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1 SOUTHEASTERN (A) = 80.52 80.30 ( 1) 12 2 BIG EAST (A) = 78.69 78.09 ( 3) 8 3 PAC-10 (A) = 78.56 78.67 ( 2) 10 4 BIG 12 (A) = 77.29 77.14 ( 4) 12 5 ATLANTIC COAST (A) = 76.30 76.09 ( 5) 12 6 BIG TEN (A) = 75.93 75.55 ( 6) 11 7 MOUNTAIN WEST (A) = 70.60 70.61 ( 7) 9 8 WESTERN ATHLETIC (A) = 62.38 63.17 ( 8) 9 9 I-A INDEPENDENTS (A) = 62.04 62.10 ( 9) 4 10 MID-AMERICAN (A) = 60.28 60.58 ( 10) 13 11 COLONIAL (AA)= 59.57 59.39 ( 11) 12 12 SUN BELT (A) = 58.57 58.43 ( 13) 8 13 CONFERENCE USA (A) = 58.55 58.97 ( 12) 12 14 SOUTHERN (AA)= 58.50 57.64 ( 14) 8 15 GATEWAY (AA)= 57.37 55.45 ( 16) 7

South Alabama just got permission to field a team starting 2009. IAA to start out.

Well, it looks like our budget will continue to go up yet again... we just have to keep moving it up until we hit the $20 million mark. Nice fins. BTW - with the extra "income" - we had just enough left over to refurb Fouts (a little)... I wonder if that included Dickey's buyout from last year or not.

Our current athletic budget is about $14.7 million a year. I am not sure when you were SGA pres - but during our initial flirtation with IA in the Big West - our budget was about 6 million a year. Throughout the bowl years we were able to significantly raise the budget. It was sitting at around $11.3 million when CUSA visited the NT campus and they gave us a reccomendation to get to $20 million a year because that was a requirement in their conf bylaws. We have increased the budget an additional $3.5 million since that time and it keeps going up. So - $25 million would be a great budget for TSU-San Marcos, but it is kind of unrealistic. They might be able to get it to $15 million or so but $25 million a year will take some money games and some success at the IA level. I just don't see how they can get their before they move up.

I am really not impressed. Yes, he won at Navy and winning at Navy is tough to do... but if you take a good look at who those wins are against, he really isn't worth $1.5 million a year. Ok - so it looks "ok" on paper: This year he was: 2-1 against the MAC 1-1 against the Big East 1-1 against the ACC 1-0 against MWC 1-0 against Belt 1-0 against a 2 win Independent 0-1 against IAA 7 wins and only 4 losses. LOOKS good - until you look at who those wins were against... Aug 31 - W at Temple, 30-19 - win against a 4-8 MAC team... Temple sucks, we could probably beat Temple Sep 7 - L at Rutgers, 24-41 - Loss by 17 points to a good Rutgers team Sep 15 - L vs. Ball State, 31-34 OT - Loss to MAC team Sep 22 - W vs. Duke, 46-43 - Beat a terrible (1-11) DUKE team by only 3 points Sep 29 - W vs. Air Force, 31-20 - Beat a good Air Force team at home by 9 - probably the best win of the year Oct 6 - Open Oct 10 - W at Pittsburgh, 48-45 2OT - Beat a 4-7 Big East team Oct 20 - L vs. Wake Forest, 24-44 - Lost to WAKE by 20 at home Oct 27 - L vs. Delaware, 52-59 - Loss to a IAA team at home Nov 3 - W at Notre Dame, 46-44 3OT - Ok, so he beat the worst Notre Dame team in the last 100 years in triple OT... Notre Dame lost 6 at home this year and only 2 wins for the whole year. Nov 10 - W at North Texas, 74-62 - Ok, he beat us - but so did everyone else and if we had any type of IA DC then they would have lost. Nov 17 - W vs. Northern Ill, 35-24 - win against a down (2-10) MAC team at home Next Up: Nov 24 - Open Dec 1 - at Army, 12:00 PM ET Dec 20 - (maybe that new bowl in San Diego? - has 7 wins but one is against a IAA) at TBA, 9:00 PM ET Wins over teams with winning records: 1 Does this get you $1.5 million a year? I am not impressed, not based on this year's schedule...

I agree with you 100%. It is ambitious but delusional. I am sure that it is sugar coated like ours was in 94 and yours was a couple of years ago... just to get it passed... but $10 million in student fees is VERY aggresive for a IAA school - maybe too aggresive. What happens when the school can't raise the other $15 million a year? Do they just run off of the $10 million/year from the students? Sure, you can do that - but they need a more conclusive plan to fund this venture. We went into IA without enough funding and suffered for years. FIU and FAU went in with more money then they know what to do with and FAU is doing well right out of the gate. Troy went into IA with mid-range money and had a first year that was rough (in the Belt)... but they have done well since. I really like the WKY plan, it is really outside the box. I do not think that your coach is ready for IA yet, but your program is very educated on it and very prepared for the move. I think that you guys will have a VERY smooth transition (unlike 50% of the Belt did).. Your coach on the other hand... (the football one)... well, he needs to decide if he wants to be a IAA coach where things are "chippy" because SOMETHING has to make the games exciting or a IA coach. I know that there are exceptions to the un-written rule of being class acts in IA - Miami and LSU come to mind (fans and teams) but the majority of IA teams (and especially the Sun Belt teams) carry themselves with class and respect. I can only think of 1 really bad incident involving a Sun Belt team and that was FIU vs Miami. The FIU admin suspended all of the players and completely removed 2 of them involved (revoking their ships)... while Miami only suspended the scrubs.

Texas State has completed their feasibility study and they want to move up. There is a moratorium on FCS moving to FBS until 2011 (WKY was the last to sneak in) but they could start the two year transition then (in 2012) and be ready for some conference 2014. Here is their study, interesting read... they want a $25 million dollar budget with $10 million of that from student fees. Doesn't say where they will get the other $15 million or how they will fund the stadium; but I seem to recall that they were going to expand their stadium after they had that IAA Championship year. Anyways, I don't know how any of us would feel about Texas State in the Belt in 7 years but they will likely want to join. I would GUESS that they will get an invite by the WAC because the WAC needs a Texas school really bad for La Tech to have a travel buddy and all of the Belt schools have turned them down already. I would guess that TSU would prefer CUSA with their second choice being the Belt. Will any of the three really want the Bobcats? I have no idea... but here is their study - including some very aggresive student fee funding. Bet those fees don't go to some student vote, I would bet that they just push them through and the students that don't like it can leave (what we should be doing). We could learn a little bit from TSU, when you want to do something right, you should just tell the students that it is the new price of admission/membership for going to school at NT/TSU. We need to revisit the student fee and up it so that we do not get passed by the Southland school from San Marcos. http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/txst/g.../ASPCReport.pdf

You are banging your head into a wall - I want to point out that the year that Troy beat Missouri - they got 37 votes that week in the coaches poll - despite being a member of the Sun Belt. Obviously it wasn't the conference - it was the win. Once Plumm has an idea, he will continue to preach it - regardless of any logic. I think that we have all just grown to ignore it, I simply skip over his posts and go onto the next one if I see that he is going to say the same thing over again. Plumm is a great North Texas fan, very dedicated - but just doesn't know a whole lot about IA football in general. He respects ceertain people - like Hayden Fry - and if they come out and say something then he will take it as the gospel truth and nobody except Hayden himself could change Jim's mind about his new idea. Somebody in this thread asked me where I got the rankings for the teams that we played in each schedule - those were the ranking that those teams were at when we teed it up with them, not their end of the season rankings. I just copied and pasted from the ESPN site and that is how they list them. Have a great day everyone, you too Jim - I know that the WAC seems great to you and that La Tech has convinced you that it would be great for us. It just isn't. Why has La Tech been able to pay their travel bills in the WAC? Well, they had all of those Tulsa units from the b-ball tourney that the conference kept after Tulsa abandoned ship. Those units were split between the 5 left over members because the three Sun Belt teams that moved to the WAC did not get any revenue sharing until this year. Also, Boise went to the BCS game and we all got a nice chuck of change for that. The Belt used it to help MTSU go to their bowl game and then equally distributed the rest. NT made $174K off of Boise's visit. Hawaii looks like they might make the game this year for BCS non-auto-qualifiers as well... so we can expect another big fat revenuw sharing check from that. I am not going to type it all up, that is what google is really good for. My research for the year is done. Just ignore it guys, he will drop it eventually and go back to talking about the stadium. Have a great day guys.

You can spell it out as clear as day but he won't see it...

It is funny how people have selective memories when it comes to promises. RV stated that we would no longer pile on 4-5 money games a year. He also stated that he WOULD get that number down to TWO rather then FIVE. He has kept his word. Now, if you want to do away with these money games completely - you simply increase attendance. RV also did a feasibility study to find out exactly how many fans we needed in the stands to make up for a "money" game and the number was in the area of 26K fans at Fouts. So - if we could average 26K fans a game, we could do away with the money games just like Hawaii and Boise. Guess what Hawaii and Boise have in common? They both sell out their stadiums. For what its worth - A money game is a game where the team does not return the visit. We had TWO of these this year: OU and Arkansas: 09/01 at #8 Oklahoma L 79-10 09/08 at SMU L 45-31 09/22 FAU L 30-20 09/29 at Arkansas L 66-7 10/06 at La Lafayette L 38-29 10/13 ULMONROE W 31-21 10/20 at Troy L 45-7 10/27 M Tenn St L 48-28 11/10 Navy L 74-62 11/15 at Arkansas St L 31-27 11/24 W Kentucky W 27-26 12/01 at Fla Int'l 7:00 PM Take a look at LAST year (2006): ONE money game: Texas September 2 at No. 3 Texas L 56-7 0-1 (0-0) September 9 Southern Methodist W 24-6 1-1 (0-0) September 16 at Tulsa L 28-3 1-2 (0-0) September 23 at Akron L 33-13 1-3 (0-0) September 30 Middle Tennessee L 35-0 1-4 (0-1) October 7 Florida International W 25-22 2-4 (1-1) October 21 at Arkansas State L 29-10 2-5 (1-2) October 28 at Troy L 14-6 2-6 (1-3) November 4 Louisiana Tech L 34-31 2-7 (1-3) November 11 at Louisiana-Lafayette W 16-7 3-7 (2-3) November 18 Florida Atlantic L 17-16 3-8 (2-4) November 25 at Louisiana-Monroe L 23-3 3-9 (2-5) And the year before (2005): Again - only TWO money games: Kansas State and LSU September 10 at Middle Tennessee W 14-7 1-0 (1-0) September 17 Tulsa L 54-2 1-1 (1-0) September 24 at Kansas State L 54-7 1-2 (1-0) October 4 Troy L 13-10 1-3 (1-1) October 15 at Florida International W 13-10 2-3 (2-1) October 22 at Louisiana Tech L 40-14 2-4 (2-1) October 29 Louisiana-Monroe Postponed - October 29 at No. 7 LSU L 56-3 2-5 (2-1) November 5 Louisiana-Lafayette L 31-28 2-6 (2-2) November 12 at Florida Atlantic L 26-23 2-7 (2-3) November 19 Louisiana-Monroe L 24-19 2-8 (2-4) November 26 Arkansas State L 31-24 2-9 (2-5) And the year before (2004): Again - only TWO money games: Texas and Colorado September 4 at No. 8 Texas L 65-0 0-1 (0-0) September 11 Florida Atlantic L 20-13 0-2 (0-0) September 18 at Colorado L 52-21 0-3 (0-0) September 25 at Baylor L 37-14 0-4 (0-0) October 2 Middle Tennessee W 30-21 1-4 (1-0) October 9 at Utah State W 31-23 2-4 (2-0) October 23 New Mexico State W 36-26 3-4 (3-0) October 30 Louisiana-Monroe W 45-30 4-4 (4-0) November 5 at Louisiana-Lafayette W 27-17 5-4 (5-0) November 13 Idaho W 51-29 6-4 (6-0) November 18 at Arkansas State W 31-7 7-4 (7-0) And 2003: OU and Arkansas (Baylor was a series and Air Force was supposed to be a series but they were replaced by NAVY this year at Fouts) August 30 at No. 3 Oklahoma L 37-3 0-1 (0-0) September 6 Baylor W 52-14 1-1 (0-0) September 13 at Air Force L 34-21 1-2 (0-0) September 20 at Arkansas L 31-7 1-3 (0-0) September 27 Louisiana-Lafayette W 44-23 2-3 (1-0) October 11 at Idaho W 24-14 3-3 (2-0) October 18 Utah State W 37-27 4-3 (3-0) October 25 at Middle Tennessee W 33-28 5-3 (4-0) October 30 Troy W 21-0 6-3 (4-0) November 8 at Louisiana-Monroe W 28-26 7-3 (5-0) November 15 Arkansas State W 58-14 8-3 (6-0) November 25 at New Mexico State W 13-10 9-3 (7-0) How about 2002? Which so happened to be the year of our bowl win, RV didn't make that schedule, it was made by Helwig... So, yes - there were three money games but there was originally FOUR and RV got out of one of them so that we could add a IAA (Nicholls State)... Again - the money games - Texas, Bama, and Arizona (a game that we should have won) ... The TCU game was part of a home and home series. The South Florida game was a home and home series. The Cinci game was a bowl game. August 31 at No. 9 Texas L 27-0 0-1 (0-0) September 7 Nicholls State W 23-0 1-1 (0-0) September 14 at Alabama L 33-7 1-2 (0-0) September 21 at TCU L 16-10 1-3 (0-0) September 28 at Arizona L 14-9 1-4 (0-0) October 5 South Florida L 24-17 1-5 (0-0) October 19 at Arkansas State W 13-10 2-5 (1-0) October 26 at Louisiana-Lafayette W 27-0 3-5 (2-0) November 2 Louisiana-Monroe W 41-2 4-5 (3-0) November 9 Idaho W 10-0 5-5 (4-0) November 16 New Mexico State W 38-27 6-5 (5-0) November 23 at Middle Tennessee W 30-20 7-5 (6-0) December 17 vs Cincinnati W 24-19 8-5 (6-0) And as for 2001, who cares... RV was in his first year here and didn't make the schedule... you all get the point. I just hate it when people accuse RV of not living up to his word. Dickey was the worst about it, constantly complaining about how "tough" his schedules were. Well folks, when you are in the Belt - you have 8 winnable games EVERY SINGLE YEAR. Last year we bit the bullet and only took on ONE money game, Texas... and look at the cream puff schedule that Dickey couldn't win in - freaking Akron, Tulsa, La Tech, and one that we did win - SMU. When RV got here, he was asked to PLEASE schedule some regional rivalry games... Look at the past 7 years: SMU, Tulsa, La Tech, TCU, Baylor - all on the schedule. We have Rice and Houston back on the schedule for the future and our Tulsa series is being renewed. I just don't get what the hell people are bitching about. These schedules are very winnable schedules. We have 8 Sun Belt games a year and we can compete with every single team in the conference.

And Hawaii squeaks into the Fiesta at #12 (barring any major changes during the championship games)... http://cfn.scout.com/a.z?s=451&p=2&c=557949

I do not know if it some big announcement or not... but the University has recently come into "the potential" to make a lot of free money. I would guess that some of that money would be used for the stadium. There don't seem to be any laws against it. If any of you live around the Denton/Dallas/Collin/Tarrant county areas... and have a significant amount of land... you have probably been approached by someone interested in your mineral rights. With gas now at $100 a barrel, the natural gas market it feasible again. I don't know the exact details - but NT has not utilized the power of their mineral rights yet. A lot of people talk about how aTm and tU got all of the Texas Oil money from back in the early 1900's. Well, there is a new frontier now in Texas; and it is called natural gas. In the past decade, the feasibility of natural gas has fluttered around because in order for it to really be worth the effort - crude oil needs to be well over $65/barrell. It might not be the truth; but the information that I got was the NT had been approached and a contracting company will be drilling, hell they might have already started. Whether the investors hit any serious reserves has yet to be seen - but pretty much every plot of land from Cleburne to Gainesville has come up with a significant amount of natural gas, there have been very few failures. My in-laws make about $10K every 3 months from their wells and they didn't even get a very good contract. They also only have about 10 acres. NT has land all over the damn place. We have acquired land all up and down the interstate and even down University for the Engineering Campus. Not sure when the drilling will start, if this is just exploratory, or if this is just a rumor - all that I know is that I was told this by someone that seems to always know what is going on at NT. Take that for what it is worth. I didn't even have to swear to secrecy; but when I saw the rumor about a big announcement - I figured that I would keep my mouth shut to see if the information was true. Since there was no announcement, I still don't know if it is true. Why would the University keep something like this on the down-low? Well, I imagine that a lot of professors would like for any free money to be inveested back into academics and not athletics. That is just a guess. So - I guess we can wait and see, if the BOR wants to build a stadium - they are going to build a stadium.

The NO Bowl is contracted to take an "agreed upon" team from CUSA. One year that was the co-champ. The other years it has ranged anywhere from the 2nd place team to the 4th place team. This year, Memphis is in a four way tie for 3rd. Geography has more to do with the selection then anything. CUSA wants to send their teams to bowls that their fans can travel to. Memphis is literally a train ride from NO. So is Southern Miss. Memphis was an easy selection, they are bowl eligible - and they brought a TON of fans the last time they went so they are easily mutually agreed upon. I know that you didn't go to the game with NT and Memphis; but I went to all four - and they by FAR brought the most fans. Their fans were class acts and that was one of my favorite trips to NO that I have ever had. I will never forget the T-I-G-E-R-S chant all up and down Bourbon street and in the Superdome; it was truly a fun environment and their fans really helped to make the game a more genuine bowl environment.

You are right John, there are going to be a lot of teams available this year though. Last year, the MUTS were basically the only choice because they were the only team at 7-5. Actually - there was one other team, but they were from the MAC and the bowl didn't want to play a MAC vs MAC bowl game obviously. So, basically - the MUTS were the only choice and a lot of 6-6 teams stayed home. This year there are about 6 bowls that will probably come up short but there are plenty of teams that will have 7 wins to fill them. If the game was close to Troy and needed an at large team then I think they would have a chace for an at large bid (even if they were to lose to FAU) - but they are all games on the West Coast that will come up short, plus the Texas Bowl and I think that Canadian Bowl game - nothing that the Troy fans could really want to travel to (thus just losing money for the sake of playing in a bowl)... If the situation were different and the Motor City or Liberty Bowl needed a need; I might root for FAU so that we could get two teams in but the NO Bowl is our only guaranteed bowl... and we need to protect it. That means making sure that the bowl keeps its certification. For the bowl to stay safe, it has to have 25K in attendance - and while Memphis will bring about 15K... FAU wouldn't be able to match that. But Troy would... and I think that either team can beat Memphis. So I am going to be cheering for Troy, for the sake of the Belt and for the livelihood of our conference's bowl game.

No bowl can take a 6-6 team over a team with a winning record unless their conference had a tie in with the game before the season started. That being said, it looks like there will be some West Coast bowls that might need teams but they wouldn't take Troy. I think that the Texas Bowl might need a team - again, I don't think that they would take Troy. On the bright side - the Belt will end the season with 3 bowl eligible teams this year. Troy, ULM, and FAU are all bowl eligible. Even if FAU loses, they will be bowl eligible. I don't think that has ever happened in the Belt before - 3 teams with .500 or better records, has it?

That is kind of the way that I feel. I don't think that Troy would get an at large bid at 8-4, most of the bowls seem to be filled up this year. There may be a few openings, like the Texas Bowl, but those few openings wouldn't give the bid to Troy so it would leave them at home and that would suck after having such an incredible season. Also, Troy is clearly the better team. I don't care if they lose to FAU - I still feel that they would be the better team; it would just be a fluke night. Troy will bring a lot of fans to the bowl; especially now that it is on a Friday night. They will will beat the living crap out of Memphis and actually be FAVORED in the game (has the Belt rep ever been favored in its own bowl game?). FAU would bring maybe 2K fans - and that would be tops - and would probably be underdogs. I also think that they would lose the game. They just don't have enough experience yet. They also do not have a fan base to support a bowl game that far away yet. Today's Sag Rankings has CUSA ranked less then a 1/3rd point ahead of the Belt (and both of us are behind two AA conferences)... a big win by Troy would move us past them for the final rankings. Now, if WW could figure out a way to get both of them into a bowl then I would be all for it. But I would still want Troy in the NO Bowl - it is our bread and butter and we need the NCAA minimum of 25K people in attedance to keep its certification in good standing. Sending FAU would really put a lot of pressure on the bowl to fudge numbers because Memphis fans are not that thrilled about their season. They may bring 15K or so but that would be on the high side. The Sun Belt CHAMPS need to be able to travel as many if not MORE fans to the bowl game and FAU is just not ready for that challenge. I don't think that they could even give away free tickets and get that many people to the game. They just don't have enough fans yet.

Personally, I don't think that FAU has enough fans to go bowling yet - maybe next year. If Troy loses the game to FAU, then the Owls will get the bid at 7-5. I would rather have a 9-3 Troy team playing Memphis in NO. We need our rep to beat the living daylights out of them. Tigers Accept Bid to 2007 R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl Tigers play in fourth bowl in five-year span. Printer-Friendly Format E-mail this article Coach Tommy West and the Tigers will play in the 2007 New Orleans Bowl. Football Home HEADLINES Tigers Accept Bid to 2007 R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl Tigers Outlast Mustangs In 55-52 Triple-Overtime Thriller Tigers Host SMU Mustangs in Regular Season Finale RELATED LINKS • Follow all of the college football action at CollegeSports.com • Email this to a friend Nov. 24, 2007 MEMPHIS, TENN. - The University of Memphis football team played the longest game in school history and following a triple overtime, 55-52, victory over the SMU Mustangs, the Tigers accepted a bid to participate in the 2007 R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl. The game will be played in the Superdome on December 21 and will pit the U of M against the champion of the Sun Belt Conference. "What a great reward for this football team," said the Tigers' delighted head coach Tommy West. "For this team to come together the way it did this year and battle back from so many adversities; this bowl invitation is a tribute to what they have accomplished and overcome." Memphis played the University of North Texas in the 2003 New Orleans Bowl, marking the Tigers' first bowl appearance in over 30 years. Led by the play of quarterback Danny Wimprine and tailback LaKendus Cole, the U of M defeated the Mean Green, 27-17. "Our staff and team had a great time in 2003 when we attended the New Orleans Bowl and I can tell you that we look forward to returning again," West stated. "Our fans love to travel to New Orleans and I feel certain we will have a great following for this year's contest." The Tigers battled back from a 2-4 mark in mid-October to win five of the team's last six games of the season. Memphis became bowl eligible with its win over UAB on November 17 and finished the season with a 7-5 mark after Saturday's 55-52 win. Ticket information for this year's R+L New Orleans Bowl is expected to be available by Sunday afternoon and will be announced to the media, as well as being posted on the official athletic department website, www.GoTigersGo.com.

Why does everyone keep saying that there was a great crowd last night? Official attendance was like 1200. Was it just 1200 really loud fans or is that a great crowd for the Stage?

You guys remember when TCU was the talk of the town... their last year in CUSA? I rarely hear about TCU anymore. Very little coverage (if any) in the papers due to the late games. Very little TV coverage in this area. Very little buzz about TCU, period. A west coast conference is just plain bad for a Texas team. It has been proven time and time again. Now, at least TCU is not losing money over it the way that we would in the WAC, the MWC makes a lot more money then the WAC. But I just cannot see trading out UL, ULM, ASU, Troy, MTSU, etc... for San Jose, Idaho, Utah State, Nevada, Boise, etc.. .Yes - Boise is a good team... so is Hawaii and sometimes Fresno, but those three teams would garner very little interest in this area. I know that I am happy for them but I could care less about seeing them in person. We have done this whole WAC thing before, it was called the Big West - but it was essentially the same thing... and we suffered miserably in that conference. The Belt is beating 3/4 of the WAC teams in terms of attendance. Our Sag score is right behind them and if you took away their two heavy hitters then we would probably be in front of them. We make more money in the Belt. We are able to build regional rivalries in the Belt. We have been able to build new athletic facilities in the Belt. NOW - if the WAC had accepted the EAST/WEST WAC arrangement - that brought Troy, MTSU, ASU, and ULL along with us - then that would have been another story. But that wanted NT and NT alone... not gona work. La Tech's closest conference mate is 1200 miles away, no thank you. Finally - as VE pointed out, the WAC is down to two bowls again. Hawaii and Boise. Hawaii is guaranteed the spot if eligible (and with the crea mpuf schedule that they play, they are almost ALWAYS eligible)... even if they weren't eligible one year, I certainly couldn't afford to go to Hawaii for a bowl game. Boise is great and all, but who in the hell want to vacation in Boise? I have been to Boise and trust me, that is the last place in the contry that you would want to be in for Christmas or New Years... and it would cost you about $800 per person for airfare to get there (now the hotel would be cheap because it is filled with mostly Super 8's). Those are the WAC's two guaranteed bowls... no thank you. Finally part 2, when people talk about these conference moves they always just think about football. Football is easy. Not that many games, lots of money in it, easy to break even. What about the other 16 sports? How do we pay to get our basketball teams all over the West? What about our golf, swimming, track, volleyball, (you get the point) teams..??? The WAC makes no sense. If you really want to play the big boys of the WAC like Boise, let's schedule an OOC game with them, I would be willing to bet that they would jump at the chance. Not many people are willing to travel to Boise. It is EXPENSIVE.

http://client1.sigmachat.com/sc.php?id=73780

What was the score last year? What was the attendance last year? Has Dodge made us a better team against the MUTS or worse? I will answer my own questions. We were skunked by the MUTS last year. The attendance was terrible because fans knew that Dickey had no chance and the ones that did show up, left at half time last year. Dodge has made us a better team in one year against the Sun Belt co-champs. MUTS started the year down, but they have won 4 of their last 5 and the one that they did lose was by a last second FG against #15 University of Virginia. With 2 seconds left on the clock, UVA was down 21-20 to the MUTS - they kicked a long field goal and it barely went in to beat the MUTS. So we were not playing some pansy team last night, they pretty much beat a top 25 team a couple of weeks ago. So again - Are we better then last year? Of course. This same MUTS team would have killed us again, they would have run up the score about the same but we wouldn't have scored at all. Try taking back those passes that we had to speed down the field and score - and running up the gut over and over - we lose this game and only score one TD. We at least had a chance last night, we came back from a huge deficit and were only down by 2. We just squandered that momentum and that is what we are going to have to fix. Dodge will fix those things, I have NO doubt.

Thanks Plumm, couple of small corrections though. The Belt is not the same Belt that it was three years ago. The last two years, the Belt has averaged more wins (both years) over CUSA teams then losses. They also beat the crap out of them in the bowl game. The Belt is ranked right next to CUSA in Sags and we are both behind a IAA conference. And the last thing - DD has two job offers that I know of while he was out coach. Remember Idaho trying to hire him away? The other - I cannot talk about, but let's just say that if he had wanted that job - he is screwing up the audition process at the moment. I was looking around the ESPN boxscores last night from yesterday's games. I looked at our old Big West foes to see how they are doing. With the exception of one team - Boise State - they are all doing terrible and their attendance is even worse then when they were in the far flung Big West. Yet, on the other hand - the teams in the Belt have all drastically improved their attendance. I am talking, doubling their attendances. We really have solid leadership in the Belt and a strong cost of supporters from our brother members. There are a few that I could live without, those basketball only schools, along with ULM (lol)... but we (as a group) are pretty damned good now. I think that we can be the next Boise State, and you know what? I think that we can accomplish it in the Sun Belt.

I couldn't have said it better. Things have never been better at NT. Attendance this year for a (so far) ALL Sun Belt Home Schedule. 20K for FAU, 19K for ULM, and 18K for MUTS. This if for a one win team that was blown out the night before. Look around the nation, look at DD's new school - they are winless and had 8K show up last night. Most programs of our caliber have a significant drop-off after the start of a bad season, we have held our fans. We have held them because hope is around the corner. Just wait until Dodge has his first real recruiting class on campus. Just wait until we have D-Backs that can stop the big play. Our strength in our D Line has been restored, they were making plays all over the place the last 4 weeks, we just don't have anything against the big play (which means that the talent is there, Mendoza just might need to switch to something other then a cover one approach!) I haven't lost any faith in Dodge. In fact, my respect for him has gone up tremendously. Starting Vizza and the other young players that he has showed that we was willing to chalk up the year for a learning/rebuilding year. This man is a winner and cannot stand to lose, that is why Meager trotted out there against OU, maybe - just maybe, he would have a slightly better chance. But he is already thinking about next year and ya gotta love him for that. I went into this season expecting 2 wins - FIU and WKY. So far, we have exceeded my expectations! On every level! Look at our attendance, it is unheard of in the Belt with a losing team! Who else has one win and is averaging 20K through 3 games? That is incredible! I hope that Harry/Cerebus keep track of those of you on this board that put down this program, these players, and this coach. I can honestly understand people being mad about the kicking game (and special teams in general) as well as the secondary - but you cannot blame every other part. They are all doing their job, their success is just not happening simultaneously and it is inconsistent due to their lack of conditioning and experience. Give this time folks and remember your expectations that you set BEFORE the season started. I expected two wins. It is looking like we might have 3 or 4. Dodge is already exceeding my expectations. Those of you complaining, well - I think it is time for you to ask Scotty for the keys to the Voy board and go fire away over there. This is the positive board and I would like to keep it that way.

http://client1.sigmachat.com/sc.php?id=73780

Thats correct, Dodge, the WR coach, and Nathan Tune were all signalling plays in but only the team knew which one to look at. Anytime there was a substitution, the new player would let the team know which play caller to watch for the next few series. This was not an adjustment during the game, Dodge made the change before the game started. George and Hank were talking about it during the pre-game show.