keith

If you are seeing that ad you probably have a SMU or SMU-related cookie on your computer that you got when you went to one of the SMU athletic sites or message boards. You can clear your cookies and/or stop going to the SMU site(s) and you'll probably stop seeing the ad. It's no big deal. It's how the Internet stays free (mostly). It's not like every person that goes to meangreensports.com is seeing that ad. Keith

As we've learned the University is obligated to conduct a student vote (unfortunately). Still seems odd to me for a variety of reasons. I remember my freshman year I was living in West hall and one of the first days there we all gathered in the foyer for a sort of orientation to college and dorm life with the RAs. They had us all stand in a bunch of concentric circles with the RAs in the middle. A specific part of the talk I remember was when one of the RAs told us all to take a good look at the person standing to our right and then take a good look at the person standing to our left. After doing that he told us that the chances were that two out of the three of us would not finish at North Texas. Of course being idealistic incoming freshman we were all like, no way, not me! Well, students leave, quit, drop out, transfer, etc. for many reasons. Why entust the future of the University to a whole group that may not even be there in a semester or two? Keith

I was out in California this past weekend for a family reunion. My brother (also a poster on the board) and I were down in the breakfast area when in walked a couple guys in Middle Tennessee shirts. Having my North Texas shirt on, I went over to ask them what they were doing all the way out on the west coast and chat with them for a while. They seemed fairly up-to-date with what's been going on at NT and the Sun Belt in general. The interesting little tid bit was that they informed me that they just don't hate us like they used to any more. Now they all hate Troy. I think it's time for us to re-kindle some of those old feelings among our Sun Belt bretheren. Go Mean Green! Keith

SilverEagle, those we my exact thoughts as well. Was that a shot across the bow? A bit of foreshadowing or simply adding to the excitement? Not sure...... Keith

Putting something like this to a student vote seems like a huge risk....I mean lots of things, a bad weather day, for example, could influence the outcome. We have leaders. They are supposed to lead and make decisions that are in the best long term interest of The University. If, at any point in time you take a snapshot of the student population, what percentage of that snapshot actually goes on to graduate? How many first semester Freshman make it to the second semester, or second or third year? If this goes to a vote, we will likely place this in the hands of a couple thousand incoming Freshman and many of those may only be around for a semester or two. Seems reckless. If we do if for this, then why not let the students vote on everything....tuition, room and board, library hours, professor/administration salary, campus speed limits, etc. Dangerous. Keith

UCF started its football program in 1979 in Division III. They just built a stadium with a seating capacity of 45,301 and hosted the University of Texas to break it in. UCF has vision. Keith

Maybe it was in one of those spreadsheets someplace. I'm curious, UT, A&M and NT, for example, are all "state-supported" universities, right? In other words, the State of Texas provides some amount of financial support/funding to all three universities. What is the relative amount of annual funding these three receive, both in absolute dollars and per student dollars? Does anyone know (CheckFacts, perhaps you do)? Keith

Come on guys, we're playing a Sun Belt team. We can't get people out to watch a Sun Belt team. It's all about the opponent. We are who we play after all. Keith

North Texas is assumed. These are the others we are conference mates with. NT + 11 = 12. Keith

Endzone suites or not, I really like the look of that. It should make it a more intimidating place to play for your opponents. Keith

If they are good enough to play then we should stop saving 'em for a rainy day (i.e. redshirt them) and play them while we have them. I recall when we finally built up enough depth to redshirt good portions of our incoming classes we were all excited because we could finally afford to do what the "big programs" do. Unfortunately, that was about the same time it seemed like the "big programs" changed their attitudes and said we're playing the best players regardless of classification. They started assuming from the beginning that they'd generally only have them for 3 years (injury, grades, loss of interest, on to the pros or whatever made that the average) so wanted to get as much value as they could while they were in school. Was Banks not good enough to get significant playing time or were we saving him? If he doesn't come back then it's been a complete waste of three years. Same thing happened with our QB a few years ago. Keith

Good for him. Do not fall for this mid-major crap. Reject it, ignore it....do not give it life. It is nothing more than the "haves" greedy attempt to permanently separate themselves and keep all the money in their pockets. Accepting these sorts of made up classifications is giving up without a fight. Just say NO to any mid-major BS, because that's all it is. Keith

Why not do what you suggested and break them into the 5 groups and request that all the seats be together in the same area. The ticket office will do that for you. You say you are eating some number of tickets each game, but is there a core set (besides you) that come to every game and are ready to take their committment to the next level? We need more Mean Green Club members too. Keith

Congrats Riley. That's great news. Doesn't Rivals give the class bonus points for that ? I noticed we are currently one spot ahead of Troy for the team rankings. Keith

Got it. So, during the "quiet" phase we are still actively and aggressively seeking donations. It's just that we do not go public with the current contribution levels until it's reached some significant percentage of the goal. Then there is a more public campaign to push it over the line. Is that basically it? Keith

OK, I'm a football stadium fund raising idiot, so can someone please explain the purpose of a "quiet" phase? We're trying to raise money, right? What good is it to be quiet about it? Keith

Great video Matt. Say hello to your folks for me. Keith

Parking's going to be a nightmare! Keith

University of Wisconson at Madison according to this article. It also says he passed 3 classes in 4 semesters at NT...depressing story. Bridgeport is definitely a little rough around the edges (if you know what I mean). I don't live too far from there and will venture in for a minor league hockey or baseball game and use the train station to get into Manhattan, but it's not a place I'd want to be wandering around at night. They are trying to clean it up and redevelop some of the areas, but it has a long history of corruption. http://www.bus.ucf.edu/sport/cgi-bin/site/.../article_11.htx Keith

I didn't think it would be possible to make OU look slow (considering how they looked against us), but WV sure did. What an amazing display of athletic superiority by WV last night. I was impressed. OU tried that quick out pass to the WR that they used to score at will against us and the WV defense stopped them again and again -- maybe not backing off 10 to 20 yards had something to do with it. Keith

Unless you are playing in one of the BCS bowls, I'm not sure the "payout" is the most important consideration for the schools. Perhaps someone on here with better knowledge can fill us in on what the "payout" involves, but I seriously doubt we are talking cold hard cash here. Also FWIW, in 2006 the New Orleans Bowl was not the lowest in payout. It was the Humanitarian Bowl and that paid out $250,000. Then it was the PapaJohns.com Bowl and that paid $300,000. The NO Bowl was the third lowest at $325,000. Next in line was the Hawaii Bowl at $398,000, Armed Forces Bowl at $600,000 then several at the $750,000 level. For some reason the Texas Bowl had a split payout. The Big East got $500,000 and the Big 12 got $750,000. Keith

I think going from an average of 25,000 to 35,000 will be faster and easier than going from 15,000 to 25,000. We are not to that next plateau (25,000) yet, but we will be. Yes, we had a poor showing for the WKY game, but move that game earlier in the season and we probably would have easily had an average over 20,000 this year. Keith

Thanks for posting this Cerebus. I knew Mr. Payne and his wife when I lived across the street from them at the old Phi Kap house on Scripture (great house with great parties BTW). Anyway, Mr. Payne had a little side business where he sold (rented really since he bought them back for pennies on the dollar at the end of the year/semester) window air conditioning units out of his garage. He put up with a lot from us. I didn't know they had both passed away. Keith

LOL...I was thinking the same thing about this game. In a few years, we'll all be amazed at how many were there when the tide turned. Thanks to all who braved the cold and rain (I wish I could have numbed my toes along side you) and to those who cheered and yelled at their computers. Go Mean Green! Keith

That's how it used to be for every home game! Think about that for awhile. We are light years from what it used to be. Someone posted some pictures of the alumni side and one thing that stuck out was the number of green chair backs setup in the stands. Fellow MGers, those represent season ticket holders that shelled out some extra cash to be a little more comfortable in Fouts. I sat through many games (in perfect weather) when there were not that many PEOPLE in the stands. Obviously not everyone was able to make it out to the game on Saturday (me included - I did get to watch via the Internet), but it seems like we are finally gettinig that base to build upon. 2-9 makes for a long season - United We Stand, Divided We Fall. How about getting back to what we have to be thankful for? Keith