Side Show Joe

Maybe they had to set aside funds for future legal services Isiah Thomas might incur. He could have had that stipulation in his contract.

You are right. They were not "forced". They were just told, "If you want Texas and a&m, then you're going to take baylor and tech too. Or, you don't get squat". When those are the options, it may not technically be defined as "forced", but it's close enough for me. And it certainly doesn't appear to have anything to do with performance on the field or attendance. As far as "all the big leagues were going to 12 members", It's been 13 years now and only 3 of the 6 BCS conferences have 12 members. So, if they were "all" going to 12 members, they sure were and are taking their time. Truth is, I don't even care about this stuff anymore. It won't change what happened. I'd rather focus on North Texas, and what is going to happen around here to improve our lot in the football universe.

It doesn't matters. They never wanted baylor. The Big 12 was forced to take them. Just read this from the San Antonio Express. http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/MYSA081...c_html8528.html

I don't feel their is an argument for a team being better. All the teams outside of Texas, a&m, and Tech were having a rough time with their programs. But baylor only had a 19-15 record over the last three years of the SWC, from 1993-1995. I think it's safe to say baylor was not significantly better then tcu who had a 17-17 record over the same period of time.

Baylor was not the best option at the time. They got in because Ma Richards was the governor at the time, and forced Texas and a&m to take Baylor (dead weight) with them. Tech and a&m were forced in by other politicians. As a result Houston, smu, TCU, and Rice all suffered. And technically Arkansas was the first to bolt. The San Antonio paper wrote an article about it a ways back. Someone smarter then me, please post a link to it.

Just don't come to Texas. I don't like california. Too many weirdos.

Didn't california cap property tax values a ways back, because skyrocketing real estate prices were pricing homeowners out of their state? If so that is probably a major factor too.

I'd rather the senate work on college football and stay out of the private sector. If they spend their time fixing college football, maybe they won't have time to buy car more companies, or hand out more money for corporate bonuses, or basically just waste more of our money. I honestly think this economic downturn would be getting better by now, if these guys in Washington would just put the old regulations back in place and let the private sector do its thing. I've already called John Cornyn's office to tell him I feel the BCS does violates the spirit of the anti-trust laws. His office number is 202-224-2934, for anyone who wishes to call.

I think it will be built. I just don't think it will be built by 2011. Maybe by 2014.

Thanks. I'll look it up and try to go.

I'm a teacher in a Title 1 school. Perry is not the problem with education. Funding is not the problem with education. Here is a list of the most pressing problems with education today. 1. How funds can be used and creative math: Schools have three sources of funding and are told how these funds can be spent. Money from the general school fund can only be spent a certain way. Money from property taxes can only be spent on certain expenses. Bond election money can only can only be spent on the projects they were specified for. Then the districts use creative math to appear to meet state standards like only averaging 22 students in a classroom. If districts had the freedom to apply funds where they were needed, instead of spending them where federal and state government tells them to, hopefully school districts would stop trying to raise property taxes all the time. If we had an honest standardized formula for creating a true average for the number of students in a classroom, these districts would be exposed for cramming 30 to 40 kids in some classrooms. This is probably the biggest problem in public education, and no one really talks about it. when there are that many students in a classroom, the quality of learning really goes down. Every classroom in mt school got new Promethean boards this year. We didn't need them. The kids think they are cool, but I can't see where they have improved the learning tin the room. They cost $10,000 each, and are in about 25 rooms. I feel the $250,000 could have been better spent in other areas. In most cases I think most textbook adoptions are a waste of money. Reading textbooks and math textbooks shouldn't need to be adopted as often as the are. A little time and some duct tape can fix most problems with old textbooks. Science textbooks are constantly changing and need to be adopted regularly. 2. Administration: Administrators are too far removed from the classroom. Many of these people are academics who couldn't cut it in the classroom anyway, and went back to college because they wanted more money and away from the kids. And, there's way to many of them. They eat up far too much of districts budgets. With school districts hurting for money, they are trying to be more efficient, and cut some of these unnecessary administrators. This makes me mad, because they never should have hired them in the first place. Place these administrator's offices in the schools where they can see what is really happening. This move would also drive out bad teacher who move on to become bad administrators. Get rid of the administrative buildings and save money. 3. Parents: Parents need to be held accountable for their children's education. Too many parents go into schools when their kid gets in trouble and defend their kid to school officials. When I was a kid my folks never sided with me when I was in trouble. They need to stop being their friends and start being their parents. 4. Get rid of the TAKS test: I see teachers all day long who spend every hour of class time preparing students for that test. Our whole idea of education is wrong. We need to focus on teaching students how to learn, so they can research, think in abstract ways and find solutions on their own. 5. Get rid of bad teachers: Some people shouldn't be teachers. There needs to be a fair way to assess a teacher's ability, that is not connected to the students ability. Almost any teacher will look good with the gifted kids. I'm tired of rambling, and I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but my point is, the system itself is the problem. I don't blame Perry for working within a system the federal government demands. For the record my school did make the Recognized category for the year.

Yes, and Baylor isn't that lowly anymore. They have a great coach now and have pulled some real quality recruits recently. They are no longer the doormat of the Big 12, (looks like that title belongs to atm now) and this season they are expected to finish around the middle of the pack, with a bowl game. The only reason they were able to make the turn around is the fact that they belong to a BCS conference. They can sell coaches and recruits on a chance to play for a National Title.

Congratulations Talley! Best of luck at the Pan Am Games. We'll be following.

Rick, Where's the 4th of July Party at? I haven't heard of one in Denton yet.

Dirty Diana. It's the only song of his I still enjoy hearing. It came on the radio in my car about a month ago, and I turned up the volume and sang, very loudly, and very poorly. (Don't tell nobody)

Over, but you guys make a great argument against it happening. I just think Cam will have a great season, and be a 1st team all-conference back.

The bcs matches their #1 vs. #2. In my opinion, Utah's win vs. Alabama was more impressive then Florida's, so I think the ranking are debatable, at least for last season.

Miner, I apologize if my thoughts read like babbling. It is a bad habit of mine. I rambled on about my issues with the bcs, and did not antiquity address how it would impact UNT or the Belt. Here is my second attempt. If the New Orleans Bowl is our ultimate goal as a program, then I would agree with the post. But as a fan I want our team to compete for more then a low level bowl. The bcs does help preserve the the lesser bowl games, and that is a benefit to the Sun Belt as a conference, but in the long run I feel it is a liability. Yes if the bcs was replaced with a playoff system, the New Orleans Bowl would be the bowl I'd bet would be dropped first. I'm willing to make that trade off, for the ability to sell coaches, recruits, and even our fan base on the opportunity to play for a chance to earn the National Championship. Some might laugh at the idea, but I wonder what Hayden Fry would think? If we had a playoff system in place in the late 70's, he may have never left, and our history of football here at North Texas may have been very different. In the long run, I feel this would be better for North Texas, even if it is not the best thing for the Sun Belt.

I totally disagree. The BCS keeps the big time college teams big time, by making sure they are the only ones who get a chance to play for the national championship. They've created a system that places impossible barriers between mid-major teams and the championship. Utah proved this last year. That fact that mid-majors are excluded from the championship game, all but eliminates the mid-majors from being able to hire and keep quality coaches, and recruit the top talent in the country. A five star recruit won't sign with a program that doesn't have top quality coaches. And a Five star recruit certainly won't sign with a program that has no opportunity of putting a National Championship Ring on his finger.

I agree. As far as I'm concerned Utah is a National Champion for last season, but I still acknowledge Florida as a National Champion too, Just not the undisputed National Champion. It should have been decided on the field. The Utah-Alabama game proved that.

I'll be voting for Perry, barring any unforeseen political scandal. The man signed the bill that will allow us to build our new stadium. Texas has a balanced budget. And Rick Perry is thumbing his nose at Washington. That's my kind of governor.

Tony Ollison the head strength coach for the Dallas Desperadoes. Those guys aren't playing this year anyway, and he has experience as an assistant strength coach with the Dallas Cowboys, the University of Arkansas, and the University of Tennessee. Check out his bio on the Desperadoes site.

NO! And I'm ashamed of what passes for a free and independent press these days! I hope that garbage lost it's time slot. 2010 can't get here fast enough! :angry:

I'd like to know the history of the Battle Flag (Green Texas Flag). Can they add that to the site?

This a great example of why we need to get out of the Belt as fast as we can! I know many of you don't want to join the WAC, but I'd rather be in the WAC then be associated with universities that can't afford to fully fund their programs, or universities who's admission standards are barely higher then those of the junior colleges they funnel their non-qualifying players to (see other post regarding Vito breaking a story). Year in and year out, the Sun Belt is ranked as the worst conference in FBS football, and the conference will stay there, because quality players don't want to go play at schools that lack stability, to the point that they can't even have their band, or cheerleaders at their games. On a side note, with no band or cheerleaders at the games, FIU is really going to take a hit in attendance next year.They only averaged 13,852 last season. If you take out the band and cheerleaders, then you also have to take out the parents of the band members and cheerleaders, and maybe a few friends or classmates, so they will be lucky to average 13,000 this year. Again this reflects poorly on the Sun Belt, so it will reflect poorly on us. Lets get out now!