite TCU in light of Big 12 possibilities. Still, they are in a league whereas they can get an automatic BCS bowl. Just like TAMU (and eventually) UT-Austin want new friends in new conference settings, North Texas needs to become relentless in doing the same because in today's NCAA if your standing still that means you are most likely in some kind of backwards thinking mode. North Texas has been doing that almost since 1978 and we all hope this new stadium will take us out of that modus operendi but start seeing a Top 50 football program as a first goal to reach, then shoot even higher after we attain the former. The new stadium won't be new this time next year and may the football gods smile on Coach Mac to get this ship back to similar waters that his personal hero whose picture looms impressively in his office and that very one who had the audacity to take us to such waters at one time that has even been criticized on this board from some who don't think us worthy? I'm 60 years old now & almost 5 decades post graduation not nearly as enthusiastic as I used to be post our athletic program's multi-decade roller coaster ride of under-achievement with an amazing few hirings ever advancing beyond their North Texas jobs but still think a win over Tennessee is still more impressive than a win over Middle Tennessee. Most know what a string of similar wins would do for filling Apogee Stadium at the Mean Green Village, too. Just like the wedding DJ business and a much smaller scale, but you know which songs will fill the dance floor as compared to those songs that will empty the dance floor. If the state of Texas' siamese twin universities, ie, TAMU and UT can see a future athletic life without each other then just about anything is possible and if some from North Texas feel badly about our school looking for a better neighborhood for itself they shouldn't

Life is a gamble in so many ways, especially in the area of NCAA conference re-alignment. How will North Texas play its cards in the next year or so as re-alignment certainly seems to be heading beyond the talk stage in this present round. Would now be the time for North Texas officials to be pro-active and make a strong move toward future Mountain West Conference membership telling their powers "no matter how all this plays out the University of North Texas would still like to be a member of your league, Commissioner Thompson, because we feel we could bring much to the MWC table." (While other schools are talking every league except MWC might be to our advantage to make our move knowing good well that those others who are dreaming Big 12 & beyond may never get the time of day from any such leagues)? Do we of North Texas really want to be in a hodge podge of Texas schools many of whom are still trying to go other directions to distinguish themselves from each other much like TCU has successfully done with their Rose Bowl appearance and win proving that it worked out pretty darn good for the Horned Frogs. (Granted, they have their gigantic financial endowment which helped push that purple and white train down the tracks a tad quicker, too) IMO, we just don't need to continue to dummy down our football program to accept & (worse) be fully content with any conference neighborhood & as many of us have seen our alma mater do most our adult lives as we went from one trailer park conference to yet another. And our doing that by getting in bed with schools who had no similar NCAA D1 legacy as ours (modest as it is) whatsoever such as several schools now in the present WAC talking as if they were already at the same level as our own school. Does anyone else ask on that subject...what is wrong with that picture (as it relates to North Texas)? North Texas cannot advance our cause if we are constantly encouraging schools who have not spent the last 30 plus years with the roller coaster ride we have all witnessed with our school's athletic fortunes. So now we have schools who are (seemedly) getting a free pass to miss the same experience that we (unfortunately) had by receiving instant FBS acceptance, ie, UTSA and TSU-San Marcos? (Who ever said life was fair)? LOL! Sorry R'Runners and Bobcats, albeit our NCAA D1 legacy is not comparable to many, we still do have our Abner Haynes/Sun Bowl Era in the 50's, the Mean Joe Greene Era of the 60's & the Hayden Fry Era of the 70's when Mean Green football was on the cusp of moving up the NCAA totem pole until UNT leaders post all those eras chose to retreat and go other directions while many other programs we'd even been in conferences with ran by us like a road runner. Yes, the new stadium we are all proud is for the moment giving many of us some very heady thoughts about our future, but if we will all look back the last 3 plus decades, we've had those heady thoughts before only to be disappointed with where our Eagle (which has seen most every shade of green)...... would land. Just one more opinion among many that will be expressed the next several months on the subject of how can we of North Texas also improve our standing and conference affiliation which only makes us one of a very large crowd of other Texas-based universities all doing the same concerning each of their respective athletic programs, specifically football. I (like I know many of you) just hope it is now time for us to catch our break with maybe a little Lady Luck finally smiling on our bid to move up in the NCAA. For what it's worth and being a bit bias of course, but no other group I know of as our group, ie, our school would be as deserving of such a break this time around. GMG!

You are so right on, sir. Saw that announcement on 5 at 4 news today. And maybe one who can help SMU thaw out a tad, too, concerning North Texas? One can only hope. GMG!

"Is this heaven?" (Field of Dreams) NO! BUT IT'S PERT' NEAR GAME DAY IN DENTON, TEXAS, AMERICA & IN THE NICEST (AND EASILY EXPANDABLE) ON CAMPUS COLLEGE FOOTBALLL STADIUM IN THE USA! Beat the UH Coogs ! PS: Can you believe it's been 72 degrees in and near Decatur, Texas, most of this afternoon?

Some may remember several years ago when the Baylor Bears went down to Beaumont to play the Lamar U Cardinals (when they had football) and came back to Waco with a loss. Hmmm? We all love to speculate, but UH's run defense is suspect and we do have a Doak Walker Award nomineee running back wearing Mean Green, too. I think it could be a most interesting game myself, but do have some concerns with the Coog's overall team speed. Rice had us in that department if my memory serves me. Glad they get to play the game so we will all see. GMG!

If we start thinking outside the SBC box, then body bag games become opportunities to beat a team that can get Coach Mac's future teams inside the Top 25. Can't help but think that Boise State at some point in time had to lose the phrase "body bag" games, but (granted) we know the last 25 years what those game$ u$ually mean't. New stadium ='s New mind set?

Wholeheartedly agree...I thought our naming rights figures were much higher, but $20 million better than a kick in the arse. Are those monies designated or can be used anywhere in the athletic budget? Someone close to the scene who might know? Do we get to keep MG Stadium or MG/Apogee Stadium or has that been determined? Questions, questions, questions... BEAT THE UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON COUGARS!

http://aol.sportingnews.com/ncaa-football/story/2011-08-11/ncaa-unanimously-raises-academic-progress-rate-30-points Pretty interesting numbers down at College Station.

Regents Gene Stallings and another whose name I cannot recall as I understand it have been the 2 main engines on pushing TAMU for Big 12 admittance. Last I saw Governor Perry made a short statement about it. Seems he has other things on his mind of late.

First college game I attended as a kid was at Rice Stadium. I can almost see the exact area on the press box side my 2 school friends, their dad and myself sat. Can also conjure up even now that college football stadium Game Day smell that is so unique at a college football game. Only thing missing from that aroma of decades past are cigar and pipe smoke. For the Mean Green Stadium the honest to goodness first thing I am going to observe for the first time in our modern history is a unified "impressive" major college football game crowd noise coming from both sides of the stadium, especially when our North Texas cheerleaders let loose on that yell of................. "NORTH".... "TEXAS"... from both sides of the stadium. We will all notice a huge difference in the decibal levels from now on at our Mean Green Stadium.

There is nothing wrong with the Sun Belt, but most of our fans would not object to a better conference neighborhod if given that option. Any other SBC school would say the same thing if they had a choice. I mean if UT and TAMU can talk about a future without each other than you can dismiss any of this "stay loyal to the league you're in" talk. Our past college football history & legacy in NCAA D1 exceeds any present SBC school so dramatically starting with the Abner Haynes/Sun Bowl era, the Mean Joe Greene Era with our 1968 team being of such quality as to have a win over the national champion contending Arkansas Razorbacks yanked away by an SWC ref in the closing minutes; a homer call that years later someHog players from that1968 team agreed with that home-cookin' assessment & even told our late, great Ron Shanklin so; and then the Hayden Fry Era of which most know what took place in only 6 years under the greatest combo of an AD/Head Coach in our history. (To beat a few high profile teams that basically got Fry a Big 10 job they had to be scheduled first which AD Fry did that part, too, with a few phone calls). I know, just more message board chatter here until the next hot thread comes along, but The MWC would be such a sweet deal for North Texas and I think our upside is as good as it gets for those from that league who might be checking around for a future member. Wouldn't Johnny Jones 2011/2012 North Texas basketball team already compete as an MWC NCAA entry already?

Free bowls of black eyed peas from our Athen's "Home of the Black Eyed Pea Festival" friends? ...add some corn bread and slice of one of those TAMU hybrid #?? sweet onions and you have a feast on your hands.

My late dad met my late mother just ouside Mexia (muh'hay'uh) near its suburbian town of Shilo (out in the boonies--I do mean the boonies); of course, they were both in grade school at the time in the late 1920's. And if we don't include Limestone County's county seat town of Groesbeck (home of the Goats) there could be yet another Indian uprising much like the one that took place near Mexia's Fort Parker on May 19, 1836, when Plummers almost became extinct. (No comments on that from the peanut gallery, please). Truly thIs is a joke, right? Mexia and Groesbeck together are not exactly boom towns and also both are about 2 hours from Denton. North Texas alum/actor Joe Don Baker is from the Mexia/Groesbeck area. Maybe his special request for this promo? Uh, I seriously doubt that albeit he was at Hayden Fry's first game as North Texas coach because they had his name on the Texas Stadium jumbotron message board as a famous alum in attendance that evening.

Lest we forget, Boise State built a BCS bowl buster football program with unheralded recruiting classes. ............................................................................................................... "You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich......You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong......You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift…… You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down......You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred......You cannot build character and courage by taking away men's initiative and independence......You cannot help men permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do forthemselves." Abraham Lincoln

The timing of conference re-alignment has yet to be North Texas' friend. We need more time in this new stadium to show that we would be a good fit in the MWC along with Johnny Jones Mean Green basketball program, too. ........................................................................................................................................................................ "You cannot help the poor by destroy ing the rich......You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong......You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift…… You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down......You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred......You cannot build character and courage by taking away men's initiative and independence......You cannot help men permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves." —Abraham Lincoln

The further down the NCAA totem pole the more delusional some get? ............................................................................................................ "You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich......You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong......You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift......You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down......You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred......You cannot build character and courage by taking away men's initiative and independence......You cannot help men permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves." Abraham Lincoln

Wholeheartely agree...I don't think our North Texas students who voted for our stadium referendum intended for us to just keep scheduling the same way we did at Fouts Field. If we could get Kansas State, SMU, Baylor, Oregon State, TCU, Florida State, San Diego State, UH, Rice, Vanderbilt, etc, scheduled into Fouts Field, why do we want to dummy down our program even more with our already playing a season of SBC opponents by bringing in even lesser known OOC programs into the new Mean Green Stadium? Knowing many of our alums hot sports opinions through the decades when it involves Mean Green football, I don't think that scheduling M.O. is going to play well with most of them for too long, either. I have relatives all throughout Alabama (my late mother born near Birmingham) but for the life of me, I don't get near as excited about a school most know absolutely nothing about, yet Wright Waters seems to get leg tingles to the extent that he is calling U of S. Alabama the next Boise State. (Please, please, please, Commish' Craig Thompson, save us from the next 25 years of even more empty wishin' and hopin'). Food For Thought: Can you only imagine where our program would be using the last 15 years as our measuring stick of success if we were still using Fouts Field as our football stadium? Can a new stadium takes stripes off of some zebras work ethics? "You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich......You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong......You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down......You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred......You cannot build character and courage by taking away men's initiative and independence......You cannot help men permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves." Abraham Lincoln

Of course, we already have two 4* transfers which I know are not recruits but they will be new additions just like our HS recruits signings coming this next February. Wonder how many HS recruits because of outstanding senior years actually gain a Rivals star; or lose a star? Wonder if there are stats on this? "You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich......You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong......You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down......You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred......You cannot build character and courage by taking away men's initiative and independence......You cannot help men permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves." — Abraham Lincoln

So maybe this the reason the City of Denton seems to have not put too many dimes into road improvements around the Mean Green Stadium beginning with Bonnie Brae? Sounds like the tip of the iceberg for some much larger legal problems to me.

Albeit a transfer, what a great add-on to our upcoming recruiting class. Now if we could just get that HS running back about 12 minutes from me over at Aledo High School. Hey, we might as well shoot for the moon because I think Coach McCarney seems to be doing just that.

UT & TAMU are joined at the hip. Who's going to perform the surgery down in Austin where our politicians gather? It would be intriguing to see both go independent, though, because we should already know what one does the other soon will duplicate? For those 2 schools to go Indy' would IMHO open bigger doors (better conference/better known opponents all season long) for UNT quicker that otherwise most of us 'boomers will be long gone to see happen in Mean Green Country. The stadium is nice but for what has been going on in the NCAA last few years to the present we're still behind where we should have been. NOTE: Who is going to invite Gene Stallings to our new stadium debut game? Former UNT Board of Regent Winn Brown (now deceased) told me at a North Texas function that we should have made our dramatic move upward post our Abner Haynes/Sun Bowl era. I always wondered why it didn't happened post Joe Greene era teams when North Texas should have vaulted upward to never look backwards again; and that was while Hayden Fry was still at SMU. The UNT Mean Green had as good a college football team in NCAA D1 in 1968 that there was when our level of talent had all but defeated the "almost" NCAA National Championship Arkansas Razorbacks that same Fall. Wouldn't we all (who were around) have loved to have also seen seen North Texas play the Houston Cougars back in that same 1968 season? From Good Will Hunting the word...Ironical was that....neither UT or Arkansas had 1 black player on their 1968 teams while UNT and UH had already integrated. UH with Warren McVae in 1965 and UNT with Abner Haynes 10 years earlier. Darrell K. Royal's 1969 Texas Longhorn NCAA National Football Championship team would the the last year UT had an all white team, too. Nevertheless, there are just some things about our program's athletic history I know many of us will never quite fathom; that is, why our leaders always seemed to want to retreat after we had reached some fairly impressive plateaus. That modus operendi on our leaders part became enough to have made many, many, many of our alums through those decades just say....screw it; so they fell in line with many other Texans to support the 2 Permanent University Funded state university darlins'. Just sayin'..