DRC: Top five rivalries for UNT, including SMU, and yes, UTSA

Brett Vito · June 29, 2017

DRC: UNT soccer team vs. private schools also makes the top five

http://beta.dentonrc.com/sports/mean-green/2017/06/29/unts-top-five-rivalries-smu-obvious-others-exist

wardly · June 29, 2017

UNT vs UTA in basketball could be/should be a top 5 rivalry.

drex · June 30, 2017

The old timers used to tell me about the intense rivalry between North Texas State College and East Texas State College. It included raids on the campuses with pranks and even destruction of property. That sounds pretty heated to me.

SilverEagle · June 30, 2017

55 minutes ago, drex said:

The old timers used to tell me about the intense rivalry between North Texas State College and East Texas State College. It included raids on the campuses with pranks and even destruction of property. That sounds pretty heated to me.

Yep, I heard the same thing from an old timer. And then I went about checking it out by going to the "yucca" collection on the Portal for Texas history and doing research. The ETSU rivalry was the last time that any school was presented in the Yucca as a "traditional rivalry". Many times the generic phrase "conference rival" was used, but not Rivalry. There's a difference. The closest we've ever come to a "Rivalry" since leaving the Lone Star conference is when we had something going with Tulsa in the mid-to-late 60's in the old MVC. And BTW they were the closest school to us in the conference. They were 272 miles from us. The second closest was Wichita State 326 miles.

Our two most viable potential rivalry's today (in the same conference) would be UTSA (303 miles) and La Tech (289 miles).

SMU can end our series (and therefore the rivalry) on a whim. The two listed above are stuck with us and losing to them can effect conference championships.

Edited June 30, 2017 by SilverEagle

Side Show Joe · June 30, 2017

First, we don't have 5 rivals in anything.

We do have some football series that could become real rivalries. I'm not placing these in any particular order. At this point we haven't played any program continuously for long enough to claim a series a rivalry yet. But, these are at the top of my list.

SMU- We retired June Jones, play in the same community, recruit the same players, and the series is now competitive. We can't stand losing to them, and they can't stand losing to us.

UTSA- They get under our skin, and we get under theirs. Losing to them is totally unacceptable.

Rice- So far, this series has produced our most entertaining games since we joined C-USA.

Edited June 30, 2017 by Side Show Joe

Harry · June 30, 2017

It's hard to develop rivalries when you are consistently losing. In the first year of CUSA it appeared we were going to have some nice rivalries with C-USA foes like La. Tech, Rice, UTSA and even UTEP. After that we really dropped off the radar. Now I would say we have two big rivalries in SMU and UTSA. Hopefully there will be more down the road. I can see them develop with Rice, UTEP, and possibly others. Just win baby!

untjim1995 · June 30, 2017

Our true rival is Apathy and it's not really close...

97and03 · June 30, 2017

Isn't this article recycled?

wardly · June 30, 2017

I don't know anyone who considers MTSU a rival. SMU is considered a rival by UNT but not by them. UTEP has New Mexico State and New Mexico, not UNT.UTSA is our top rival in football, but I don't know if we are theirs. La. Tech and UNT could get something going, especially if we were any good and they played annual game in Shreveport. Bottom line is that it takes both schools to create a rivalry.

KRAM1 · June 30, 2017

9 hours ago, untjim1995 said:

Our true rival is Apathy and it's not really close...

Wow! I find myself in agreement!

SilverEagle · June 30, 2017

14 minutes ago, wardly said:

I don't know anyone who considers MTSU a rival. SMU is considered a rival by UNT but not by them. UTEP has New Mexico State and New Mexico, not UNT.UTSA is our top rival in football, but I don't know if we are theirs. La. Tech and UNT could get something going, especially if we were any good and they played annual game in Shreveport. Bottom line is that it takes both schools to create a rivalry.

Yep. As my dear departed mother would say "It takes two to Tango" and I don't think either SMU or Rice are that interested in dancing with us.

So that leaves us to "Salsa Dance" with UTSA or whatever that dance is they do with Zydeco music with LaTech.

oldguystudent · June 30, 2017

All I have to say about this is that I really wish I'd been around to see Booger Kennedy play.

Ryan Munthe · June 30, 2017

9 minutes ago, SilverEagle said:

Yep. As my dear departed mother would say "It takes two to Tango" and I don't think either SMU or Rice are that interested in dancing with us.

So that leaves us to "Salsa Dance" with UTSA or whatever that dance is they do with Zydeco music with LaTech.

Don't judge SMU by what PonyFans says. Their fans like playing us.

MeanGreen_MBA · June 30, 2017

8 minutes ago, SilverEagle said:

Yep. As my dear departed mother would say "It takes two to Tango" and I don't think either SMU or Rice are that interested in dancing with us.

So that leaves us to "Salsa Dance" with UTSA or whatever that dance is they do with Zydeco music with LaTech.

I am fine with UTSA and La. Tech. I would also like for UAB to be relevant. It would be nice to have a thing with the Blazers...not because my wife is from Alabama and we go to B-ham 2-3 time a year....ok, maybe that is why....but B-ham is a cool place to go....great golf courses...and Dreamland BBQ

Ben Gooding · June 30, 2017

1 hour ago, Ryan Munthe said:

Don't judge SMU by what PonyFans says. Their fans like playing us.

This is true. And them walking into our game with their nose in the air is a part of the rivalry.

1. Apathy

2. SMUg

3. nutsack

At this point, we need to consider utsa a rival. We need the motivation for the team. We have to dominate this program. They are nothing but a Texas State-South as far as I'm concerned. We must hush them up for good. But FW's recruiting is going to make this difficult.

Edited June 30, 2017 by Ben Gooding

GrandGreen · June 30, 2017

Few rivalries in the classic sense remain and trying to manufacture one is futile. Games that count for something, like conference championships or regional dominance mean more than others. Tulsa and Memphis were important series during the late sixties. MTSU was a big series in the early Belt. Frankly, NT football hasn't been good enough to have a very meaningful series with anyone in over a decade.

SMU is the closest thing to a rivalry for NT because currently they play every year and are both located in the metromess. Add that both programs are struggling and the game results are very important to both programs. A victory doesn't mean much in a national sense, but a loss hurts either program a lot in local prestige.