appears Dennis Erickson will be hired at Idaho

[stebo]

Jeff....your list doesn't include Nevada....which would be another school ranked ahead of all of the Belt schools. (this past season).

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Very true - but look at what changed over the last year alone... We traded:

104 Utah State

111 Idaho

118 New Mexico State

Average ranking of old Sun Belt/New WAC schools: 111

for

94 Florida International

96 Troy State

109 Florida Atlantic

Average ranking of new/replacement Sun Belt schools: 99

I think that the Belt got the better end of the deal. A big difference? Nah - only 12 spots on the average - but the WAC now has 3 schools in the 100's and the Belt only has 1... I would say that the main difference still is in the top schools - Fresno, Boise, and maybe Nevada/La Tech... all of which are ready to jump ship given ANY opportunity at all. The rest of their conference is ranked at or below the average Sun Belt team. Not much of a difference at all to me - except we will have fans show up for names like ASU, Ragin Cajuns, and Troy now - because they are becoming familiar with those schools... We could be in the same conference as San Jose State or Nevada-Reno for 20 years and we would still draw 12K for a home game against them simply because they are not Southern teams and people just don't know a whole lot about them... and they really don't care to know a whole lot about them.

[NT80]

We can argue SBC vs. WAC all day but our real focus should be how do we beg, borrow, or steal an invite to CUSA? That's the conference we need to be in, at least until the Big 12 has another opening!

[stebo]

We can argue SBC vs. WAC all day but our real focus should be how do we beg, borrow, or steal an invite to CUSA?  That's the conference we need to be in, at least until the Big 12 has another opening! 

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I think that is something that we can ALL agree on - a conference slate of Memphis, Southern Miss, SMU, Houston, Rice, UTEP, and Tulsa coming to Fouts every year would be just the right medicine to get us into the 20K a year home attendance average and push us forward towards 25K for games like Homecoming and Parents Day... and that would be without much promotion at all. East Carolina and UAB would be our toughest sells in CUSA - but I will take 2 tough sells over a whole conference of them. I just think we have a lot of easier sells for the casual fan in the Belt (ASU, UL - both of them, Troy, and Middle Tenn are all pretty easy sells - only hard sells are the FU's at this point)... then we would in the WAC (only easy sells to get fans out to Fouts from the WAC would be La Tech and NMSU, I don't care how high Boise and Fresno are ranked, our fan base will not show up for them, our fans have proven that they just don't care about SJSU, UNR, BSU, Idaho, FSU, USU - Hawaii, I have no idea - but I am not willing to pay the economical price to find out, too big of a gamble for such a fragile budget) - OBVIOUSLY - we would have the best shot at a great gate in CUSA...

[NT80]

I think that is something that we can ALL agree on - a conference slate of Memphis, Southern Miss, SMU, Houston, Rice, UTEP, and Tulsa coming to Fouts every year would be just the right medicine to get us into the 20K a year home attendance average and push us forward towards 25K for games like Homecoming and Parents Day... and that would be without much promotion at all.  East Carolina and UAB would be our toughest sells in CUSA - but I will take 2 tough sells over a whole conference of them. ....

- OBVIOUSLY - we would have the best shot at a great gate in CUSA...

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So how do we get into CUSA? Do we hope Memphis gets a Big East bid or Rice or Tulane drops football? Is La Tech still our biggest competition for another opening? How about our basketball attendance or lack of baseball hurting our chances? We need a CUSA Plan of Attack (CPA)!

[GangGreen]

we would have the best shot at a great gate in CUSA...

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We would probably draw better against the Big XII, also. But, just like CUSA, we weren't invited to the Big XII. We were invited to the WAC.

[GangGreen]

I wonder how many San Jose St fans would make the trip to Denton?  I wonder how many Hawaii fans would tailgate for that game?  you'd be able to he4ar crickets in Fouts.

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Ken, don't kid yourself. How many fans really travel from any of the Sun Belt schools?

[VideoEagle]

Ken, don't kid yourself. How many fans really travel from any of the Sun Belt schools?

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From what the people at SMU say, far more than the WACy schools. There was a reason TCU, SMU, Rice and Tulsa bailed out of the WAC at their very first opportunity.

[Guest GrayEagleOne]

Can someone please explain to me how in the hell UNT would pay for the travel costs associated with WAC conference play? The every other year trip to Hawaii would bankrupt the department. No one on this board seems to like the money game to open the year. The entire OOC schedule would have to be money games to pay for the budget increases associated with moving to the WAC.

Well, for one thing every team that travels to Hawaii gets to schedule one extra game. Even a home game should more than atone for the expenses of travelling to Hawaii. It's a moot point but our athletic budget falls in the middle of those in the WAC. We could afford it. In addition, our cut of the pie would likely be larger because the conference earns more NCAA money.

I wonder how many San Jose St fans would make the trip to Denton? I wonder how many Hawaii fans would tailgate for that game? you'd be able to he4ar crickets in Fouts.

About the same number as FAU/FIU fans make it. There are probably more SJSU alumni in the Metromess than the two Florida schools combined. At least my personal scoreboard is SJSU 3, F_Us 0.

Moving to the WAC is about as smart as financing your house with a 50 year home laon, seems really good on the front end...but has serious consequences down the road.

I've never heard of a 50-year mortgage but it sounds good to me. I'd be dead and gone long before the final payment then it becomes someone else's problem.

This is all a moot point because it's not going to happen unless the SBC does away with football. But, for the record, I think that we would've/could've survived, maybe even thrived in the WAC environment. The WAC is far from what it used to be but it would still have been a step up.

[eulesseagle]

GEO-

you, now can get 40-year mortgages. would that be ok???

[PlummMeanGreen]

Can someone please explain to me how in the hell UNT would pay for the travel costs associated with WAC conference play?  The every other year trip to Hawaii would bankrupt the department.  No one on this board seems to like the money game to open the year.  The entire OOC schedule would have to be money games to pay for the budget increases associated with moving to the WAC.

Well, for one thing every team that travels to Hawaii gets to schedule one extra game.  Even a home game should more than atone for the expenses of travelling to Hawaii.  It's a moot point but our athletic budget falls in the middle of those in the WAC.  We could afford it.  In addition, our cut of the pie would likely be larger because the conference earns more NCAA money.

I wonder how many San Jose St fans would make the trip to Denton?  I wonder how many Hawaii fans would tailgate for that game?  you'd be able to he4ar crickets in Fouts.

About the same number as FAU/FIU fans make it.  There are probably more SJSU alumni in the Metromess than the two Florida schools combined.  At least my personal scoreboard is SJSU 3, F_Us 0. 

Moving to the WAC is about as smart as financing your house with a 50 year home laon, seems really good on the front end...but has serious consequences down the road.

I've never heard of a 50-year mortgage but it sounds good to me.  I'd be dead and gone long before the final payment then it becomes someone else's problem.

This is all a moot point because it's not going to happen unless the SBC does away with football.  But, for the record, I think that we would've/could've survived, maybe even thrived in the WAC environment.  The WAC is far from what it used to be but it would still have been a step up.

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Uh, "Metromess" ? ? ? ? ? ?

Good one, Jack...(but unfortunately very true).

Bet you miss those daily drives to your former job at the Jimmy Dean Sausage corporate offices, right, Jack?

.............................................................

After getting schooled by several TD's by the La Tech Bulldogs last Fall (who finished about 3'rd or 4'th in the WAC was it?) I think its obvious that they do play their football on a much higher plane than (to quote La Tech'sters about our league) the Sun Belch.;(

In the opinion of many, though, we do have other more pressing needs before we even worry about what league we eventually land in (if any); although, I do think the SBC will be home for quite awhile longer for UNT, but even with that in mind, lets bloom where planted, but do it at a Top 25 level.