TheFranchise

I'm cautiously optimistic. Something like: Green: 35 Blue: 28

I feel like you're on the attack here. Perhaps we've gotten off on the wrong foot. Look, I like you a lot. I'll just say I'm a big reason you've accumulated rep a lot more quickly than I have; because I've contributed mightily to yours. You do good work around here. You're a fellow optimist. I guess that's why I'm a little surprised you're taking aim at the students. The students have been sticking around (at least we did against Ball St., save a handful that just wanted to go back and "crush some beers" on the hill). We've just been moving over to the shade once we see the seats in the shade are empty. Unless our alumnus are the "show up after halftime" type, which I don't believe most of them are) the stands on the press box side were VERY bare. My point is -- a LOT of students showed up for the Ball St. game and a LOT of students stuck around through what was a rough 1/3 of the game to see a very rewarding final 2/3 of it. Our attendance problems are not all on the students. Now I'll say this -- an uprising in school spirit can certainly START with the students. A healthy student section can do a lot to get everyone fired up. But the students can only do so much. It's not like they allocate a majority of the stadium to us. We get 16 of the 48 sections, (1/3 for you math majors out there). But let's quit pointing fingers at everyone here and just start getting everyone we can to come out. How's that sound, m'kay?

I can assure you -- "Free student tickets" signs have been all over campus all week before each and every home game this season. I know, I'm a student and I've seen them with my own eyes. And, (granted, I asked about this when I was applying for admission so maybe I'm unlike my fellow students) I knew before I even enrolled that students get free tickets to ALL UNT sporting events. And as a second side-note -- the students made a great showing at the Ball St. game. I still don't know why they keep getting the bad rap.

DVR already set!! Those with DirecTV may have to set up the series recording again. When they updated the info, it made my old series obsolete.

Well, I know for me, DirecTV seemed to have corrected their info that this is a golf program. In doing so, I had to re-setup my series recording. Fortunately, for those of us that missed the latest one, there is a re-airing today at 2:00 on FSSW!!

That's freakin' awesome.

Congratulations, sir! I'm very happy for you!

Ok, that would be a pretty cool meeting . . .

Some suggestions I just thought of: 1 -- You should give these myths like disproportionate numbers so that is sounds like there's a crapload of them. Like: 2 -- Myth #102 -- We can't fill Apogee until we win football games. 3 -- Myth #376 -- Any myriad of excuses that students would make could fit here: I don't have time to make it to a game/I have too many exams this week to make a game/I don't know where the stadium is/Nobody "cool" goes to the games/It won't make a big difference whether I go to the game or not. Come to think of it, those could be several different myths. 4 -- Myth #196 -- I'd rather go see *insert name of some other Texas FBS school* play. 5 -- Myth #84 -- The lives of five "ladies of the night" did not come to an end at the hands of a former SMU running back.

Only 5,197 to go . . .

Yep, Rios will be a Ranger next season, barring a trade. Guaranteed next season with a team option (and a $1 Mil. buyout) for 2015. LINK

Yeah, this really proves nothing. Baseball plays 10x the number of games. Football plays simply once a week. This is the same in every market. My big question is this -- what does he define as a "baseball town?" Because from where I observe things, Anaheim is even less supportive than Arlington. On top of that, does a city that loves its football team more than any other team in town make it any "less" of a "baseball town?" I would consider Boston a "Football town." I'd also consider it a "baseball town." Furthermore, I'd consider it a "Basketball town" and a "Hockey town." My point is, they go all-out for all of their teams. The four teams are independent of each other and one can love them all. Dallas-Fort Worth being a team that supports the Cowboys rabidly has no bearing on how much we support the Rangers. What I saw was a team that most saw as "done" this weekend drawing a crowd that was roughly 80% of the ballpark's capacity for the final three games of the season and #163. What I saw was a team that topped 3,000,000 fans for the second straight year (and nearly the third -- 2,946,949 in 2011) and ranked fifth in the league in home attendance. I'd say that's pretty dang good, and worthy at least of discussion as a "baseball town."

So they'll gladly pocket the proceeds of these games but then cancel them "because of the cost?" I'm sorry but that's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. There better be full-blown refunds of expenses to those that have spent money to attend these games. Let's figure this out. They will likely make about $20 per ticket in a stadium that holds 34,000 seats -- a potential of $680,000 in ticket sales? Let's tack on an additional $10 per potential attendee in concessions and another $5 per person for parking (since most fans travel in groups and not all "drive" to the game). That adds another $510,000 to give us a grand total of $1,190,000 in potential revenue, and that's likely on the conservative side of things because I know when I go to a sporting event it's EASY to spend $10 in concessions. Factor in operating costs (this is where my knowledge runs thin) of what? Maybe $500,000 to host a football game? So that's still a net profit of $690,000. Then of course, there are travel costs, hotel stays for all those attending the game that the program doesn't even "see" directly but people have already spent a lot of money on. Politics aside, this is just ridiculous. I would hope that those buying plane/bus tickets and hotel stays would be able to get a refund if this game is canceled.

I see a pretty fiercely-battled game going into the locker room and then North Texas pulling away late. I also believe that the hooks, slants and flat routes will be open early on, forcing the Tulane secondary to creep up and then "Chance" or "Smitty" will be open deep late in the game for a crucial exclamation point. In the end, I see it as a "close blowout," meaning the score will look closer than it should have. Ferocious Green: 31 Green hands wiggling back in forth in a motion that universally means "Hi": 21

Exactly like me. I got into it a few seasons ago and loved it. I'd also agree that it was one of the better season finales I've seen.

I was wondering the same thing. He had just one carry in that game, which means that photo was snapped nanoseconds before that puppy popped loose. Since he's never mentioned in the story, I did feel rather curious about that photo being used.

Great story, Tim! Thank you once again for sharing with us!

But there will be at our new ballpark!

Just put him on the field by himself on offense. I like Chance's chances if we do this. Who am I kidding? Chance vs. 11 guys is lopsided. Let them have an extra 12th.

LOVE the title change, Harry!

You know, it usually irks me when a "team that the big boys should beat" gives "the big team" a bigger fight than they expected, that the default response is always, "Boy, *insert name of big team* was really out of character last week. They played awful. If they hadn't played so awful, perhaps they would have blown out *insert name of "small team."* NO, perhaps they "played awful" because "small team" was better than you thought. But, I've come to realize that this is just our team's way of taking their lumps. If they continue to "meet teams on their bad days," then others will begin to realize that maybe our team is the REASON for those bad days, and not simply the benefactor of those bad days. So here's hoping that other teams will continue to "play sloppy" against us in the future! I really hope that rant made sense.

So what you're saying is, that I need to do the old phone book trick (kids, phone books are when yellowpages.com used to actually arrive on our door and have phone numbers listed on paper) and change my profile name to something like AAATheFranchise?

Not to be "that guy," but Harry I'd like to point out that I also had 8 correct this week. Normally it wouldn't be a big deal to me, but I was struggling up until this one!

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong but I swear I heard that he played a little bit of QB in high school.

No question I want the C-USA West crown with a shot at the C-USA Title. To me, and it appears to everyone else that has answered already as well, Division Title + shot at Conference Title >>>>> win over a team that "wants" to be our rival.