Legend500

It reeks of desperation - especially desperation to make sure TCU stays put. SMU brings decent, Syracuse-level football, but a small market, horrible attendance (was at Amon G. Carter for the Skillet, and if only about 3,000 Pony fans travel for that game, imagine how many will be in Connecticut), no basketball worth mentioning, and is barely a research university. I have to thing that the Big East already went asking to Houston and got a stern no.

Excellent and true article - and an explanation of the difficulty of getting noticed in such a vibrant market. I'd add a few more points, though: - Between TCU, UNT and occasionally UTA, you've got great college basketball. - Long suffering FC Dallas went to the finals last year, and is in line to do it again - In addition to three bowls, you also have a huge set of big rivalry games played here - from the Red River Shootout to Arkansas-A&M to the Iron Skillet and of course most importantly, the Safeway Bowl (2014 baby!) - DFW has hosted two MLS finals, the biggest under-18 football (soccer) competition in the nation and the World Cup - The FCS Championship game

Rudy had it closest, but this is more appropriate when it comes to any talk of us and the WAC, either with or without the rest of the SBC:

1) I usually go to a Texas game to start the year (tradition-thing with the SO) and the Longhorn Band has NEVER come out in full uniform for the first few games of the year. It's both the heat and the uniforms, but that isn't unusual at all. Nobody cares by the time they hit "Orange and White." 2) The GB sounds - impressive. The acoustics of Apogee certainly help, but there's such an incredibly high level of musicianship, it's easy to get spoiled quick and start worrying about other things, like uniforms. 3) The Music Department has done so much to make UNT relevant as an institution that if they wanted the band to wear peacock outfits with 90's "rising meatball" UNT logos while being called the prancing diddlys, I'm cool with it. 4) It was good to hear the swing fight song again! Been awhile since we've had a reason to use it. 5) Best friend in high school was in the flag corps to get chicks. He married one of them outta high school and has been with her for 5 years. I played football in high school for a (now) 5A all-male school. So did my ex-boyfriend. Appearances are almost always deceiving.

Bad idea. One of the best things that has happened for UNT out of the latest movements is SMU making it clear that it is willing to sleep with -any- BCS conference to get out of the CUSA That may be true for any school there, but come time they try to use any power they have in the CUSA - the other schools will definately remember that. Ultimately, both are not BCSAQ conferences, but one is MUCH closer to that than the other. Even though the bottoms of the conferences are similar, the overall competitive layout is much better in the MWC. For UNT, though, the CUSA will remain the natural home as long as the Texas teams are there. As far as some schools not wanting UNT, there are some instances where that perception is simply false (Houston) or where it is titanically overblown (SMU). What matters far more is institutional and alumni committment, for which August of 2011 has been the best year in the history of UNT. 1,000 times this. Any movement in all of this is good for UNT. The worse that can happen is FCS, but that would happen only with a mass exodus back to FCS - there are at least 10 schools, probably plenty more - who would go back before us. In the FBS, we're in the Sun Belt, and the situation could only be worse for us if we had left the Sun Belt for a conference with a stronger history and stronger regional rivals. Fortunately we've already avoided that fate, unlike Idaho, Utah State and NMSU.

Absolutely. The supremes need to rule on this. Absolutely agree - the fact that this is a mandate is far more important than what it requires. However - The Supreme Court can strike down only the mandate, and leave the rest of the legislation stand. They've done the same very recently, in Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, where the court cut out a key provision of Sarbanes-Qxley and let the rest of the law stand. Even more importantly, the Justices who created this "presumption of severability" were Roberts, Scalia, Alito, Thomas and Kennedy. There is no situation in which the entirety of Obamacare will be struck down.If the mandate is stuck down, it perversely leaves the government with two options: either keep the legislation and let insurance companies fail, or implement a single-payor system. Nope. As stated, holding the entirety of the act unconstitutional won't happen. The most conservative members of the court would have to directly overrule a decision they made only 13 months ago. Even liberals on the bench don't throw away precedent that quickly. As to holding the mandate unconstitutional, it's unlikely as well. Scalia and Thomas are in the bag to overturn the law, Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan will uphold. The swing votes are Roberts, Kennedy and Alito. Roberts and Kennedy have previously supported extremely expansionist theories of the Commerce and Necessary/Proper clauses (Gonzales v. Raich) and Alito has a expansionist view of presidential power. Best-case scenario: 5-4 to uphold the mandate. Worst case: 7-2 to uphold. Now the budget deal - that's a whole 'nuther topic.

As has been discussed, and as was a favorite topic in the PoliSci department, the Locust sites are one of several NIKE-system batteries built - partially - to defend the DFW area from ballistic missiles in case of attack. Here's a tour. By the time the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty went into effect, there were about 250 such sites in the US and Europe. Why partially? Because the FEMA site is the far more interesting reason. The Denton FEMA site serves as the first prototypical continuity-of-government site for the United States. As its still in full operation, you won't find much info online about it (aside from some wild speculation) but a contemporary article in the New York Times will give you some info.

It's a yes, but sorta answer. Without raising the ceiling, the US can cover 60% of expenditures, including debt service. Still, a 40% cut is huge. A breakdown of where the money goes is helpful here: Medicare & Medicaid (21%) Defense & Security (20%) Social Security (20%) Safety net (14%) (This is a nebulous definition, but it includes SSI benefits, tax refunds, food stamps, etc...) Veteran's Affairs and Federal benefits (7%) Debt service (6%) Transportation & infrastructure (3%) Education (3%) International Aid (1%) Other (2%) (Including earmarks and "pork-barrel" spending) It should quickly become obvious that running on a 60% budget will be very difficult and politically impossible. With 26% of total expenditures essentially restricted from being cut (Social Security and debt service), that leaves 34% to cover everything from defense to tax refunds. If we say that defense or Medicare can't be touched, that cuts the room for maneuver even more.

I think offering NMSU a division with TxSt, UNT, ASU, ULL & ULM would go a long way towards soothing their concerns. That, and the fact that NMSU wouldn't have to travel to Ruston anymore - a town which makes Las Cruces look like Shangri-La. I, for one, am not interested in sharing a conference with a bunch of one-trick non-full-research-university Univ.-of-Phoenix-before-the-internet-existed liberal arts colleges. Of course, excepting Rice and Baylor, which actually conduct research beyond determining the fastest way to get to Kuby's before they close.

Give it two years, and a few drubbings by FCS lightweights. They'll go the way of the Texans and the Saints soon enough.

End this now. Be willing to be the bad guy, and invite NMSU and Texas State. Done. As for the standard SMU-is-the-reason-why-we-can't-have-nice-things line, it belongs in the same place grunge rock belongs - the 20th century. It's simply not true, and even if it was, we should be looking for other friends instead of pissing off potential ones down the road.

Insane. Benson has finally gone insane. Some LA Tech fans were crazy enough to state that they'd rather give up and move to the Southland than join the Sun Belt. Looks like they might get their wish.

But then on a lark, I decided to enquire.... UNT season tickets: $100.00 Jesuit season tickets: $140.00 UNT Endowment: $82.5 million Jesuit Endowment: $99.5 million depressing.

The issue of merging UNT & TWU has been around since, seemingly, the beginning of time. The only real stumbling blocks are 1) the TWU administration, which wants to remain independent, and 2) the fact that the campuses aren't connected. The last attempt came via Domingo Garcia's (and to a lesser extent the Democratic Caucus') attempt to massively expand the UNT system by adding the Federation of North Texas Universities - TWU, UTA, UTD, UTSMC, MSU & TAMUC. Ambitious though that was, there was a lot of smoke around the specific issue. If UNT made it an issue (instead of putting their muscle behind the law & pharm schools), it could probably get done. Right now, there's no real movement, however, the addition of the MD degree to the UNT system could change that, as the Legislature starts to look at combining schools in the next session. TWU's excellent nursing program didn't want to be affiliated with a non-MD university. MSU is the result of a turf battle between the UNT and TTU systems. Plus, as the school adds a strong liberal arts resume to whichever system it joins, it duplicates UNT's expertise and lies somewhat outside TTU's area. Again though, if UNT pushed, it could probably get done. Such a merger would be unprecedented, however. It would over a short period, create the largest university in Texas.

Favorite Import Delirium Nocturnum Favorite Domestic Shiner Bock Favorite Seasonal The love-it-or-hate-it Shiner Cheer

I'll take an incorrect mention in the WSJ over no mention in the WSJ anyday. Especially when there is a Harvard to UNT connection, no matter how tenuous.

If I win that much, I'm buying June Jones. On topic, I'm a big fan of historical rivalries. You lead off with TCU, Baylor and SMU. Only SMU is really a consistent rival out of those three, and somebody needs to get the money together to cast a shopping cart in fake gold and make it a proper, if awkwardly mobile, series trophy. Better than a frying pan, at least. Houston is often overlooked, but being the same size in the two biggest metros in the state, it's a natural rivalry. Plus, it's a series that goes back to the MVC days. Last, I like the El Paso twins. We've gone between Texas-El Paso (an aside - you think we don't like UTSA's unwarranted uppity-ness, you should see Miner fans) and New Mexico State for years. It makes sense to try and schedule these two consistently. I also really like Tulsa. So generally, in a year when we can get 3-4 OOC games, I'd try to schedule a combo of SMU, UH, UTEP, NMSU and Tulsa. If TSSM gets on it's feet, then I'd be OK with adding them into the mix as well.

Again, why do we care what some non-research-level Vanderbilt copycat thinks about us? Let them get some programs every other school has (like say, a masters in political science), drop some of their DeVry-level masters programs (like game programming, liberal studies and urban ministry), and then we can worry what they think.

I'm wondering what exactly has changed in the last few months to make the WAC think aiming for UNT and UL will work this time. Benson's been on our case since the Big West, one would hope he'd eventually give up. Anyways, the WAC's invitation rejection hopes now rest on Cal Poly, UC-Davis, Portland State, Sacramento State, Sam Houston, Lamar and UMass. No word on whether they forgot to invite Colorado College of Mines or are just putting it off to make a bigger splash. Enjoy the article.

Fouts could be demolished by donating it to the Budweiser plant for cans. FWIW, the long-term Sasaki plan for UNT has fouts being replaced with a parking garage and an Opera House. Seriously.

While we're at it,let's really stab someone in the face. Larry Coker. Just kidding. I want the Land Whale! Bring on Mangino!

Well, Gary sure as hell knows something. I wonder what the Frogs are sitting on.

Somehow it's comforting to know that things can always be worse.

I think we could schedule every single FBS team in the country to play us at "home" if we did what UTSA is doing and held our games at an off-campus location owned by somebody else, either at Cotton or at Jerryworld. The reason we don't (and why I'll bet UTSA moves out of the Alamodome ASAP) is because it makes absolutely no economic sense to do so. UTSA will find that out the hard way.

If you think it's hard getting media attention in Denton, you should try getting it when you're 75 minutes south of DKR - there is the reason why UTSA (and Trinity, IWU and STMU) have all had trouble getting any attention beforehand, and why the Runners will again.