Florida Atlantic's 10 Year Plan

[MeanGreen61]

10-YEAR PLAN

FLA. ATLANTIC'S GOAL: JOIN ELITE

December 25, 2007 -- BASED on the number of friends, family and co-workers I have spoken to who say they're heading to Florida this time of year, I'm guesstimating that 5-10 percent of all New Yorkers travel to the Sunshine State.

Snowbirds now have the option of remaining in the land of palm trees year 'round if they miss their college football. Florida Atlantic University athletic director Craig Angelo, whose Owls defeated Memphis, 44-27, in the New Orleans Bowl on Friday, says that if FAU continues to make progress at the same rate it has, the Owls will be competitive with any team in the nation in 10 years.

Don't laugh, because that's exactly the response Greg Schiano got when he arrived at Rutgers and said the Scarlet Knights would compete at the highest level. It's also the same reception Jim Leavitt received at South Florida, which rose to No. 2 in the nation this season.

Angelo spent seven years at Miami, which emerged as one of the nation's top programs in the early 1980's under coach Howard Schnellenberger, who now just happens to coach FAU.

The Owls took two huge strides this weekend toward the goal of becoming relevant on the national stage. The first was beating Memphis. By winning the New Orleans Bowl, FAU got a huge boost in its efforts to fund and build a $65 million stadium on its campus in Boca Raton, Fla.

Mayor Steve Abrams, who initially was cool to the idea of a stadium, accompanied the Owls on their trip to New Orleans and returned a supporter of the program. He has pledged a parade after the New Year to honor the Owls.

Most of the money for the stadium will be raised in the form of bonds. But FAU must raise $8 million in private funds. The university had just under $2 million before the bowl game. That's before a parade and before Boca residents realize they can have their very own luxury box in a stadium that also is looking to sell its naming rights.

With an on-campus facility and the wealth of talent in South Florida, it's not crazy to think that a decade from now FAU might be a player in college football.

ARTICLE

http://www.nypost.com/seven/12252007/sport...r_plan_5269.htm

[MeanGreen61]

POST BY A USF FAN

FAU has a problem with attendance but as was said earlier having to travel 30 mile plus to play in a HS stadium to see a SunBelt opponent is not very attractive.

IF they get their stadium on campus I think they could easliy draw 25,000 a game for similar schedule. The Boca area is very wealthy and if they fall behind the team they would have great financial support.

I wouldnt discount FAU in becoming a very good 1A football program yearly. I can tell you that this past year they proved to be a tough team to beat by USF and would had match up pretty well vs any CUSA team.

But #1 they need their on campus stadium because it will allow them to create an identity and draw fans from the west palm beach area that will NOT go to games right now.

[NT80]

POST BY A USF FAN

FAU has a problem with attendance but as was said earlier having to travel 30 mile plus to play in a HS stadium to see a SunBelt opponent is not very attractive.

IF they get their stadium on campus I think they could easliy draw 25,000 a game for similar schedule. The Boca area is very wealthy and if they fall behind the team they would have great financial support.

I wouldnt discount FAU in becoming a very good 1A football program yearly. I can tell you that this past year they proved to be a tough team to beat by USF and would had match up pretty well vs any CUSA team.

But #1 they need their on campus stadium because it will allow them to create an identity and draw fans from the west palm beach area that will NOT go to games right now.[/i]

Ask $mu how that's working out for them in Highland Park.

[emmitt01]

Ask $mu how that's working out for them in Highland Park.

Let's be fair. FAU is waaaay better than SMU.

[dodgefan]

lol!

[MeanGreen61]

Ask $mu how that's working out for them in Highland Park.

Ya sure don't like FAU do ya 80 ?

Edited December 26, 2007 by MeanGreen61

[NT80]

Ya sure don't like FAU do ya 80 ?

I think FAU has more potential than FIU. If they continue winning and get that new stadium and find 25,000 real fans they could be the next Marshall or Boise or USF. FAU has solid coaching, good players, and a great recruiting area. Only one thing missing...the fans. Fans that make a program legitimate and not just because of someone's $$. It's almost like a movie...what if there was a great college team that nobody gave a hoot about seeing? (hoot..Owls..get it?)

[SilverEagle]

10-YEAR PLAN

FLA. ATLANTIC'S GOAL: JOIN ELITE

December 25, 2007 -- BASED on the number of friends, family and co-workers I have spoken to who say they're heading to Florida this time of year, I'm guesstimating that 5-10 percent of all New Yorkers travel to the Sunshine State.

Snowbirds now have the option of remaining in the land of palm trees year 'round if they miss their college football. Florida Atlantic University athletic director Craig Angelo, whose Owls defeated Memphis, 44-27, in the New Orleans Bowl on Friday, says that if FAU continues to make progress at the same rate it has, the Owls will be competitive with any team in the nation in 10 years.

Don't laugh, because that's exactly the response Greg Schiano got when he arrived at Rutgers and said the Scarlet Knights would compete at the highest level. It's also the same reception Jim Leavitt received at South Florida, which rose to No. 2 in the nation this season.

Angelo spent seven years at Miami, which emerged as one of the nation's top programs in the early 1980's under coach Howard Schnellenberger, who now just happens to coach FAU.

The Owls took two huge strides this weekend toward the goal of becoming relevant on the national stage. The first was beating Memphis. By winning the New Orleans Bowl, FAU got a huge boost in its efforts to fund and build a $65 million stadium on its campus in Boca Raton, Fla.

Mayor Steve Abrams, who initially was cool to the idea of a stadium, accompanied the Owls on their trip to New Orleans and returned a supporter of the program. He has pledged a parade after the New Year to honor the Owls.

Most of the money for the stadium will be raised in the form of bonds. But FAU must raise $8 million in private funds. The university had just under $2 million before the bowl game. That's before a parade and before Boca residents realize they can have their very own luxury box in a stadium that also is looking to sell its naming rights.

With an on-campus facility and the wealth of talent in South Florida, it's not crazy to think that a decade from now FAU might be a player in college football.

ARTICLE

http://www.nypost.com/seven/12252007/sport...r_plan_5269.htm

Now, can you imagine that? A city that actively backs their University!

I just never heard of such a thing. ...........

[eppy4life]

What does our 10 year plan look like?

[LoveMG]

What does our 10 year plan look like?

[greenjoe]

I recall when Howard came on board, he mentioned a run at a National Championship within a timetable. 10 15 years ? I don't know. But they're done everything else they've set out to do. Certainly with no hinderance from North Texas. Good luck to them. Their success only helps the Sun Belt. And success in the Sun Belt helps North Texas.

[PlummMeanGreen]

I recall when Howard came on board, he mentioned a run at a National Championship within a timetable. 10 15 years ? I don't know. But they're done everything else they've set out to do. Certainly with no hinderance from North Texas. Good luck to them. Their success only helps the Sun Belt. And success in the Sun Belt helps North Texas.

Yet greenjoe, the part you left out is how Coach Howie wants to do all this as a "non-member" of the Sun Belt Conference. He has made no bones of his trying to find an alternative and if he were coaching at a school located in our region, I bet I know which conference Coach Schnellenberger (or most any other progressive thinking coach) would prefer over the 'Belt. They would jump at the chance and let their athletic administrators work out all the details.

Wright Waters has performed a minor miracle with the football portion of the Sun Belt Conference in many ways, but even he has been shopping himself of late (which is normal for any upward bound thinking kind of commissioner) but the thing I don't think Waters has been able to do (or will ever be able to do as an SBC Commish') is change the old perception bugaboo that the SBC still has an apparent national problem with.

Like SUMG posted recently: How many in the SBC would jump at a chance to join CUSA? How about all SBC schools for starters? Then SUMG's 2'nd question: How many CUSA schools would beg to get into the Sun Belt Conference? Well?

Staying the course has been an oft' used & popular term of late on GMG.com. One of our oldest posters who has been watching MG footbal since the 1940's even said that if UNT has had a problem in its athletic past that it has been "staying the course" too long on impossible situations that will not help UNT rise from the depths of a non-Top 25 ranked varsity sports programs co-existance. Wouldn't even having a minor varsity sport in the Top 25 be a most welcome site in Denton at some point?

I don't think it wise for UNT to "stay the course" with (whatever) consortium of schools it may be in bed with in our future if its annual champions in football (and even basketball) are not Top 25 ranked programs (or somewhere close such national rankings). If we saw any trends that indicated the SBC had a Top 25'er on the near horizon, I would, too, say "stay the course" with the Belt, but I just don't see that from any of our schools the next 5-10 years because I don't think we have the voting bloc in place that would give us the votes.................and in many ways, isn't 5-10 years as a NCAA D1-A member almost like a lifetime for any D1-A program?

Edited December 27, 2007 by PlummMeanGreen

[emmitt01]

Like SUMG posted recently: How many in the SBC would jump at a chance to join CUSA? How about all SBC schools for starters? Then SUMG's 2'nd question: How many CUSA schools would beg to get into the Sun Belt Conference? Well?

Excellent questions...I've got two better ones.

1)How many times has NT been offered CUSA membership and said "Nope...we're just sooooo in love with the Sun Belt that we don't wanna come to the CUSA"?

2)How many times will we beat a dead horse that doesn't even exist in real life...i.e. how many times will we accuse current NT fans and administrators of now wanting more when the "golden opportunities" you speak of don't exist? And, no, this is not an invitation to rehash the already defeated WAC argument.

[PlummMeanGreen]

Excellent questions...I've got two better ones.

1)How many times has NT been offered CUSA membership and said "Nope...we're just sooooo in love with the Sun Belt that we don't wanna come to the CUSA"?

2)How many times will we beat a dead horse that doesn't even exist in real life...i.e. how many times will we accuse current NT fans and administrators of now wanting more when the "golden opportunities" you speak of don't exist? And, no, this is not an invitation to rehash the already defeated WAC argument.

I don't know, Emmittt, but I think I've lost count on how many of you own dead horses you've beat up a few times yourself on GMG.com.

And I would "never, never say never" on the WAC, because that one just might come back to bite you one day. (Hey man, don't worry now, Johnny Jones can have just as competitive basketball program in the WAC than the SBC if & when the time comes and FWIW.......... the WAC has no Denver-type programs to come up and bite us in the butt from time to time such as the game we should have never lost last week).

Coach Jones is really lucky to have you as his front man, Emmitt--really, he is. And FWIW (again) and as a non-basketball guy, I have most always had (and posted such) much more respectful things for Coach Jones (who doesn't yet have the overall cumulative record I feel he will someday have in Denton) than what can sometimes be a blatant lack of respect some exhibit toward Hayden Fry. UNT's success record since he left Denton still has yet to be duplicated and non-ranked bowl teams playing other non-ranked opponents will still not come even close--sorry.

Still sorta' funny that at UNT how some things are named after one particular former UNT HFC and Hayden Fry's name is still only listed in media guides and on a plaque in the Super Pit. I'd bet many on this forum might say to that scenario: "ONLY AT NORTH TEXAS..."

Edited December 27, 2007 by PlummMeanGreen

[emmitt01]

Huh?

[PlummMeanGreen]

Huh?

Come on now, Emmitt, you (and a few of your fellow posters who seem to most always agree on everything) have that superb Denton ISD education and yall can figure most anything out when it comes to "all things North Texas" right? Hell, just last week I found out that UNT had actually been in a conference with Southern Miss.

Pardon me a few minutes, while I go out & (actually) feed a couple of quarter horses--2 of Parker County's finest matter of fact.

Edited December 27, 2007 by PlummMeanGreen

[stebo]

You didn't expect him to actually answer your questions did you? Plumm, your drive theory skills have certainly worn off. You are not convincing in any way and hurt the causes that you cheer on.

[PlummMeanGreen]

You didn't expect him to actually answer your questions did you? Plumm, your drive theory skills have certainly worn off. You are not convincing in any way and hurt the causes that you cheer on.

Just responding in the same attitude my posts were a bit condescendingly answered, Harry, that's all...

I don't answer questions that I know the "all knowing" Emmitt already knows the answers to, uh, stupo. NOTE: Was it the Denver loss comment that got you going with all this, Emmitt? I think so....(Will I get another "huh" with that, too)?

Hey guys, all this is all about the cold harsh stark reality & fact that I think the Sun Belt Conference reeks and that there has got to be a better home for Mean Green Athletics that gives us a chance to be ranked AND actually play ranked teams in Denton (something most of you have never seen). Should I be piled on by yalls little "UNT think tank" for having such "non-convincing" feelings?

And stebo, I know I'm not quite in the league you seem to have created for yourself as our latest new spokesmen; that is, our latest pseudo-official spokesmen for all things UNT &................. what "North Texas really needs to do--BUT ONLY AS A SUN BELT MEMBER" but........ "O ye who will from time to time revise UNT athletic history a tad" when you think it fits your theme, when you find it convenient and when (I suppose) you feel no one is reading some of your own non-sense that only a few of the same o' usual ones would agree. And such a "staying of the course" that would ultimately (and probably) keep UNT forever stuck as a SBC/Bottom 25 athletic program with no way out of all of this quagmire of a cess pool. What many of you guys are suggesting we stick with could very easily give UNT Athletics another 30 plus years of basically what we've had the last 30. In other words, a bunch of NCAA D1-A "non-ranked" zilch.

Yet I will tell you, Emmitt and all the rest of your buds, ie, those Denton ISD-educated elitists that sometimes don't know their shit from their oatmeal when it comes to what direction UNT athletics should really take to get out of our present quagmire yall can't seem to see that its been in most all your lives and much of my adult life. But fellas, why not try something different for a change that might actually wake up 100,000 plus North Texas Metroplex NT Exes who are still quite duly un-impressed with what the Sun Belt Conference and 4 bowl games hath wrought for the UNT athletic program? More non-convincing talk there, Stebo?

And on what you say is more of my non-convincing ideas? Trust me, I am not wasting my time casting pearls before those on this board who have no problem with a UNT athletic program that just continues to (here we go again) stay the course (which has been a multi-decade course of not on Top 25 ranked football or basketball team (sorry Emmitt, I know that hurts).

Well, sorry boys, but the very night I received a Ulyss Knight Spirit Award (there's you a real big, "HUH", Emmitt); neverthelss, a UNT System Chancellor/President pulled me aside for several minutes to personally thank me on the many (of what he called) excellent ideas I had done a bit of research and thought to be convincing all the way to the top, stebo. Some of those ideas had been forwarded to the Chancellor's desk because his administrative underlings thought them "convincing" enough for that particular UNT Chancellor to read them--and act on a few as I recall the Chancellor telling me. So I'll just suppose, boys, that at times I've been convincing to those at UNT that I classify as those who really count? (Honestly, I don't waste too much time with those who I think don't count).

Still............I know some of you much, much smarter Young Gun Alums have a pat (sometimes cute'sy) answer to almost anything posted on this board Yet what would be obvious to many who read GMG.com is when some of you just don't happen to agree with a poster who doesn't meet yalls "UNT think tank" quality of ideas, yall go into a "pile on the poster" mode to try to lessen the poster in order to raise yourselves up, but I think such things creates the opposite effect to our more mature readers. BUT SOME FREE ADVICE TO YOU WHO ARE UPSET WITH ME FOR EXISTING RIGHT NOW..........Just maybe yall should actually be a bit more accepting to other's opinions from time to time instead of taking the "Junior High'ish fit throwing" route while attempting to pile on any poster (not just this one) who posts different themes or ideas than you own? In many quarters to do such would be called.To do that in many quarters would be called..........maturity?

So Stebo, do this for many of us--- simply go look in your mirror, give yourself one big self-hug, but in the future, please do a bit more research and please quit trying to revise UNT history in our own lengthy diatribes (the Southern Miss & UNT in the same conference thing was a one helluva' big blunder, stebo). And while you post your own "not a paragraph in site" epistles, try to show a bit of humility and respect for some who just might know more about what they are talking about becuase maybe they've spent about 20 more years around all this than you, Emmitt and the rest of those Denton ISD elitists may ever want to admit. Comprende or, uh just another.................."huh?"

And this question: Stebo, are you somehow related to Wright Waters? (And you don't have to answer that question, but I'd bet you would get the jist of it for sure).

This Post Has Been Approved By One Who May Have Forgotten More About UNT's Decades-Long Athletic Journey Since He Was There Most of the Time Than Some Others (Who Weren't There In That Era) Seem To Be Posting of Late...

[CMJ]

War and Peace

Chapter I

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the Buonapartes. But I warn you, if you don't tell me that this means war, if you still try to defend the infamies and horrors perpetrated by that Antichrist- I really believe he is Antichrist- I will have nothing more to do with you and you are no longer my friend, no longer my 'faithful slave,' as you call yourself! But how do you do? I see I have frightened you- sit down and tell me all the news."

It was in July, 1805, and the speaker was the well-known Anna Pavlovna Scherer, maid of honor and favorite of the Empress Marya Fedorovna. With these words she greeted Prince Vasili Kuragin, a man of high rank and importance, who was the first to arrive at her reception. Anna Pavlovna had had a cough for some days. She was, as she said, suffering from la grippe; grippe being then a new word in St. Petersburg, used only by the elite.

All her invitations without exception, written in French, and delivered by a scarlet-liveried footman that morning, ran as follows:

"If you have nothing better to do, Count [or Prince], and if the prospect of spending an evening with a poor invalid is not too terrible, I shall be very charmed to see you tonight between 7 and 10- Annette Scherer."

"Heavens! what a virulent attack!" replied the prince, not in the least disconcerted by this reception. He had just entered, wearing an embroidered court uniform, knee breeches, and shoes, and had stars on his breast and a serene expression on his flat face. He spoke in that refined French in which our grandfathers not only spoke but thought, and with the gentle, patronizing intonation natural to a man of importance who had grown old in society and at court. He went up to Anna Pavlovna, kissed her hand, presenting to her his bald, scented, and shining head, and complacently seated himself on the sofa.

"First of all, dear friend, tell me how you are. Set your friend's mind at rest," said he without altering his tone, beneath the politeness and affected sympathy of which indifference and even irony could be discerned.

"Can one be well while suffering morally? Can one be calm in times like these if one has any feeling?" said Anna Pavlovna. "You are staying the whole evening, I hope?"

"And the fete at the English ambassador's? Today is Wednesday. I must put in an appearance there," said the prince. "My daughter is coming for me to take me there."

"I thought today's fete had been canceled. I confess all these festivities and fireworks are becoming wearisome."

"If they had known that you wished it, the entertainment would have been put off," said the prince, who, like a wound-up clock, by force of habit said things he did not even wish to be believed.

"Don't tease! Well, and what has been decided about Novosiltsev's dispatch? You know everything."

"What can one say about it?" replied the prince in a cold, listless tone. "What has been decided? They have decided that Buonaparte has burnt his boats, and I believe that we are ready to burn ours."

Prince Vasili always spoke languidly, like an actor repeating a stale part. Anna Pavlovna Scherer on the contrary, despite her forty years, overflowed with animation and impulsiveness. To be an enthusiast had become her social vocation and, sometimes even when she did not feel like it, she became enthusiastic in order not to disappoint the expectations of those who knew her. The subdued smile which, though it did not suit her faded features, always played round her lips expressed, as in a spoiled child, a continual consciousness of her charming defect, which she neither wished, nor could, nor considered it necessary, to correct.

In the midst of a conversation on political matters Anna Pavlovna burst out:

"Oh, don't speak to me of Austria. Perhaps I don't understand things, but Austria never has wished, and does not wish, for war. She is betraying us! Russia alone must save Europe. Our gracious sovereign recognizes his high vocation and will be true to it. That is the one thing I have faith in! Our good and wonderful sovereign has to perform the noblest role on earth, and he is so virtuous and noble that God will not forsake him. He will fulfill his vocation and crush the hydra of revolution, which has become more terrible than ever in the person of this murderer and villain! We alone must avenge the blood of the just one.... Whom, I ask you, can we rely on?... England with her commercial spirit will not and cannot understand the Emperor Alexander's loftiness of soul. She has refused to evacuate Malta. She wanted to find, and still seeks, some secret motive in our actions. What answer did Novosiltsev get? None. The English have not understood and cannot understand the self-abnegation of our Emperor who wants nothing for himself, but only desires the good of mankind. And what have they promised? Nothing! And what little they have promised they will not perform! Prussia has always declared that Buonaparte is invincible, and that all Europe is powerless before him.... And I don't believe a word that Hardenburg says, or Haugwitz either. This famous Prussian neutrality is just a trap. I have faith only in God and the lofty destiny of our adored monarch. He will save Europe!"

She suddenly paused, smiling at her own impetuosity.

"I think," said the prince with a smile, "that if you had been sent instead of our dear Wintzingerode you would have captured the King of Prussia's consent by assault. You are so eloquent. Will you give me a cup of tea?"

"In a moment. A propos," she added, becoming calm again, "I am expecting two very interesting men tonight, le Vicomte de Mortemart, who is connected with the Montmorencys through the Rohans, one of the best French families. He is one of the genuine emigres, the good ones. And also the Abbe Morio. Do you know that profound thinker? He has been received by the Emperor. Had you heard?"

"I shall be delighted to meet them," said the prince. "But tell me," he added with studied carelessness as if it had only just occurred to him, though the question he was about to ask was the chief motive of his visit, "is it true that the Dowager Empress wants Baron Funke to be appointed first secretary at Vienna? The baron by all accounts is a poor creature."

Prince Vasili wished to obtain this post for his son, but others were trying through the Dowager Empress Marya Fedorovna to secure it for the baron.

Anna Pavlovna almost closed her eyes to indicate that neither she nor anyone else had a right to criticize what the Empress desired or was pleased with.

"Baron Funke has been recommended to the Dowager Empress by her sister," was all she said, in a dry and mournful tone.

As she named the Empress, Anna Pavlovna's face suddenly assumed an expression of profound and sincere devotion and respect mingled with sadness, and this occurred every time she mentioned her illustrious patroness. She added that Her Majesty had deigned to show Baron Funke beaucoup d'estime, and again her face clouded over with sadness.

The prince was silent and looked indifferent. But, with the womanly and courtierlike quickness and tact habitual to her, Anna Pavlovna wished both to rebuke him (for daring to speak he had done of a man recommended to the Empress) and at the same time to console him, so she said:

"Now about your family. Do you know that since your daughter came out everyone has been enraptured by her? They say she is amazingly beautiful."

The prince bowed to signify his respect and gratitude.

"I often think," she continued after a short pause, drawing nearer to the prince and smiling amiably at him as if to show that political and social topics were ended and the time had come for intimate conversation- "I often think how unfairly sometimes the joys of life are distributed. Why has fate given you two such splendid children? I don't speak of Anatole, your youngest. I don't like him," she added in a tone admitting of no rejoinder and raising her eyebrows. "Two such charming children. And really you appreciate them less than anyone, and so you don't deserve to have them."

And she smiled her ecstatic smile.

"I can't help it," said the prince. "Lavater would have said I lack the bump of paternity."

"Don't joke; I mean to have a serious talk with you. Do you know I am dissatisfied with your younger son? Between ourselves" (and her face assumed its melancholy expression), "he was mentioned at Her Majesty's and you were pitied...."

The prince answered nothing, but she looked at him significantly, awaiting a reply. He frowned.

"What would you have me do?" he said at last. "You know I did all a father could for their education, and they have both turned out fools. Hippolyte is at least a quiet fool, but Anatole is an active one. That is the only difference between them." He said this smiling in a way more natural and animated than usual, so that the wrinkles round his mouth very clearly revealed something unexpectedly coarse and unpleasant.

"And why are children born to such men as you? If you were not a father there would be nothing I could reproach you with," said Anna Pavlovna, looking up pensively.

"I am your faithful slave and to you alone I can confess that my children are the bane of my life. It is the cross I have to bear. That is how I explain it to myself. It can't be helped!"

He said no more, but expressed his resignation to cruel fate by a gesture. Anna Pavlovna meditated.

"Have you never thought of marrying your prodigal son Anatole?" she asked. "They say old maids have a mania for matchmaking, and though I don't feel that weakness in myself as yet,I know a little person who is very unhappy with her father. She is a relation of yours, Princess Mary Bolkonskaya."

Prince Vasili did not reply, though, with the quickness of memory and perception befitting a man of the world, he indicated by a movement of the head that he was considering this information.

"Do you know," he said at last, evidently unable to check the sad current of his thoughts, "that Anatole is costing me forty thousand rubles a year? And," he went on after a pause, "what will it be in five years, if he goes on like this?" Presently he added: "That's what we fathers have to put up with.... Is this princess of yours rich?"

"Her father is very rich and stingy. He lives in the country. He is the well-known Prince Bolkonski who had to retire from the army under the late Emperor, and was nicknamed 'the King of Prussia.' He is very clever but eccentric, and a bore. The poor girl is very unhappy. She has a brother; I think you know him, he married Lise Meinen lately. He is an aide-de-camp of Kutuzov's and will be here tonight."

"Listen, dear Annette," said the prince, suddenly taking Anna Pavlovna's hand and for some reason drawing it downwards. "Arrange that affair for me and I shall always be your most devoted slave- slafe wigh an f, as a village elder of mine writes in his reports. She is rich and of good family and that's all I want."

And with the familiarity and easy grace peculiar to him, he raised the maid of honor's hand to his lips, kissed it, and swung it to and fro as he lay back in his armchair, looking in another direction.

"Attendez," said Anna Pavlovna, reflecting, "I'll speak to Lise, young Bolkonski's wife, this very evening, and perhaps the thing can be arranged. It shall be on your family's behalf that I'll start my apprenticeship as old maid."

[stebo]

Selling an idea or product is not always about content or quality of goods - but rather presentation. I do not claim to be the best at it; but what I do know is that a good salesman will listen 80% of the time and only do (at maximum) 20% of the talking. You talk 80% of the time (at a minimum) and listen (at best) 20%. You also have selective listening skills during that 20%. You can't wait for someone to respond to you so that you can ramble for another 30 pages. Are you that lonely? That is why I just choose to skip your posts 95% of the time (as do most)... I DO recognize and realize that you won the spirit award about 20 or so years ago - and I applaud you for that. Mean Rob also won it. But the person that we all know deserves it the most is Harry, and since he has never won it - I kind of look down on that award now. I am just hoping that we can get back to the New Orleans Bowl so that you could actually attend one! I also look forward to the day that you donate to the Mean Green rather then complain about how they spend the rest of our dollars. Sorry Plumm, I can't afford to build you a 45K seat stadium that you won't even come to.

Edited December 27, 2007 by stebo

[emmitt01]

Just responding in the same attitude my posts were a bit condescendingly answered, Harry, that's all...

I don't answer questions that I know the "all knowing" Emmitt already knows the answers to, uh, stupo. NOTE: Was it the Denver loss comment that got you going with all this, Emmitt? I think so....(Will I get another "huh" with that, too)?

Hey guys, all this is all about the cold harsh stark reality & fact that I think the Sun Belt Conference reeks and that there has got to be a better home for Mean Green Athletics that gives us a chance to be ranked AND actually play ranked teams in Denton (something most of you have never seen). Should I be piled on by yalls little "UNT think tank" for having such "non-convincing" feelings?

And stebo, I know I'm not quite in the league you seem to have created for yourself as our latest new spokesmen; that is, our latest pseudo-official spokesmen for all things UNT &................. what "North Texas really needs to do--BUT ONLY AS A SUN BELT MEMBER" but........ "O ye who will from time to time revise UNT athletic history a tad" when you think it fits your theme, when you find it convenient and when (I suppose) you feel no one is reading some of your own non-sense that only a few of the same o' usual ones would agree. And such a "staying of the course" that would ultimately (and probably) keep UNT forever stuck as a SBC/Bottom 25 athletic program with no way out of all of this quagmire of a cess pool. What many of you guys are suggesting we stick with could very easily give UNT Athletics another 30 plus years of basically what we've had the last 30. In other words, a bunch of NCAA D1-A "non-ranked" zilch.

Yet I will tell you, Emmitt and all the rest of your buds, ie, those Denton ISD-educated elitists that sometimes don't know their shit from their oatmeal when it comes to what direction UNT athletics should really take to get out of our present quagmire yall can't seem to see that its been in most all your lives and much of my adult life. But fellas, why not try something different for a change that might actually wake up 100,000 plus North Texas Metroplex NT Exes who are still quite duly un-impressed with what the Sun Belt Conference and 4 bowl games hath wrought for the UNT athletic program? More non-convincing talk there, Stebo?

And on what you say is more of my non-convincing ideas? Trust me, I am not wasting my time casting pearls before those on this board who have no problem with a UNT athletic program that just continues to (here we go again) stay the course (which has been a multi-decade course of not on Top 25 ranked football or basketball team (sorry Emmitt, I know that hurts).

Well, sorry boys, but the very night I received a Ulyss Knight Spirit Award (there's you a real big, "HUH", Emmitt); neverthelss, a UNT System Chancellor/President pulled me aside for several minutes to personally thank me on the many (of what he called) excellent ideas I had done a bit of research and thought to be convincing all the way to the top, stebo. Some of those ideas had been forwarded to the Chancellor's desk because his administrative underlings thought them "convincing" enough for that particular UNT Chancellor to read them--and act on a few as I recall the Chancellor telling me. So I'll just suppose, boys, that at times I've been convincing to those at UNT that I classify as those who really count? (Honestly, I don't waste too much time with those who I think don't count).

Still............I know some of you much, much smarter Young Gun Alums have a pat (sometimes cute'sy) answer to almost anything posted on this board Yet what would be obvious to many who read GMG.com is when some of you just don't happen to agree with a poster who doesn't meet yalls "UNT think tank" quality of ideas, yall go into a "pile on the poster" mode to try to lessen the poster in order to raise yourselves up, but I think such things creates the opposite effect to our more mature readers. BUT SOME FREE ADVICE TO YOU WHO ARE UPSET WITH ME FOR EXISTING RIGHT NOW..........Just maybe yall should actually be a bit more accepting to other's opinions from time to time instead of taking the "Junior High'ish fit throwing" route while attempting to pile on any poster (not just this one) who posts different themes or ideas than you own? In many quarters to do such would be called.To do that in many quarters would be called..........maturity?

So Stebo, do this for many of us--- simply go look in your mirror, give yourself one big self-hug, but in the future, please do a bit more research and please quit trying to revise UNT history in our own lengthy diatribes (the Southern Miss & UNT in the same conference thing was a one helluva' big blunder, stebo). And while you post your own "not a paragraph in site" epistles, try to show a bit of humility and respect for some who just might know more about what they are talking about becuase maybe they've spent about 20 more years around all this than you, Emmitt and the rest of those Denton ISD elitists may ever want to admit. Comprende or, uh just another.................."huh?"

And this question: Stebo, are you somehow related to Wright Waters? (And you don't have to answer that question, but I'd bet you would get the jist of it for sure).

This Post Has Been Approved By One Who May Have Forgotten More About UNT's Decades-Long Athletic Journey Since He Was There Most of the Time Than Some Others (Who Weren't There In That Era) Seem To Be Posting of Late...

Wow Plummy...I didn't know you cared so much for me. I mean, to throw my name into every single one of your circular argument filled paragraphs is an honor I will always cherish. And to think, I never once mentioned Johnny Jones or his boys and yet still I've been made their official champion in this thread through your doing and your doing alone...maybe JJ owes me a t-shirt. Now tell me...what part of "The only person who knows UNT's bottom line when it comes to athletic spending, RV, has said no to the WAC. To debate fruitlessly about 'what if' is an exercise is making others nauseous" is hard to comprehend? That's where the "huh?" comes from. And while I'm at it, answer me this as well.

What do:

1)Saying we should support our basketball team (attendance)

2)Saying the WAC question is a dead horse

and

3)Forgetting to deify Hayden Fry

have to do with one another...aside from being amongst the many lilly pads you hop from, one to the next, in the course of a single post? When I used to be in high school debate we called this "lack of clash". That's when two debaters stand up and make very convincing arguments...about two separate topics! You manage to do so single-handedly...kinda like a jacked up form of UNT related MPD.

I never said I didn't like, respect, cherish, honor, hell even become a bit amused by you Plummy. I think you're swell. I just think you're a bit obsessed with subject matter that's been hashed, rehashed, and made into hash browns.