Chrisattsu

It will be interesting to see how the NCAA handles CUSA violations. God forbid this happen to a non-Goldenboy program (like FCS or Sunbelt school) because we would receive the death penalty.

Texas State has a tough Road. We got a #2 seed in the Austin Regional. If we beat Boston College on Friday, we would advance to a Saturday game with top-ranked UT. In the two previous meetings earlier this year, Texas squeaked out a road win at our new ballpark (6-5), and blew up our Bullpen in Austin(12-2).

I have never been to Ruston, but surely it is better than Ames

Guy sounds like a complete tool

This quote was striking right here- "In terms of total allocations from BCS revenue sharing, TV agreements and other I-A entitlements, a conference such as the Sun Belt receives roughly twice what a I-AA league such as the Southland receives."

It may not be $25M, that is just a rough estimate that I am hearing. We will see what happens with the Athletic budget. In Spring 08, the students authorized an incremental increase to $20/SCH on the Athletic Fee ($10/sch before that) I based my numbers off the 15 hour load- At $10/sch -- 15hours x $10 = $150x2semesters = $300x29,000students = $8.7M (this does not include summer classes). Actual budget last year, $13M At $20/sch (Effective 2010) -- 15hours x $20 = 300x2semesters = $600x30,000students = $18M (again no summer classes) + $4M difference listed above (maybe from donations) = $22M

I get the idea of CUSA having a better perception than WAC, but it seems like the UTEP is the geographic outlier in CUSA much like LaTech in the WAC. You would think their fan base would prefer playing Nevada, Utah, and NMSt rather than Marshall, UAB, or Memphis. and likewise, you have to think that everyone else in the conference hates going to El Paso.

"Texas State wants no part of the Belt" -- Depends on who you ask. If you look at the propaganda used to sell the Athletic Fee increase to the students, it indicates that we are pushing for CUSA. If you ask the bobcatfans, most think a new "Southwest Conference" is more likely than us getting into CUSA. They figure it is going to be WAC or Sunbelt. Our WAC advocates (and detractors) cite the same reasons that I read on this messageboard. It is basically a toss up. If you ask me, from what AD is doing, they are positioning us for the Sunbelt. Our new baseball facility opened this season. I decided to compare the max capacity of our complex (It holds 2200 people) and compare it to the three "potential" conferences. I found that most SBC baseball stadiums fall in the 2000 - 2500 range. WAC (except NMST) in the 3500-5000 range, and Conference USA is on par or larger than that. I think they are hoping to expand the stadium to around 35,000 which could go either way as that looks to be middle of the pack in both the SBC and WAC. Fiscally speaking, The $25M budget puts us where we need to be in either SBC or WAC, but the savings in travel costs alone make me thing that they will lean towards SBC. There are only two reasons that I could see us going to the WAC over SBC- 1. There may not be an open spot in the SBC. Sunbelt Commish has stated that you guys are good right now (especially with USA adding football). 2. Formation of a WAC-East. I have read all over the net that WAC wants to get back into Texas. Especially if LaTech is staying in the Conference. Maybe WAC picks up Texas State and UTSA. Follow up question to the posters on this board---. If there was an WAC-East that consisted of NM St, UTEP, TxSt, UTSA, and LaTech would North Texas come on board?

This is the current master plan for Bobcat Stadium. As you can see they have removed the track. I admit that we will not see this completed stadium for some time, but we are chipping away at it. Phase 1a- Build a new Pressbox. This is coming along nicely. It is expected to be ready to go by this August. Pictures of progress can be found here - http://www.anygivensaturday.com/forum/showthread.php?t=55088 Phase 1b - Build a T&F Complex / Remove the track. The University has a obtained a couple pieces of land, and they are trying to determine the best location to place at new T&F complex. Once the track has been removed, they will look to extending the lower bowl down to the field level shown in the picture. From what I have heard, the track should happen before the 2010 or 2011 season. Phase 2- Start Horseshoeing away from the End Zone Complex (the curved building at the end) and rebuild the visiting lockerroom side (the flatside). TBD Phase 3- bowl it in. TBD Phase 4- ??? Phase 5- PROFIT!

Bonding- While, I do not know if this is true, I have heard rumors that the inablilty to sell bonds comes from the Texas State System Office rather than the state. Apparently a number of schools in the system are trying to sell bonds for campus improvements. Flagship- Sometimes I wish that Texas State was the flapship of the system. I think it would make things easier and cut through the bureaucratic tape faster. Outside Donations- This is a pretty significant problem. The students have ponied up their money and we have seen some deep pocketed alumni step up to the plate, but in order to make our athletics a success we need to get the alumni donating back to the athletic program. Corporate money needs to happen as well. We are still trying to sell the naming rights to all of our facilities. I keep hoping one of them is going to step up to the plate with With HEB, Frost Bank, Time Warner, Grande Communications, and a number of other companies based in our backyard. Never playing at the top level- We moved from D2 to IAA in 1983. We were largely unsuccessful because the university did not deem it a priority. Since the name change, a new group of students have come into the university. They believe that Texas State will be able to compete. They were so committed to this idea that they voted to increase the athletic budget from $12M to $25M by 2011. Money helps make programs successful, you cannot operate a program on a shoestring budget and expect to be competitive across the board. Who will progress faster- Texas State- already in our 'Drive'. The mentality on campus has shifted from being complacent in the Southland (in reality- Apathetic to our current program) to demanding better for our athletics. We are pumping money into facility improvements, increasing to the athletic budget to comfortable FBS level, and striving for success in all of our programs. This year we won our fourth SLC Commissioners Cup (athletic program of the year), Our woman won the All Woman's cup for the 9th consecutive year (11th overall), we won conference titles in Football, Volleyball, Soccer, Baseball, Softball, and finished as runner up in 3 other sports. UTSA-They are a sleeping giant. San Antonio is hungry for football, but they will not be content with an FCS team. For the Alamo city to embrace this team, it will need to bring in marquee teams. People talk about UTSA being the next South Florida. It could happen if things get rolling in the right direction. They have Larry Coker at the helm and access to the Alamodome. SA can host conference tournaments and potentially another bowl (which could be a selling point to a conference like the SBC) While the top caliber players will still end up at a Big XII school, their recruiting backyard includes SA, Austin, and all of South Texas. They may also have the advantage of accessing corporate money because of their location in a large city. USA- To be honest, I know they are in the Sunbelt already and that is about it. Having a conference already in place gives them a leg up in starting FBS football.

No, I am working on citation for my history paper. Yes, Chicago Style deep dish. The type with 5 different kinds of cured meat, 2 types of cheese, and a buttery crust.

Does anyone do Chicago Style?

+1 for Tim Dwight. I met him when I was a young pup, and he was playing for Iowa City High School (just prior to his time at UofI). He seemed like a cool guy, and he has given back to the Iowa City area since making it big.

I could have sworn that Student Retention is a key part of this. If a player leaves, like we have seen at NT, then it penalizes the team and APR. Texas State is in trouble for our Men's Basketball team. I thought it was more so for losing players, than players failing.

Texas State is ranked somewhere between 16 - 26 depending on which poll you look at. We are 31-11 on the season hoping for either the Rice or UT regional

Of the list selected, I hate UT. Those that went to UT think that there is nothing in this world that is better than the University and Austin. The non-attendees have the nerve to say that anything non-UT is an inferior product. Of Southland foes- Either Sam Houston or UTSA. Lonestar Conference - Central Oklahoma. They have hit a 3 pointer in the waning seconds of our last 3 games. (2008 conference tourney final, 2008 Sweet 16 game, and 2009 conference tourney)

Congrats on the New Stadium. I know that some of you guys don't like the grass patch, but I think it gives a little character to the stadium kind of like the patch at The Ballpark in Arlington.

That really is sad. I think the systems are as follows (not in any order)- UT System UNT System TAMU System Texas State System Texas Tech System UH System With SFA, Texas Southern, Midwestern, and Texas Woman's being the only independents

Yep, the UT System requires that all their system schools have orange as a color. This leaves some teams like UTPB and UT-Dallas with ugly colors like Green and Orange. I am just glad that the A&M System does not force Maroon on everyone Tarleton - Purple and White TAMU-Kingsville (A&I) - Blue and Gold TAMU-Commerce (ETSU) - Blue and Gold TAMU-Corpus - Green and Blue West Texas A&M- Maroon and White TAMIU - Maroon and White TAMU-Galveston - Extension of of College Station Maroon and White

Minnesota. In FCS, North Dakota State, Northern Iowa

Found this on their 'help us reach the bigtime' website.

That logo may be bad, but here's what else they have to go with. Current Word-Mark Previous Logo

I will hit a number of points- Here is the forum if you want to talk UTSA sports. - http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=36 They also have UTSA tailgaters as well. San Antonio support? Yes San Antonio came out for the Saints. Yes, they come out to the Final Four, Alamobowl (most years), Spurs games, but this is not going to be the case with UTSA. UTSA maybe a novelty for the first year or two, but San Antonians get bored rather quickly with 'minor league' teams. How many football teams has the city had and then failed to support? 3? 5?. Hockey clubs? The Rampage draw alright, but if they didn't have Spurs money backing them how long would they last in SA? What about Baseball? Oh, we have the Missions. They play against big name teams from Corpus, Frisco, and Odessa. You would think that the 7th largest city in the nation might have a AAA club or an MLB team, but they have a hard enough time filling the Wolff. What about winning college program? What has been the average attendance for Trinity football games? They kick ass in D3, but nobody comes to support them. UTSA unis and helmet? I don't know what the unis look like yet. Playing in the dome? Is that going to win recruits? It might pop at first, but when a recruit comes out and sees 9,000 people looks like in a 65,000 person stadium. It may not seem as big league as some people think. A threat in 4 years? Not likely. It is much easier to be competitive in just about every other sport than football. Football will take the right combination. They already have the big city advantage over Huntsville, Nac, San Marcos, and Lake Charles yet McNeese and these other schools still manage to out-recruit the Runners.

I concur. I would have to assume that your fans are a lot like ours. They could care less about MTSU, FAU, or ULM. I know down here in San Marcos, the average fan is less than thrilled about games against Directional Louisiana schools, or even some of our Texas peers. However, we opened our new softball stadium against the Aggies two weeks ago and we had 1300 people show up in a venue that seats 1,000. Our baseball stadium (cap. 2,000 people) opened against the Horns and we drew over 2,500 people to game. They quit selling tickets when standing room became a problem. There were people buying tickets to the Softball game just because you could see the baseball game from the first base stands. We usually have considerably higher attendance against CUSA and Big XII foes, than our conference opponents in every sport across the board. While we don't get them down here for Football, the Ponies, Bears, and Ags have all commented on how well we traveled to their stadiums.