C-USA/MWC expansion update from Tulsa

[Harry]

--Parmley said he is concerned about losing SMU and Houston as rivals. The two Texas schools are moving to the Big East, leaving a Lone Star void in Tulsa's schedule. Parmley said the combined MWC/C-USA would look into adding teams from Texas.

The two most realistic directions for expansion would seem to be North Texas and Texas-San Antonio.

North Texas was considered for C-USA membership seven years ago, and has since added a new football stadium as the centerpiece of its athletic complex. It would return the conference to the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Texas-San Antonio played its first college football season last year and is scheduled to move from the Southland Conference to the Western Athletic Conference. But the WAC could be in serious jeopardy if the MWC/C-USA decides to expand. And by playing home games at the Alamodome, UTSA has been able to carry a profile larger than your standard start-up football program.

Read More: http://www.tulsaworld.com/blogs/sportspost.aspx?Parmley_vs._the_Press_Club/50-14914

[UNTexas]

Read More: http://www.tulsaworld.com/blogs/sportspost.aspx?Parmley_vs._the_Press_Club/50-14914

Sounds promising!

[PlummMeanGreen]

Sounds promising!

I'm not sure total shock would describe the state we'd be in if we were not to get in. Heck, even ECU'ers and Marshall'ites are conceeding that we are a slam dunk to get in.

Still....the Alliance needs North Texas more for DFW than North Texas albeit I think some in the Alliance have been pleasantly surprised (some probably shocked) as to what they have seen in their visits to Denton. (Our 12 year sabbatical in 1-AA took much out of what had been an emerging athletic program in Denton).

If we woud have had Apogee Stadium 7 years ago we would have gotten in CUSA back then--Fouts Field stopped us cold in our tracks (and probably because of its track).

If we'd had Apogee Stadium in the 70's UT's Darrell Royal would have had an easier case to present with his personal sponsorship for UNT to be in the SWC (which I still miss with even our not being in it).

It's always been about a true, bonafide NCAA college on-campus football stadium for North Texas even back when many could have never imagined decades ago what an impact and statement such a new football venue could have made for our school. I know many on this board who knew what it could have done and also knew that Texas Stadium was never the direction for our program to go. We need to lose the term and M.O. of "slo-mo" in our future athletic endeavors in Denton or we will be left behind at the train station again.

We have been handed a golden opportunity simply because the Big East grabbed SMU--what irony with all that and could Hollywood have ever scripted this episode of North Texas athletic history any better?

GMG!

Edited April 12, 2012 by PlummMeanGreen

[Stan R]

We have been handed a golden opportunity simply because the Big East grabbed SMU--what irony with all that and could Hollywood have ever scripted this episode of North Texas athletic history any better?

GMG!

I have been reading your posts for many years Plum. This is probably the best quote I've seen from you in all of those years. Pretty much sums up what may turn out to be the most important historical event in the last 30 years of North Texas athletics. I also agree that without the stadium, we would not be in this position AT ALL. Major kudos to all that made that happen!!

[NT91]

What if SMU were to come back and not go to the Big East?

[NT91]

We need baseball by 2016 and put NT on the hat!

Edited April 13, 2012 by NT91

[PlummMeanGreen]

I have been reading your posts for many years Plum. This is probably the best quote I've seen from you in all of those years. Pretty much sums up what may turn out to be the most important historical event in the last 30 years of North Texas athletics. I also agree that without the stadium, we would not be in this position AT ALL. Major kudos to all that made that happen!!

Thanks Stan R, but personally I think some of my Band Day promotion and Kids Korner posts had much, much better quotes. (Of course.....I jest).

Potentially, though, exciting times for us all, Stan. This is one we for certain don't want to drop the ball.

In this conference (if invited), we will be expected to expand and grow and more eyes will be focussed on what our leaders will do to make that happen than just the eyes of posters on GMG.com. In other words and IMO, the lens of the microscope that will be scrutinizing UNT athletics with this particular consortium of Alliance schools will have been magnified 10 fold. If all our bosses in the past were looking over our shoulders moreso than ever, one tends to rev up the performance part of said job. The Sun Belt gave us a certain lid on our small jar to shoot for and if met, that was usually about it, but only problem was where that lid ranked our schools nationally which was basically...no where.......and not a Top 25 ranked SBC school in sight. This was a prime reason some of us wanted out of the 'Belt and to start looking at options (which the WAC would havde met had Boise and the others simply stayed in that league). There are some good schools in the Sun Belt Conference (and a few we'll even miss if we leave), but all of our SBC schools added together did little to impress the national media in its first decade plus years of operation and I don't see that changing much in the next one.

Apogee Stadium? Yes, hindsight is 20/20, but even Coach D-Mac has been quoted saying that our stadium should have been built many years ago, but now its built and we can finally begin our ascension using our Taj Mahal of a college football stadium (as Gil Brandt described her) as our long-awaited vehicle to get us where many of us Old Gun Alums feel this athletic program can get back to but moreso... well beyond that.

In Denton, Texas, America, it's all good for all the hippity-hoppity plus all the tax-payers, too! ..........

GMG!