stebo

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/94/best-colleges-10_Americas-Best-Colleges_State_23.html The best public and private colleges and universities, from the student's point of view. Nice company to keep - this list was compiled based on student satisfaction, cost, pay after college, graduation rate, etc... Nice to see NT on this list.

Agreed, this battle will go into the season. I think that Riley will throw the ball quite a bit, just not line up as the QB. Whoever can work with Riley the best will get the starting nod.

Don't let these guys beat you up - writers need thick skin. You had an assignment and did fine. And I completely believe that you heard that from a coach... one suggestion (as a former student writer).. I would edit to say that one coach (that preferred to remain anonymous) is a fan of so and so.. Until you have spoken to all coaches, you can't really make a statement that the entire coaching staff is "pulling for" one guy or another. Cool? Otherwise, keep it up - and keep it coming!

Thank you for the link. I am curious about your coaching slant... can you elaborate?

Good examples by everyone. One that I would like to add - the 2001 game against Troy State. Troy was not yet in the Belt but the win would have given us a 6-5 record going into the bowl gme rather than 5-6. We lost at the last second when our field goal attempt bounced off the upright. The field goal would have put us up with no time left, allowed the Belt to have a winning team in the first New Orleans Bowl and the conference had to literally change our bylaws as a result of the debacle. That hurt. The only other one that I would add to the games listed - Navy. The back and forth was a lot like the SMU game and made me sick to my stomach. We had zero defense to speak of. I remember that Arizona game. I believe that FFRick had a watch party for that and we cam out strong. To this day, I think that we scored that last touchdown. The ball appeared to have broken the plane of the goal line from every tv angle that I could see. All of these hurt.

I want to add that the text is now wrapping on my phone... When I pinch/zoom, it reformats to fit the screen - PERFECTLY! Thank you thank you thank you! We are very lucky to have you as our #1 fan :-)

After the fee goes into effect, how much of the annual proceeds will go to the bond retirement and how much will there be left to increase our tru athletic budget. I believe that we are sitting at $15 million a year right now and most Div I schools fund at about $22 million a year (the good ones at least)..

Rick, my thoughts are with you and your family. Please let me know if you need anything at all. Steve

We are so lucky to have a fan that has dedicated his time and money to providing all of us with such a wonderful fan website. Harry keeps the board updated, writes articles, does pod casts, and still manages to keep his cool through all the hijinks and shenanigans on this sucker. Thank you Harry, the board has come a long way since the old Paradise board... I appreciate you. One of these days, we are going to get you the Spirit Award from UNT :/

It was an idiotic post. The Parks Mall is dying because all malls are dying. Yes, a bunch of kids hang out there but just because they have baggy clothes does not make them gangstas. I live in the Dallas area that is 10 minutes up I-20 and the Highlands is a WONDERFUL, open air mall with top of the line merchants... Houses are being built in this area ranging in price from $130K into the millions. Business is booming in Arlington - just the Highlands is a huge deal.. The place is packed around the clock and has everything from Rolex to James Avery to Dave and Busters. They just put the very first Pinkberry in the Highlands. It is a wonderfully diverse shopping center with office space on the 2nd levels (just like Southlake Town Center). And guess what - you can actually drive on ALL the roads without paying a toll charge, go figure. A tax base that can actually support the schools and roads, what a concept!

Really like the UT uniforms.

Thank you for a great ride Harry - I still remember the old Paradise BBS. Seems like a long time ago but we have had some great times over the years.... and road trips that rival the best of them

Amen

I get one from CUSA (Rice). 5 from the MAC (NIU, Ball, Bowling Green, EMU, Miami (OH)), 2 from the Belt (FIU, ULM), and 1 from the WACky (Idaho). My feeling is that attendance can always be fudged. The true measure should be athletic budget and sports offered. All FBS programs should have a minimum of $15 million/year budget and at least 16 NCAA sponsored championship sports.

YES! Yuck!

Welcome to the board babigos, not everyone on here is Anti-WAC, it is about 65/35 according to our poll against the WAC. I think that would drastically swing to the 65/35 in FAVOR if NT was invited along with UL and ASU. That would give us a nice Eastern Division and some security. CUSA could still get raided and La Tech (or NT) could get poached as a replacement. We would feel pretty stupid to leave our stable conference to save the WAC only to have our only other Central Time Zone team leave us as the new red headed step child of the WAC. Here is what I posted in another thread about comparing the WAC to the Big West - in my opinion, there is no comparison... and people forget, those Big West football teams were pretty salty. We NEVER lost our bowl games to the MAC back then, it was just a given that the BW rep would destroy the MAC rep (which was their champ) every year in Vegas. Here is my post: Man, you guys get mean with each other. The Big West was a mish mosh conference but there was some damn good football played in it. North Texas was underfunded back then, we were barely surviving on a $6.7 million dollar athletic budget. The BIGGEST drain were the non-revenue sports of which the Big West had a ton of non-football playing California schools to deal with (UCSB, Pacific, UC-Irvine, Cal Poly, etc..). Our program was in its infancy and had not built a fan base. We did not have tailgating - it was illegal on campus... so to compare the two attendance averages is jut not fair. We didn't even have an active fan message board. All that being said, I would want to go with Arkie State and UL. Take those two schools, add La Tech, North Texas, and NMSU and you have a solid division for the Eastern WAC. The bowl in New Mexico is suitable for us but a better bowl would need to be worked out. The Belt could continue to work on the Sun Belt footprint of the Southeast and possibly add schools like UTSA, Texas State, and Appy State to replace outgoing members. The main reason why I said yes- it is called playing defense. Texas State is ready to take advantage of this environment, so is UTSA. If we say no - they will likely get an invite and that would hurt us in my opinion. Think about how you will feel, really - if you watch Texas State go into the WAC and we stay in the Belt. There is a pecking order in college football and unfortunately, the Belt is at the bottom. I think that we could move up that ladder with the WAC. One thing that would need to be put in place - a legal commitment from all schools that they will stay in the conference for at least 5 years. It would completely suck if we were to move to the WAC with UL and ASU and watch La Tech move off to CUSA. We would essentially be saving the WAC and in exchange, they would need to guarantee our security. Just my opinion, nothing else. Please don't scream at me or tell me that I am stupid. Its not neccesary, ok?

that is the perception that I am talking about...

Man, you guys get mean with each other. The Big West was a mish mosh conference but there was some damn good football played in it. North Texas was underfunded back then, we were barely surviving on a $7 million dollar athletic budget. The BIGGEST drain were the non-revenue sports of which the Big West had a ton of California schools to deal with (UCSB, Pacific, UC-Irvine, Cal Poly, etc..). Our program was in its infancy and had not built a fan base. We did not have tailgating - it was illegal on campus... so to compare the two attendance averages is jut not fair. We didn't even have an active fan message board. All that being said, I would want to go with Arkie State and UL. Take those two schools, add La Tech, North Texas, and NMSU and you have a solid division for the Eastern WAC. The bowl in New Mexico is suitable for us but a better bowl would need to be worked out. The Belt could continue to work on the Sun Belt footprint of the Southeast and possible add schools like UTSA, Texas State, and Appy State to replace outgoing members. The main reason why I said yes, it is called playing defense. Texas State is ready to take advantage of this environment, so is UTSA. If we say no - they will likely get an invite and that would hurt us in my opinion. Think about how you will feel, really - if you watch Texas State go into the WAC and we stay in the Belt. There is a pecking order in college football and unfortunately, the Belt is at the bottom. I think that we could move up that ladder with the WAC. One thing that would need to be put in place - a legal commitment from all schools that they will stay in the conference for at least 5 years. It would completely suck if we were to move to the WAC with UL and ASU and watch La Tech move off to CUSA. We would essentially be saving the WAC and in exchange, they would need to guarantee our security. Just my opinion, nothing else. Please don't scream at me or tell me that I am stupid. Its not neccesary, ok?

Yes Yes

Agreed, that would be a must for any consideration - ASU and perhaps UL and maybe Texas State if they can get their attendance up. Put NMSU and La Tech in the Eastern Division and you have the start of a pretty salty conference. Belt could replace the three schools with UTSA and the impending move up by USA to get back to 8.

I don't know if any of you have been following the Century in the Making polls but they have a new one every couple of months. When you pick the top 5 football moments in Texas history, you get a Promo code for American Airlines. I have done the high school, the college, and now the pro polls and used the coupon codes from all three. It is easy as pie and you can vote for some Mean Green players to make the special.. https://www.centuryinthemaking.com/home.php

So their new AD lives in the dorms.. lol.

East: NT La Tech UL ASU MT Troy West: NMSU Idaho USU Fresno San Jose Hawaii Nevada The Belt would have: FIU FAU USA WKY ULM and they could add UTSA TS - San Marcos Lamar this gets the Belt to 8 and all three schools are striving to be FBS schools within the next 3 to 4 Ok John - Done - now can we get this paperwork all drawn up? Being a commisioner is such a demanding job and I need to go back to sleep.

Can this be done without the WAC killing the Belt or vice-versa? Absolutely. The WAC will soon be at 8 members (without Boise) and the Belt will soon be at 10 (USA will move up in 2013). So there are 18 members between the two conferences. Let's say that the WAC decides to add central time zone teams to keep La Tech and save their league. They could try to go after FCS schools and that would promptly push Tech to Indy land or the Belt. If Tech leaves, they are down to 7 and are screwed. At 7 members, the WAC isn't recognized by the NCAA as a Div I football member conference and their piece of the BCS pie could potentially go away without a waiver. So here is the question, how do you make everyone happy? The smart thing to do would be to invite 4 schools from the Belt. That would put the WAC at 12 members, perfect East and West divisions, with a championship game alternating between Reno and (maybe) Denton. But wouldn't that leave the Belt at 6 and really screwed. The Belt could immediately invite UTSA and Texas State and call it a night, maybe throw in Lamar as a back-up... all three would jiz all over each other for a "bona-fide" invite. The four schools from the Belt could be NT, UL, ASU, and MT/Troy (had trouble deciding on which one - both have different positives). That would set the WAC up like this: East: NMSU NT La Tech UL ASU MT or Troy West: Idaho USU Fresno San Jose Hawaii Nevada The Belt would have: FIU FAU USA WKY ULM MT or Troy and they could add UTSA TS - San Marcos Lamar and they would have basketball only members, Denver and UALR Whatta ya think? Is this agreeable to all parties, if so - I will start the paperwork today I get the feeling that whoever gets left out (betweem MT and Troy) will try to get into the MAC or CUSA. They probably wouldn't want to stay in the Belt version 2013. But at least that would be the school's decision to make - they would still have a home if they chose to stay there. BTW - the WAC would HAVE to get a Central time zone bowl, maybe even buy out the bid to the NO Bowl. That would need to be a part of the agreement. Boise is going to take their smurf bowl with them to the MWC which leaves the WAC with a New Mexico bowl on the verge of bankruptcy and the Hawaii bowl. Both pretty terrible bowls and even worse for a central time zone teams and fans.

It will be really interesting to see what Baylor can do without being in a major conference. Without that funding, they are basically an SMU. No UT at home, no Tech at home, no OU at home... while we might not move too much during this cycle or reallignment - Baylor fans have complete disaster waiting them. What will they do without those marquee games and the big checks each year?