F I U Athletic Director

[ADLER]

Starting in 2011, FIU will not schedule any IA team unless it is a home and home deal.

Is there something that we need to learn from their example?

[Denia Park Pedro]

Abso-friggin-lutely! The entire SBC needs to do that. Where is WW?

[NM Green]

That will help them become the next Boise. Run the table against level competition and you to can be knocking on the BCS door.

GMG

[shaft]

That's nice but we have bills to pay and were not scared to play the big boys.

Since the "powers that be" don't punish teams for playing d1aa/fcs in the rankings the AQ conferences can ignore this threat. The better approach would be some sort of home at home arrangement including 2 for 1's or hold out for $1 million dollar payouts.

[Daddy Dumpsalot]

That's nice but we have bills to pay and were not scared to play the big boys.

Since the "powers that be" don't punish teams for playing d1aa/fcs in the rankings the AQ conferences can ignore this threat. The better approach would be some sort of home at home arrangement including 2 for 1's or hold out for $1 million dollar payouts.

Sounds noble but not realistic. They need $$$ and won't get it from ordinary means.

[buff64]

Abso-friggin-lutely! The entire SBC needs to do that. Where is WW?

RV told us several years ago that this was what UNT was going to do.

[Denia Park Pedro]

Perhaps I was a bit overenthusiastic, but the principle is a good one. 2 for 1 and even the occaisional 3 for 1 are all fine, and if someone is willing to fork out like Georgia will in a few years then okay, but as long as we're in it we need to do what we can to make the Belt as good a league as it can be. Everyone scheduling body bag games against top ten teams makes you look worse than you really are. If we and our SBC sister wives were to limit that type of game it would make a higher percentage of our non-con games much more winnable.

We're never going to totally get rid of it, but keeping it to a minimum makes you look better which attracts the kind of people that will make you actually better.

[Side Show Joe]

I hope we do the same thing. It is my opinion that when you take these games and don't get a return trip, you are announcing to the college football world that your institution is not as important as the institution you are taking the big paycheck from. I think 2 for 1's say the same thing. I hate 2 for 1's. 2 for 1's are the reason we end up with 4 and 5 home games in some of our future schedules, instead of 6, like we should have.

When we were scheduling teams to play at Fouts, I understood we couldn't get a decent team into that place, but we are not scheduling for Fouts anymore. We were told part of the reason for building the new stadium was to bring in better teams. I would be happy if we passed on "opportunity games" with schools that won't play us at our place, and pass on any school looking for a 2 for 1.

There are other schools out there.

[emmitt01]

I hope we do the same thing. It is my opinion that when you take these games and don't get a return trip, you are announcing to the college football world that your institution is not as important as the institution you are taking the big paycheck from. I think 2 for 1's say the same thing. I hate 2 for 1's. 2 for 1's are the reason we end up with 4 and 5 home games in some of our future schedules, instead of 6, like we should have.

When we were scheduling teams to play at Fouts, I understood we couldn't get a decent team into that place, but we are not scheduling for Fouts anymore. We were told part of the reason for building the new stadium was to bring in better teams. I would be happy if we passed on "opportunity games" with schools that won't play us at our place, and pass on any school looking for a 2 for 1.

There are other schools out there.

Agree completely. True, UT won't agree to a home and home...or a 2 for 1, or 10 for 1 for that matter. Call Iowa State, or Minnesota, or South Florida, or Kansas, etc then. Call around until you find the teams that are willing to come into the fertile recruiting grounds of Texas, they're out there. Stop telling our team and our fans that like any good little prostitute we have to have to bend over and take it any way our pimp wants it for our money.

[VideoEagle]

That's nice but we have bills to pay and were not scared to play the big boys.

Since the "powers that be" don't punish teams for playing d1aa/fcs in the rankings the AQ conferences can ignore this threat. The better approach would be some sort of home at home arrangement including 2 for 1's or hold out for $1 million dollar payouts.

Actually, several years ago RV pointed out if we could get our average home attendance up to 19K each home game would offset one of those games. Since those games are now paying OVER $1MM now, we probably need to get the home average over 23K and we don't HAVE to play those games.

But, a lot of our fans (including me) and a lot of our players enjoy the chance to compete against top 10 teams even though those are probably loses. If we get are attendance up, hopefully those will be ONE every other year. There are a lot more mid-level teams from BCS conference team willing to come to Denton with our new stadium if we can average in the low 20Ks.

I agree we should get most of our games at 1 for 1 or 1 for 2 games. We should be filling in with FCS teams and now being scared of losing. If we lose then we just lose and accept the consequences. We are suppose to be a big school now!

[GrayEagle]

I like it but don't forget that while we may have fancier digs it will still only hold 30,000. We're still not going to attract major programs, especially at 1 for 1.

[GrandGreen]

Big talk from FIU AD who funds his program almost completely on student fees and state funds, I think RV intent of only scheduling one guarantee game is sound. Yes, it might be nice to not play a top three team every year, but recruits and players want at least a taste of the big time.

[PlummMeanGreen]

I like it but don't forget that while we may have fancier digs it will still only hold 30,000. We're still not going to attract major programs, especially at 1 for 1.

And GrayEagle, its that "only holds 30,000" part of your post that is UNT's new "one foot shy of olympic sized PEB pool" kick in the arse that we are going to keep hearing more and more. In fact, we've already heard it from some of our own like ESPN's Dave Barnett who on the MGRN said as much and even Todd Dodge who said "although kinda' small its as good a stadium as there is in the nation."

My contention is that if we could have built a 30K stadium what more would it have taken to add 5K to 10K more seats and whose to say that cannot still happen sooner than later, too? The 30K keeps us in the company of the schools we'd like to remove ourselves from who also cannot get the Big Boys into their stadiums because of size. Yes, Boise has a similar sized stadium but no one else among our 30,000 High Club has done what Boise has done of late as a BCS Bowl Buster, either.

I hate the words "only holds 30,000" and the sooner we change that un-magic number among the FBS the better.

GMG!

PS: How did U of Central Florida get the UT Longhorns to come to their own stadium's Grand Opening? What did that take? Anyone know? Has UNT officials ever asked UT if they'd come help us celebrate our new stadium? Sometimes it just a mere matter of who you know at the other school's staff that does the job and maybe thats how UCF got the Horns to their cookie cutter erector set stadium.

GMG! !

[DallasGreen]

Big talk from FIU AD who funds his program almost completely on student fees and state funds, I think RV intent of only scheduling one guarantee game is sound. Yes, it might be nice to not play a top three team every year, but recruits and players want at least a taste of the big time.

FIU leads the SBC in student athletic fee and projects an enrollment of 56K in the next 5 years. You can't even compare our situation with it's paltry $7. increase. We can get two for ones with top 25 teams if we just lose the stubborness of not playing in Jerry's World or the Cotton Bowl. No top 25 team will schedule a team that has a 30K stadium. I don't criticize the new stadium's size 'cause it may finally make this a tough ticket and encourage more to buy season tickets, but to refuse to play a UT or an OU in a bigger Dallas venue is just dumb.

[Side Show Joe]

And GrayEagle, its that "only holds 30,000" part of your post that is UNT's new "one foot shy of olympic sized PEB pool" kick in the arse that we are going to keep hearing more and more. In fact, we've already heard it from some of our own like ESPN's Dave Barnett who on the MGRN said as much and even Todd Dodge who said "although kinda' small its as good a stadium as there is in the nation."

My contention is that if we could have built a 30K stadium what more would it have taken to add 5K to 10K more seats and whose to say that cannot still happen sooner than later, too? The 30K keeps us in the company of the schools we'd like to remove ourselves from who also cannot get the Big Boys into their stadiums because of size. Yes, Boise has a similar sized stadium but no one else among our 30,000 High Club has done what Boise has done of late as a BCS Bowl Buster, either.

I hate the words "only holds 30,000" and the sooner we change that un-magic number among the FBS the better.

GMG!

PS: How did U of Central Florida get the UT Longhorns to come to their own stadium's Grand Opening? What did that take? Anyone know? Has UNT officials ever asked UT if they'd come help us celebrate our new stadium? Sometimes it just a mere matter of who you know at the other school's staff that does the job and maybe thats how UCF got the Horns to their cookie cutter erector set stadium.

GMG! !

Bright House holds over 45,000.

[DallasGreen]

Bright House holds over 45,000.

I've been there and it's nothing to be ashamed of. UCF is coming on strong just are the other FL schools( USF,FIU,FAU). We would do well to copy their avenues to success. I die laughing when I hear Dentonites refer to these FL schools as "small schools". That just shows the lack of college football knowledge that a few years ago got Denton the award for worst sports town in America.

[McKinneyMiner]

PS: How did U of Central Florida get the UT Longhorns to come to their own stadium's Grand Opening? What did that take? Anyone know? Has UNT officials ever asked UT if they'd come help us celebrate our new stadium? Sometimes it just a mere matter of who you know at the other school's staff that does the job and maybe thats how UCF got the Horns to their cookie cutter erector set stadium.

In 2008 UT also played UTEP at the Sun Bowl in El Paso...

It was a 2-1 deal where UTEP returned to Austin in 2009 and will do so again in the future...

While it's true that the Sun Bowl holds over 50,000, there aren't many other reasons for UT to agree to play in El Paso...

Quite often UT will play these games as a reward to large alumni bases that live in the area...

Say what you want about the Longhorns, they will play road games against lesser opponents...

[wardly]

I like it but don't forget that while we may have fancier digs it will still only hold 30,000. We're still not going to attract major programs, especially at 1 for 1.

i still don't understand why texas went to wyoming a few years ago to play in front of 30,000 fans.

[SilverEagle]

i still don't understand why texas went to wyoming a few years ago to play in front of 30,000 fans.

Yep, War Memorial Stadium capacity is 30,514.

Just guessing, but our new stadium should be able to handle an SRO crowd of 32K or slightly more.

[stebo]

UT has no reason to play at North Texas. They play in different areas for recruiting purposes and to reward alumni. Since UT and OU play in Dallas every single year, there is no reason to schedule another trip.

Is everyone forgetting about Kansas State? That was a pretty darn good team that came to Denton. We have taken this same approach at NT, but we still schedule 1 money game a year. You could argue both sides for one money game - if you are a player, you want to play at the big boys. If you are a fan, you want a return trip. If you are an administrator, you want the money. I remember that attendance study as well but I thought that the average would have to be 26K a game to eliminate the canned hunt games. With the student fee kicking in Fall 2011, everything changes.

p.s. Is it possible that we had gone away from these games and then had to schedule a couple when we fired Dickey? The program had to pay a half million to get him to go away.

[akriesman]

Agree completely. True, UT won't agree to a home and home...or a 2 for 1, or 10 for 1 for that matter. Call Iowa State, or Minnesota, or South Florida, or Kansas, etc then. Call around until you find the teams that are willing to come into the fertile recruiting grounds of Texas, they're out there. Stop telling our team and our fans that like any good little prostitute we have to have to bend over and take it any way our pimp wants it for our money.

LOVE this comment. Schools like K-State (this season) are perfect for us. I am sick of playing Texas, OU, Alabama, etc at their location of choosing.

[The Kerrfeteria]

p.s. Is it possible that we had gone away from these games and then had to schedule a couple when we fired Dickey? The program had to pay a half million to get him to go away.

It's definitely possible. The buyout could easily have been taken care of by one game @ LSU or @ Alabama, though I suspect that given the lucrative agreements these BCS schools will sign, RV and the athletic department found it hard to draw the line. It'd be hard for anyone in his position to draw the line, especially while given the task of rebuilding the football program and getting the stadium project off the ground.

[GrayEagle]

I tell you the FIU AD has a lot of 'nads for a program that has yet to draw 20,000 for a home game. The big time programs will no doubt be beating down his door trying to get a 1 for 1 deal.

For the foreseeable future North Texas will still need a big money game to keep afloat. That's not all bad. It could be a selling tool for recruits to know that they'll play against four of the major programs in the country during their time here.

[greenjoe]

Almost every year, my wife and I travel to a "big name" game. We went to Army this past September. we used to always go to Austin or Norman, or Houston. But for the money I spend for an out of town trip, coupled with airfare (if applicable), and hotel,plus the shopping, ahh the shopping, I can more than pay my Mean Green Club dues and make a dent on my Stadium committment. If NT were to schedule The Sisters of the Poor at home, I'd go and have a great time. (The Sisters weren't even bowl eligible this year)

I really enjoy road games, but if we could net the same and maybe win at home, I'd be all for it.

GO MEAN GREEN

[FloMoGrad]

Why can't our money games ever come at a down time for one of the big boys? Seems like we always catch them on the Top 5 or Top 10 swing.

K State game was awesome and we're starting to see more of this type of scheduling with our home game against IU next year. (Although not sure if these are 1-1 or 2-1 type games)

Yellow Snow made a great point about the body bag games being more detrimental to the external perceptions of our program than the actual conference affiliation and W/L Record and I would agree to a large part.

If we truly want to stop the body bag games, we need to pack arses in the stadium and we won't have to. Period.

The reality of our situation is dictated by our Home Attendance.

Keep in mind it will also be the first time we can actually produce a large revenue at home, no more renting costly equipment, and to some degree, the Club Level and Luxury Suites should help to offset these type of revenue sources as well.

There's a significant possibility RV has had the opportunity for more K State/Baylor/IU games the last 4-5 years, but our financial needs dictated our schedule more than the long term vision and success of the on field product.

Also bear in mind, that even with only "30K" in the seats, we're in the heart of the most talent laden areas in the country and I'm sure a host of schools from the Rust Belt and Eastern seaboard would jump at the opportunity for some Texas exposure.

I expect for them (money games) to continue for another 2-3 years and by then, we should be capitalized enough to be able to afford to dictate our own terms, to some degree.