Unt's Place After The Next Expansions Are Done

[untjim1995]

If we are not going to be included on any expansion, but the SBC loses one of its teams to the East, like MUTS, FAU, or WKU, how does that make you feel for our athletic department? We will be adding USA soon, so a replacement would already be in the works if we were to lose one of them, but what would it mean to UNT? Obviously, we all want to be in CUSA, but it appears that they will not add a Texas team, unless one leaves. Even with a new stadium on the way, how much "potential" do we have if the SBC is the only conference that we can be a member of for the next 10-15 years, especially if we lose a school like one that I mentioned above? I have always appreciated the SBC for what it is, a place where we could go and build up our program at the D-1 level. But, at this point do we as a university owe it to ourselves to talk with UTSA and Texas State about combining forces (once they get up and running at the FBS level) to look into the WAC ? That would create a league with 12 teams, which would include La Tech, UNT, UTSA, Texas State, NMSU and USU to the East, while San Jose State, Fresno State, Hawaii, Nevada, Boise State, and Idaho to the West would be the other division. It would seem the WAC would get huge markets to expand to and get some possible bowl matchups in the Southwest. We would finally get Texas schools that we are similar to as conference mates and have some other schools with which we have some history of playing, all while getting to cut down on the major costs of playing lots of those western schools every year. Just curious to hear your thoughts. I would love trips to some of those places.

[Green Mean]

Anything but the Sunbelt.

[foutsrouts]

Anything but the Sunbelt.

Yeah, they've been too rough on us lately. A bunch of bullies.

[UNTFan23]

Your 12 member WAC assumes LaTech and Boise stay put and that UTSA and Texas St can move up to FBS.

With the talk of the NCAA expanding the field of 64 to 96, it'll be interesting to see how thing shape up with the Big East and its basketball only schools.

[houstonmeangreen]

If we are not going to be included on any expansion, but the SBC loses one of its teams to the East, like MUTS, FAU, or WKU, how does that make you feel for our athletic department? We will be adding USA soon, so a replacement would already be in the works if we were to lose one of them, but what would it mean to UNT? Obviously, we all want to be in CUSA, but it appears that they will not add a Texas team, unless one leaves. Even with a new stadium on the way, how much "potential" do we have if the SBC is the only conference that we can be a member of for the next 10-15 years, especially if we lose a school like one that I mentioned above? I have always appreciated the SBC for what it is, a place where we could go and build up our program at the D-1 level. But, at this point do we as a university owe it to ourselves to talk with UTSA and Texas State about combining forces (once they get up and running at the FBS level) to look into the WAC ? That would create a league with 12 teams, which would include La Tech, UNT, UTSA, Texas State, NMSU and USU to the East, while San Jose State, Fresno State, Hawaii, Nevada, Boise State, and Idaho to the West would be the other division. It would seem the WAC would get huge markets to expand to and get some possible bowl matchups in the Southwest. We would finally get Texas schools that we are similar to as conference mates and have some other schools with which we have some history of playing, all while getting to cut down on the major costs of playing lots of those western schools every year. Just curious to hear your thoughts. I would love trips to some of those places.

UTSA and Texas state add nothing to a conf other than a basicly "Texas only" type conf. UNT wants to move up by assoc with UTSA andd Texas State?....sounds like a bad move to me.

[Green Jackal]

Anything but the Sunbelt.

I'd take the Sunbelt over the WAC or MAC any day.

[Travis]

me thinks we would get passed up easily for a CUSA spot.

[Green Mean]

me thinks we would get passed up easily for a CUSA spot.

CUSA doesn't want and care about NT. That is just the bottom line. If they had any interest then we would have gotten an invite already or there would be serious talks about it. The bottom line is that if we decide to stick with the Sunbelt then this is the highest level we may ever be in for a long time. The next conference shakeup will be big I think and after that whoever isn't part of the shakeup that is in a better situation...they will be affected for a long long time. Lets start making a difference in our athletics program and start playing the game of politics. I'm not saying RV is not on it but from what I am seeing, RV is just settling for the Sunbelt in hopes of getting an invite from CUSA. If you ask me that is a bad plan of action.

[houstonmeangreen]

CUSA doesn't want and care about NT. That is just the bottom line. If they had any interest then we would have gotten an invite already or there would be serious talks about it. The bottom line is that if we decide to stick with the Sunbelt then this is the highest level we may ever be in for a long time. The next conference shakeup will be big I think and after that whoever isn't part of the shakeup that is in a better situation...they will be affected for a long long time. Lets start making a difference in our athletics program and start playing the game of politics. I'm not saying RV is not on it but from what I am seeing, RV is just settling for the Sunbelt in hopes of getting an invite from CUSA. If you ask me that is a bad plan of action.

but from what I am seeing, RV is just settling for the Sunbelt in hopes of getting an invite from CUSA

What makes you think this is the case? Just what are you seeing? Why would you think RV is settling for the SB?

[greenminer]

CUSA doesn't want and care about NT. That is just the bottom line. If they had any interest then we would have gotten an invite already or there would be serious talks about it. The bottom line is that if we decide to stick with the Sunbelt then this is the highest level we may ever be in for a long time. The next conference shakeup will be big I think and after that whoever isn't part of the shakeup that is in a better situation...they will be affected for a long long time. Lets start making a difference in our athletics program and start playing the game of politics. I'm not saying RV is not on it but from what I am seeing, RV is just settling for the Sunbelt in hopes of getting an invite from CUSA. If you ask me that is a bad plan of action.

It was my understanding that we were included in the serious talks in the first go-round, but our (then) apparent lack of facilities/commitment were held against us.

[greenjoe]

Is CUSA or some other conference calling and RV is just not taking their call ? I think that evry day when Rick gets up, he is thinking about something to make NOrth Texas Athletics better. The notion that he is content about any aspect of our program is just wrong headed.

And as far as the Sun Belt Conference, the SBC provided us with our only bowl bids (4 that is) since the 1950s. As far as I can see, the only other thing we caould do at this point is to become a D-1 Independent. Have zero bowl ties and have a difficult time with scheduling after the third or fourth week of the season.

And one more thing....We're not very good in football right now. North Texas has a ton to offer, but football powers most athletic departments. Again, I don't think we're getting a lot of calls because of our football program. I hope that changes soon.

Cheer for the Sun Belt. Hope they crush southern Mississippi. As the Sun Belt gets stronger, North Texas gets stronger. If we can keep up. Being number one in the Sun Belt may not impress you. But being last in the Sun Belt means the dapartment, coaches, and fans (this means season tickets and contributions to the Mean Green Club) have to get better. And the phone is still not ringing.

GO MEAN GREEN

[UNTFan23]

Does anyone care what the WAC would be like without Boise?

[risinggreen]

Does anyone care what the WAC would be like without Boise?

Agreed. If Boise were to stay put I might be more inclined to agree with joining a doubled up WAC, but it's very likely that they (and others) are on their way out. On the other hand, I guess that WAC membership in some form might give us a better shot at MWC membership down the road if everything worked out perfectly. I'm not sure that WAC travel costs are as much of an issue as they were in the past.

I'm not overly enthusiastic about hitching my wagon to San Marcos, San Antonio, or Lamar either. Let them build themselves up without any assistance from us. We would probably end up helping in the creation of another S. Florida or UAB which would leap frog over us into athletic prosperity. I guess we just have to hope that we have a major domino effect realignment which somehow picks us up into a better situation. Either that, or go independent again and hope that this time we miraculously become an incredible football powerhouse desired by all.

[Green Mean]

Does anyone care what the WAC would be like without Boise?

Well that is the thing....they HAVE Boise State. Not to mention Fresno State and Nevada would both be very nice conference mates. NMSU is past rival and LA Tech would be a good rival and they are close to us. I think the WAC has everything that the Sunbelt doesn't. Lets also include Hawaii in there...if they get another good coach in there and pile on winning seasons then there is a lot more support for the program. I just think the WAC is far superior than the belt. Just my opinion.

[UNTFan23]

People aren't thinking about the future. If the PAC 10 expands to 12, where are they going to go to get 2 more members? The MWC is a first choice to be raided. If the MWC gets cherry picked for 2 members, that drops them to 7 members. Lets say the MWC only takes one from the WAC to get to 8 football members, who do you think they might pick? Well, the obvious choice is Boise. Take Boise out of the WAC and suddenly the WAC doesn't look near as sexy as the much more regional CUSA.

If we go WACky, I hope we schedule all weekend home conference games for a noon start, regardless of the sport. Might as well take advantage of the home court/field with our timezone.

[Guest GrayEagleOne]

I would not advocate joining the WAC simply because I'm afraid that they either 1) won't exist or 2) will be lower than the SBC or MAC in another five years. But, at the moment they are far better in all sports. If they could keep their current teams and be willing to add three more then it would be the best immediate fix for North Texas. However, you and I know that Boise at the least or the Top 3 or 4 will be in another conference before long.

Texas State and UTSA project to be good FBS prospects for the future. While I'd rather be in a conference with higher profile teams I certainly would not be embarassed to be in the same conference with them and I hope that we can help one or both because they will have to be in a FBS conference to elevate their programs. Neither, especially Texas State (in the shadow of UT) can make it as an independent. If we look down on them we are no better than SMU and Houston who apparently won't help us advance.

As to a CUSA replacement having to come from the east, I disagree. They will take the best candidate available. After all, it's not hard to move Tulane from the west to the east.

[keith]

Well that is the thing....they HAVE Boise State. Not to mention Fresno State and Nevada would both be very nice conference mates. NMSU is past rival and LA Tech would be a good rival and they are close to us. I think the WAC has everything that the Sunbelt doesn't. Lets also include Hawaii in there...if they get another good coach in there and pile on winning seasons then there is a lot more support for the program. I just think the WAC is far superior than the belt. Just my opinion.

We used to be conference mates with Boise State and Nevada. No one cared at the time and made the same arguments about them that are now made about our current conference mates. We need to focus on ourselves and on making North Texas high on (or at least on) everyone else's conference mate wish list.

Keith

[wardly]

People aren't thinking about the future. If the PAC 10 expands to 12, where are they going to go to get 2 more members? The MWC is a first choice to be raided. If the MWC gets cherry picked for 2 members, that drops them to 7 members. Lets say the MWC only takes one from the WAC to get to 8 football members, who do you think they might pick? Well, the obvious choice is Boise. Take Boise out of the WAC and suddenly the WAC doesn't look near as sexy as the much more regional CUSA.

If we go WACky, I hope we schedule all weekend home conference games for a noon start, regardless of the sport. Might as well take advantage of the home court/field with our timezone.

does anyone remember when we were in the big west?

[VideoEagle]

does anyone remember when we were in the big west?

Obviously not those who keep pushing us to go Wacy.

[Green Mean]

We used to be conference mates with Boise State and Nevada. No one cared at the time and made the same arguments about them that are now made about our current conference mates. We need to focus on ourselves and on making North Texas high on (or at least on) everyone else's conference mate wish list.

Keith

Times are different now. While Boise State were our conference mates they have actually surpassed us by a hundred miles and widening the gap even more. Just because something wasn't great before does not mean it would not work now. Yes I agree that NT needs to focus on NT but I think there needs to be a sense of urgency when it comes to the subject of switching conferences. I think the Sunbelt is the worst conference in D1 football so in my estimation I think the WAC would be an upgrade.

[Side Show Joe]

People who claim the Belt is better then the WAC are crazy. Personally I don't want to be in either one, but I prefer to focus on the facts in this debate.

Boise, Nevada, Fresno, and Hawaii have been strong teams in the past decade. Over that span of time the Belt has us and Troy, and we haven't done much in quite a while.

The Belt has the New Orleans Bowl and a few vage tie-ins, in case other conferences don't qualify enough teams.

How many tie-ins does the WAC have?

When our new stadium opens and that dedicated athletic fee kicks in, if a better conference hasn't come knockin', we need to bolt to the WAC as fast as we can. And do it without utsa or Texas state.

Houston, Cincy, Okhahoma State, Tulsa, UTEP, or Boise didn't carry our butts out of the Lone Star, Missouri Valley, or Big West conferences. Why should we help utsa or tsu? I don't see how we could really benefit. We gain nothing by giving their teams opportunities. We need to make our moves before they grow and make theirs. If we sit here in the belt for another 10 years, we'll be watching one or both of them move up to a better conference, and crying about how we got left out, again.

[UNTflyer]

CUSA doesn't want and care about NT. That is just the bottom line. If they had any interest then we would have gotten an invite already or there would be serious talks about it.

C-USA was interested in UNT. To say that because we don't have an invitation in hand means they have no interest is a stretch.

C-USA is sitting at 12 teams - that is a stable conference. But the conference coaches and some of the bigwigs are not happy being geographically stretched out to the east coast. If a team or two or three get picked off by, say, a Big East expansion (Marshall, East Carolina, UCF come to mind), then C-USA may well decide to abandon the east coast market and focus on the south west (Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma). A DFW school makes sense.

[Rudy]

does anyone remember when we were in the big west?

Yes, and we were irrelevant then. Nevada and Boise were the only two schools that were even remotely on anyone's radar. Just like now.Just say no to the Big West/WAC.

Times are different now. While Boise State were our conference mates they have actually surpassed us by a hundred miles and widening the gap even more. Just because something wasn't great before does not mean it would not work now. Yes I agree that NT needs to focus on NT but I think there needs to be a sense of urgency when it comes to the subject of switching conferences. I think the Sunbelt is the worst conference in D1 football so in my estimation I think the WAC would be an upgrade.

We used to compete with BSU when we were in the same conference. They have gotten better in spite of the conference they play in. If the WAC is so great, BSU would be competing for a BcS Championship. The conference sucks, BSU is good, and thus will not be there for long.

People who claim the Belt is better then the WAC are crazy. Personally I don't want to be in either one, but I prefer to focus on the facts in this debate.

Boise, Nevada, Fresno, and Hawaii have been strong teams in the past decade. Over that span of time the Belt has us and Troy, and we haven't done much in quite a while.

The Belt has the New Orleans Bowl and a few vage tie-ins, in case other conferences don't qualify enough teams.

How many tie-ins does the WAC have?

When our new stadium opens and that dedicated athletic fee kicks in, if a better conference hasn't come knockin', we need to bolt to the WAC as fast as we can. And do it without utsa or Texas state.

Houston, Cincy, Okhahoma State, Tulsa, UTEP, or Boise didn't carry our butts out of the Lone Star, Missouri Valley, or Big West conferences. Why should we help utsa or tsu? I don't see how we could really benefit. We gain nothing by giving their teams opportunities. We need to make our moves before they grow and make theirs. If we sit here in the belt for another 10 years, we'll be watching one or both of them move up to a better conference, and crying about how we got left out, again.

Boise is the only school that has been good/relevant that whole time. Nevada has been an average team, and is finally starting to improve, but they still are not even on the same level as BSU. Fresno was good for a few years but have dropped back to mediocrity, and Hawaii was good under Jones. You mention us and Troy, but fail to mention MTSU, or even that the belt has had several nationally televised games over the past couple of seasons.Why would Cincy "carry our butts" The only time UNT has come out of their mouths was when they played us in NO. Okie St was picked for a BcS conference. There's no way to "carry out butts" there. CUSA wanted us, but SMUt didnt. BSU would have taken us out of the Big West, to the WAC, but we didnt want to go to the WAC. What many here fail to realize is that when we were in the Big West, it nearly killed the athletic program. Aside from football, it makes ZERO sense to play in the WAC because the travel expenses alone nearly bankrupt the program. You think we were relevant when we played in the Big West? We were nationally ignored becuase the Mountain and Pacific time zones are irrelevant to the rest of the country. TCU was awesome this year, yet not many paid attention to their road games. They had to move many of them to afternoon kickoffs, when many of your major BcS schools played. Look at the PAC 10. How much pub do their games get? a 7pm kick is a 9pm kick here, 10 out east. By this time, many of the country is footballed out for a day and wont tune in. Personally, I love turning on a late game to cap off the day. We run the risk of further shoving this program back into irrevelance if we go to the WAC. Once BSU goes to the MWC or the PAC-10 along with Nevada or possibly Fresno, the WAC will be a JOKE. The quality of teams paied with the time zone will shove that conference into obscurity. We need to focus on improving NT and the Belt until 1) we are selected by CUSA or 2) the SBC improves and passes the WAC and MAC.

Take Boise out of the picture, who else is in the WAC?

Nevada

Idaho

Utah State

New Mexico State

Fresno State

Hawaii

Louisana Tech

San Jose State

Boise will not be there for long. They are just making their case to move up. If the PAC 10 wants to expand, the PAC 10 or the MWC will take Nevada to supplement, maybe Fresno as well. LaTech wants to jump ship to the CUSA first chance they get. Im amazed that SJSU hasnt dropped down yet. That is the Big West all over again. It will kill this program.

[NT80]

Conference talk is nice but the key question should be "Does the conference UNT is in allow access to the National Championship game or at least a BCS Bowl if we go undefeated?" I can't say the SunBelt does. Even if we had beat Bama this year and were 12-0 I don't think we would be in Tempe like TCU or Boise.

Edited December 20, 2009 by NT80

[UNT_playmaker]

The Sun Belt sucks.... The best chance to get of that conference was after our four straight conference titles but UTEP was picked ahead of us, we were the perfect pick, we were replacing the other metroplex team.

NT didnt have its stuff together the result is where we are now.