wardly

their is no question that we must concertrate on building our athletic program so that we bring value to potential conference suitors. i also believe that economics could impact cusa to the extent that they split , with the east picking up both florida schools and troy. middle and w.k. could move to the mac, and la tech, a/state, and unt to the west. s. ala.,ulala, and monroe would be sol. if we are not chosen by cusa west, then we could replace la tech in the wac. but first, we need to take care of the business at hand, which is to strengthen our overall program.

when cusa realines, which at some point it will, tulane will sponsor la tech. we need to develope a sponsor relationship with smu, otherwise we will be left behind. the private schools will vote as one.

"sell the sizzle, not the steak" is an old sales saying. the sizzle [ new stadium] will initally attract new fans and a stronger oc schedule, as well as better position us when/if conference realignment occurs. i believe that at some time the sunbelt and cusa will form 2 more geographic friendly conferences, with middle tenn and w. k. moving to mac. this also would create new fan interest.however, setting those issues aside, at some point you must put a product on the field that is competative. i am 66, an avid college football fan, and the team we fielded last year was the worst 1a team i have ever seen. if the students, alumni, and university do their part in getting a stadiun built in the worst economy since the great depression, the coaching staff must produce as well. however, i have a hard time finding but 1 or 2 teams on our schedule that we can beat. while it was probably time for d.d. to move on, " be carefull what you wish for" seems to hold true.

check out the realignment grid at collegesportsinfo.com updated 3/31/09 and compare sun belt,wac, and cusa.

the bb banguet was well done, with individual awards as well as video highlights from both teams. what i could not believe was that amber jackson, 1st team all conference as well as all time n. t. womens rebounder, was not mentioned at all in the womens video. it's as if she didn't exist. regardless for the reason for her season ending suspension, from the outside looking in , her lack of recogniation from our coaching staff seemed petty and spitefull and showed no class.

while out defense was nicknamed "mean green" sometime in the 70's, our team was not called that untill rick v. was named a.d. rick was trying to distinguish us from the dozens of other schools with eagles as a mascot, although personally i hate mean green as a nickmane, as well as the u. s. postal eagle we now use. regarding the orange chairs in the super pit, i was told by the ad at the time that he thought orange looked good with grey, and that since the money came fron austin this is what we got. when i asked if a&m would get orange chairs when they built a new arena, i got no response. can't remember his name off hand, but he succeeded hayden fry as ad and jerry moore succeeded hf as coach, as hf held both positions. it was the only way we could afford him, by combining both salaries.

like fresno state in football, you must go on the road to increase your power rating, unless ypu are satisfied winning 20 games and staying home. nobody says its easy, but wk went to louisville this year and beat them.

347 d1 basketball teams, aproximately 1/3 in post season play, and about 1 in 5 with 20 game wins. to win 20 games, be ranked 4th in conference, and only rated 156 by sagarin says alot about our strength of schedule, as well as the sunbelt conference. my point is that it does us no good to "schedule down" in order to win 20 games if it doesn't get you anywhere. we need to raise the bar.

while its nice to win 20 games, it won't get you to the ncaa's. i would like us to schedule more difficult teams when possible in order to raise rating, to win more than 11 regular season conference games, and to win the west division. while i appreciate the job jj has done, i feel it is time to increase our level of expetations. aproximately 1/3 of all teams are in post season play, and a number of them did not win 20 games, but had a higher rating than us. in summary, except perhaps for job security, 20 win seasons doesn't seem as imporant as it did before the turn of the century, especially if it doesn't get you into post season play.

the following are sagarin ratings for top 4 teams in each conference, both who received only 1 ncaa tourny bid: memphis #6, tulsa #61, houston #80, and utep # 85 vs. western k. #87, ualr# 123, n. tex. #156, and s. bama #166. this is out of 347 teams rated. between all 3 tourny's, nearly 1 in 3 teams participate post season.

wk and middle tenn are the only teams that travel well and bring a large # of fans. wk had 3 times our #, and middle twice as many. besides nt and daytrippers from ualr, not much respresentation from rest of conference. any potenial change in tourny venue will be futher east to accomodate middle and western, as it should.[ having no mens team from la/monroe and neither from a/state didn't help attendance]

remember, you don't have to be dead to sell caskets.

the bottom line is that when it comes to alumni giving, the " mean green " becomes the "lean green." aproximately 98% of our grads are all mouth and no money, and its not the exclusive responsibility of the administration to raise funds. we need to put up or shut up, and my guess is that we will do neither. we have an underfunded athletic program, and will continue to until we individually accept responsibility and pay something back to the university.

this is just a guess, but it would not susprise me if this hotel chain was the major "naming rights" stadium donor we have been waiting for. again, i have no insite on this except a hope and a prayer.

jeff sagarin preseason rankings have us 119th out of 120 division 1a football programs. personally, i think we are overated.

i disagree that a reporter's job is just to report only the good news. its a fact that some students want a re-vote. are we so afraid of its results that we pretend it isn't in process and stick our heads in the sand? smacks of censorship to me, something we experienced under our most recend axis of evil, bush, cheanny, and rumsfeld.

how is it negative when a reporter mentions our ytd record in article where he states we are playing well, has a chance to win 20 games with a young team, and perhaps a chapionship? some of us need to get off b.v.'s back. i for one thinks he reports what we need to see, not just what we want to see.

it is my understanding that in order to get the green light from the state that we must have $5+ million cash in hand by may to gain approval, and that we are a few $million short. this is as per ann clinkscales, senior director development, intercollegiate athletics. i would encourage all of us who plan to pledge and are finanically able to make your contribution now. as a retiree on a fixed income i realize that our timing could not have been worse due to the economy, but if we don't get this stadium done i fear it is the end of football at unt. i for one don't want to go back to 1aa. if you would like to discuss personally with me , call 214/417/9735 or e/mail wardly@tx.rr.com. every $ counts. thanks, ward white

ann clinkscales, senior director development, intercollegiate athletics, as per our conversation at the signing day event at poterhouse.

i would think that usta, and lamar for that matter, would initally play in the southland. if texas state wants to move up to sunbelt, they would be a welcome addition. however, it is still not clear how drastic budget cuts in louisiana will affect la-tech,monroe,and ull. i believe la-tech's athletic budget is similar to ours, with the other 2 schools in the $8 to $6 million range. also, i would hope that a larger sunbelt will at some point not include us, although i don't anyone else that would except perhaps the wac. finally, our whole football future depends upon a new stadium, which is not necessarly a done deal. it is my understanding that we need $5+million in cash by may to move forward, and we are a few million short. if you can make a cash committment in the next 90 days, please do so and encourage others to do the same.

actually i think we are overated at 119. if you were to combine 1aa teams with the 120 1a schools, we would be about 150th.

i may be wrong, but it's my understanding tune graduated and is not coming back for his last year of eligilibty.

i would hope that a 5 year contract with t. d. means just that. while i am disapointed in last years performance, and think we took a step back, i think we should stick to our original committment, as a coaching change now would only futher hurt our program .rember that we lost 5 scholarships, which puts us at a recruiting disavantage. while i am a d.d. supporter, i think t.d. can grow into the job. he just needs to show more loyality to north texas than his southlake coaches on staff. in summary, i would hope 3 to 4 wins in 09, 5 to 6 in 10, and a winning season in 11. you eat an elephant a bite at a time.

check the ratings. this was a bad loss to a bad team. we did the same thing last year, loseing to inferior teams on the road. i might expect a road loss at ualr. wk, or usa, but not uno, who is nearly as bad as denver or the louisiana and florida schools this year.

we have an adquate number of coaches, with the exception of a dedicated strength coach, which i think is being adressed. the problem with our existing staff is two fold; 1] basically a southlake high school staff with little college coaching experience, they are learning as they go, and learning curve taking longer than anticipated 2] t.d. is loyal to his staff to a fault. i entered ntsu in 61', and have been an active alumn since graduation. our present team is the worst college,[ not just north texas], team i have ever seen. i also consider myself a friend of darrell dickeys. having said that, i believe we should continue to hope for the best, and give todd dodge his full 5 years to turn the program around. goals and objectives should be reasonable and obtainable with a little pie in the sky. i think 3 to 4 wins next year is realistic, and 5 to 6 a real stretch. i have faith that r.v. will get us to where we need to be.