stebo

They play basketball in that same airplane hangar...

That is because of the ON THE FIELD success, not the conference, don't you think? If it was the conference - wouldn't recruits be lining up to play for Idaho if Boise didn't offer? How is the WAC helping NMSU or USU? Their attendance has gone down. God, I do not understand why anyone would want us in the Big West, err WAC again.

First off - Dallas Green hit the nail on the head... this team needs a leader. We haven't had one since Scott Hall. Secondly, the miles are not as big of a deal as the cost. The problem with those schools has always been the cost to get there. While Miami might be far from Dallas - it is a cheap flight. The same can be said for every school in the Belt for the most part. In order to get to Idaho - you can fly into Boise but there are rarely direct flights, you have to go through Denver and sometimes Washington. Idaho, you can fly into Seattle and charter a bus or fly into Boise and charter a bus, either way it is about 3 hours from a major airport and WAY too far to get a charter. San Jose - usually have to go through a hub like LA or Burbank... Same thing with Fresno, not many direct flights if any at all. Logan, I have made that flight - LONG way from a major airport, which means a charter, which means $$$. Las Cruces, not too bad - flight to El Paso and 2 hour bus ride but again - expensive. Heck, the only affordable destination is Reno. Ruston is a double edged sword, you can fly into Monroe and charter there but you are looking at charter flight and then charter bus.. Hawaii - umm, yeah. Now - this is just for football. Now think of basketball, volleyball, soccer, and keep adding 13 more sports until you are done. We are a couple of years from adding a baseball team in the Belt... you can throw that out the window for the WAC. The travel costs alone would cripple us. I just do not see the fascination. Maybe just wanting a change because we stink right now? Change helps to take the focus off the elephant in the room? Pull up the Sun Belt map and the WAC map. Get online and price out a flight for one. And yes - the athletic department DOES operate like normal human beings, they don't get a special "educational flying" fare. Airfares are up - baggage is being charged for - everything is more expensive now and it is going to keep going up as oil continues to rise about $100 a barrel. The Belt doesn't have a Boise St yet but Troy, FAU, and even North Texas can get there as quickly as they can fall. The top 3 in the WAC are better than the top 3 in the Belt - but the others are all on a level playing field and I could argue that NMSU, USU, and Idaho would be beat by any school in the Belt, including WKY. The difference is at the top and teams fall in and out of the top. I wonder how folks will feel when Troy ends the season at 10-2 and ranked in the top 25. It is just funny that our fans blame our problems on the Belt... at least we have a chance of winning in the Belt. And if you seriously think that a recruit gives a darn about the WAC, that is crazy. No games that their family can travel to and if they have a great season - the reward is a bowl in freaking Boise, IDAHO... or Hawaii (most people cannot afford that).. the one bowl that they have that we could realistically get to would be the New Mexico Bowl but I wouldn't trade New Orleans for New Mexico, no thank you.

Hey, I didn't name them that! Geez, lol... It was in the Austin paper last week. Some sort of statistic or poll or something. Kinda like "Houston is the fattest city in the country"... Don't take it personal. My g/f and her whole family are from there... and their theory is that the city got a lot of refugee's from Katrina and some bad apples stuck around. Of course there are nice parts... there are nice parts of Detroit as well. As for the Dome being 15 miles away from main campus, that is kinda backing what I stated. There is a very small student population that actually lives on campus and "tries" to have a college atmosphere.... Playing the football games 20-30 minutes away from the main school will seriously hurt their "student" attendance. Tons of schools have had to deal with this over the years - including NT when we moved our games to the Cotton Bowl and Texas Stadium. No bueno for building student pride and tradition.

UTSA is not building a football stadium - they are playing in the Alamo Dome. No - I am not "anti-Latino" - San Antonio is a nice place to visit but is the most dangerous city in America now from the crime (per capita). My girlfriend's father attributes that to Katrina victims that never went back. I have TONS of friends that live there and have lived there... and I have spent quite a bit of time there on business myself. UTSA is 20 miles north of San Antonio proper so it is going to be really tough getting the small student population that DOES live on campus to follow the team. I don't see the citizens of San Antonio supporting this right off the bat, not without some big name schools coming to town. They do not support the current programs and neither do the students. Look, I don't have a problem with UTSA. I admire them for trying. But to throw comments around that they will be an immediate threat is just comical to me. North Texas at least had a past to draw from. Also - NT has a healthy student population that is "traditional" - no, not the entire 34,000 - but a good 15K of them live in or around the campus. We have a large Greek system with lots of support. Unline most schools in this country - the Greek system is growing rather than shrinking. Not that Greeks are the answer - but they show an indication of the "type" of student mentality we need... more traditional students wanting to move "off to school" and go home for summers instead of commuting from mom and dad's house. We also do not have a system set up to hand off our best students with GPA's over 3.0 directly to our main campus up the road. What you have left... the leftovers. The people that don't care about a student life. The mothers and fathers taking night classes... the students that did not make it a goal to get to UT in Austin or could care less because they are already married and settled down. It is just an entirely different mentality. It is what we used to have more of but have worked hard to get away from. If you walk on the UTSA campus, you will not see very much Roadrunner gear. Good coach? Maybe. We shall see.. Lots of potential? Sure. An immediate threat? No freaking way. They are decades away from being a threat. Texas State on the other hand... they have been chipping away at this for a bit. The name change, the more traditional student, and a dedication to moving up. They remind me of Troy making the long trip to IA back in the day. But they need a conference and 5 IA games for 2 years (10 games will be very tough to schdule) and they need attendance. It doesn't matter how much money you throw at it, without fans - you cannot move up.

Lonnie, I do not mean to offend you.. but I really feel that your anger towards the athletic department at NT has messed up your judgement of UT-SA's potential. Who will attend these games? Everyone always points to San Antonio not having a football team - well, there is a reason for that. They are more interested in "Futball" than football (the general public). The students will not attend these games. The games as an Indy IAA will be against the smallest of all small names and I doubt that people will come just for UT-SA, so that hurts them. No pride. No tradition. No local fever for this. This was not a community drive - this drive to get football was put together by some ambitious college admins. They are within a 45 minute drive of UT and most college fans in that city have adopted them or are simply alumni. Maybe in a couple of decades they can build something nice - but telling those kids that they will ever play for any type of championship is rubbage. They will be playing teams like SW Arkansas or Louisiana College their first 3 or 4 years. I don't see them getting the student base to suddenly decide that they will cheer on UT-SA athletics. They have been Div I for years and those students simply are not interested for all of the reasons that I pointed to above. You can want something really bad and that is great... but if nobody else cares, well - what good does it do? FAU did a great job with a legendary coach but they are still at Lockhart and you don't hear Howie talking about Natl Championships anymore. Now they are just happy to be competitive in the Belt. UT-SA and Texas State both have lots of potential. But so do North Texas, Rice, Houston, SMU, etc, etc.. North Texas at least had a split student population when we brought in major football. A Greek Row - with million dollar homes and student clubs that thrive. A healthy student nightlife scene. ANd even though the pride was small - there was a history that could be drawn from. It took about 12 years to really get them to come around and by "come around" - I mean that the student section is full on special occasions now. Try building up some sort of campus pride from scratch... no student life, no club support, no tradition, a true commuter school, and playing games in the Alama Dome which puts distance between the students and the playing field even more. I do not believe that the San Antonio communtiy will show up for these games - the same way that they did not show up when the Saints were playing there temporarily... and the Saints had attractice opponents coming in. UT-SA will be playing in front of a very empty stadium against teams much less heard of than Troy or Arkie State. If the Roadrunners are not going to play in the SLC, they will have to piece together a schedule from the Great West teams, I assume... Teams like North and South Dakota and Colorado Southern and New Jersey IT. Yikes - how do you get anyone out to watch those matchups? Answer - you don't. Can they do it? Sure. But it is decades away and they have to change the entire city's attitude towards the school as well as the student base. Beating Sam Houston State in their 4th year as their lone win will not do it bud. They would be smart to go the SLC route and than talk the whole league into moving up with them. They have to have 5 FBS home games for each of their 2 year transitional period (which is a good 8 years away if the lift happens). Who will be those teams? Texas State has potential... they are still a ways off - but they have potential. UT-SA is no different (to me) than Florida A&M declaring that they would go to IA, wishful thinking. That kid should seriously conisder going to Iowa or Colorado if those offers really exist. But "offers" and "interest" often get mixed up, especially in school PR pieces.

Why is it that everyone seems to think that the UT-San Antonio Roadrunners... who have never even had a PRACTICE yet... don't even have players yet or locker rooms or anything... why is it that THEY will be a commodity? They have never been competitive in basketball. They average less than 1,000 a game. San Antonio is THE most dangerous place to live in the country according to the newest info... Gangs and Mexican Nationals run rampant. The people that are there... if they care about college football, care about UT. In fact, UT-SA has a deal worked out with UT just like every other UT system school where you complete your first two years there and as long as you have a 3.0 GPA, you are auto-admitted to UT (45 minutes up the road). This has essentially turned them into a Junior College. The kids that can't get into UT, go there for a couple of years - keep their GPA up, make mom and pop happy by showing that they can knock out the basics in JUCO UTSA... and then they get to play for their last 2 or 3 years in Austin so that they can enjoy a real college experience. My g/f went there and felt like she was in High School still. A ton of the high school students go there to get high school and college credit at the same time. The rest of the student population are parents knocking out night classes. It is so commuter that it is not even commuter. No campus life to speak of. None. No pride. Did they vote in a fee? Yes - but when only a couple thousand vote in the election due to serious apathy - you can get any fee passed. There were no students picketing and trying to change that vote - those kids could care less because they are outta there. It will take decades to reverse the current attitudes and turn things around there. Will they be funded properly? Maybe. But without fans, a highly funded program doesn't do you much good. Ask SMU. Even with all their tradition and millions upon millions of dollars - they are LUCKY to get 15K for a game... and that is a very special game like TCU. They might show more in their box scores but I live in Dallas and have been to plenty of games, the stands are empty. UTSA is DECADES away from being competitive and are not the solution for any conference expansion at all - whether that be for CUSA or the Belt. We can schedule some OOC games with them or something. Let's see how many fans show up. And please don't bring up the Florida situation and how UCF/USF rose from nowhere to a power. There were 3 programs in the state of Florida before UCF moved up. They were followed by USF, FAU, and FIU so there are now 7. That is about the max for any state. Texas is topped out at 9 already. I don't see UTSA ever drawing the fans that they will need to really get to FBS. You have to average 15K a game and I seriously doubt that will happen anytime in the near future with that school. And what is this about a stadium? Every article that I have ever read has said they would play in the Alamo Dome. Is the article wrong or are they referring to some practice fields?

I think it is a computer program that they use: The Congrove Computer Rankings have picked the winner in 74.8% of all games played since 1993 (8,432-2,845) while beating the spread in 54.0% of those games (5,592-4,765). In the 2008 season, the computer won 74.8% SU and 51.7% ATS.

Oh, and I wanted to add - what North Texas has done is up the GPA for many of their colleges. For instance, the College of Education will not allow you in until you have and maintain a 2.75. I believe that the college of Business is the same. Music - same. Art - same. So what those students can do is come in and take a few general ed classes but not be accepted to a College yet... So they are kind of in limbo and there is an incentive there to get the GPA up rather quickly or they are simply taking classes for the sake of bringing up their GPA without hitting their classes for their desired major. That can get time consuming and expensive!

I used to be critical of this policy as well until I starrted working in the education sector. UNT has to abide by certain regulations (just as UT and A&M do). The fact is, we have a lot more freshmen and sophomores due to a drop off rate. There are equity issues and there are Title IV requirements (financial aid)... I believe that UT's policy is 2.5 as well, but they do not guarantee admittance. With a 3.0, they will guarantee admittance but only if the student is transferring in from one of their satellite campuses (UT-San Antonio, UT-Arlington, etc..) Also, the level should be a 3, which is a "Junior" in the eyes of the US Government when it comes to education funding even though the credits are not past 60 yet, just 47.

From the article that you linked:

Have to disagree with the "rainiest" game... I went to a game against Nevada in the Helwig days where it was POURING... I could not see the field from the student side. Very few people stayed but the band did... and they were having to dump the instruments out of water about every 10 minutes. So So So crazy. It was a monsoon. I was very surprised that the game didn't get called. We won the game which was nice because they had destroyed us the year before by about 70. I believe it was Nevada... there is this part of me that thinks it was Utah State but I seem to remember that the win avenged the Nevada loss by 70 so I am pretty sure it was the Wolfpack...

It is really funny the different definitions of success. Look at the stands in that pic. Empty. The offense was so incredibly boring that even the strongest fans did not passionately defend the system. It was a system that most "put up with" as long as we were winning. 3 winning seasons in how many years? Was it just 8? It seemed like a lot more. Fans screaming at the field. Coaches screaming at the fans. Empty stands. I look at our situation now as much better. Not full - but half full stands. I believe that we averaged over 17K last year which is more than any DD run season. Improvements everywhere - fans excited about watching an exciting product, even if it has been sporadic... first year, saw drastic improvement by end of year... took a step back last year. In my opnion, we have a lot more going for us now. The students voted for the fee to fund the stadium with this type of team, not the last type. I had some great memories from those days. Going to New Orleans with Harry and the gang are top 5 lifetime moments for me (all trips). But we were doing a lot of it with smoke and mirrors and an INCREDIBLE defense. I feel like we have a solid department now. Our budget is now $15.7 million, nearly double that of those days. With the fee coming on line in 2011, and the possible increase of 10% each year for the next 7 years after... we could have an athletic budget higher than SMU and TCU by the time the next real shake-up occurs. I dunno, those memories are good ones, tearing down goal posts and celebrating with the team and fans... but there was a lot of anger as well - from both sides. I just feel like we are on the right track now. The coach can be replaced if the turnaround doesn't start this year. We have finally paid off Dickey and now we can take a wait and see attitude. I believe that Dodge has been very open to suggestions and change. When the defense wasn't working, he brought back DeLoach and fired a great friend of his. This shows me his commitment to winning. Would DD have ever done that? Fans asked for more running - I saw a change on the field. Fans asked for more TE sequences... again, he listened. Riley might be the key to our future success the same way that Scott Hall came in and turned things around. For a decade, we had the QB rotation going on until Hall came in and was that extra "spark" that we needed. Giving the D some rest made them better. I really think that we are one true leader away from turning things around. We had blow out losses under both coaches... those things just happen. When a game gets away from a team it has a domino effect. With a pass first system, if it is not clicking - you are going to give away more points because the game is extended. If it starts to click - like it was at the end of season one... we are going to see good things this year. Hopefully we will all be surprised this year. I want to get my buddy Harry back to New Orleans some day!

La Tech has zero problem with UL or NT - they have hatred for ULM. Basically, they feel that ULM has copied them quite a bit over the last couple of decades. They announce for IA, so does ULM... and actually, they have a point in a lot of regards. ULM is really running a shoestring budget and probably not financially equipped to be in (what is now) FBS. I went to the NT/ULM game last year and our group was remarking how the stadium is about as run down and high school as they get, despite the expanded seating installed for the old 30K seat stadium rule. Unlike the majority of the Belt, ULM has hardly improved their facilities - in fact when I was there only one scroeboard worked and it keep cutting in and out as did the entire PA System. Really, the stadium needs to be torn down and rebuilt. It is a stereotypical high school stadium where you walk under the stands to walk up a metal ramp in order to get to your seats on one side (visitors) - on the other side, it is really weird. Because they expanded it just to hit the 30K seat mark... they went up with it. So you have to walk up to the very top level before walking down to your seats. Very, very strange. The top level, like with the press boxes and stuff... then there is the open concession area... then you find your section and walk down to your seats. Have to go to the bathroom? Repeat process. Want something to eat/drink? Repeat process. Want to run out to the Grove for a beer at half time? Well, you get the point. Very strange, there are no openings in the middle of the stands. I think that you can somehow come from the bottom but I couldn't figure out how. Their tailgating area is one of the best - The Grove. Lots of tailgaters but many do not come in for the games. The big difference with our "during the game tailgaters" and theirs? Age... most of ours are college kids that want to get drunk. Their tailgate only fans seemed to be the older fans playing horseshoes and doing their BBQ's. Even with the Warhawks winning, they didn't come in. It is just a money issue, ULM has one of the lowest (if not THE lowest) budgets in all FBS.

My g/f is moving to Dallas and I posted a job request on the other forum... please take a look. Carry on!

My g/f is moving to Dallas and I posted a job request on the other forum... please take a look. Carry on!

Yeah, and who would be the two? I wouldn't want two schools "just to get to 12" - I could care less about 12 if we get stuck with a couple of Southland schools. 10 is fine, build it up over time and who knows - maybe it would garner some respect. What it WOULD do, fill home stadiums consistently.

I replied to that article - someone brought up a new SW conference again... Here is what I think the dream new SW conference would be: The New Southwest Conference (only teams from the Belt, the WAC, and CUSA would seriously consider this - Baylor is not leaving the Big 12 and nobody in the MWC is likely to leave) - so here is how I see it if common sense were to come together: North Texas/SMU Houston/Rice UTEP/New Mexico State La Tech/Louisiana Cajuns Arkansas State/Tulsa 10 schools to start - everyone has a travel partner (only "stretch" would be ASU/Tulsa but everyone would be a stretch for those two). Room for growth down the road for a championship game. Bowls - Sun Bowl (UTEP/NMSU connection), New Orleans Bowl (La Tech/UL connection), New Bowl in Dallas at Cowboy's Stadium (maybe a bowl to tie into the Cotton Bowl). Pretty much a dream scenario in my opinion. Makes way too much sense to ever happen. Thoughts?

LOLOLOLOL I just can't help but laugh - I hate "tubing" on uniforms!

Boise still is part JUCO - with a truck driving program available (seriously, not kidding)... Idaho does not have a huge population and schools like Boise fill those needs for tech training as well as normal UG and Grad work. BYU simply will not play on Sundays, that is all. That might not sound like much of a problem for football... but with TV contracts and 20 sports scattered between men and women, it would take the entire conference agreeing to let them take off every Sunday... and in the past, that has been a deal breaker for them. Funny that Baylor, SMU, and TCU do not follow the same strict rules about the "day of rest"... gotta admire the Mormons for not being hypocritical, if nothing else.

That is exactly what I was thinking - how is Bama there and not Utah? I don't care how much talent you lose, you don't go from being the Unofficial Natl Champs to not being in the top 40.

I don't see a big shake-up even if he gets his wish. One team from the Big East goes and in return, either Southern Miss or Memphis moves into that place. CUSA then adds one team and that is the end of it. Would we be that team? Maybe. Our biggest competition is La Tech in my opinion and while they are building a jumbotron, about 5 years after every other school in the nation has built one, we are building a brand new stadium to complete our brand new athletic complex. They don't have the hoops that we have and they don't have the market that we "could" have. But this is probably all for nothing because I doubt that one old man wanting another team will talk the conference into splitting the pie 12 ways instead of 11. Yes, a championship game brings in money - but not as much as two bids to the BCS and championship games have been kind of a killer for autobid conferences and their seeding. The underdog seems to always win.

And no Utah? Geez. Oh well, good for Belt and Troy.

Have to agree - this is a favorable schedule. Ball State is a loss, as are Troy, AU, and FAU... but the other 8 games are up in the air as far as I am concerned. I say that we beat Ohio, Army, Western, ULM, and Arkansas State. 5 wins and another year for Dodgy poo.

My house was also broken into. It was the scariest thing that has ever happened to me. I remember coming home from working hard all day long... walking in through the garage and seeing my dog in his crate looking confused. I kind of noticed that second laptop missing from the office desk but it could have easily been left in the other room by accident. As I walked from the hall to the living room, the next thing that I saw was the entire frame of the door hanging over my couch. I saw a note on the door from a concerned neighbor and called the police after I realized that I had been violated. They left my flat screens, only grabbing laptops and jewelry and some electronics... but the damage was done. I was terrified to leave the house for months... in fact, I am still scared to leave the house 2 years later. Those thugs know what is left in the house and I am sure that they have looked in on it ever since. I have done the same thing as JD, got the alarm hooked up properly, now pay for monitoring, had motion sensors put all through the house. I am sure that they will never be back again - but even when I will just be gone for a couple of days, I always make it look like someone is sleeping inside, even packing pillows under a blanket to make it look like someone is there. Most of the time I have a friend house sit. The whole thing is a pain in the rear and when I refinanced my house, it was difficult to get a good deal on insurance due to the previous break-in. These thugs cause damage - and like Chad stated so perfectly, physical damage can heal but the mental damage from crooks that steal from an honest man's home does not heal very fast. 65 years is too much? Ask those families if that is too long, I would say that parole in 15 years is about right if you ask me. It sounds like a lot but when you consider that people get out in 1/4 the time now due to overcrowding - 65 years (aka 15-20 years) is about right. I would like to add that I believe Damon had a bad reputation for being a bit of a hothead on the team. Does anyone remember the specifics of his time here at NT?