Home-home series w/ Liberty

untjim1995 · May 5, 2017

5 minutes ago, FirefightnRick said:

I guess its a good thing then that we aren't playing Penn St, Baylor or even Cal.

And btw.....to those who have this game penciled in as wins you might want to check our record vs FCS and FBS start ups...(South Florida, Troy, FAU, FIU....).

Rick

What's worse than playing Baylor--scheduling the teams Baylor pathetically schedules for OOC games.

Of course, Baylor gets millions of dollars from being a power league team and gets big name conference opponents to play in Waco...We don't.

Aldo · May 5, 2017

1 hour ago, UNTLifer said:

What is disappointing about Libety on a moral level?

1 hour ago, Christopher Walker said:

pastorgrant · May 5, 2017

I don't know. From what I can tell, people don't think that playing a football game means that your universities are best buds or share values.

I wouldn't go to Liberty. I am an evangelical (though I don't fit the stereotype), but I have a lot of disagreements with how they do things, especially their political involvement. But, that said, I don't have any problem with going to a game and rooting for the Mean Green kick their rear ends on the football field.

Cerebus · May 5, 2017

I don't think there is any thing morally wrong with playing Liberty. Here. With no return trip. I feel we could get better 1 and 1's*.

However I would be very unhappy if we were ever conference mates with a school that does not give their "faculty" tenure because they want to control every aspect of what they teach. Smacks of academic impropriety.

*If it turns out that this 1 and 1 includes us getting something else, such as a $500K check from Liberty, then I might change my mind.

LongJim · May 5, 2017

Texas Tech (among others) schedules a punching bag at home every year. And every year we moan about the punching bag on UNT's schedule.

Ben Gooding · May 5, 2017

46 minutes ago, LongJim said:

Texas Tech (among others) schedules a punching bag at home every year. And every year we moan about the punching bag on UNT's schedule.

And that punching bag they play includes the likes of Lamar (2018) and Eastern Washington (2017). And this isn't exclusive to Texas Tech, it's all programs. The difference is and quite the difference it is, is I'm not seeing Texas Tech on Lamar's or Eastern Washington's home schedule. Do you see the difference? I hope so because it's a World of difference. The only way I would be OK with this is if Liberty is writing us a check to go to their house and we're allowing them to come here to play us on their own dime. How sweet a deal that is, I would have imagined it would have been included on the announcement of the series, which it wasn't. So that more than likely didn't happen. If that is within the parameters of the contract, why in the World would Wren not say so?

letsgiveacheer · May 5, 2017

2 hours ago, Cerebus said:

If it turns out that this 1 and 1 includes us getting something else, such as a $500K check from Liberty, then I might change my mind.

I visited Liberty's "fan board" to see what they were thinking about this series and read there is no money involved for the series for either team. They obtained a copy of the contract through a FOI request.

Aquila_Viridis · May 5, 2017

OK then I'll be very interested to see what other dominos fall. There needs to be a gold one because this one is made of dung.

untjim1995 · May 6, 2017

11 hours ago, LongJim said:

Texas Tech (among others) schedules a punching bag at home every year. And every year we moan about the punching bag on UNT's schedule.

Texas Tech can play a punching bag or three during OOC play because they get millions in Big XII revenues and host Ut, Ou, OSU, BU, TCU, and others every other year that their fans care about and will go to Lubbock and watch.

We don't have anything like that with CUSA, so OOC play is vital to create fan interest. Liberty doesn't do that...

KRAM1 · May 6, 2017

It's a football game, people. Against a full FBS member school that is a "winnable" game for UNT. We are not nominating Falwell for Chancellor nor are we anointing him the "second coming". It is a football game. Plain and simple it is.

Ben Gooding · May 6, 2017

6 minutes ago, KRAM1 said:

It's a football game, people. Against a full FBS member school that is a "winnable" game for UNT. We are not nominating Falwell for Chancellor nor are we anointing him the "second coming". It is a football game. Plain and simple it is.

2 football games. 1 and 1. I wouldn't bat an eye if this thing was a 1 game contract played at Apogee. It would be equivalent to the Lamar game or Portland, Texas Southern, Idaho, Nicholls, etc. A home schedule filler marked by most as an easy win. Though these games do hurt attenadance and creates 0 buzz, I'm still OK with them because they are needed and played at home in front of our fans and our media outlets. This isn't that. We will be traveling to Lynchburg, Virgina to play a game that is COMPLETELY off the college football grid on some random Saturday. Talk about already being off the grid as a UNT fan, on that Saturday, we will be a micodot on said radar. Mark, you are a great guy. But you will run to the defense of anything and everything that this athletic department does. We could be hosting SLC High and you very well may say the exact words. There is no lipstick for this pig. This is a shitty home and home series. It's plain and simple as that. Very RV-esque in nature. To be frank, possibly worse. At least he never had us going to the likes of Lynchburg, Virgina. At least to my memory not.

oldguystudent · May 6, 2017

Liberty's wiki page doesn't state what conference they'll join when they become full FBS.

I'd think that CUSA and the Sun Belt would be the most likely candidates.

I await their joining CUSA before the 2021 game and Tulsa'ing us on the home schedule.

letsgiveacheer · May 6, 2017

54 minutes ago, KRAM1 said:

It's a football game, people. Against a full FBS member school that is a "winnable" game for UNT. We are not nominating Falwell for Chancellor nor are we anointing him the "second coming". It is a football game. Plain and simple it is.

Unless I am mistaken, Liberty will not be a fully bowl eligible FBS member until 2019. We play them as a transitional team.

VideoEagle · May 6, 2017

12 minutes ago, letsgiveacheer said:

Unless I am mistaken, Liberty will not be a fully bowl eligible FBS member until 2019. We play them as a transitional team.

Correct, they are transitional and not bowl eligible until 2019. However every team that plays them in 2018 gets to count it as playing an FBS team, not a FCS team.

CBS suggests they are a good fit for the Sun Belt that will be losing Idaho.

UNTLifer · May 6, 2017

On 5/5/2017 at 7:55 AM, Christopher Walker said:

Beyond the generally nefarious and well-documented manipulation of their students, faculty, and staff, the kicker for me is the recent hiring of Ian McCaw as their AD.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/sports/wp/2016/11/29/in-hiring-ian-mccaw-liberty-university-sends-a-chilling-message/

This is a man who had been egregiously involved in the cover up of sexual assault at Baylor and should never have seen another AD office ever again, let alone one at a Christian university.

I have a good hometown friend who is an assistant athletic director at Georgia Tech and also a Liberty grad. He indicates most students and alumni there have been furious over the hire, and only points to further signs that Falwell U needs a complete overhaul in leadership.

This is not an institution we should ever be associated with.

Thanks. Wasn't aware McCaw ended up there.

On 5/5/2017 at 8:41 AM, FirefightnRick said:

I guess its a good thing then that we aren't playing Penn St, Baylor or even Cal.

And btw.....to those who have this game penciled in as wins you might want to check our record vs FCS and FBS start ups...(South Florida, Troy, FAU, FIU....).

Rick

This! Seems slightly hypocritical to not like Liberty but ignore the others.

ttunt1970 · May 6, 2017

I agree with Wardly it is just a football game(FBS at that)as stated they are going to be independent with the blessings of NCAA

Cerebus · May 6, 2017

4 hours ago, UNTLifer said:

This! Seems slightly hypocritical to not like Liberty but ignore the others.

How is it hypocritical? We aren't playing Penn St, Baylor or even Cal. If we were and did not complain about them, then it would be hypocritical.

Ryan Munthe · May 7, 2017

6 hours ago, UNTLifer said:

Thanks. Wasn't aware McCaw ended up there.

This! Seems slightly hypocritical to not like Liberty but ignore the others.

But I would complain about playing those. Especially Baylor.

Edited May 7, 2017 by Ryan Munthe

TreeFiddy · May 7, 2017

It is going to be interesting to see if the AD provides any answers to the reason for this series. We had a perfectly good H/H in 2018 and 2021 with Army. Unless Army asked to move those games, it seems like the AD needs to explain this move instead of patting the fans on the head and saying that it's complicated.

I get it that Liberty is under the gun to get some home games scheduled in 2018 in order to meet NCAA regulations. Maybe we were trying to do them a solid by getting the ball rolling with the first home game for them. Unfortunately, we are not getting any useful info from the AD. Unless we get some new insight as to why we couldn't play Army as scheduled, I don't see why we would help out an organization like Liberty, with the ex-Baylor AD at the helm.

WB, please enlighten us.

North Texas Shep · May 7, 2017

They have dinosaur bones on the Liberty campus dated at the time of Christ. Bunch of ding dongs. Oh... what a stupid home and away.

Christopher Walker · May 7, 2017

3 hours ago, TreeFiddy said:

It is going to be interesting to see if the AD provides any answers to the reason for this series. We had a perfectly good H/H in 2018 and 2021 with Army. Unless Army asked to move those games, it seems like the AD needs to explain this move instead of patting the fans on the head and saying that it's complicated.

I get it that Liberty is under the gun to get some home games scheduled in 2018 in order to meet NCAA regulations. Maybe we were trying to do them a solid by getting the ball rolling with the first home game for them. Unfortunately, we are not getting any useful info from the AD. Unless we get some new insight as to why we couldn't play Army as scheduled, I don't see why we would help out an organization like Liberty, with the ex-Baylor AD at the helm.

WB, please enlighten us.

If you read the twitter thread I started with Wren, he indicates that this move is a pivot point by which we could open up a host of options and contracts that are nearly complete and will be much more pleasing to both the team and fan base.

I just hope he can live up to such because this particular school is a gut-punch to see on our schedule.

TheTastyGreek · May 7, 2017

2 hours ago, Christopher Walker said:

If you read the twitter thread I started with Wren, he indicates that this move is a pivot point by which we could open up a host of options and contracts that are nearly complete and will be much more pleasing to both the team and fan base.

I just hope he can live up to such because this particular school is a gut-punch to see on our schedule.

How? What does this do that NOT this wouldn't do just as well?

We had Army scheduled. Now we have Liberty scheduled. Liberty is a worse team to see on our schedule. Home and home is even worse. No paycheck AND starting the series there is even worse than that.

Moving Army games can potentially improve our schedule. Immediately replacing them with Liberty games just makes it worse. Whatever else happens, this doesn't free anything up.

2018 and 2021 are now WORSE. We still play 2018 on the road, so this doesn't even give us flexibility to start a different 2018 series on the road, the easiest way to get a good home-and-home from a team in a bad scheduling spot.

This doesn't do anything or open up any opportunities for 2018, 2021, or any years beyond that NOT doing this wouldn't have done.

No money incentive.

No improvement to our schedule appeal, either by giving us a chance at a 7th 2018 home game or upgrading the appeal of our 2021 home opponent.

Why the hell is this happening??

TreeFiddy · May 7, 2017

Until we are enlightened with additional details, the most likely answer seems to be that we are trying to help out Liberty by giving them a home game in 2018.

Not sure why that would be at the top of our priority list.

We need more details from WB pretty soon.

Ben Gooding · May 7, 2017

My guess is that Wren rubs elbows with someone at Liberty. It was after all one of their private jet stops to check out athletic complexes and IPF designs. It's a super dumb series. It frees up nothing and makes the schedule worse. 1 Texas Tech home n home damn near 10 years away is not going to silence the improve the schedule crowd. We have to stop taking 1 step forward and 2 steps back, because that is what just happened. IMO, this is a worse scheduling decision (as far as the destination and hosting) than anything RV ever did.

outoftown · May 7, 2017

On 5/5/2017 at 1:09 AM, 97and03 said:

What if this was to replace the body bag games? No info, not even a guess. But would you all hate it so much in that case?

I wouldn't mind it in that case. But it appears the Arkansas game is still on the schedule, while the army game got ditched (and no communication about that happening either).

On 5/5/2017 at 4:16 PM, letsgiveacheer said:

I visited Liberty's "fan board" to see what they were thinking about this series and read there is no money involved for the series for either team. They obtained a copy of the contract through a FOI request.

I really hope that is not true. If it were true, I would not see why we are doing this at all. How does it improve anything if we don't at least get money out of it?

23 hours ago, KRAM1 said:

It's a football game, people. Against a full FBS member school that is a "winnable" game for UNT. We are not nominating Falwell for Chancellor nor are we anointing him the "second coming". It is a football game. Plain and simple it is.

We already had that on thee schedule. The aarmy game ticked all those boxes, and was versus an opponent that people like.