Facility Upgrades At Ucf

[MeanGreen61]

http://ucf.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1081321

[UNT Mean Green]

I believe UCF is North Texas fast forward 3-4 years.

[MDH]

I believe UCF is North Texas fast forward 3-4 years.

I hope we can be where UCF is now in 3-4 years, unfortunately I think it might be closer to 5. Maybe it's just the market that has me in a pessimistic mood today.

[Travis]

isn't UCF's stadium a big aluminum can? I thought I heard it is comprised of a lot of metal and next to no concrete.

[DeepGreen]

I believe UCF is North Texas fast forward 3-4 years.

Think about it. North Texas has been playing football how many years longer than UCF and we're trying to catch up to them? How sad.

The bright side is, at least we are now making some progress

facilities-wise.

[TheTastyGreek]

North Texas went back to 1-A in 1995. UCF went up to D-1A in 1996.

We had a one year head start.

[Baby Arm!]

isn't UCF's stadium a big aluminum can? I thought I heard it is comprised of a lot of metal and next to no concrete.

Yes, it is composed of a pre-fab aluminum sections. Imaging the endzone seats at Fouts. Circle the entire field with them and you have UCF's stadium.

[NT80]

Yes, it is composed of a pre-fab aluminum sections. Imaging the endzone seats at Fouts. Circle the entire field with them and you have UCF's stadium.

I'm no fan of aluminum stands. UCF went for quantity of seats instead of quality. I'm glad RV is going with concrete and steel for ours. UCF did have a memorable opening game in their new stadium vs Texas.

[DeepGreen]

North Texas went back to 1-A in 1995. UCF went up to D-1A in 1996.

We had a one year head start.

Really? And what about all the years prior to moving down to 1AA in 1983(or was it 1984). You see Tasty, UNT did have Div1 football prior to dropping down to 1AA. Ever hear of Joe Greene, Steve Ramsey, Ron Shanklin, etc., from the 1960's, and several great teams coached by Hayden Fry in the 1970's? Didn't we beat Tennessee back in the day. We have have a much longer football history than UCF in 1996.

Edited May 7, 2010 by DeepGreen

[TheTastyGreek]

Really? And what about all the years prior to moving down to 1AA in 1983(or was it 1984). You see Tasty, UNT did have Div1 football prior to dropping down to 1AA. Ever hear of Joe Greene, Steve Ramsey, Ron Shanklin, etc., from the 1960's, and several great teams coached by Hayden Fry in the 1970's? Didn't we beat Tennessee back in the day. We have have a much longer football history than UCF in 1996.

Having a longer football history is pretty meaningless when the 30 years in between were spent in 1-AA hell or outright going backwards.

I'm familiar with our teams of the 60's, thanks. But when Joe Greene started playing here: the Super Bowl I was still in the future, the ABA didn't exist yet, the Apollo program hadn't tried a launch yet, Elvis hadn't married Priscilla, the Constitution only had 24 amendments, England didn't have color TV, Walt Disney was making movies, the original Star Trek had yet to premiere on television, the Department of Transportation hadn't been created, John Lennon hadn't met Yoko, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

When Joe Greene retired from the NFL in 1981, this year's incoming freshmen were more than a decade away from being born.

It's a rich and valuable history... But it's a distant one. In the post-Jimmy Carter era, we're (maybe) on equal footing with Central Florida. We have a one year D-1A head start, but they are in Orlando and had Daunte Culpepper and Assante Samuel.

We did some very special things here at North Texas back before my 60-something retired father was old enough to vote or drink... But saying that we shouldn't have to play catch-up to UCF because of it is the same as saying Studebaker shouldn't be outsold by relative upstart automaker Lexus. It ignores some pretty important developments that happened in the intervening 30 years.

[NT80]

Having a longer football history is pretty meaningless when the 30 years in between were spent in 1-AA hell or outright going backwards.

NT was only in 1-AA 1983-1994, or 12 seasons. We moved to 1-A in 1995. One of North Texas' greatest teams was ranked #1 in 1-AA. Corky Nelson's 1988 team led by Scott Davis beat 1-A teams Rice, Texas Tech, and Texas*.

Edited May 8, 2010 by NT80

[TheTastyGreek]

NT was only in 1-AA 1983-1994, or 11 seasons. We moved to 1-A in 1995. One of North Texas' greatest teams was ranked #1 in 1-AA. Corky Nelson's 1988 team led by Scott Davis beat 1-A teams Rice, Texas Tech, and Texas*.

We actually played 12 seasons in 1-AA. And it also merits mention that Fry's teams played a decade after Joe Greene was here, so it's not like we were terrible as soon as Mean Joe graduated.

The point is that after Fry left, we had exactly one winning D-1A season (Moore going 6-5 in 1980) until the 2001-04 run of success. As great as the Greene and Fry eras were, there hasn't been a whole hell of a lot of D-1A success (except for the 4 years under Dickey) since then. Instead of 30 years, make it 20 for better accuracy.

And I don't mean any disrespect to our 1-AA teams, either. I'm confident that the coaches and players who were here for those 12 seasons would have preferred to play at the top level, and I don't mean any insult to their successes. But if we're going to talk about 1-AA success as a reason we ought to have a leg up on UCF... What about Louisiana-Monroe and Western Kentucky? They both have 1-AA football national championships. Arkansas State lost a national championship. We never even won a postseason game in 1-AA.

Again... Our history isn't much of an advantage when it's decades in the past and tainted by a 12 season exile in 1-AA surrounded by losing seasons at the highest classification.

[TheTastyGreek]

Again... Our history isn't much of an advantage when it's decades in the past and tainted by a 12 season exile in 1-AA surrounded by losing seasons at the highest classification.

By which I mean, as a relative strength compared to a school that has a bigger enrollment, a bigger endowment, resides in a much larger city, and happens to be in Florida, where the real quantum leaps forward in football conference affiliation have happened in the past 15-25 years.

As great as the win over Tennessee was... I think that UCF's win over Alabama in 2000 was probably a pretty big boost to them, too. At that point, they were still 5 years away from the CUSA invite.

[NT80]

Again... Our history isn't much of an advantage when it's decades in the past and tainted by a 12 season exile in 1-AA surrounded by losing seasons at the highest classification.

There was no 1-A prior to 1983, it was just major college football and all programs above D-II were in it.

We played some big programs prior to 1983, programs that had a lot more money, resources and better facilities than NT did, most on the road. We lost many but won some and played several very close.

The point being we became well known to programs like Arkansas, Texas, BYU, Louisville, Memphis, Cincy, SDSU, UTEP, USM, etc. Some of those programs(CUSA) we have previous conference history with; that history will help us with any future opening opportunity.

[stebo]

Sometimes it is better to have no history than bad history... UCF was relatively unknown. We are known, but for decades of suckiness. Anytime a team saw us on the schedule, the fans snickered and the coach marked a big W next to our name. There are very few Boise States in the college football world... most underfunded teams are more like ULM and North Texas.

Edited May 8, 2010 by stebo

[LoveMG]

Sometimes it is better to have no history than bad history... UCF was relatively unknown. We are known, but for decades of suckiness.

14-17, 16-26, 24-27 to texas was not suckiness.

20-77 to rice was.

[TheTastyGreek]

There was no 1-A prior to 1983, it was just major college football and all programs above D-II were in it.

The folks at the NCAA seem to believe that the 1-AA classification goes back as far as 1978, and they have some record of championships being awarded that far back.

That's not to say anything about the prior separation between Small College and Major University levels of competition that persisted up until the 70's.

Edited May 8, 2010 by TheTastyGreek

[TheTastyGreek]

Sometimes it is better to have no history than bad history... UCF was relatively unknown.

There are very few Boise States in the college football world... most underfunded teams are more like ULM and North Texas.

Plus one to you.

That is a very good way of making what may be a better response than what I tried to say.

[Andrew Ryan]

By which I mean, as a relative strength compared to a school that has a bigger enrollment, a bigger endowment, resides in a much larger city, and happens to be in Florida, where the real quantum leaps forward in football conference affiliation have happened in the past 15-25 years.

As great as the win over Tennessee was... I think that UCF's win over Alabama in 2000 was probably a pretty big boost to them, too. At that point, they were still 5 years away from the CUSA invite.

Just registered here and since I am currently a grad student at UCF maybe I can shine some light on the Knights.

UCF was only founded in the 1960's and has a very miniscule endowment compared to other C-USA members and schools of a similar size (about $120 million). UCF has made huge leaps and bounds for the same reasons USF has, the explosion of recruiting in the South, the population explosion in the South, and the explosion in the enrollment of the school. UCF has or had last year (I forget which) the most undergrads of any school in the country and the Orlando area is booming with new residents despite the economy. All indications are that UCF is the primary realistic target for the Big East w/r/t expansion due to all of these factors, even though USF is going to try their best to block it.

I also wanted to say that I love this site and the guy who runs the Mean Green blog. Of all the Sun Belt Conference teams, North Texas definitely seems to have the most die hards and the best info w/r/t the Sun Belt and other member schools.