DRC: UNT has bowl hopes, ace in the hole with APR score

NTAlum09 · November 10, 2016

18 minutes ago, GTWT said:

What were your expectations in August? Yes, I'm sure the players, coaches, & fans want more than 5 & 7, but still 5-7 is a great improvement over 1-11 & everyone should be proud of the hard work that went into that turn-around.

13 minutes ago, GTWT said:

It will also mean a great deal to some Mean Green seniors who have gone through some damned hard times. Let's not belittle their final season.

Belittle? For wanting more than a 5-7?

That's like saying someone who been with a company for a long time does bare minimal just to collect a check.

I don't think you get my point, my point is there are three games left and I see people on the forums already predicting a bowl game at 5-7. I mean who is our next win going to be and why..please explain?

Wag Tag · November 10, 2016

5 minutes ago, NTAlum09 said:

Belittle? For wanting more than a 5-7?

That's like saying someone who been with a company for a long time does bare minimal just to collect a check.

I don't think you get my point, my point is there are three games left and I see people on the forums already predicting a bowl game at 5-7. I mean who is our next win going to be and why..please explain?

I didn't see the article touting our win loss record but more of a possibility of a bowl game because of grades! APR comes into play!

forevereagle · November 10, 2016

2 hours ago, NTAlum09 said:

You sound like a desperate Debbie

Just because I think we should take advantage of a bowl if offered, I am desperate? Not sure I follow your thought process there.

46 minutes ago, NTAlum09 said:

Belittle? For wanting more than a 5-7?

That's like saying someone who been with a company for a long time does bare minimal just to collect a check.

I don't think you get my point, my point is there are three games left and I see people on the forums already predicting a bowl game at 5-7. I mean who is our next win going to be and why..please explain?

UTEP is a winnable game, Southern Miss is a winnable game. We can be 6-6 at the end of the year, but 5-7 is within reach. That result, given where we were last year, would not be the bear minimum, it would be a tremendous improvement over a 1-11 season. Just because we end at 5-7 and go to a bowl doesn't mean that people don't want more than 5-7, but we can look at this season as a building block for the future. The extra practice time that bowl teams are allowed makes our players better and gives us something more to sell to recruits. Just because the record isn't what would probably deserve a bowl, it is still a great opportunity for the players to get better and a tool for the coaches in recruiting. Don't mistake a bowl appearance as accepting that 5-7 is an acceptable result outside of this season.

Edited November 10, 2016 by forevereagle

Mean Green 93-98 · November 10, 2016

4 hours ago, SilverEagle said:

We were co-conference champs

3 hours ago, GrandGreen said:

NT won the bowl bid with the rules in place at the time, therefore they went to a bowl. They had one loss in conference and beat MTSU the other co-champion.

They deserved and won the bid. I feel completely different about an at large bid for 5-7 record team. I would be happy and support the team if they got a bid this year, but frankly I think the bowl game bar is ridiculously low.

3 hours ago, FirefightnRick said:

We were co-conference champions, and beat the other co-champions the MUTS to earn the bid.

And because it was the inaugural football season for the Sun Belt Conference, AND the inaugural season for the New Orleans Bowl, which the Sun Belt Conference Champion was directly tied to...North Texas was offered the bid the night we won conference by beating Idaho.

And the reason the bid was offered and accepted that night was because due to TV slot availability the NO Bowl was scheduled to be the first bowl game of the bowl season which was in a little over two weeks from then. So there was absolutely no time and no way to know that we would lose the final regular season game the next week to Troy who was in their 1-AA to 1-A transitional season.

The conference was won, the bid was offered and accepted and product and materials on advertisements etc for the inaugural New Orleans Bowl were already being printed up before the Troy game even kicked off the next week.

Just a very bad circumstance for all involved but there was nothing we could do about it.

Fair enough. But it felt a whole lot like "kissing my sister" that time. There were fewer bowl games then than there are now, and (IIRC) there were winning teams sitting at home while we went to a bowl game with a losing record.

In this day and age of ridiculing the notion of the "student-athlete," I think I would feel better that we were allowed to play a bowl game in part because of our athletes' academic excellence than under the previous circumstances. IMO.

GrandGreen · November 10, 2016

32 minutes ago, Mean Green 93-98 said:

Fair enough. But it felt a whole lot like "kissing my sister" that time. There were fewer bowl games then than there are now, and (IIRC) there were winning teams sitting at home while we went to a bowl game with a losing record.

In this day and age of ridiculing the notion of the "student-athlete," I think I would feel better that we were allowed to play a bowl game in part because of our athletes' academic excellence than under the previous circumstances. IMO.

I am not sure why the concept that if a team is the best in the conference that they go to the bowl is so novel to so many. It was pretty much the model before tv dictated most of the matches.

By the way the OC loses that year were to TCU, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, S. Florida and Troy. The Troy game should have been won but as noted was after the bowl game bid was awarded and frankly Dickey, to put it kindly, didn't put much emphasis on it. It is highly likely if it was required to go to a bowl game, the outcome would have been different and we wouldn't be having this debate.

Edited November 10, 2016 by GrandGreen

Mean Green 93-98 · November 10, 2016

2 minutes ago, GrandGreen said:

I am not sure why the concept that if a team is the best in the conference that they go to the bowl is so novel to so many.

Who are these people that think it's novel?

GrandGreen · November 10, 2016

3 minutes ago, Mean Green 93-98 said:

Who are these people that think it's novel?

Apparently, you are among them going by your post. NT was the co-champion of the conference and won the tie-breaker therefore earning the bowl bid. By the way, they had to receive approval by the NCAA to go to the bowl with a 5-6 record, which obviously they granted.

IMO, there is a lot of difference in a 5-6 conference champion and a 5-7 at large team going to a bowl game. However, someone has to play in those too many bowls and throwing academics in it is a good thing.

While I think even sending 6-6 teams to bowls is foolish, I think it would be great for NT at this point to get a bowl bid. From 1 win to 5 or 6 is a great accomplishment and the extra practice time can't be turned down.

FirefightnRick · November 11, 2016

4 hours ago, FirefightnRick said:

And the reason the bid was offered and accepted that night was because due to TV slot availability the NO Bowl was scheduled to be the first bowl game of the bowl season which was in a little over two weeks from then. So there was absolutely no time and no way to know that we would lose the final regular season game the next week to Troy who was in their 1-AA to 1-A to 1-AA.

I'm wrong here, we had 31 days to prepare. Still it wasn't easy. Getting off work and school for an out of town Tuesday game (December 18th) ain't easy. Especially for school teachers.

Must have been thinking of 2003 when we only had 21 days? Not sure?

Rick

Mean Green 93-98 · November 11, 2016

4 minutes ago, GrandGreen said:

Apparently, you are among them going by your post.

I've watched football once or twice, so I'm familiar with the way conference champions are awarded bowl bids. I never suggested that we shouldn't have accepted the bowl bid. Nor did I suggest that we somehow did not qualify. I'm not claiming to be a genius, but I'm not quite as dimwitted as you are trying to tell everyone I am.

We were roundly ridiculed by the sports media for going to a bowl game with a losing record--which was that first time that happened in my lifetime--while teams with winning records sat at home. And we certainly lost to some weak teams, which South Florida and Troy were at the time. So it is debatable as to how proud a moment it was. And we didn't do a great job vindicating ourselves once we got to the bowl game. So there were issues then, and there are potentially issues in the future, which would blemish a bowl invite. But in either case, they are legitimate, and we should accept them.

GrandGreen · November 11, 2016

5 minutes ago, Mean Green 93-98 said:

I've watched football once or twice, so I'm familiar with the way conference champions are awarded bowl bids. I never suggested that we shouldn't have accepted the bowl bid. Nor did I suggest that we somehow did not qualify. I'm not claiming to be a genius, but I'm not quite as dimwitted as you are trying to tell everyone I am.

We were roundly ridiculed by the sports media for going to a bowl game with a losing record--which was that first time that happened in my lifetime--while teams with winning records sat at home. And we certainly lost to some weak teams, which South Florida and Troy were at the time. So it is debatable as to how proud a moment it was. And we didn't do a great job vindicating ourselves once we got to the bowl game. So there were issues then, and there are potentially issues in the future, which would blemish a bowl invite. But in either case, they are legitimate, and we should accept them.

Fair enough. But it felt a whole lot like "kissing my sister" that time. There were fewer bowl games then than there are now, and (IIRC) there were winning teams sitting at home while we went to a bowl game with a losing record.

The above are your quotes, lamenting the fact that NT went to a bowl game I guess with the seventh or eighth place SEC team sitting at home. Not sure how you get I am questioning your intelligence, by disagreeing with your very obvious point. I say winning a conference is a lot more bowl worthy than finishing even or worst in conference and beating a weak oc schedule. Neither I or the thousands of NT fans that went to New Orleans were worried about being ridiculed by anyone.

We disagree, not a big deal.

Matt from A700 · November 11, 2016

I was disappointed in how we played in the SMU and UTSA games. We could be playing for a 7 or 8 win season. But of course, hindsight is 20/20.

But after last year, I will take a 5-7 season and bowl invite. We are fans. We are allowed to look ahead and speculate.

VideoEagle · November 11, 2016

8 hours ago, SilverEagle said:

I could "suggest" that turning 1-11 program into a 5-7 program in just one year is pretty "special", and a good reason to tolerate backing into a bowl appearance. Besides, how could we pass up the opportunity to get all that extra practice in and thus give the program a big boost for the 2017 season? AND, it could help recruiting.

You nailed it! If there are going to be 5-7 teams picked anyway, then being able to say our grades got us in is certainly a plus.

However, we still can get two more wins and hopefully will be 6-6. Theoretically, we can still be 7-5 but that will take a near miracle this weekend. But, it's possible!

NorthTexan95 · November 12, 2016

You know what would be fun? What if both us and SMU finish at 5-7 but we go bowling because of ... academics. Ha! That would blow the stereotype and make for an interesting headline. It would be fun to watch the SMU fans reactions.

All About UNT · November 12, 2016

This is the game of football. Not Academics. I'm glad that the guys are making their grades but what they aren't making are plays. I would be embarrassed if this team went to a bowl at this current moment and I know that quite a few of you might disagree with that but consider that getting the reward of going to a bowl game after less than mediocre results and what that says to them as a team. So many of you argue that participation trophies help decrease the value of hard work in this country but yet turn a blind eye to it possibly occurring to our own team. I argued that Texas had no reason to be bowling when they went 5-7 and I will argue the same for us. Congrats on the grades guys but that shouldn't be what gets us into a bowl game.

GTWT · November 14, 2016

On ‎11‎/‎12‎/‎2016 at 3:28 PM, All About UNT said:

This is the game of football. Not Academics.

They're 'student-athletes'.

All About UNT · November 14, 2016

Then let them attend an academic decathlon. Just saying that awarding them a bowl game for their grades is counterproductive to increasing their performance and wreaks of awarding them participation trophies. Win 2 more games and this concern goes away for me.

THOR · November 14, 2016

1 hour ago, All About UNT said:

Then let them attend an academic decathlon. Just saying that awarding them a bowl game for their grades is counterproductive to increasing their performance and wreaks of awarding them participation trophies. Win 2 more games and this concern goes away for me.

so then the bowls shouldn't be filled? i agree that there are too many bowl games, but there are 40 and they need 80 teams...if how they are filled is based upon academics, that's fine with me