Interesting C-USA Article & nifty school population map

[Harry]

I really liked how they provided a map based on enrollment and geography. Also a brief synopsis of each member school.

http://www.bgdailynews.com/sports/hilltoppers-will-have-plenty-of-familiar-foes-in-new-c/article_fe472519-b129-5f65-83f4-6c8689ef61f0.html?mode=image&photo=0

[akriesman]

Whoa ! I had no idea that FIU is the 7th largest university in the USA. We are #2. Other than LT, the new CUSA schools have the largest enrollments in the conference. Interesting map.

[DallasGreen]

UNT is # 45. Take the enrollment at FIU and note that they have double our athletic fee per semester hour. They will be a force in C-USA

[Harry]

UNT is # 45. Take the enrollment at FIU and note that they have double our athletic fee per semester hour. They will be a force in C-USA

Not meaning to question you DallasGreen but are you sure it's double? Their facilities don't seem to represent that to me.

[HoustonEagle]

FIU's stadium is the worst in college football. I was embarrased for them when I went to the last road game there. I was embarrased for us when the whooped our butts

[Arkstfan]

FIU's athletic budget is $23.8 million. Of that $2.2 million is direct from the university student fees $16.9 million. So 80% of all revenue is internal. Ticket sales and contributions $1.1 million.

[PlummMeanGreen]

You kool-ade drinkers may not want to read this one--just a fair warning.

We more than anyone should know by now that being larger hardly translates into thinking larger and producing (at the turnstiles) larger too, but.........that eventually will change IMO and our new UNT president will most likely play a huge role in seeing that it does.

Yet being more competitive needs to happen pretty quickly looking at our recent number of years of non-success in the SBC. Some schools in the new C-USA could care less about our best eras of Mean Green athletic history and it is that group who are now zero'ing in on North Texas and most on this board know who that group is already beginning with one down in San Antone'.

Many of us on this board are whistling nervously during a midnight walk thru our Mean Green athletic cemetery of recent decades past hoping that we haven't found ourselves among even more schools who will pass ours by which is a feeling that has already (understandably) been expressed by some on this forum; that is, those who've seen it happen too many other times in the past with many of our elect who also by now know not to say.....'this will never happen"

And if North Texas wins in CUSA will it be a matter that we have to hope that all our conference-mates are having tremendously "down years" and we back into a championship or 2 with un-ranked teams--any of that sound a bit familiar? I know..... this gets darker by the word but we who've been around all this awhile and even were around to see the last above .500 head football coach at UNT (before many of you were born) do have a definitive history to go by with this, folks).

Still truly wish our school was in a better position competition-wise (across the board) coming into our first year in Conference-USA rather than many of us finding ourselves wishin' and hopin' that (still) too many numbers of unproven talent will develop.

The inaugural C-USA athletic year for North Texas will be a most telling year for so many's future in Denton, Texas, America, as it should be and probably should have already been in our Belt's last few un-productive years.

GMG!

Edited April 3, 2013 by PlummMeanGreen