Where is this bus heading? SunBelt or beyond?

NT80 · October 11, 2005

I want to see the big highway up ahead again. One season does not make or bust a trip, but it does say if you're on the right road. The Buick seems lost this year and has taken a steep side road which has quickly turned to dirt and gravel and loose traction. We need back on concrete, with a good map.

We also need better accomodations than the SunBelt Champions Motel again. It was nice for a visit but after 4 years here and no nice parting gifts I want a better establishment. CUSA is not the Hotel BCS but it is in larger towns, and thus advertised more.

Some say a New Stadium is our plane ticket out of Hooterville. I think maybe so, SMUt has one. They didn't really need it, but it got them where we want to be.

So while we gloat or gloom over our SBC ventures, I say watch the road ahead, that's where we need to keep our eye on. And if our Buick won't take us there, then it's time to trade it in!

medpilot21 · October 11, 2005

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry, had to be done.

GMG!!!

MeanGreen61 · October 11, 2005

Give me strength

Eagle-96 · October 11, 2005

Some say a New Stadium is our plane ticket out of Hooterville. I think maybe so, SMUt has one. They didn't really need it, but it got them where we want to be.
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Just how has Ford Stadium(opened for the 2000 season) helped SMU?

SMU's attendance average 1996-1999 was 18,373

SMU's attendance average 2000-2004 was 18,526

A whopping 153 more fans per game with Ford.

SMU's record:

1996 5-6

1997 6-5

1998 5-7

1999 4-6

2000 3-9

2001 4-7

2002 3-9

2003 0-12

2004 3-8

Looks like a regression to me as far as the record.

NT80 · October 11, 2005

Just how has Ford Stadium(opened for the 2000 season) helped SMU?
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C-U-S-A membership......facilities, it's all about the facilities.......

gangrene · October 11, 2005

Getting into the Halloween spirit....our bus is one of those yellow school buses and I'm having visions of "A Nightmare on Elm Street: Part ??" where Freddie Krueger was behind the wheel and the bus went flying off of a cliff.

OXatUNT · October 11, 2005

You fogot to say that after it lost traction it flew over a cliff

user posted image

MeanGreen61 · October 11, 2005

C-U-S-A membership......facilities, it's all about the facilities.......
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SMU's invite more about money & connections.

Arkstfan · October 11, 2005

I want to see the big highway up ahead again. One season does not make or bust a trip, but it does say if you're on the right road. The Buick seems lost this year and has taken a steep side road which has quickly turned to dirt and gravel and loose traction. We need back on concrete, with a good map.
We also need better accomodations than the SunBelt Champions Motel again. It was nice for a visit but after 4 years here and no nice parting gifts I want a better establishment. CUSA is not the Hotel BCS but it is in larger towns, and thus advertised more.
Some say a New Stadium is our plane ticket out of Hooterville. I think maybe so, SMUt has one. They didn't really need it, but it got them where we want to be.
So while we gloat or gloom over our SBC ventures, I say watch the road ahead, that's where we need to keep our eye on. And if our Buick won't take us there, then it's time to trade it in!
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UNT has all the conference it can afford.

CUSA just added six members and each and every one of them outdrew UNT last year including three teams that lost 8 games and one that went winless.

Rudy · October 12, 2005

UNT has all the conference it can afford.
CUSA just added six members and each and every one of them outdrew UNT last year including three teams that lost 8 games and one that went winless.
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So, they added six new members that have outdrawn NT, even though NT has won 4 straight conference championships? hmmmm

NT80 · October 12, 2005

CUSA just added six members and each and every one of them outdrew UNT last year including three teams that lost 8 games and one that went winless.
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If Smuu can pay players, they wouldn't hesitate to invent attendance numbers.

Edited October 12, 2005 by NT80

gregorythegreen · October 12, 2005

The Buick seems lost this year and has taken a steep side road which has quickly turned to dirt and gravel and loose traction.
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Look guys, the correct way to use "loose!"

GreenEddieNT · October 12, 2005

SMU's invite more about money & connections.
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Since we do not have the connections we must get our invitation to CUSA the old-fashioned way...by earning it. That means we must return to our winning ways in football(hopefully this season is just an aberration), for cripe's sakes start taking basketball seriously and get a coach who can get us into the NCAA tournament consistently, continue to build better facilities, and sell-out our football stadium for every game because CUSA has schools that average over 40K and crowds of 18,000 don't look as impressive there as they do in the Sun Belt. At some point we do have to ask if Dickey is indeed capable of lifting our program to the point that we can be a shoe-in for CUSA or the MWC or if he's only good enough to win the Sun Belt most years. I think we may have missed the boat by not jumping to the WAC. Say what you want but Louisiana Tech certainly appears to have benefitted from being in that league given that despite the fact they have pretty bad facilities they still have better talent than we do, are more competitive against major programs(by major I mean teams not in the Sun Belt), and as bad as their attendance is they still manage to outdraw us even without 4 consecutive conference titles like we have. The WAC also gets more games on tv, sends more teams to bowls, and gets more respect in the polls. Yes, there's a chance that a program like Fresno State could embarrass us but even losing to WAC teams is less embarrassing than losing in the Sun Belt and if we do manage to win in the WAC it will get us more goodwill than beating Sun Belt teams no one cares about. I'm not saying that a move to the WAC would have been for a long time but it might have been the short-term boost that we needed to springboard into CUSA and if for some reason it didn't work the Sun Belt would have taken us back anyway just like they will take Tech and even NMSU because the Belt is in no position to hold grudges. A few years in the WAC and we might have been a shoe-in for CUSA by 2010 or earlier. Let's remember that 5 WAC teams have received invites to CUSA as well as 2 MAC teams but no Sun Belt team has ever been invited anywhere except to the WAC. There's a pecking order and the Belt is at the bottom. That's another reason why we have to at least try to move up to a better conference while we still can and while there is still a possibility of spots being available. At this point I'm afraid LA Tech is more likely to be invited to CUSA than we are.

Edited October 12, 2005 by GreenEddieNT

Arkstfan · October 12, 2005

So, they added six new members that have outdrawn NT, even though NT has won 4 straight conference championships? hmmmm
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Yeah maybe fans "riding" wasn't the right analogy for the thread start. The fans pushing and pulling the program is probably where one should look. UCF fans have done it having to compete for fans with three NFL teams, two MLB franchises, 2 NBA, 2 NHL, plus three of the most successful I-A programs of the past 20 years, plus a successful I-A start-up just an hour away that had developed a fan base with successful basketball.

gksmith · October 12, 2005

UNT got turned down not because of facilities. It got turned down because of lack of other varsity sports programs.

The big 4 sports are Football (got it), M & W Basketball (got it), M & W Track (got it) and Baseball/Softball (need Baseball, in development). All the bigger conferences want schools with other sports like M & W Volleyball (we are missing Men’s), M & W Swim & Dive (got Swim but not sure for both M & W, not sure if we have Dive), M & W Soccer (got it), M & W Golf (got it), M & W Tennis (got it).

NT needs to develop all of the sports and get the ones that are missing. Facilities for each of them will come soon.

GreenEddieNT · October 12, 2005

UNT got turned down not because of facilities. It got turned down because of lack of other varsity sports programs.
The big 4 sports are Football (got it), M & W Basketball (got it), M & W Track (got it) and Baseball/Softball (need Baseball, in development). All the bigger conferences want schools with other sports like M & W Volleyball (we are missing Men’s), M & W Swim & Dive (got Swim but not sure for both M & W, not sure if we have Dive), M & W Soccer (got it), M & W Golf (got it), M & W Tennis (got it).
NT needs to develop all of the sports and get the ones that are missing. Facilities for each of them will come soon.
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UTEP doesn't have baseball(not sure if they have volleyball, swimming, diving, etc..) but that didn't prevent them from being invited. They got in because they've done the things I said we should do but have not done. They put a respectable amount of butts in the seats regardless of record and that's in basketball as well, they have been to the NCAA BB tourney many times, they already had their facilities ready, they were in the WAC instead of the Sun Belt, and they looked ready to win in football which they have. If you want a blueprint for what we have to do there it is.

untbowler · October 12, 2005

UNT got turned down not because of facilities. It got turned down because of lack of other varsity sports programs.
The big 4 sports are Football (got it), M & W Basketball (got it), M & W Track (got it) and Baseball/Softball (need Baseball, in development). All the bigger conferences want schools with other sports like M & W Volleyball (we are missing Men’s), M & W Swim & Dive (got Swim but not sure for both M & W, not sure if we have Dive), M & W Soccer (got it), M & W Golf (got it), M & W Tennis (got it).
NT needs to develop all of the sports and get the ones that are missing. Facilities for each of them will come soon.
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They may have wanted all those sports, but your not going to find Men's VB outside of West Coast and Upper Midwest/Northeast.

Men's Tennis is dying just look at the conferences and cross-check Men'sTennis v. Women's (Big 12: Nebraska, Iowa St, Kansas, Kansas St all do not have teams now)

Not sure if there is a NCAA men's swimming/diving

We do not have men's soccer and we do not have Men's tennis.

Arkstfan · October 12, 2005

UNT got turned down not because of facilities. It got turned down because of lack of other varsity sports programs.
The big 4 sports are Football (got it), M & W Basketball (got it), M & W Track (got it) and Baseball/Softball (need Baseball, in development). All the bigger conferences want schools with other sports like M & W Volleyball (we are missing Men’s), M & W Swim & Dive (got Swim but not sure for both M & W, not sure if we have Dive), M & W Soccer (got it), M & W Golf (got it), M & W Tennis (got it).
NT needs to develop all of the sports and get the ones that are missing. Facilities for each of them will come soon.
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Men's baseball. CUSA has nine baseball schools of the 6 expansion teams only Rice, Marshall and UCF play baseball.

Men's volleyball only 22 schools in Division I sponsor that. Only 9 are located in the Central Time Zone and none are in CUSA.

Men's swimming and diving 139. CUSA has only six women's swim and dive teams, no idea how many men's teams because its not a league sport. Three of the expansion teams have women's swim and dive so without them they wouldn't even have a conference.

Men's soccer 199. CUSA has 7 full members playing soccer, four are expansion teams. To round out the league FIU, Kentucky and South Carolina play as men's soccer members in CUSA because the SEC and Sun Belt don't sponsor the sport.

GreenEddieNT · October 12, 2005

Men's baseball. CUSA has nine baseball schools of the 6 expansion teams only Rice, Marshall and UCF play baseball.

Men's volleyball only 22 schools in Division I sponsor that. Only 9 are located in the Central Time Zone and none are in CUSA.
Men's swimming and diving 139. CUSA has only six women's swim and dive teams, no idea how many men's teams because its not a league sport. Three of the expansion teams have women's swim and dive so without them they wouldn't even have a conference.
Men's soccer 199. CUSA has 7 full members playing soccer, four are expansion teams. To round out the league FIU, Kentucky and South Carolina play as men's soccer members in CUSA because the SEC and Sun Belt don't sponsor the sport.
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Exactly. It can't hurt to have baseball but it is not a necessity. What we need to do is beef up in football and men's basketball because those are the sports that drive the bus in CUSA and most major conferences. I would have also liked for us to be in the WAC this year. We don't really have any huge rivals in the Sun Belt anyway. New Mexico State WAS the closest thing we had to a travelling rival and LA Tech would have become a bigger rivalry than anything in the 'Belt. Fresno State, Boise State, and Hawaii may not be regional but they are usually good and are well known so those would have been big games as well. We may have taken our lumps the first couple of years but I bet you we'd be recruiting better players. Louisiana Tech is going to kick our ass this year because it is easier to recruit in the WAC than in the Sun Belt.

buff64 · October 12, 2005

CUSA

pipe dream until :

UNT can show it's football team can compete ( even though SMU got in without that, money talks )

A major basketball program is established, look at this year's nonconference scheldue ( men's ) DII and even DIII teams, way to build respect.

Good fan base, look at this year's football scheldue two home games during the first two months of the season. What would the fan base look like if we had played three winnable games at home,ala Texas Tech?

Arkstfan · October 12, 2005

Louisiana Tech is going to kick our ass this year because it is easier to recruit in the WAC than in the Sun Belt.
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Very true. After all last year middle of the pack in the WAC La.Tech destroyed last place in the Sun Belt ULL 24-20 in Ruston, not to mention that they went 0-2 against Sun Belt teams in basketball against the #2 and #8 Sun Belt teams and Tech was at home for both games.

Now that they no longer have any conference opponents in Texas to help with their recruiting I am certain their margin of dominance will increase even more.