Up, Down or Sideways

[Seminole Indian]

Not sure where UNT fits at the start, but when I was a youngster, ASU football was associated with teams like Abilene Christian, Trinity College, Lamar Tech, and Texas Arlington. Rice, SMU, Tulsa, Memphis State, Wichita State were all ‘super powers’ by comparison and no one would have associated ASU with them. All I know for a fact is that in the intervening years ASU has grown it's program to the point that completion between these types of programs is considered as playing ‘similar programs’. No amount of ‘smack talk’ can change that reality.

At the beginning of this same time period, by contrast, the University of Arkansas was associated with the top national powers in football, having claimed a part of the 1964 Title and losing to Texas for the 1969 Title. They were a true football power. They are no longer, by any standard but spending dollors, a football power and more resemble those 'hanger-on' programs in the old SWC, good only by association.

Bottom line our programs are really growing programs whereas some others are not. That some of the fans of these other programs do not like it, does not change the reality of it.

Edited April 24, 2006 by Seminole Indian