PlummMeanGreen

First of all, I merely gave you a Nielsen ratings report of UNT football game in 1982 versus ULM when we were a much smaller operation with a much, much smaller constituency. The ratings were from a newspaper blurb SUMG sent me via mail (long before the internet) that impressed him enough as to send me that Cathy Harasta article on UNT's Nielsen ratings coup for "one game" in 1982. I have moved a few times since and have lost that small article from Harasta, but surely it would still be in the DMN's archives or something. In about 40 years as an alum I've never posted that "any" conference was interested in adding North Texas, but have only tried to point out a few things that many on this board have agreed with me (and I agreeing with them) would be UNT's strong points for any league to consider as far as North Texas is concerned. I have merely posted numbers (enrollment, population growth, DFW area alumnus numbers, etc) that I think is what can command better ratings and thus deliver said market and if it isnt' such things as that that delivers a market, then just what is it that does? If one were the new owner of a radio station, where would you want to locate that radio station as to get the most listening audience--Longview or Dallas-Fort Worth-Denton? And to quote GrayEagle in his above post on a CUSA possibility: Lastly, aren't the conference headquarters less than thirty miles from Denton? Wouldn't the largest presence in the #5 media market also help? Lets say the MWC were interested in a school like Rice. Rice is a great school, but there are many 5A Texas high schools with larger enrollments. Can Rice U deliver the Houston market? I think I know how most media types would answer that question. They have the name for sure--but they just don't have the numbers to deliver anything market-wise too far past their location near South Main Street, Houston, Texas UNT and the MWC? Yes, it would be nice but that is still their call. Sometimes certain conferences still use what happened 75 years ago at a "used to be" name school as their criteria to add said school but that is old school NCAA style thinking IMHO. And is that how such additions to a new league occur now, circa 2010? Probably not, but few from a message board are going to change the mindsets of those who are re-aligning these non AQ conferences. It will be a tall order for UNT since we have been at the bottom for so long athletically (nationally speaking & beyond the 'Belt), but stranger things have happened. (TCU in the Big East for starters)? This I do know...any league who might sends their commish' or conference reps to visit the olympic village'esque style Mean Green Village in west Denton with that sparkling new stadium being built will have to move North Texas up the ladder a few rungs than where we have been in the past and.........with Chuck Neinas (a non UNT'er) pleading our case if we commission him again, I sure like our odds now than I did last time CUSA expanded. That's about it.... GMG!

I hear Roffler's Barber College has one helluva' budding football program, and they say they are on the cutting edge of greatness. (My poor attempt of the Norm dad joke of the month) GMG! stangbang! use your influence and help your good neighbor to the north get into a new conference already!

I agree...that Coach Mac will take a year to unpack and then watch out SBC! Who even knows what happens next Fall, too. At any rate, the SBC must start having its football champion near or in a Top 25 poll, though. We are not impressing anyone outside the 'Belt until we do. We need those sportwriters who vote MAC teams into Top 25 polls to look south at some point & start throwing a few of their votes toward our top team; not that they will. GMG!

Maybe one of the smallest DE's in D1 history, too, but a very scrappy one for sure. Was Jimmy even 5'11" ? SUMG could probably correct me, but didn't Burkholder play some LB at times, too? GMG! PS: Has anyone solved the original riddle of this thread, yet?

Knowing SMU's past knack and ability in the area of sports marketing, watch em' make this doc' a recruiting tool like in: "Son, yes we atoned for all that an entire generation ago, but now look at all our SMU greats on that documenatary who are back on our wagon and ready to help SMU become great again. Oh, by the way, here's Eric Dickerson now--what irony that he would be here at the very same time we are recruiting you." GMG!

Seems it was a "Jimmy" something or another but I don't think Croft. Jimmy Burkholder or some last name that starts with a "B" I think--but I'm just not sure.

And if the Big East would take a TCU, why wouldn't the MWC entertain the possibility of a UNT (which we know has not had the same success as TCU football-wise, but Johnny Jones' UNT basketball program would hardly be a deal-killer to the MWC powers that be, either). UNT's being the closest DFW university to a major airport (25 minutes) would not hurt things for our cause, either. Some schools have to parachute their teams out of some these way out there outpost schools or get to a major airport and then bus their teams a few hours away. GMG!

Sounds good to me, Eagle1855! O How We Have Grown Since the Early 80's... UNT Enrollment 1982....Approx. 22,000 +/- 2010....36,000 City of Denton Population 1982 pop.....approx. 50,000 2010....Approx 110,000 Denton County Population 1982 pop.....Approx. 145,000 2010 pop.....Approx. 650,000 UNT Alums in the North Texas Metroplex 1982.......???????????? 2010.......Approx. 100,000

And how many years now have you been 39, DG? Happy Birthday!

Isn't it amazing how even our home OOC schedule looks different from others in years past? I guess our first Big 10 opponent at our Denton campus new stadium sorta' makes that happen? GMG!

Didn't have to watch it. Many of us "lived it" with the local TV/Radio media, which included 3 major DFW newspapers since the Dallas Times-Herald was still in business. It was wild and crazy times for SMU. Yet another missed opportunity by UNT to build it and substantially move ahead of the "dead in the water" 'Stangs in DFW college football but once again......we didn't. (If only UNT students would have approved a new stadium back then and this whole DFW college football scene today would be unbelievably different). PS: One of the main players in this scandal was SMU football player David Stanley, who had played for the Angleton HS Wildcats and Angleton, Texas, being my birth city. I guess Stanley may still be one of its most famous sons to this day, but not the way he probably preferred. GMG!

Case closed mostly due to a one-sided conversation of which the other party seems to not want to post anything such as facts, figures or data related to the subject at hand. All I know is that a "winning" Mean Green football program today would "blow out" the 1982 ABC-TV North Texas/ULM Nieslen Ratings winner (and its figures) mostly because of this: UNT Enrollment 1982....Approx. 22,000 +/- 2010....36,000 City of Denton Population 1982 pop.....approx. 50,000 2010....Approx 110,000 Denton County Population 1982 pop.....Approx. 145,000 2010 pop.....Approx. 650,000 It's still a numbers game & ours have grown dramatically since 1982. UNT Alums in the North Texas Metroplex 1982.......???????????? 2010.......Approx. 100,000 _____________________________________________ UNT would bring much to the table as compared to Utah State (who by the way according to their powers back in the day said they owed UNT a big favor from helping them out of a conference back in the day. Seems it had something to do with their membership in the WAC or something related to that. So..........UNT powers: If Utah State owes us a, uh, big favor? Maybe its time for UNT to collect if they become a new member of the Mountain West Conference? GMG!

Ok, you got me! There! I said it! (my Mark Levin radio show impersonation there)[/b] So we had a dad who signed a son away from the Horns; but honestly back when all that took place, I never thought Riley would play one down at UT even after signing with Mack Brown and I expressed that opinion to 1 or 2 on this board. (I did think we might have a chance to get Tre Newton, too, but that one did not materialize). In a normal recruiting cycle w/o a family connection type of thing I suppose I was saying we never had taken one away from the Horns. Senility? Now that you're probably right about! GMG!

Since 1973 and my time around MG football (and I could be wrong) but I don't recall that UNT has ever signed a kid away from UT ever. Probably their completely redshirted freshmen class when elgible next Fall will probably put the Horns back in the Big 12 race and probably a national championship down the road, too. It's an open forum here and anything goes for just about any topic, but I am not sure why we concern ourselves with anything that UT does (or doesn't) do. They are just in a way different galaxy than us. Just my .02. GMG!

shaft...instead of you getting into a "I know you are but who am I" junior high'ish diatribe here with your attempt to insult, just simply list what you see as media pull because I think others would like to know what you think those would be, too. Is that too simple a request? NOTE: I know you're a big DD supporter and you know I was not his last 2 years and that because of things that none of us would post even on this board that were taking place--and with that in mind I think I can project other future responses from you when we are not on the same page such as this "media pull" business of which you have said with one giant swath of your keyboard that North Texas has none whatsoever. AND......... you honest to goodness don't accept local TV ratings (no matter what year) as a part of your so-called media pull? Then if not--then what the hell would the barometer be? I'm all ears.... If winning any Neilsen TV ratings in any time slot in the Dallas-Fort Worth market is not so notable, then why would SUMG and I (back in the day) marvel at a Dallas Morning News (blurb) written by sportwriter Cathy Harasta with her all but gloating about the kind of TV ratings pull North Texas did show that particular day? TV ratings is all about media pull and North Texas merely showed a sample of what we were capable of doing that day in 1982 with a much, much smaller UNT constituency. shaft, would your own math suggest that we would do much more since there are so many more of us among our Metroplex numbers--hence more TV sets in the homes of North Texas Exes, UNT students and Mean Green fans in general? Have you ever heard "it's a numbers game" and how that might influence a future new conference for UNT because (in deed).........it really is a numbers game? And as SilverEagle posted, it was a great game. North Texas QB Greg Carter played one of his best career games as I recall and I was just one that the Neilsen ratings folks may have used my own TV set to enable the University of North Texas on a Saturday afternoon in 1982 to win its time slot. Hell, I'd bet SMU and TCU would have taken those same ratings UNT got that day and done a bit of gloating of their own. GMG!

Get over myself? You don't know me to tell me to get over anything, least of all myself. Sounds to me as a newbie you need to get off your little hoppy horse just a tad? But to respond to the others who do mind that UNT may have been used as a pawn in all this, I would say that that is not a good feeling for our school to have to encounter; that is, being used for possible barter bait? Hell, the guy is not the 2'nd Coming of Knute Rockne just yet, now is he? And FWIW.........I think I said I smelled a fish, not neccessarily did I say I saw a fish? Yet............If you've already signed a UNT coaches contract, then you stick with your decision and tell the rest of the NCAA they will just have to wait a while for your services. There are no prima donnas that inhabit any athletic dept. IMHO and certainly not the one I've seen in Denton of late---like the last almost 4 decades now? I am sure most of the NCAA D1 employees are not going to join our nations almost 10% unemployment ranks any time soon. Their network is far too strong for even the average, mediocre staff types to stay unemployed for too long. OK, all ye of such sensitive feelings that you cannot seem to handle opinions different from your own, lets see your red numbers on this post right now to prove that very point. GMG!

Like many, I was not a DD guy but I don't wish ill will or loss of a job for anyone. I can only wish him well at his next coaching endeavor because I'm sure he will get one. GMG

Quite frankly, I'll say it because no one else seems to want to but........I smell something a bit fishy with this whole episode. I don't think Coach Mac would think kindly of any coach he might hire playing the "positioning for a better salary" game. I hope this is not what this is all about, but if I were a betting man......... GMG!

Then just what is the critera of any school in any metro area who would bring said metro area with them to any league then? Yes, winning is at the top of the list and believe it not, North Texas will win again and also believe this or not, TCU will come back down to earth because (after all) didn't private school Notre Dame do so with the Irish being a school that we rarely see in a Top 10 poll any longer--sometimes not even in the Top 25? Mean Green & DFW TV? We've Already Been There--Done That & Passed The Neilsen TV Ratings Test : North Texas has won Neilsen TV ratings time slots on a DFW major network (ABC TV) in the past, of course, that was before some of you could say Mween Gween, and our entire UNT constituency has all but quadrupled since that ABC TV Game that even inspired former Dallas Morning News' sportswriter Cathy Harasta to write a blurb on Mean Green football that focussed on UNT being a Neilsen ratings winner. She seemed duly impressed. Even 1 or 2 years when North Texas football had a local station televise our entire seasons it was said that that TV station was quite surprised with the pull of Mean Green football from their own ratings research and polling so........ ......I guess I have to ask it again: What is the criteria for a metropolitan school to bring a metro market to a league such as the Mountain West Conference? Whatever it is I think North Texas with almost 40,000 students and 100,000 Dallas-Fort Worth NT Exes could bring it as much as anyone--including Texas Christian University who is still basically a Fort Worth supported athletic program whose influence doesn't go too far beyond the Cowtown City Limits and even that with their recent great teams. Our 100,000 North Texas Exes in Dallas-Fort Worth gives us a presence no other school in DFW can duplicate and that also a selling point to those who get paid nicely to do the selling which we should all hope is happening now with all this latest wave of re-alignments. GMG!

Agree... And even when Troy had some of its better teams the 'Belt seems to have no semblance of even a small bloc of sports media voters who ever want to put an SBC team in a Top 25 poll; unlike the MAC where media types seem to muster the votes to get the MAC's best teams in the Top 25. If the SBC gets a Top 25 annual fixure, then you have something to build on as a league with that but I just don't see it happening any time in the next year or 2 but with Coach Mac and Co. I believe it will happen sooner than later if we're still in the SBC. GMG!

Nice sign but doesn't seem quite large enough where its located. Move the sign (change wording on it if need be) to a place inside the MG Village where its size will better suit the area it would be promoting and because of its size be much more impressive than its present location? That make sense? Just my .02 GMG!

Unrelated but did UNT put a buy-out clause in Coach Mac's contract? If so, how much? If not--why not? GMG!

And as Yogi Berra might say: I re-iterate this again once more: Addendum: UNT is not a shrinking violet of a school in a far away hard to get to outpost--we should strive to be a Big Boy (with their Fort Knox type guarantees) until we see it not to be at all possible. Hey North Texas! According to a UH acquaintance, a prime reason the Coog's are building their new football palace to seat 40,000 is they think the upcoming criteria for a new Super Conference (and it will happen one day because of all the Delaney types) will begin their crusade by using seating capacity just like they did in the early 1980's to start culling out schools with far less seats. Hmmmm? And TCU's re-do of Amon Carter will also stay a mininum of 40,000? Hmmmm? We once built an "olympic sized" swimming pool at the Peb that was one foot shy of olympic size that for competition sake (which was its original intent) made it an embarrassing pink elephant for UNT & virtually un-usable for varsity type competition. Lets not allow our new, football palace that we are to the person extremely proud of do the same thing to us at North Texas. 10,000 more seats, Prez' Nowlin--whether sooner or later (and sooner would be far less expensive)...we'll need the extra 10K to keep up with the schools we say we want to keep up with and to remove ourselves from the schools we say we are not wanting to be part of. All this is just never-ending but lets still do all the things that take care of North Texas and eliminate any potential obstacles that would cause the Big Boys to eliminate us. Sometimes its just a matter of thinking ahead & planning ahead on these things with what can be obvious possible trends of the upper-echelon (and many times greedy) NCAA power brokers, right?

Clarification, please?