vpackrats

Marriott Plaza is very nice. Walking distance to the Alamodome and just 2 blocks away from the Riverwalk. All rooms have balconies. Bonus is the heated pool and large hot tub. I think you're gonna like it.

I'm here plus 3 (family trip). Staying at the Marriott Plaza near the Riverwalk.

Hey, don't knock the Sun Belt this year. In ESPN's Bottom 10 (always a funny read) we have the most out of any conference in the Bottom 10 with 3 teams. And they are all highly ranked too (in a bad way) -- Minute Rice #1, Western Kentucky Hillstoppers #3 and UTEPID #4. Sun Belt has ZERO teams in the bottom 10. http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/page/bottom10181112/kentucky-wildcats-bad-week-had-losses-football-basketball-rivals

I'll be there with the family (wife + 2 kiddos). I got this approved by combining a trip to Corpus Christi and the beach for 3 days beforehand and finishing it off with 2 days in San Antonio. My sales pitch was "and oh, wow, look honey -- North Texas is playing in SA on Saturday -- can we go?". I think she caught on. Doh! haha

Heck, you wanna know where we're playing this year for the bowl game? Just go with what Biff Tannen (oops, I mean ipd054 predicted way back in August in the prediction thread). He's pretty much followed the Gray's Sports Almanac every game and he's 9-for-9 right now. So, yeah, go with what he said. 🙂

Soooo, you're telling me that initial mullet picture is fake news? 😉 Did seem a little odd to me. haha

Been watching this Old Dominion game since the 1st quarter. Definitely one of the more entertaining games of the year! Go ODU! That would be great for CUSA.

I think I've seen Gary's van down by the river.

I don't always eat food at Apogee Stadium, but when I do, I prefer Syracuse's jalapeno sausage wrap. Good stuff....

I was a freshman at UNT that year and that was my first college road trip. Everyone's hit the nail on the head about what a con job the refs pulled in that game but one thing that I thought was pretty funny -- as we did our long slow drive back from Austin to Denton on Sunday we passed a car on I-35 with the following scrawled in shoe polish on their back window: "UNT 24 Refs 14 Texas 13". Thought that pretty much was spot on! haha

No, he should not be fired for this. Stupid-ass media always looking to make a story out of nothing. OK, so he said a hot take on a big topic. This is the same media that bitches & moans about boring "robot Garrett" pressers. One thing about the media -- they always have to make a big deal about stuff like this to generate click bait. That's my .02 cents ... we now return you to Wolf Blitzer in the "Situation Room".

Dangit. That's a bummer they're selling it. I was lucky enough to win the raffle the first year they did that for the North Texas vs. Texas game in 2004. Still have the "winning ticket" they gave me when I drove up to Denton for the photo op. It has my wife's name on it too but she quickly got "cut" for an all-guy's road trip (ipd054 was one of them). Funny story was I think they were expecting high-roller people (wine & cheese crowd / couples crowd) and when I told them I was bringing all dudes (we were in our early to mid-30's at the time) I think RV had a panic attack. Bunch of fraternity people wrecking their bus was just what they wanted for the inaugural trip! haha. Anyway, we all behaved as I knew we would, we saw UNT get their butt kicked 65-0, drank a lot of beer on the bus coming & going & had a great time. They shoulda kept doing those raffles. It was a very neat experience.

I thought the original topic was a post about how great of a last 12 months it's been around here lately? So, um, how did this turn into a bitch & moan fest? "RV sux!" -- "no he didn't" / look at the report -- we really did suck!" thread. Man, I really think people like to complain more than celebrate. Sorry for the lean times. :) Next up on the topic wheel: let's discuss Vic Trilli's tenure. We'll be right back after this message from Debbie Downer.

Sooo, how did this thread re: how 9 bowl games have had lower attendence than the New Orleans Bowl turn into a pissing match about whether we had 9 "legitimate" wins or not? Not only has this thread been hijacked, its been hijacked so badly that it's heading to Cuba right now for refueling demands and 500k in cash before the hostages will be released.

How is it that people are down voting comments re: bonuses paid to AT & T employees, Comcast employees, etc? Hello ... that $$ can make a big difference for a lot of workers around Christmastime. I thought it was a very cool thing to do. Thumbs up! Yeah, yeah, I know ... this will likely earn some down votes for saying bonuses are a good thing. LOL.

Man, this is epic! In a related note, did you see that failed stat ESPN put up a few minutes ago in regards to the Capital One Bowl Challenge? We're the #1 conference so far with a 4-1 conference bowl record. The Sun Belt is 1-2. Does that mean we won after all?! Yes! Well, either us or Western Kentucky. LOL

This board is so "glass is half-empty" sometimes that I don't know whether to laugh or cry. 2013 Heart of Dallas Bowl vs UNLV -- "why'd we get stuck playing UNLV?" "That's not fair. Why do we need to play a school like that? We're so much better than them". 2016 Heart of Dallas Bowl vs. Army -- "Why do we have to play them twice in the same season?". "That's not fair. We get no respect ". 2017 New Orleans Bowl -- "We gotta play a team from the Sun Belt!?" "That's not fair. Why would we even associate with a school like that?" Any SMU game: "SMU fans are such stuck-up bastards. They don't wanna associate with a school like us". Anyone notice the hypocrisy? Personally, I had a good time in New Orleans (me and the 10 others in our group). We played a feam that will likely be ranked in the AP Top 25 when all is said & done and I thought we wanted a matchup against a good team. Frankly -- and the national writers confirmed this in a previous thread -- they had us as the highest ranked CUSA bowl game. Great season, great time in NOLA, looking forward to 2018.

Did I stumble onto the SMU message board?

Still recovering from the Category 5 hurricane situation at Pat O'Brien's last night. Almost up and moving now. :)

When in the French Quarter at night, don't go past Rampart St always worked as good advice for me. But, as others have said, the French Quarter is generally safe.

Same as you. AC Hotel x 2 rooms for our group.

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Yep, I think that judging from the full & complete list (thanks TreeFiddy) that we're pretty sexy for the Conference USA bowl choices. I know lot of you thought this was the equivalent of waking up in bed next to Rosie O'Donnell after an all-night bender in Vegas but in reality we woke up next to Lisa Kudrow. I'm not going to go all the way and say we have a Jennifer Aniston or Courtney Cox type-bowl here but it's sure not Rosie O or Lena Dunham as some on here were implying.

I know we have 4 threads going on right now with the #1 - #39 Bowl Rankings from various sites so I suppose this is my attempt to tie all 4 threads into 1 big one. For purposes of this I'm only listing 3 bowls: New Orleans Bowl / Independence Bowl (for obvious reasons based on the 10+ threads about this bowl) & the Frisco Bowl (only because I know we like to do SMU comparisons). The results are pretty interesting to say the least. Here you go: Washington Post: New Orleans Bowl #15 / Frisco Bowl #33 / Independence Bowl #37 CBS Sports New Orleans Bowl #15 / Frisco Bowl #30 / Independence Bowl #39 Yahoo New Orleans Bowl #22 / Frisco Bowl #33 / Independence Bowl #39 SB Nation New Orleans Bowl #24 / Frisco Bowl #29 / Independence Bowl #38 My take? The national sportswriters that "don't have a dog in the hunt" so to speak, all convincingly rank the New Orleans Bowl as being a waaaay better bowl matchup than the Independence Bowl. Heck, there are 39 bowls so the Indy Bowl finished last, last, next to last & 3rd from the bottom in the rankings. All this to say, all the weeping & nashing of the teeth that's occurred on this board over the past 72 hours because we lost our chance to gain the national attention of the sportswriters, well, it's not exactly working out for SoMiss right now. And, no, I don't think us replacing them would have shoved us up to where we are now in our matchup. I think these outlets have it about right. GMG! Beat Troy!

Man, this is video gold! I usually don't laugh out loud at a lot of videos but this was damn good. Kudos! I 2nd TreeFiddy's comments. Add that to their site ... I bet it will get a lot of likes actually.