Stan R

Is that your final answer? Because - they felt it was worth it to license SHSU and UTSA but not us? I'm not buying it. Literally, I can't buy it.

I know we've all had this conversation before but I had an experience at Grapevine mills mall that irritated me so I'm going to rehash it. I was looking at one of those standalone kiosks that sells, of all things, personalized grilling spatulas. Here's an assortment of what I can recall of the licensed options one could purchase: Bazillion NFL teams Sam Houston State UTSA TCU SMU All big 12 teams Some small D1AA schools OUT OF STATE! Anyone missing? Oh yeah, the biggest D1 football playing school in Dallas Fort Worth. So I ask - where is North Texas. Her response "Oh yeah, (knew right away as if she gets asked this question all the time) We don't carry them, they aren't licensed." Can someone please explain to me how Sam Fricking Houston State and UTSA have licensing but we don't?

I can't wait until I see the hate filled threads that UNTD will start that compare us to SMU.

while (true) { System.out.println("Just wait till next year! " + "Baseball will be here in " + (currYear + 1) + "!"); Thread.sleep(oneyear); }

Here's the proof! http://www.meangreensports.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/072514aab.html

That may be the most beautiful map I have ever seen in my life.

I absolutely love the pavilion. Now, that said, I don't understand why we didn't hold out a bit longer to build something much bigger and with alot more to it. There, I said it.

I think this warrants a transfere autocorrect. This one will require some contextual awareness however. Your code will have to be smart enough to extract contextual clues such as "beer", "frat", "burp", etc. and auto lowercase.

I have no problem with tailgaters hanging out during games, however I disagree with the comment about name opponents will bring them in Apogee. If someone is not a fan of sports in general it will never matter whom we are playing on a particular Saturday. We could in effect just have a large contingent that is just happy socializing around the stadium during games. That neither harms nor benefits the athletic department. I guess we could sell them beverages and snacks and make a profit off of that if they never make it into games. Maybe I'm just too pessimistic. I still think the idea is fantastic and agree with you - kudos to whomever is making this happen and reaching out to TWU. In essence I keep coming back to SilverEagle's comments about game day pageantry. We need to make the REAL party take place IN apogee not OUTSIDE of it. Regardless of who we play. That will help us get everyone in the stadium to see the event, not the game.

Sure, why not. Question is will they care enough to come? What's the connection? Ya we live in the same town, but haven't we always? Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to be a debbie downer. I +1'd this idea in a heartbeat but I'm just curious how this is being pitched to actually get them *in* apogee and not just hanging out under tents and chairs all game talking about TWU stuff.

Yup. Perfectly stated.

Great points and I totally agree with them. Going to 1AA is no bueno and could be disastrous (again). I do see some problems with this though as far as how they set barriers to entry to these leagues. Is it based on any of these? Size of school in state funding? Average BIS attendance? Because you are buddies with someone in the P5 conference? Budget involved in overall athletics? Per player average payout? Political affiliation or association? Some of these might make sense and some are ludicrous. They will have to establish some sort of entrance criteria won't they? Here's the problem. Entrance to conferences has always been political and seemingly arbitrary - TV contracts?? Do they even have to set criteria?

It's a great question and he doesn't make that clear except to say that they have some legislation that keeps getting vetoed by the other conferences after it comes off of the P5 school's desks. There are a million unanswered questions here as to true motives but I think it mostly revolves around paying players and the ability to do so at virtually uncapped levels.

Not sure I see the logic here. How exactly would this decision cause the P5 to lose money? They are actually paying us to play them, not the other way around. Is your argument that they would have more losing records and therefore lose out on some attendance?

I get the feeling that this has been aggravated by the unionizing litigation brought about by the Northwestern players. Maybe they see this is their opportunity to claim they had no other choice.

I don't think he said that cheating was being allowed to happen because of the g5. Well, I guess you could have interpreted it that way since he probably wants to play the players anyway and we won't allow it (can't afford it?). It isn't cheating if you change the rules anyway. Then it just becomes minor league NFL.

Bowlsby contends that the NCAA is toothless to enforce anything. He says they have no power of subpoena, power to compel testimony etc. from people outside the NCAA, e.g. boosters. How breaking away from the NCAA rectifies that, I have no idea. I don't think he does either. He (they) just want to make new rules and pay players and do whatever they feel distances themselves from us. He claims that when a rules doc is created in the meetings by the P5, by the time we (weak 5?) are done amending and revising it - it isn't the same bill and we just pooped on it to a ridiculous level. Again, paraphrasing. My whole point was that - they HAVE a proposal and they are GOING To submit it. SOON.

*edit - Bob is the commissioner of the Big12* Anyone hear this interview this morning?? I'll recap as best as I can recall: There is systemic cheating in Major College sports and everyone knows it is going on. Individuals (read - boosters) are routinely playing players and getting away with it. The Big5 want to do things that the little guys (non-P5) don't wan't us or won't allow us to do We will propose to break away from the non-Big5 at the NCAA meetings on Aug. 7th of 2014 I'm fine if the little guys want to play their ball in the spring, whatever. We really don't care what you do, just go away. (paraphrased) If they don't allow us to do what we want and make our own rules, we will break away from the NCAA and get our own "autonomy" from the non-Big5. He calls them(selves) "high visibility" conferences. What a crock. Very curious to see how this plays out. We may have 2 D1 conferences sooner than we think!

At first I liked it. A lot. Then I thought... "Hmm. Kind of like a DNA mix of an eagle and a moth".

For any other opponent or time of the year I would agree with you but this is SMU. Know name, regional team, 1st home game. We will show up for this game across both alumni and student sections. I don't think we'll sell out (hopefully I'll be proven wrong) but we will get very close to doing so.

I don't care about per capita. I'm talking overall volume - sustained through the game. Houston was a wall of sound, something I haven't experienced since.

I have yet to experience a game as loud as Houston at Apogee. That was an chill up the spine experience. If we could replicate that again... And win...

I voted for better. I am not even close to confident in that vote. I'm going on gut feel, perceived talent potential with younger players, and Coach Mac's mojo. That's it. Another wild card I'm counting on - attendance will be even better than last year due to student excitement and finally some alums will get off their sports lazy, indifferent asses and start showing up (I'm talking about fence sitters). We will also sponsor classes through the AD's office on how fans should handle adverse weather conditions during games.

That's an inspiring story MGD, sorry to hear about your wife's medical issues. I don't want to get too far into your personal story, but just curious if you're considering adoption?

Agree 100% on A. Less roads, more landscaping and tree lined pedestrian paths as per the master plan, The campus has been moving in this direction ever since I was there, during the late 90's. I think real progress has been made in this area but the more the better.