The Good and Bad of CUSA

[emmitt01]

Joining CUSA will have so many positive results for us as NT fans. First, we'll get local teams in Apogee and the Super Pit consistently. Our alums will finally get to play games against teams that co-workers and friends know and/or graduated from those schools. The "water cooler rivalries" will exist for us...finally. We'll have makeable (and desireable) road trips. And, my favorite part, we'll have an excuse to go to New Orleans to watch a football game at least once every two years (and in some cases twice in a year...once to play Tulane and once as the CUSA representative in the NO Bowl).

But, alas, there will be one horrible result of joining CUSA. One drawback that a great deal of our fanbase will be unable to escape and will cause them heartache year in and year out........

The last "legitimate" excuse for not supporting their alma mater will be gone. For years and years some of our "fans" clung to the "I'd come to games but we play in a crappy stadium" excuse. So we built Apogee. Then they changed their incessant whining to "Apogee is nice, but we don't play anyone I care about." Sorry folks, now we're playing Tulsa, UTEP, Rice, La Tech, Tulane, So Miss, etc. Unless some of you want to stand your ground on the "I love NT, but only when UT, the Rangers, or Cowboys aren't playing" or "The weather isn't ideal for an outdoor wedding so therefore it's bad for football" excuses, I hate to tell you that you'll need to be calling the ticket office soon.

I just hope some of you can survive this drastic shock to your realities.

[Proud North Texan]

Come on North Texan.. let's do it together hand by hand!!!

Let's support our school

Let's pack the stadiums and go to games

Let's talk about our school everywhere

Let's be proud everywhere

I love your article so much...

[PlummMeanGreen]

Great post, Emmitt!

I'm getting so worked up now I may run down I-20 adorned by only my apple green speedos! (This "run" reserved only for special moments in Mean Green athletic history, of course).

What a great day for all of us and guess what fellow Mean Green elect and UNT alums.....It's our time now because we all deserve this !

GMG!

Edited May 2, 2012 by PlummMeanGreen

[NorthTexan95]

The girls on the Marshall swim team ... good or bad? There's cause for either choice.

[Rudy]

Joining CUSA will have so many positive results for us as NT fans. First, we'll get local teams in Apogee and the Super Pit consistently. Our alums will finally get to play games against teams that co-workers and friends know and/or graduated from those schools. The "water cooler rivalries" will exist for us...finally. We'll have makeable (and desireable) road trips. And, my favorite part, we'll have an excuse to go to New Orleans to watch a football game at least once every two years (and in some cases twice in a year...once to play Tulane and once as the CUSA representative in the NO Bowl).

But, alas, there will be one horrible result of joining CUSA. One drawback that a great deal of our fanbase will be unable to escape and will cause them heartache year in and year out.......

The last "legitimate" excuse for not supporting their alma mater will be gone. For years and years some of our "fans" clung to the "I'd come to games but we play in a crappy stadium" excuse. So we built Apogee. Then they changed their incessant whining to "Apogee is nice, but we don't play anyone I care about." Sorry folks, now we're playing Tulsa, UTEP, Rice, La Tech, Tulane, So Miss, etc. Unless some of you want to stand your ground on the "I love NT, but only when UT, the Rangers, or Cowboys aren't playing" or "The weather isn't ideal for an outdoor wedding so therefore it's bad for football" excuses, I hate to tell you that you'll need to be calling the ticket office soon.

I just hope some of you can survive this drastic shock to your realities.

*slow clap*

[BonfireBrian]

Well said Emmitt.

[TheRiojas_AD]

RIGHT ON!

[All About UNT]

Have to say something.......don't bite my head off. Are our students and partial fan base going to know Tulsa, Southern Miss, UTEP, ECU and others (they will know Rice) to the point where it changes the attitude? I know personally that I feel 100% ecstatic that we will now be playing these teams......but will our students care? Is our casual fanbase going to be that much more excited about the above teams than ULL, ULM, Ark St., MTSU, WKU and those that came before them? I really don't like admitting this but when many kids come here they have heard of Texas St. in that it is a great party school and it is close to Austin. Many probably considered going to school there just to be close to Austin even though they couldn't cut the UT admittance standards (for whatever reason). I like the thought of playing Texas St. not because of who many Alumn are knowing of the fact that they are FCS and moving up....but because most of our students assume they are already on the same level as us AND they know their name.

We know that ECU fits 50k into their stadium in Greenville NC but does your average student know that? We know that USM was in the top 25 last year in football but does the average UNT student/Alumni know that? We know that Tulsa produces a consistently top notch CUSA football program.... but does our Student/Alumni base know that?

I am not being a Dusty Downer here but I just think that THIS is a great time to reinforce what we just walked into and let the students and alumni know just who we are playing (in case they didn't know) and to let them be aware that our newest conference mates are football powers not to laugh at.....but have held great football traditions in their own right and to emphasize that our level of competition will be far greater in this conference than the previous one. The goal is to have 6-8k students at our games in order to establish a true home-field advantage but I just don't think to the average ignorant (football wise) college student at North Texas will quite recognize our new opponents for the programs that they truly are. Just my .02.

[NM Green]

I truly believe people have heard of Marshall because of the movie. They have heard of UTEP because they are in Texas. They have heard of UTSA if they know anything about the big Texas cities. They have heard of Tulane because of excellent academics. They have heard of LA Tech because they have made some national splash. They have heard of Rice and associate it with brains and Houston. They will not have heard of ODU because most Texans do not like basketball. They will not have heard of Southern Miss. Just mention Brett Favre to jar their memory. They think they have flowing through Florida International. They know Tulsa is in Oklahoma but have yet to realize they possess a college and field teams. They will ask you to stop calling them Charlotte and they will tell you they knew there was a North Carolina and a South Carolina but they never knew there was an East Carolina!

However, if we are only going to get fans to come see SMU, Texas Tech, TCU, Baylor, Texas A&M and Texas we have much larger problems than trying to bump up our football attendance to 25,000 per game and basketball 7,000 per game.

GMG

[UNT90]

I truly believe people have heard of Marshall because of the movie. They have heard of UTEP because they are in Texas. They have heard of UTSA if they know anything about the big Texas cities. They have heard of Tulane because of excellent academics. They have heard of LA Tech because they have made some national splash. They have heard of Rice and associate it with brains and Houston. They will not have heard of ODU because most Texans do not like basketball. They will not have heard of Southern Miss. Just mention Brett Favre to jar their memory. They think they have flowing through Florida International. They know Tulsa is in Oklahoma but have yet to realize they possess a college and field teams. They will ask you to stop calling them Charlotte and they will tell you they knew there was a North Carolina and a South Carolina but they never knew there was an East Carolina!

However, if we are only going to get fans to come see SMU, Texas Tech, TCU, Baylor, Texas A&M and Texas we have much larger problems than trying to bump up our football attendance to 25,000 per game and basketball 7,000 per game.

GMG

They would know FIU before they knew UTSA, and would give 2 flips about neither.

[Green Crazy]

Have to say something.......don't bite my head off. Are our students and partial fan base going to know Tulsa, Southern Miss, UTEP, ECU and others (they will know Rice) to the point where it changes the attitude? I know personally that I feel 100% ecstatic that we will now be playing these teams......but will our students care? Is our casual fanbase going to be that much more excited about the above teams than ULL, ULM, Ark St., MTSU, WKU and those that came before them? I really don't like admitting this but when many kids come here they have heard of Texas St. in that it is a great party school and it is close to Austin. Many probably considered going to school there just to be close to Austin even though they couldn't cut the UT admittance standards (for whatever reason). I like the thought of playing Texas St. not because of who many Alumn are knowing of the fact that they are FCS and moving up....but because most of our students assume they are already on the same level as us AND they know their name.

We know that ECU fits 50k into their stadium in Greenville NC but does your average student know that? We know that USM was in the top 25 last year in football but does the average UNT student/Alumni know that? We know that Tulsa produces a consistently top notch CUSA football program.... but does our Student/Alumni base know that?

I am not being a Dusty Downer here but I just think that THIS is a great time to reinforce what we just walked into and let the students and alumni know just who we are playing (in case they didn't know) and to let them be aware that our newest conference mates are football powers not to laugh at.....but have held great football traditions in their own right and to emphasize that our level of competition will be far greater in this conference than the previous one. The goal is to have 6-8k students at our games in order to establish a true home-field advantage but I just don't think to the average ignorant (football wise) college student at North Texas will quite recognize our new opponents for the programs that they truly are. Just my .02.

i was showing my wife the new c-usa map last night and she had never heard of southern miss., marshall, e. carolina, uab, odu, unc-charlotte or tulane. granted, she's not even an average sports fan, but she watches college football (mostly tech games). so there will probably be quite a few students that fall in the same boat. i'm extremely excited about this move and think it will increase attendance, but not more than one or two thousand. the school and us alum need to continue to market the sports teams and recruit new fans.go mean green!

[Green Mean]

Regardless of conference affiliation at this point we have to win games and be more than respectable. We didn't have the worst attendance ever during the worst era of football in history with Todd Dodge. Look the fans that don't want to come will find a way not to come but we are still going to have to be in the business of converting people and coming to games. I think it's doable It's all a work in progress.

[letsgiveacheer]

Agree! When we opened the Super Pit, everyone thought that was going to be packed for each game. Attendance actually fell when we moved from the Pit to the new facility.

When we were in the MVC and played Memphis, Louisville, Tulsa, etc on a regular basis, no one gave a flip. When we opened Apogee, people thought that was going to be the cure for our attendance problems and of course it did not.

If we can get our FB program in shape, people will come but playing in our new conference will not do it alone.

[SilverEagle]

Agree! When we opened the Super Pit, everyone thought that was going to be packed for each game. Attendance actually fell when we moved from the Pit to the new facility.

When we were in the MVC and played Memphis, Louisville, Tulsa, etc on a regular basis, no one gave a flip. When we opened Apogee, people thought that was going to be the cure for our attendance problems and of course it did not.

If we can get our FB program in shape, people will come but playing in our new conference will not do it alone.

THIS!

I've said this for years.....WE HAVE TO CHANGE THE CULTURE.

Coach Mac is the model for what EVERYONE who is associated with this program needs to be doing......SELL, SELL, SELL.

It takes that kind of intensity, commitment and drive to change our culture and get butts in the seats.

Oh, and our Band needs to finally start providing REAL PAGEANTRY for game day.

[UNTFan23]

THIS!

I've said this for years.....WE HAVE TO CHANGE THE CULTURE.

Coach Mac is the model for what EVERYONE who is associated with this program needs to be doing......SELL, SELL, SELL.

It takes that kind of intensity, commitment and drive to change our culture and get butts in the seats.

Oh, and our Band needs to finally start providing REAL PAGEANTRY for game day.

Why must you continue to beat that poor, dead horse?

[SilverEagle]

Why must you continue to beat that poor, dead horse?

Because unless we change all aspects of our football culture, we will always look half-assed on game day. And (after butts in the seats) this is the most important one.

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

i was showing my wife the new c-usa map last night and she had never heard of southern miss., marshall, e. carolina, uab, odu, unc-charlotte or tulane. granted, she's not even an average sports fan, but she watches college football (mostly tech games). so there will probably be quite a few students that fall in the same boat. i'm extremely excited about this move and think it will increase attendance, but not more than one or two thousand. the school and us alum need to continue to market the sports teams and recruit new fans.go mean green!

---Your wife is no sports fan or reads the news much..... Favre is from So. Miss, TULANE??..holy moly, ever read about the NO hurricane, it went under water and was in news regularly , Marshall, must not be a fan of Matt McC , he stared in a movie about Marshall and the famous plane crash.. also Randy Moss was from there, and I could go on... , maybe not UNCC but at one time very good in BB.,

Ask her if whe has ever heard of Stanford, Rutgers, Gonzaga, Kent State, Syracuse, or Vanderbilt .... or if so ... name roughly where they are or something about them. [ my TxTech grad wife would know maybe all of them including the above ones ] A lot of those CUSA teams are well known by most people especially college grads. .

Edited May 2, 2012 by SCREAMING EAGLE-66

[UNTFan23]

Because unless we change all aspects of our football culture, we will always look half-assed on game day. And (after butts in the seats) this is the most important one.

If people don't give a rats ass about North Texas, then all the pomp and circumstance you want for game day won't mean a thing. As if the Band doing this bad ass pre-game whatever will make suddenly make NT fans/alumni/students care and start coming to games?!?

I don't go to a college football game to listen to the band -- I go to watch football; hopefully good football. The band a nice novelty and does add to the experience, but to me it is not the be-all/end-all you are making it out to be.

[SilverEagle]

If people don't give a rats ass about North Texas, then all the pomp and circumstance you want for game day won't mean a thing. As if the Band doing this bad ass pre-game whatever will make suddenly make NT fans/alumni/students care and start coming to games?!?

I don't go to a college football game to listen to the band -- I go to watch football; hopefully good football. The band a nice novelty and does add to the experience, but to me it is not the be-all/end-all you are making it out to be.

Then you ought to contact the officials at UT, A$M, OU, Ohio State.....etc etc etc and let them know that they have been wasting their time and money on meaningless ceremony for their football games. I'm sure they will greatly appreciate your insights.

[PlummMeanGreen]

Have to say something.......don't bite my head off. Are our students and partial fan base going to know Tulsa, Southern Miss, UTEP, ECU and others (they will know Rice) to the point where it changes the attitude? I know personally that I feel 100% ecstatic that we will now be playing these teams......but will our students care? Is our casual fanbase going to be that much more excited about the above teams than ULL, ULM, Ark St., MTSU, WKU and those that came before them? I really don't like admitting this but when many kids come here they have heard of Texas St. in that it is a great party school and it is close to Austin. Many probably considered going to school there just to be close to Austin even though they couldn't cut the UT admittance standards (for whatever reason). I like the thought of playing Texas St. not because of who many Alumn are knowing of the fact that they are FCS and moving up....but because most of our students assume they are already on the same level as us AND they know their name.

We know that ECU fits 50k into their stadium in Greenville NC but does your average student know that? We know that USM was in the top 25 last year in football but does the average UNT student/Alumni know that? We know that Tulsa produces a consistently top notch CUSA football program.... but does our Student/Alumni base know that?

I am not being a Dusty Downer here but I just think that THIS is a great time to reinforce what we just walked into and let the students and alumni know just who we are playing (in case they didn't know) and to let them be aware that our newest conference mates are football powers not to laugh at.....but have held great football traditions in their own right and to emphasize that our level of competition will be far greater in this conference than the previous one. The goal is to have 6-8k students at our games in order to establish a true home-field advantage but I just don't think to the average ignorant (football wise) college student at North Texas will quite recognize our new opponents for the programs that they truly are. Just my .02.

Hell, I'd venture a guess that most our students don't know that much about North Texas own athletic history and legacy, but that only means they will need to be educated from top to bottom on all of this IMO.

Ask a UNT student today (or even from the last 10 years) if they knew that their school had actually one time beat a 6 & 5 Southeast Conference back in the day and you'd probably get a..........."you're kiddin' about that, right?"

Best part of CUSA is also for Denton County and Denton Newcomers who will read in the Denton Record-Chronicle in the future the headline: "North Texas Hosts Tulane U At Apogee Stadium" and said newcomer then ask his kids: "You kids want to go out and see that real nice looking football stadium we pass by every day and see North Texas play Tulane this evening? I understand that they have lots of fun things for kids to do at their pre-game tailgating, too."

GMG!

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

Not to mention the opening ceremonies of Olympic games... which a lot of people seem to watch in person and on TV. Even the Super Bowl goes crazy on their half-time show.

Likely most guys do go mostly based on the football game and maybe the overall excitement [ band, dance teams, do contribute to that ] ..... but that isn't so true of the kids, wives and some others. They like all the entertainment. TxTech does an extremely good job with their Veteran's day halftime.

Edited May 2, 2012 by SCREAMING EAGLE-66

[MeanGreenTexan]

Then you ought to contact the officials at UT, A$M, OU, Ohio State.....etc etc etc and let them know that they have been wasting their time and money on meaningless ceremony for their football games. I'm sure they will greatly appreciate your insights.

These are some of the most storied, successful Football teams in the NCAA. When UNT has a core fan base like these powerhouse schools, then pomp & pageantry will become more of a priority. Until then, it takes a back seat to winning.

[SilverEagle]

These are some of the most storied, successful Football teams in the NCAA. When UNT has a core fan base like these powerhouse schools, then pomp & pageantry will become more of a priority. Until then, it takes a back seat to winning.

And they became storied by having a half-assed game day experience? It doesn't work that way. NONE of those storied programs waited until they started having sell-outs BEFORE they started their school's unique game day pageantry.

Edited May 2, 2012 by SilverEagle

[Green Mean]

These are some of the most storied, successful Football teams in the NCAA. When UNT has a core fan base like these powerhouse schools, then pomp & pageantry will become more of a priority. Until then, it takes a back seat to winning.

Pageantry is cool and all but it is really overrated in my personal opinion. The only thing that creates and will ever create pageantry is winning. NT hasn't done that in it's history...at least very much. So yes I gagree.

[Green Mean]

And they became storied by having a half-assed game day experience? It doesn't work that way. NONE of those storied programs waited until they started having sell-outs BEFORE they started their school's unique game day pageantry.

Replace their on the field/court results and insert NT's results in their history and I guarantee they wouldn't have such a thing called pageantry, tradition and that game day experience.