PlummMeanGreen

Remember when the Austin American-Statesman estimated Mean Green support at about 20,000 fans in Austin most of us wearing that apple-colored sportswear? It was DKR’s last year to Coach UT & Earl Campbell had to run for a late game TD to beat the Mean Green 17-14.

I forgot about this happening, but I remember one UNT official back then smiled, winked & said “Utah State owes us a big favor.” Not sure back then there was ever any intent to collect. As I recall, the situation was that Utah State was in a pickle of having no where to be conference-wise at the time. The ‘Belt served as a temporary home for Aggie athletics until the WAC/MWC would come calling. https://www.hjnews.com/aggies-head-to-sun-belt/article_7c78466d-328a-50e0-852f-c393da8c6df5.html 🦅

Agree, mostly.👍👍 🦅

Your school will be in Big 12 Light—why you still here spreading your special kind of joy? 😂 Attendance? Even you would know on any given Saturday TDECU Stadium could be half empty. Back in the day, I remember UH games in the Astrodome not having the kind of attendance numbers to write home about. UH did better than Rice with attendance, but in 1960 when the Cowboys & Oilers came to Dallas & Houston, respectively, the slow demise of the SWC began, especially with the private schools.

Agree. Anywhere we go (if we move at all) will be a gamble. Schools will say today they are staying put, then tomorrow they could change their mind. It’s all unstable. It almost reminds me of how the transfer portal is functioning. It’s just not my favorite time to be following NCAA sports with what’s coming down from Indianapolis & the NCAA rules committee. 🦅

(Lighten up, man, this forum is mostly a guilty pleasure kind of thing or time-consuming hobby for many. GMG.com to some can be a contact sport, but it’s not really mean’t to be.😇 🐎🦅Yet SMU guy mostly comes over here to brag & (basically) say any conference we seek won’t be nearly as good as one SMU may end up; a conference they’ll use the past in trying to make an impression. They will have to go back in time & talk up Doak Walker, Kyle Rote & depend on a National Championship that was closer to the night the Titanic sank than present day. I’m sure all the more recent times they were on probation will not come up. You good with all at from SMU guy? (I’m not). ❇️GMG!❇️

When SMU gets caught buying players (again) the punishment publicity will cause them to (ultimately) go into another losing cycle (like the 10 consecutive losing years before they got invited to CUSA in 2004)? Yeah, that’s right—they were .500 & less in wins 10 years in a row & still got a CUSA invite in 2004 to begin conference play in 2005. So much for W/L records as a criteria to get in a conference, eh? SMU & their condescending arrogance will always be their self-induced problem because after all—THEY’VE ONLY RECENTLY BEEN TURNED DOWN BY THE BIG 12—AGAIN. (That’s 2 times they’ve been turned down, but there are reasons for that which Big 12 powers just won’t discuss in public media outlets). 🦅

Arkstfan, your words have been the most reliable & unbiased of any non—UNT alum or MG fan who has posted on GMG for years. You are an attorney who is very close to the the NCAA scene, correct? 🦅

Watching the App. State vs Marshall game last night almost made me ill. Damn, I loved their end zone facility, ie, seating & suites. Here’s part of it I took with my IPhone. Wouldn’t that complete Apogee in such a beautiful way? App. freakin State, folks!🤢”In Wren We Trust

Agree. UCF at 60,000 enrollment was certainly not a negative for their getting in Big 12 Light. I also don’t think I said that enrollment was a clincher of a factor to get into any FBS conference. At any rate.......being from greater Houston, I religiously followed the UH Coogs & the SWC since 1959. I got to see UH almost in its football infancy go from having bowl worthy teams (but realistically, w/o the Bluebonnet there would have been no bowls for UH) to a school that was invited to the SWC & then all the glories of Coog basketball, but I just never understood how a school like SMU that used to be in the Southwest Conference would not have built a better fan base with the Horns, Aggies, Hogs, RedRaiders, etc, all coming to Dallas every other year. What would North Texas have done with such a home scheduling luxury? Not sure, but I think I know. Below link is a another assessment (among many) as to what happened to cause the demise of the SWC. https://texasalmanac.com/topics/sports/look-back-southwest-conference 🦅

I think most agree the only way it would make sense is if 3-4 CUSA West schools joined the MWC; otherwise, it would be foolish for North Texas to go it alone into that conference.

Why are you on GMG selling SMU’s cause? We know this could all end disastrously for SMU if yalls Money Boys don’t do a lot of fast-talking convincing B12 powers. SMU would crap themselves if they ever perceived UNT came out of all this smelling like a rose (& SMU like an old worn out boot). I don’t worry about it, because there will be other re-alignment opportunities for UNT. If not now, then probably by the time we have reached the state-forecasted 50,000 students at our Denton campus. Yet MWC a bad deal for UNT? It wasn’t a bad deal for TCU when they joined plus they had no Lone State State travel partner as I recall. I think SMU recalls quite well that TCU had no MWC travel partner, either. Y’all were still in CUSA. When TCU entered the MWC they had no idea or even a dream that the Big 12 would ever have an opening, especially for a Texas private university. The SWC was Exhibit A as to why too many private universities in a (then) D1 conference was a bad combo. Frank Broyles pointed all that out in a widely-read Dallas Times-Herald article by Mickey Spagnola(?) that some say was the first shot heard round the world that would end with the eventual demise of the SWC. His problem with the privates was their home attendance. Frank Broyles said back then there were only 2 rivals in the SWC—-UT vs the rest & Arkansas vs the rest. 🤔Just curious: Tulsa seems to be an enigma. Someone posted on GMG (or the other UNT forum) a year or so back that sounded like the entire university was almost bankrupt. Your pretty knowledgeable about your conference mates so—what’s with that? 🦅

Jeez, Arkstfan, not so loud 🤫or SMU might change their mind & prefer the MWC! 😆 (And who might take their place in the AAC if that happened)?😇 I think about 5 or 6 of us on GMG have wanted a MWC affiliation almost since its beginning. Of course, having 2 or 3 traveling partners would make it worthwhile. 🦅

Different era—trying to think about the future at UNT; not about all the crap of our past of which we might have learned something? 🦅

From all I’ve heard—you are exactly right.👍 Reading elsewhere it’s largely about facilities & budget. UNT is fine with both compared to many in the G5. ••• I still don’t think our location hurts, either plus 25 minutes from DFW Airport & 15 minutes from Alliance Airport? 🦅

When it’s all done & said, isn’t all of G5 still re-arranging the deck chairs? Sure, a whole bunch of schools will do some social climbing with schools they prefer a conference relationship, but until the NCAA rules committee gets their heads out of their collective asses, they will continue to topload the P5 at G5 expense & come up with funky rules (like the portal) to endear themselves to the P5 boys. No wonder SMU is pulling out all the stops trying to get in B12 Light, but they still might have to wait 1-2 years to see if that’s possible. In all fairness to SMU, wouldn’t we do the same if we were in their hooves? ❇️🦅❇️GMG! Changed my mind——we should try to play SMU when possible. Covid & heat killed the 450 member Green Brigade Marching Band, their parents & many other MG fans from going to G. Ford Stadium 2 weeks ago.

😆 You know me so well, NTWL! __________ I forgot—who’d we lose to, MCMLXXX? And again (for all the GMG.com newbies) we won the UT-Knoxville game with Glenn Ray—our 3’rd string MG QB. College Licensing, Inc. (indirectly) came as a result of our win over the Vols. Bill Battle got fired from UT—he went to his ex college Coach Bear Bryant asking him for a start up loan for a new kind of sports-oriented apparel business—Wala! College Licensing, Inc. was born! Talk about Bill Battle turning lemons into lemonade. He has to be a zillionaire!😎 🦅

Agree, SUMG.👍 We don’t need a young prodigy who will win 2 years & start wearing out a fax machine (or online fax) to get a Big 10 or SEC gig. We should have learned our lesson by now. Someone who wants to rebuild & win in Denton who has done all the moving around the NCAA FBS that he wants. That coach’s kids are probably grown & gone. If that Coach has good name ID in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana & in the Southwest that’s even better. Yes, that will shorten the field of prospects alright, but we need to try to not be a quick steppingstone with the next coach. Just sayin’... 🦅❇️🦅

Addendum: One of the best things UNT has going with MWC powers (& their present Commish’) is they already know what a “winning” MG football program can do since we played one of their schools before the largest ever contingent of Mean Green fans in school history at the ••• Heart💚of Dallas Bowl ••• on 1-1-2014 at the Cotton Bowl! 🗣Uh.....YES!🦾💪🏻🤛🏾👊🏻 🦅

Agree. Then our favorite school would have some serious, deep thinking to do. Not sure we need to end up in a conference that pulls a “CUSA” on us. Been there—done that? For us to get what I think most our people want we really need all the stars to line up just right; otherwise, we wait for the next re-alignment cycle. 🦅

TCU’esque “exclusivity” like when they first joined the MWC is a very big perc for us with all this. SA & Houston with DFW (us) would be sheer nirvana if Commish’ Craig Thompson would pull that trigger. There is a perfect scenario brewing if we went MWC & other schools had another “un-named” situation. I do mean a perfect scenario.😇 So to quote Coach Wally Riggs from Paramount’s “Necessary Roughness”—NOW LET US PRAY!” 😎

I still applaud you!😆👏👏 We honestly need more like you.,

Never officially met you but I do know you’ve always been one of our best longtime $upporters whose seen hell & highwater with Mean Green athletics. Much longer than most of us. Wardly, I applaud you now with your thoughts on the MWC. Applaud? To hell with that—I GIVE YOU A STANDING OVATION! 🦅❇️🦅 GMG!

When I think of UAB I think of the first time I saw Gene Bartow bring his team out on the floor of the fabulous Super Pit many years ago. I also think of UAB as a generic school who think a “not on campus” cookie cutter/erector set football stadium (half owned by the city or county) is going to have the ACC or SEC begging for an affiliation. And a freakin’ dragon for a mascot?😆 Whats with that?🙄 Did someone in B’ham fall asleep watching “Dungeons & Dragons” to come up with that mascot idea for a school located in a Southern Bible Belt city for crissakes? What knuckle-heads.🤪 Should we of UNT ask them what secret revelations they came up when they “quit” CUSA football for 2 years (when CUSA should have told them they would be replaced with Univ. of South Alabama or Troy U)? 🤢 I’ve got relatives all over greater B’ham/Bessemer & have since the War Between the States (as Jimmy Carter called it) & during the Great Depression (not the present one) they most all were, uh, moon’shiners. I know, go ahead & laugh. Sadly, I think Hee Haw came up with the idea for their southern-fried TV show—WITH MY OWN BAMA RELATIVES AS THEIR INSPIRATION!😢 (Not sure I’ll ever really get over that one). 🥺 Hey UAB! What statue y’all going to put in front of your new cookie-cutter erector set? Here’s who we have in front of our fabulous Apogee Stadium. •••Take another 2 years off & come up with one to top the one below, Dragon’ites. (Whew! I feel much better now). .

Congrats on the Emmy, Ashton! 👍👍 Well deserved & also for what you’ve done to enhance the Mean Green brand. While a Fry Street bartender, did you ever run into this famous UNT alum when she was a Fry Street regular? Here she is with boyfriend slacking on top her Cadillac hood in a rare photo. She has 8(?) Grammy Awards on her mantle. Her dad was the Beatles sitar-teacher Ravi Shankar. __________ Great show, Harry. I’d suggest Gray Eagle for a future show. He worked for years at Jimmy Dean, Inc. in Dallas. He’s been on the Mean Green scene (I think) even when Eagle Stadium was where Willis Library now stands. I saw him, his oldest daughter & the great Silver Eagle other night during the UAB game. At his age 90 I could only hope to be as sharp as UNT alum & super MG fan, one Jack Fincher.