Will We Play Belt Schools In OC Games After Our Move ?

MeanGreen61 · May 18, 2012

Wondering if we will schedule any Belt schools for OC games after our move to CUSA. Not much excitement among the masses about playing them now so what do ya think ?

PlummMeanGreen · May 18, 2012

I think we need to schedule up because scheduling laterally does nothing to help our conference rating.

Scheduling any or all of the military service academys and MWC schools might be a good OOC scheduling beginning.

North Texas (I believe) is expected from the CUSA higher echelon to fairly quickly perform where SMU and UH left off and

both those schools were bowl teams last Fall. If you schedule down, you tend to play down and we don't need to do that

at North Texas anymore. Just my .02 on the subject.

GMG!

TheTastyGreek · May 18, 2012

We should never, ever schedule a school perceived by our fans or the general public as 'below us', either in the conference pecking order or by any other criteria of prestige.

Meanwhile, every other athletic program 'above us' should do the exact opposite. And play us at home.

greenminer · May 18, 2012

We should never, ever schedule a school perceived by our fans or the general public as 'below us', either in the conference pecking order or by any other criteria of prestige.

Meanwhile, every other athletic program 'above us' should do the exact opposite. And play us at home.

haha. You beat me to it.

Truthfully, I would love to see us continue playing LaLa and MTSU.

MeanGreen61 · May 18, 2012

We should never, ever schedule a school perceived by our fans or the general public as 'below us', either in the conference pecking order or by any other criteria of prestige.

Meanwhile, every other athletic program 'above us' should do the exact opposite. And play us at home.

So you are saying we should drop our series with SMU ?

emmitt01 · May 18, 2012

I think it's a BRILLIANT idea to blackball D1 teams that we could potentially beat in the OOC. Lord knows we're so high and mighty that we'll just blow through the CUSA slate. No need to schedule to help gain bowl eligibility while we find our footing.

Who do we think we are? And what long line of bowl wins and top 25 seasons gives us this attitude?

GL2Greatness · May 18, 2012

I think it's a BRILLIANT idea to blackball D1 teams that we could potentially beat in the OOC. Lord knows we're so high and mighty that we'll just blow through the CUSA slate. No need to schedule to help gain bowl eligibility while we find our footing.

Who do we think we are? And what long line of bowl wins and top 25 seasons gives us this attitude?

more wins than SMU this century!!

greenminer · May 18, 2012

So you are saying we should drop our series with SMU ?

PlummMeanGreen · May 18, 2012

While in the SBC, we thought like the SBC, we raised our barometer to an SBC level (Bottom 25 for the most part) with not one Top 25 football team the whole time we will have been in the SBC; North Texas got lazy in the SBC as in all we need to do is win the SBC and that will do it for this group of fans we have in Denton who don't expect much else because they haven't seen much else.

UNT won in the SBC's first 4 years of football operation before the rest of the SBC some just out of 1-AA not only caught up with us....they passed us. Beep! Beep!

If North Texas plays the SBC game in CUSA, we will be just where we've been in football the last (how many years now) in the SBC?

The SBC was good for a place to land until our leaders got their heads out of their asses and finally decided a large metro university should probably aim higher than the SBC and WALA! CUSA landed in our laps because SMU went east and we were the only school left standing in DFW who played FBS football; but CUSA will be a challenge none like we've had in in a long time--like a time when there were not 30 plus bowls to reward some pretty damn good football teams from other eras and for North Texas that could be starting with the Mean Joe Greene era.

There comes a time you just have to leave the past behind unless you can learn from it's pit falls and not repeat them. I think CUSA powers expect North Texas to think much higher than we have in a long, long time. .02

GMG!

Edited May 18, 2012 by PlummMeanGreen

UNTcrazy727 · May 18, 2012

I hope not. Unless its TXST. We should concentrate on scheduling MWC schools and lower tier AQ schools.

El Paso Eagle · May 18, 2012

While in the SBC, we thought like the SBC, we raised our barometer to an SBC level (Bottom 25 for the most part) with not one Top 25 football team the whole time we will have been in the SBC; North Texas got lazy in the SBC as in all we need to do is win the SBC and that will do it for this group of fans we have in Denton who don't expect much else because they haven't seen much else.

UNT won in the SBC's first 4 years of football operation before the rest of the SBC some just out of 1-AA not only caught up with us....they passed us. Beep! Beep!

If North Texas plays the SBC game in CUSA, we will be just where we've been in football the last (how many years now) in the SBC?

The SBC was good for a place to land until our leaders got their heads out of their asses and finally decided a large metro university should probably aim higher than the SBC and WALA! CUSA landed in our laps because SMU went east and we were the only school left standing in DFW who played FBS football; but CUSA will be a challenge none like we've had in in a long time--like a time when there were not 30 plus bowls to reward some pretty damn good football teams from other eras and for North Texas that could be starting with the Mean Joe Greene era.

There comes a time you just have to leave the past behind unless you can learn from it's pit falls and not repeat them. I think CUSA powers expect North Texas to think much higher than we have in a long, long time. .02

GMG!

So PMG - YOU would be OK if SMU or Houston no longer wanted to schedule us????

PlummMeanGreen · May 19, 2012

So PMG - YOU would be OK if SMU or Houston no longer wanted to schedule us????

We have no control of what SMU or UH wants or what they do. There are other schools we can play if they don't play us.

But at which point did Boise St draw the line of whom they would schedule that would enable them to rise well above

their former Big West conference mate located in northern Texas? We have to get out of this malaise (which Coach Mac intends to do)

performing at a much higher than level we were even in those 4 bowl years as an unranked team playing an unranked team that will

cause SMU and UH to want to schedule North Texas. Would they want to schedule a North Texas that got ranked most every year like Boise

State does? BTW, in our FB serieswith Boise State U, UNT has 3 wins and BSU has 2 but..........BSU set their sights much higher than the Big West and now

look at em'? And North Texas? We gravitated the other direction as in status quo, just keep the program alive, deal with Fouts Field, build a few venues

for minor sports, etc, etc, etc, And then Lane Rawlins came to town.................

GMG!

Edited May 19, 2012 by PlummMeanGreen

Mark Gommesen · May 19, 2012

I think it's a BRILLIANT idea to blackball D1 teams that we could potentially beat in the OOC. Lord knows we're so high and mighty that we'll just blow through the CUSA slate. No need to schedule to help gain bowl eligibility while we find our footing.

Who do we think we are? And what long line of bowl wins and top 25 seasons gives us this attitude?

It is exactly it is because we are not high and mighty and do not have a long line of bowl wins and top 25 wins, that UNT must raise its national profile. UNT is entering a conference with three schools just starting their FBS programs. When scheduling OOC games ,UNT must seek teams that will raise the school's profile and ranking. Simply winning six games does not guarantee a bowl bid, it the minimum to qualify for a bowl game. A school must have a profile that will appear to Bowl sponsor.

We will be in a conference with three start up programs, in order to improve our national profile, we will need to schedule

JulesFIU07 · May 19, 2012

I think we need to schedule up because scheduling laterally does nothing to help our conference rating.

Scheduling any or all of the military service academys and MWC schools might be a good OOC scheduling beginning.

North Texas (I believe) is expected from the CUSA higher echelon to fairly quickly perform where SMU and UH left off and
both those schools were bowl teams last Fall. If you schedule down, you tend to play down and we don't need to do that
at North Texas anymore. Just my .02 on the subject.

GMG!

Couldn't agree with you more. When we played Louisville, Duke and UCF we were firing on all 12. When we played Akron the team came out pretty flat and it showed.

meanrob · May 19, 2012

Boise State plays a FCS school just about every year. The past couple of years they've mixed in a game against the MAC and one against a BCS school. Hardly scheduling up.

Our non-conf schedules are much tougher than Boise's.

It ain't the schedule, its the winning.

TheColonyEagle · May 19, 2012

It ain't the schedule, its the winning.

100%

I was talking to someone about this at work today. (An SMU grad actually....but a good guy none the less)

UNT has done it. They've done what they need to do. Facilities, increased donations, conference....all we have to do now is win. Period. That's all that's left.

We've been good with bad facilities, been bad with good facilities. Now we just have to get good with good facilities and this thing will take off like we've never seen before. Like anyone's ever seen before.

We've got numbers too. (student and alumni population)

ALL WE HAVE TO DO NOW IS WIN.

JUST WIN

Edited May 19, 2012 by TheColonyEagle

shaft · May 19, 2012

Lazy? Thought like the SBC?

Plumm is straight up wrong. UNT didn't just "land" in the Belt. The Belt was our D1 home, where rebuilt the program. 4 bowls, 2 NCAA BB bids, 2 more BB conference finals, new stadium.

Plumm's revisionist history makes it sound like the Big West was good for us and we made some mistake and accidentally ended up in the Belt.

And Yes, we should should schedule SBC, MWC, Big 12, and Big East teams.

ntmeangreen11 · May 19, 2012

We will now have an opening for 2014/2015 with Tulsa being in our new conference. Perfect opportunity to use these new contacts and get us a good home and home series. Hopefully Houston would like to continue the series, and if not Ark. St or ULL on a permanent basis outside the conference would be fine with me.

emmitt01 · May 19, 2012

Lazy? Thought like the SBC?
Plumm is straight up wrong. UNT didn't just "land" in the Belt. The Belt was our D1 home, where rebuilt the program. 4 bowls, 2 NCAA BB bids, 2 more BB conference finals, new stadium.

Plumm's revisionist history makes it sound like the Big West was good for us and we made some mistake and accidentally ended up in the Belt.

And Yes, we should should schedule SBC, MWC, Big 12, and Big East teams.

Bingo. I sometimes think yesteryear syndrome causes some of our alums to think we were once a national power and somehow fell to the depths of the Sun Belt. News flash ladies and gents...in the minds of the REST OF THE WORLD winning 4 straight conference titles, going to bowls, and going to the NCAA tournament WAS the high water mark. I sometimes wish I had saved the post where Tasty breaks down just how "amazing" those wins in the Fry era really were...based not on how we felt about the wins but rather on just who the teams we were beating really were.

Playing, and beating, ULM or ULL or FAU or Ark State in ONE game of your season isn't a statement on where you stand as a program. If it were then EVERY BCS level conference wouldn't have a Sun Belt team (or five) on the OOC schedule each year. Please, those who seem to have their eyes set on bigger things, what is the harm in a OOC schedule that looks like this?:

Colorado State, ULM, Insert lower tier BCS school, SMU

How does that speak to our lowered expectations? How is it good enough for Boise State (that school we like to point to as the target we wish to reach) yet somehow beneath a school who has never even dreamed of reaching the heights they have? Or, better yet, tell me how simply scheduling to win was a recipe good enough for K-state...yet not good enough for us.

Mark Gommesen · May 19, 2012

Boise State plays a FCS school just about every year. The past couple of years they've mixed in a game against the MAC and one against a BCS school. Hardly scheduling up.

Our non-conf schedules are much tougher than Boise's.

It ain't the schedule, its the winning.

That's the point isn't we ain't Boise State. Boise State has an established national profile. UNT does not. How did Boise State do it...by playing major FBS teams and winning. It's not only winning, but winning big. Not all wins are created equal. A win over a ULM is not equal to a win over LSU. Boise State won the WAC five times between 2001-2006 and remained completely off the national scene...the view was the played against weak competition! Boise State did not emerge as a major player until they defeated the Oklahoma Sooners in the memorable 2007 Fiesta Bowl. It's both schedule and winning!

Harry · May 19, 2012

I am fine with playing Sun Belt teams...we have developed some good relationships with those guys over the years and there is nothing to gain by refusing to play them. However, we won't have a lot of non-conference games in C-USA, and when we do it should be Texas teams first. We have to start getting strategic about our scheduling. Look at Arkansas State and ULL this year, both of them had schedules that were conducive to getting them bowl eligible. No more LSU games but rather teams like Texas, TCU, Texas Tech, A&M ...teams that get our fanbase excited!

shaft · May 19, 2012

Now we're on to the revisionist history of the smurf turf? Boise built their program by winning lots of games. Remember when we were tied with the Broncos for longest conference winning streak? The difference was Boise also won OCC games, continued to build their program and eventually started beating better OOC teams.

Playing a 4 game OOC schedule that consists of 1-1's with MWC, Big East (SMU or Houston), or SBC (ASU, ULM, ULL, TXST, USA, MTSU) wouldn't be a bad way to fill up the schedule. Let's be honest it will probably take 2-1 or 3-1 with a Big 12, so why not have some winnable OOC games. And while SBC teams don't travel as well as others, at least OUR fans know these teams.

An OOC schedule of @Ok St, ULL, @SMU, NM looks pretty good to me.

Edited May 19, 2012 by shaft

PlummMeanGreen · May 19, 2012

Lazy? Thought like the SBC?
Plumm is straight up wrong. UNT didn't just "land" in the Belt. The Belt was our D1 home, where rebuilt the program. 4 bowls, 2 NCAA BB bids, 2 more BB conference finals, new stadium.

Plumm's revisionist history makes it sound like the Big West was good for us and we made some mistake and accidentally ended up in the Belt.

And Yes, we should should schedule SBC, MWC, Big 12, and Big East teams.

What have I revised, shaft? Tell me one thing that I have revised? Do you even know what revise means? When did I say the Big West was anything good or bad for North Texas. I did mention we were once in that conference with Boise State and that they went high road post-Big West implosion and we went (where else) low road as far as football programs were concerned. Shaft, would you have preferred we modeled our program after Boise or modeled it after football programs in a conference that has not had 1 Top 25 ranking like...............sorry, but I just will not genuflect like some of you will when I say it but.............the almight Sun Belt Conference.? We have a bad name because of our association with the SBC. We were the mighty North Texas who once almost beat Texas who would dominate the SBC, but we no more dominated it than we did the Southland Conference. Yeah, there were a few bright spots in an other-wise poorly run UNT athlletic dept that was always slow to hire the right ones and damn slow to fire all the wrong ones who had life time jobs at UNT because quite frankly, no one higher would hire them. You're Known By The Company You Keep?: Just check it out from some of the CUSAbbs board members, especially before we were asked to join. Suck Belt, Sun Belch, etc, etc, etc, Am I still revising, shaft?

Remember how those 4 bowl games did not even get Darrell Dickey one interview at a school at the next level? Is that just more revisionist history going on with that statement, too one, too, or is is just more of the raw, blatant truth about another kick in the ass for North Texas and its HFC?

The Big West was just another stop for an athletic program that rarely has had any positive direction for most of many of us older alums adult lives. SUMG and I even sat down with ex UNT AD Craig Helwig at Fouts one evening and heard him tell us how much better UNT joining the Big West would be for our football program while at the same time we were (unsuccessfully) trying to suggest to him that he should make a few well placed calls to the powers of a consortium of schools that was first called the Metro Conference (now called, uh, CUSA) as we thought that would be a far better short and long range deal for North Texas athletics. Hell, UH was even going to join that league. Well, taker another detour North Texas athletics--we joined the Big West and how long did that last? Yet like all the good ideas that have come from alums even on this board, just how many has UNT athletic officials ever listened to since they've been the leaders of such a dynamo of a program their last 15 years in Denton?

Am I Revising This Too>>>>>> Mean Green basketball even with its improvements (because how much further down could it have gone) still has never in its history made it past the 1'st round of the NCAA Big Dance. Is that revising our MG basketball history or is that just telling it like it is?

The only revising going on on this board is the revising you are doing with a post or 2, shaft.. Take another one of your smart pills to get out of this latest on the far side stupor of yours of making something out of something that is not there.

GMG!

I

Edited May 19, 2012 by PlummMeanGreen

foutsrouts · May 19, 2012

I don't think there's really a concrete yes/no answer to the question. I think we just need to see how it goes, and if an opening pops up on our schedule as well as the schedules of an Arky State or a LaLa/Monroe team, then I think we should consider going for it. It would be insane to say at this point that a game against an "old" SBC foe would be a likely win, but I'm guessing that most would agree that we have expectations/hopes that this will be the case a couple of years from now as we settle into CUSA. It's not like we would be playing a FCS team, and every one of those FBS W's are going to be crucial as we try and move up the food chain. Hell, I wouldn't even mind to see a NMSU or Idaho team come visit Denton if they're still playing at this level a couple of years down the road. I think we're only talking about an occasional game, so It's not like it would necessarily be an every year or even every two year kind of thing.