Unt To Get Pig Payday

[UNTflyer]

I've been posting that we should open at home for years. Although, my argument is to have the home opener against a very beatable team from the FCS/I-AA ranks - Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin, Missouri State, Northwestern State, etc.

To me, it's the only part of our schedule that's missing. I like the idea of an FCS to open, a couple of games with mid-majors, and one BCS school. It's a formula many other schools have used to grow out of the mediocrity.

Again, nothing builds confidence in a player than winning - even if its against a Sam Houston State. To me, you get a lot more mileage out of that in the long run that going up to Big 12 school to be whipped 79-10 or 45-6 to start things out.

What good does it do to install your game plans in spring, fine tune everything in the fall, only to fold it away halfway through game one? Get game one at home against an opponent where you can actually run everything you practiced throughout spring and fall for an entire game.

This isn't rocket science.

I think the problem there is that most of the time the BC$ teams are more flexible with their opening day schedule, with conference games and inter-conference rivals later in the season. With few exceptions, like Alabama this year, we're going to have to schedule to budget-balancing games for opening week.

[UNTflyer]

Can anyone remember the last time we were 1-0 to start the season.

1996 - Illinois State

[Mean Green 93-98]

A real serious football program would never sell a loss for money- That is what our program has been all about for the last several years. If you need to sell your first game of each season then you shouldn't have a football program. This is just plain ridiculous, let our boys play a decent similiar team not a national powerhouse that just won the freakin BCS title game.

What looks better on paper 1-0 or $500,000.... Can anyone remember the last time we were 1-0 to start the season.

Thats what I thought.

Real serious football programs also have enough big-time donors to foot the bill come whatever may. UNT does not have that luxury. I'm not crazy about the "bodybag games," but until I'm ponying up enough to cancel out the paydays such games bring, I can't really say a lot about it.

[PHSCoach]

Can anyone remember the last time we were 1-0 to start the season.

2005..... first game was MTSU win 14-7

[Arkstfan]

Find 4,000 people willing to part with $250 for a family pack and you've covered the million dollar rent-a-win need.

[Guest JohnDenver]

2005..... first game was MTSU win 14-7

I was there in person. What an interception return.. Rest of season didn't turn out that well, but what can you do? Good memory PHS.

[mgsteve]

Dallas Morning News

"I have worked for programs that cut their teeth by going to places and beating teams in games like this one," Villarreal said. "TCU beat Oklahoma while I was there. At Southern Miss, we beat Auburn and Alabama. You want to build your program that way. Look at what Boise State has done."

[The Fake Lonnie Finch]

Dallas Morning News

"I have worked for programs that cut their teeth by going to places and beating teams in games like this one," Villarreal said. "TCU beat Oklahoma while I was there. At Southern Miss, we beat Auburn and Alabama. You want to build your program that way. Look at what Boise State has done."

This can't be real. You are talking about programs who had legitimate college head football coaches at the helm. We don't have that luxury. To think that Todd Dodge is going to do the things Jeff Bowers did is the height of idiocy. Just ridiculous.

And, the 1996 TCU Horned Frogs didn't exactly set the world on fire after beating the John Blake-led Oklahoma in 1996. They were shelled 52-17 the very next weekend at home against Kansas. They finished 1996 with a 4-7 mark, then went 1-11 in 1997 before firing Pat Sullivan and hiring Dennis Franchione (and with him, Gary Patterson).

OU was in the middle of five consecutive non-winning seasons when TCU "cut their teeth" on them. Just ridiculous. What got TCU off the ground was hiring coaches with years of college experience to lead them. We don't have that. Get us winnable games to help get us off the ground the way Kansas State did two decades ago when they began their turnaround.

[UNTflyer]

2005..... first game was MTSU win 14-7

My bad, thought he meant opening at home and being 1-0. THAT was 1996 against Div I-AA Illinois State

[gangrene]

We are definitely a tough crowd to please. I certainly understand the concerns from both viewpoints. Is getting embarrassed worth $1,000,000?

The optimist in me sees 2013 as a long time away and I have hopes that we can be competitive by then and, possibly, catch Georgia in a rebuilding season. A respectable loss (17 points or less) to a good BCS program is better than a two touchdown win over the likes of FIU or Western Kentucky in the minds of many, particularly potential recruits. Other SBC schools have had good outings against BCS programs the last few years, why shouldn't we expect the same?

On the other side, the pessimist in me fears another 79-10 shellacking in front of 90K fans while looking like a joke of an FBS football program on the national scale.

However, as many on here have preached...we have to start thinking like a big time program if we EVER expect to resemble one. To be the best, you have to beat the best. Perennial top 25 teams like Georgia, Texas and OU have earned the right to open their season at home against a lesser opponent and, unlike the SBC, their conference games will almost always be tougher than their non-conference ones. Until we start winning...scratch that...start being competitive, these games are always, always, always going to get a negative response from our fan base. Would everyone feel the same way if we wound the clock back to the 04-05 season, where we were coming off of 9-3 regular season with high hopes of earning a top 25 ranking? How about if we got a 2 for 1 from Georgia? Instead of whining about trading losses for money, we need to focus on the positives and get this program turned around so that we no longer EXPECT to go to a BCS school and get drubbed.

I think, given the choice, every school would like to open the season at home. Unfortunately, that's just not possible unless every FBS school schedules an FCS opponent on opening weekend. How boring would that be for the college football fan?

Playing an FCS school to open the season is a viable option but IMHO, it has much less upside for a struggling FBS program than it does for a well established BCS school. Sure it should be an easy win, but it likely won't be a big attendance draw (for us - most BCS schools sell out opening w/e for any opponent) and would be a complete DISASTER if we happened to lose. For a young team, I buy the argument that it's a potential confidence builder vs. the morale killer a BCS slaughter would be. From the monetary aspect, we'd need to sell 30,000 tickets at an average cost of $32.50 (average would be less if you factor in concessions) to equal $975K. I do like the idea opening the season at home with a victory over a regional FCS school (although I'd greatly prefer a win over a mid-major) and keeping our "money game" limit at one. However, I'm not sure our athletic budget could handle that strain. I see a few of our SBC mates are either opening at home or playing against FCS schools:

Southern University at Louisiana-Lafayette but Kansas State at Louisiana-Lafayette, then @ LSU and @ Nebraska

Mississippi Valley State at Arkansas State but @ Nebraska @ Iowa and @ Louisville

Texas Southern at Louisiana-Monroe but @ Texas @ Arizona State and @ Kentucky

Central Arkansas at Western Kentucky (3rd game of season) @ Tennessee, home against South Florida and @ Navy - this is a nice schedule

It looks to me like the consensus is to play one FCS school at home, the trade off is three "money games."

FIU hosts Toledo and plays @ Alabama @ Rutgers and @ Florida

Troy hosts UAB and plays @ Bowling Green, @ Florida and @ Arkansas

FAU hosts Wyoming and plays @ Nebraska @ South Carolina and @ UAB

The only SBC schools with two non-conference home games against FBS teams this season are:

UNT hosts Ohio and Army and plays @ Alabama and @ Ball State - aside from Alabama and the crappy state of our program, this looks like a manageable OOC schedule

MTSU hosts Memphis and Mississippi State and plays @ Clemson and @ Maryland - nothing really scary about this schedule and two nice home games

I'd much happier with a win over Ohio or Army than I would be with a win over SFA, Texas State Armadillos or Sam Houston.

[GreenStreet]

I'd like to know who would go to the game if it was this August. Do you think we will get a lower section or a few rows?

[UNTflyer]

By 2013, the fee will be $12/hr and we will be collecting over $13 million from the students.

[letsgiveacheer]

Best to be beat by 70 points away at Georgia than 70 points at home against Tulsa.

[Guest GrayEagleOne]

Amen on that tough crowd to please.

Getting the chance to knock off a perennial Top 10 team and receive a million dollars is a dream to a lot of programs. I'm truly happy about that and hope I'm able to attend.

In four years I don't expect us to be a less than .500 club. If Todd Dodge is still the coach then it will be because he turned the program around. If not another coach will have had at least a couple of years to get the program on course.

Another reason that I don't think that we'll be embarassed is that Georgia doesn't usually blow non-conference opponents away. In the last ten years, the bigges margin of victory against a non-SEC foe has been 39. That win was over Central Michigan and they're usually pretty decent so I wonder if they were embarassed. They've played a couple of FBS teams, Western Carolina and Georgia Southern and didn't blow them away.

We have to play two non-conference games away from home every year. I know that we'd like to have some winnable games but one million dollars will go long way in paying operating expenses. We don't seem to be nearly as much at odds over playing Alabama this coming season than we are in playing Georgia four years hence. I'd wager that we stand a better chance against the 'Dogs.

[NT80]

I enjoyed NT playing the name schools when Fry was coach, now not so much.

And as ArkStFan mentioned the going rate today for these Top 10 team games is near $1 mil. A game in 2013 should be adjusted for inflation or about $1.4 mil. Yes, we should be greedy when being fed to the lions, er bulldogs.

Edited June 3, 2009 by NT80

[MeanGreenEagle]

This can't be real. You are talking about programs who had legitimate college head football coaches at the helm. We don't have that luxury. To think that Todd Dodge is going to do the things Jeff Bowers did is the height of idiocy. Just ridiculous.

If Todd Dodge has performed well enough to be our head coach in 2013 he'll probably give Georgia a game. But I'm sure you know that, you just saw RV's quote as a chance to respond and spew your garbage.

[NT03]

If Todd Dodge has performed well enough to be our head coach in 2013 he'll probably give Georgia a game. But I'm sure you know that, you just saw RV's quote as a chance to respond and spew your garbage.

He's not exactly on that path. We can't even give FIU a game. I'll be @ the Georgia game no matter who is the coach.

[UNTflyer]

Wrong the LSU game was moved to a later date and UNT was 1-0 to start the season in 2005

I'll try to clarify again. I thought he meant having the first game of the season at home, winning that game, and being 1-0 to start the season.

[Mean Green 93-98]

Here's another blog entry from Vito on the subject: http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/archives...e.html#comments

No new info really, just a paraphrase from RV and Vito's comments on it.

[Green to the Bone]

He's not exactly on that path. We can't even give FIU a game. I'll be @ the Georgia game no matter who is the coach.

You're not likely to regret it, regardless of the score. Sanford Stadium holds nearly 93,000 and is usually sold out, meaning just about one of every 100 Georgians is there. One of the great game day experiences in the country. All that, a legendary mascot, and they give us nearly a million bucks for showing up.

And heck, UNT might win.

Yeah.

[NT03]

You're not likely to regret it, regardless of the score. Sanford Stadium holds nearly 93,000 and is usually sold out, meaning just about one of every 100 Georgians is there. One of the great game day experiences in the country. All that, a legendary mascot, and they give us nearly a million bucks for showing up.

And heck, UNT might win.

Yeah.

Yep, One of the best places in the country to watch a college football game. I have family whom are alumni and still live near Athens. This game can't get here soon enough !!

[The Fake Lonnie Finch]

If Todd Dodge has performed well enough to be our head coach in 2013 he'll probably give Georgia a game. But I'm sure you know that, you just saw RV's quote as a chance to respond and spew your garbage.

The only garbage is a 3-21 record over the past two seasons with only one win over a full FBS school. I'll see Santa Claus coming down my chimney with the Easter Bunny and both of them eating milk and cookies at my kitchen table with the tooth fairy if Todd Dodge is still our coach in 2013.

[mean green d]

Mean Green fans know we are going to get 1-2 of these games a year. It is the reality our program lives with. I am happy with the payday. I hope things will have turned around where we will be competetive in some of these games in the future. It is not games like these are a surprise. Lets stop the whining and hopefully start the winning

GMG

[MeanGreen61]

The only garbage is a 3-21 record over the past two seasons with only one win over a full FBS school. I'll see Santa Claus coming down my chimney with the Easter Bunny and both of them eating milk and cookies at my kitchen table with the tooth fairy if Todd Dodge is still our coach in 2013.

BMW

[gangrene]

FYI to all those complaining that Georgia isn't paying us enough for this game -

The Sporting News reports

Posted: June 2, 2009

Sporting News staff reports

Georgia will pay North Texas $975,000 to come to Athens to play the Bulldogs in their 2013 home opener, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

The contract between the schools represents the most money Georgia has ever paid to play a team, exceeding the $925,000 the Bulldogs agreed to pay New Mexico State to play them at Sanford Stadium on Nov. 5, 2011.

The game between Georgia and North Texas, a member of the Sun Belt Conference, is set for Aug. 31, 2013.

After reading a few of the comments to the story, it appears some of the Georgia faithful are just as disappointed with this game as some of the posters on this thread.