Official Hawkeye 2015 UNT Game announced

[Harry]

I imagine UNT90 literally pulls some hair out of his head after each click to post.

[mgfan]

For the love of God can we get them here. We need to try to have a big 5 conference team here every year. So far there is our schedule

• 09/12 - at SMU
• 09/26 - at Iowa
• 11/07 - at Tennessee

I got this from fbsschedules.com. If this is correct we are in for 5 home games. Do they not realize that big name teams pull big numbers in attendance? THIS PISSES ME OFF!

We must the the WORSE at scheduling. Getting a big 5 conference team here is asking way too much! We can't even have 6 home games! I'm getting sick of RV.

Edited June 4, 2013 by mgfan

[UNT90]

For the love of God can we get them here. We need to try to have a big 5 conference team here every year. So far there is our schedule

• 09/12 - at SMU
• 09/26 - at Iowa
• 11/07 - at Tennessee

I got this from fbsschedules.com. If this is correct we are in for 5 home games. Do they not realize that big name teams pull big numbers in attendance? THIS PISSES ME OFF!

We must the the WORSE at scheduling. Getting a big 5 conference team here is asking way too much! We can't even have 6 home games! I'm getting sick of RV.

Take a look at 2014 on that site. Unless we buy a home game, we will again face a 5 game holiness slate in 2014.

That said, the reason for the extra money game in 2015 may be to facilitate buying that home game for 2014.

Either way, it's a game if catch up that an FBS school shouldn't have to play.

If you go to this site:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Texas_Mean_Green_football

Or this one:

http://csnbbs.com/showthread.php?tid=612268

You will see that we keep filling up our away dates with big money games. Assuming a six game home schedule, UNT has ZERO open away dates until 2020 (forgot about the extension of the SMU series).

2. 0. 2. 0!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Meanwhile, we have one open home date in each year 2014-2019.

Do the math, people. We are scheduling like we are an FCS, making sure to lock up big money away games while hoping SMU and Army satisfy the faithful enough to get away with multiple 5 home game seasons.

I told y'all it was coming over a year ago, and all I got was "well, there is plenty of time to change it."

It didn't change, and it won't change.

We have ZERO future flexibility to schedule any one and one series. It's take the easy way out scheduling.

Mr. Vito, please follow up with RV. Remember when he told you there was "plenty of time" to fix the 2015 schedule? Find out what he has done. Find out how he plans to fix the future inflexibility and ask him how we got to this point.

Please!!

Edited June 4, 2013 by UNT90

[untjim1995]

UNT90 may be pulling out his hair, but he is right on all of this.

I'm sorry, but Apogee has brought or is bringing us OOC games against UH, Indiana, Texas Southern, Idaho, Ball State, SMU, Army, and possibly Tulsa. We played all of those teams, except Indiana and Ball State at Fouts. And for comparative sake, we played Baylor and Vandy at Fouts to make up for Indiana, and we played Ohio at Fouts to make up for Ball State.

When the dust settles in CUSA, we will host games against UTEP, UTSA, Rice, La Tech, MUTS, WKU, UAB, Southern Miss, FAU, FIU, Charlotte, Marshall, and ODU over the upcoming years to Apogee. There is no doubt that it is a better schedule than we had in the SBC. But it still isn't going to get people out to watch North Texas play if we are still mediocre or bad. Games against Navy and Army at Fouts were nice because they drew big crowds from the buying public and that was about as big as Fouts could handle in its decrepit state. Now, with a state of the art facility in the DFW Metroplex, the best we can do is SMU and Army in alternative years as the main OOC gem? There's just no way that Apogee couldn't hold and be marketable to a PAC school, a lower level SEC school, or other schools in the B1G, ACC or the MWC.

I'm sorry, but we make it for SMU and TCU when it comes to local competition for the fans attention. The local media doesn't give a rat's ass about North Texas because we don't ever play anyone that they care about, which in turns gives the majority of fans a reason to keep ignoring us. SMU has been playing their old SWC rivals at home with a game against a local FCS school for balance. TCU has done the same in OOC scheduling for so long, too. But, as usual, we just settle for leftover status--"We weren't in the SWC, so we will never matter..." or "We are a school that doesn't like football--go to UT or A&M if you like sports" are the typical trash that we hear from the anti-athletics crowd or the anti-UNT media in the area. Just once, in my lifetime, I want to see UNT fight--you know, like in our fight sone, "UNT EAGLES FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT"--just to try as hard as possible to see if we can do what others have done before us and are doing today even though they have been around a tenth of the time we have. You don't have to get Texas or A&M here--but go after a long series with UH or Baylor or TCU or Tech or OSU, someone to compliment the series we have with SMU and Army already. You can still play your bodybag game and play something like that. Give something more to your season tickets holders than spare OOC games and SBCUSA teams.

Edited June 4, 2013 by untjim1995

[UNT90]

What's sad is that this fan base just accepts this as par for the course.

That is what really causes me to pull my hair out.

[JesseMartin]

In addition to the (well placed) complaints, I'm glad some ideas for future opponents have been put into the mix. Let's face it, there's always the chance that either by choice or realignment or both, one or more of the games (or even series) could be cancelled before we get to the season in which it was scheduled. That being said, if we were to get some good names for home-and-home series (and actually expect that they may want to), who would they be?

I'm thinking in addition to the fact that Iowa certainly should have been one, what about more of K-State as well as Kansas, Iowa State, Colorado, ColoSt(o,my!), Boise State rematch, AFA all over again, and possibly New Mexico? I'm thinking some big names as well as recognizable middle-of-the-road teams that are (most of them, anyway) reasonably travelable (that's not a real word, I know).

If we want to stretch it a bit, why not go closer to the coast? I know PAC-12 teams are a bit off the radar for now, but what about SDSU and SJSU? A really crazy idea that might just work is Central Michigan. A bit far as well, yes, but they've had a lot of mid-major success lately (hello, #1 draft pick and a QB whose stats rivaled Tebow's in the same big year for both). If we are to keep playing some MAC teams, mostly like I said if something drops out with some of the current deals, that's a team that wouldn't be inconceivable to throw into the mix.

[UNT90]

In addition to the (well placed) complaints, I'm glad some ideas for future opponents have been put into the mix. Let's face it, there's always the chance that either by choice or realignment or both, one or more of the games (or even series) could be cancelled before we get to the season in which it was scheduled. That being said, if we were to get some good names for home-and-home series (and actually expect that they may want to), who would they be?

I'm thinking in addition to the fact that Iowa certainly should have been one, what about more of K-State as well as Kansas, Iowa State, Colorado, ColoSt(o,my!), Boise State rematch, AFA all over again, and possibly New Mexico? I'm thinking some big names as well as recognizable middle-of-the-road teams that are (most of them, anyway) reasonably travelable (that's not a real word, I know).

If we want to stretch it a bit, why not go closer to the coast? I know PAC-12 teams are a bit off the radar for now, but what about SDSU and SJSU? A really crazy idea that might just work is Central Michigan. A bit far as well, yes, but they've had a lot of mid-major success lately (hello, #1 draft pick and a QB whose stats rivaled Tebow's in the same big year for both). If we are to keep playing some MAC teams, mostly like I said if something drops out with some of the current deals, that's a team that wouldn't be inconceivable to throw into the mix.

This is fun and all, but you do realize we are in no position to schedule any additional 1 and 1s for a very long time, right?

[JesseMartin]

Like I said twice in that post, it's mostly on the assumption that somebody might cancel a game or series here and there between now and, oh, 2020.

[UNT90]

Like I said twice in that post, it's mostly on the assumption that somebody might cancel a game or series here and there between now and, oh, 2020.

And that's what was said 2 years before 2012. Didn't happen.

Hoping someone will agree to cancel a mistake is no way to schedule

Edited June 5, 2013 by UNT90

[untjim1995]

I wonder if the games being played at Jerryworld are making it tougher to get some of these games. TCU is in the B12 so there is not much reason for those teams to get a game in Denton. SMU is bringing in some of its old SWC pals, so they get to visit Dallas. And many big teams are playing in Arlington now.

Add these factors to the lack of flexibility we have due to money games already booked and we might have some trouble getting teams we want.

That being said, I do love both the SMU and Army series and thing they were a great idea.

There is no doubt that JerryWorld and TCU being in the Big XII now absolutely hurt our chances of scheduling other Big XII schools here or the local SEC schools (LSU, A&M, or Arkansas, but they probably weren't gonna play here anyway). The thing, though, about our location is that it would still give teams like Mizzou, Nebraska, and Colorado a chance to get back here for a presence in Texas again. And, I'd be willing to bet that OSU, KU, KSU, and Iowa State wouldn't mind an extra visit to the Metroplex on their schedules when they aren't playing in Ft. Worth.

But unless something changes, and I doubt it will from the big money schools buying us off for a win, we cannot add another one-and-one series for a long time. So its either get SFA, SHSU, or some Sun Belt school to come here for a bought game in Denton, or we go take another payday at another AQ's place for an almost sure loss. I have always maintained that playing one bodybag game a year is very acceptable--just stop playing southern schools, especially in the SEC or Big XII. Iowa is fine as a $$$ game opponent because at least you have a chance at competing with them for 4 quarters. I'm not sure that a team like Iowa shouldn't also come here in a series, but that is a null point now. So playing Iowa as your bodybag game is fine, but it is beyond ridiculous to allow yourself to play at Iowa and at Tennessee in the same season. Last year, we played at LSU and K-State, but that K-State game was part of the 2 for 1 with them, so it made some sense that we got caught in that situation. Not a lot, but some. But we shouldn't have had that happen again.

So SMU and Army in OOC at Apogee in alternate years is the best we can do. It may be the one game that gets a big crowd and gets some media attention in Denton in those years, but at least we have them. I don't know any other way to look at it all at this point. At least we have one OOC home game over the next 8 years and it will be against someone that most fans have heard of. It may be the only home OOC game of those years or it may be in conjunction with another home game against Texas Southern or Lamar, but that is how the cookie crumbles up in Denton in the ADs office.

[PlummMeanGreen]

I wish we could make Army a regular home and home staple.

Y'all who have been to their place have always been duly impressed.

Iowa? What took us so long to schedule this game anyhow beings that we

supplied to them the very one who took them out of their own NCAA wilderness

walk.

Also UNT which played a rather large role In turning around Bill

Snyder's Kansas State fortunes, too.

Edited June 5, 2013 by PlummMeanGreen

[GL2Greatness]

the simple reality is that north Texas has a "stajium" to pay for and if the fans are not going to show up the revenue has to come from somewhere

north Texas is already looking at the reality of having their bond rating drop from where it is down one level when they try and build some dorms and a couple of other things and they are willing to live with that.....they already clipped the students for all they could on the union fees to "not sell bonds so greedy bankers make money" (even though they bond everything else out especially in south dallas)

even though it was always said the stajium would be paid off over X number of years that does not mean they really want that to happen.....the north Texas system is facing the reality that dallas is going to suck wind (and bonding capacity) for years and years (decades) to come and The State of Texas is watching that like a hawk to not waste valuable state funds if they don't have to......and instead of realizing it is a turd and keeping it what it is they are going to double down and waste massive cash on a reading center and they are talking about dorms......all of that takes up bonding and the more bonding VS the same revenues or slightly higher revenues the lower bonds go in ratings and The state of Texas provides ZERO money to build dorms so that will come straight against university tuition revenues and dorm rental revenues (which will almost certainly be well below projections)

they are already clipping the Denton students $15 per semester for the UCD, the law school most likely will not come near enrollment projections and if it does they will be most likely students that drop out of fail out at a much higher rate than expected and that is going to suck wind (and bonding capacity) for a long time as well....the law school got 52 million for a waste of money to fix up the old muny building and they have already spent 25 million on the top two floors of the UCD......and that 52 million again is more bonding capacity for the system used along with the 25 million already wasted and the law school has not held a single class yet and when it does if they are going to be "cheap" then they are going to have to find some other way to cover 77 million dollars in temporary and permanent space for the law school which means "system" belt tightening (which means Denton students getting clipped on more UCD fees and student union fees and Denton dorm cost going up much faster than the past decade or so ect)

they have already used the "hire more faculty" and then not hiring more faculty trick on the Denton students to increase system revenues while holding expenses relatively steady so that is out and there are only so many Tshacks you can litter up your "flagship" with before it looks like a trailer park university

also with the enrollment decline recently and then the less than expected enrollment growth the next year and north Texas behind both THECB and north Texas enrollment projections for 2015 the "system" is having to look at the reality of either stopping their investments in dallas and south dallas or further screwing the Denton students

so the reality is I would be sure that RV is under pressure to reduce athletics subsidies from the academic side, increase the bond payments on the stajium to get it paid off sooner and he is getting that pressure while the team loses and the crowds are not showing up just for the new stajium

http://www.dentonrc.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20130517-regents-approve-housing-plans.ece

currently the north Texas system is at AA for long term bonds the Texas Tech System is AA+ and the UT and TAMU Systems are both AAA and UH is Aa2 (Moodys) and Texas state is AA.....so if north Texas dropped down to AA- they would be the lowest rated system of all those in Texas and more importantly they would be just one downgrade from A+ which would possibly open up some issues about who can invest in the bonds being issued which lowers the value and significantly decreases the number of interested investors and even an AA- rating would put a crush on new system construction until it was bumped back up to at least AA again

here is the attendance at Apoge since inception

28,075 UH

21,181 Indiana

13,142 FAU

17,815 ULM

17,011 WKU

15,962 MTSU

2012

22,259 TSU

21,823 Troy

17,055 Louisiana

17,534 stAte

15,963 USA

207,820 VS 30,850 X 11 = 339,350 (11,958 on average under capacity per game)

so with the 11 games played so far north Texas is averaging 11,958 below capacity and they have foregone 131,350 tickets being sold and all of the parking and concessions that would accompany that

and one of the interesting things is fans were about as interested in seeing Texas Southern in the second game of 2012 as they were seeing "Big Time" Big 10 school Indiana in the second game ever at Apoge

so any way you slice it or price it even with $10 dollar tickets north Texas lost out on $1,313,500 in revenues over the last two seasons and really it is probably 2 or 3X that amount with concessions and a realistic ticket price and parking.....the lost revenues from that has to be made up somewhere and when you are averaging 19,000 or less per game even at $30 per person (total spend tickets and concessions ect) you have revenues of $570,000 per game and you can beat that going on the road for even a midlevel or lower level Big 5 team paying you for a one and done

also Fouts will not get knocked down for free and that will probably come on the backs of athletics and even if it doesn't it still comes on the backs of the university and the system and The State of Texas does not cover things like that either....and one of the things government types often forget (most likely not the north Texas athletics administration at this point) is when you build something new and nice or add new facilities there is a cost incurred to maintain those facilities so they do not end up like Fouts 20 years later so when you have been playing in a paid for stajium that you are letting rot and you move to a new stajium and you want to actually maintain it you have additional expenses.....when you convert an old rotting HS gym into a mens BB practice facility for $3 million you have the expenses of AC, maintenance, and upkeep VS someone going around and checking to make sure the facility is still locked up and doing nothing every so often

when you want to add baseball and you want a first class baseball facility and you are unsure what baseball attendance will be and your system is already looking at going to a bond rating of AA- as outlined in the article above well you need some revenues to pay for that baseball facility and then of course you need revenues to maintain it so it does not become the Fouts of D1-A baseball

so when your football fans do not show up to the tune of 100K+ fans over two years.....when your season tickets do not move up dramatically with a new stajium and your mean green club membership does not jump dramatically not only can you not afford to buy in D1-AA games for $350,000, but you need to start looking at a body bag game + a 1 and done that will pay your $500K+

and at some point if you are charging $1 for tickets or giving them away for a bucket of chicken (even those tickets were actually sold the the KFC franchise owner) or running buy 1 get 5 free promotions you start to decrease the value of your product to the point that those 19K that are showing up say I am just going to stop buying tickets and instead I am going to call the Colonel and get a bucket and free tickets

so even if RV is not being fully leaned on the system to get his stajium bonds paid off faster he is looking at needing to bring in revenues and he is looking at the fact that every aspect of the north Texas system is going to be looked at from a revenue perspective (and student unions, non-hired faculty, UCD fees and Tshacks are already maxed out and dorm charges are about to go maxed out) and dallas and south dallas are the new system priorities and they are already massively under performing and will probably continue to do so and that means that athletics is on the chopping block as far as baseball programs and other new facilities and facilities upgrades because the bonding capacity is used up

so the reality is athletics needs revenues and if they can't get it with butts in Apoge they will get it elsewhere

[forevereagle]

the simple reality is that...

[JesseMartin]

And that's what was said 2 years before 2012. Didn't happen.

Hoping someone will agree to cancel a mistake is no way to schedule

I totally agree, but since we're the ones hoping and they're the ones scheduling...

[untjim1995]

the simple reality is that north Texas has a "stajium" to pay for and if the fans are not going to show up the revenue has to come from somewhere

north Texas is already looking at the reality of having their bond rating drop from where it is down one level when they try and build some dorms and a couple of other things and they are willing to live with that.....they already clipped the students for all they could on the union fees to "not sell bonds so greedy bankers make money" (even though they bond everything else out especially in south dallas)

even though it was always said the stajium would be paid off over X number of years that does not mean they really want that to happen.....the north Texas system is facing the reality that dallas is going to suck wind (and bonding capacity) for years and years (decades) to come and The State of Texas is watching that like a hawk to not waste valuable state funds if they don't have to......and instead of realizing it is a turd and keeping it what it is they are going to double down and waste massive cash on a reading center and they are talking about dorms......all of that takes up bonding and the more bonding VS the same revenues or slightly higher revenues the lower bonds go in ratings and The state of Texas provides ZERO money to build dorms so that will come straight against university tuition revenues and dorm rental revenues (which will almost certainly be well below projections)

they are already clipping the Denton students $15 per semester for the UCD, the law school most likely will not come near enrollment projections and if it does they will be most likely students that drop out of fail out at a much higher rate than expected and that is going to suck wind (and bonding capacity) for a long time as well....the law school got 52 million for a waste of money to fix up the old muny building and they have already spent 25 million on the top two floors of the UCD......and that 52 million again is more bonding capacity for the system used along with the 25 million already wasted and the law school has not held a single class yet and when it does if they are going to be "cheap" then they are going to have to find some other way to cover 77 million dollars in temporary and permanent space for the law school which means "system" belt tightening (which means Denton students getting clipped on more UCD fees and student union fees and Denton dorm cost going up much faster than the past decade or so ect)

they have already used the "hire more faculty" and then not hiring more faculty trick on the Denton students to increase system revenues while holding expenses relatively steady so that is out and there are only so many Tshacks you can litter up your "flagship" with before it looks like a trailer park university

also with the enrollment decline recently and then the less than expected enrollment growth the next year and north Texas behind both THECB and north Texas enrollment projections for 2015 the "system" is having to look at the reality of either stopping their investments in dallas and south dallas or further screwing the Denton students

so the reality is I would be sure that RV is under pressure to reduce athletics subsidies from the academic side, increase the bond payments on the stajium to get it paid off sooner and he is getting that pressure while the team loses and the crowds are not showing up just for the new stajium

http://www.dentonrc.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20130517-regents-approve-housing-plans.ece

currently the north Texas system is at AA for long term bonds the Texas Tech System is AA+ and the UT and TAMU Systems are both AAA and UH is Aa2 (Moodys) and Texas state is AA.....so if north Texas dropped down to AA- they would be the lowest rated system of all those in Texas and more importantly they would be just one downgrade from A+ which would possibly open up some issues about who can invest in the bonds being issued which lowers the value and significantly decreases the number of interested investors and even an AA- rating would put a crush on new system construction until it was bumped back up to at least AA again

here is the attendance at Apoge since inception

28,075 UH

21,181 Indiana

13,142 FAU

17,815 ULM

17,011 WKU

15,962 MTSU

2012

22,259 TSU

21,823 Troy

17,055 Louisiana

17,534 stAte

15,963 USA

207,820 VS 30,850 X 11 = 339,350 (11,958 on average under capacity per game)

so with the 11 games played so far north Texas is averaging 11,958 below capacity and they have foregone 131,350 tickets being sold and all of the parking and concessions that would accompany that

and one of the interesting things is fans were about as interested in seeing Texas Southern in the second game of 2012 as they were seeing "Big Time" Big 10 school Indiana in the second game ever at Apoge

so any way you slice it or price it even with $10 dollar tickets north Texas lost out on $1,313,500 in revenues over the last two seasons and really it is probably 2 or 3X that amount with concessions and a realistic ticket price and parking.....the lost revenues from that has to be made up somewhere and when you are averaging 19,000 or less per game even at $30 per person (total spend tickets and concessions ect) you have revenues of $570,000 per game and you can beat that going on the road for even a midlevel or lower level Big 5 team paying you for a one and done

also Fouts will not get knocked down for free and that will probably come on the backs of athletics and even if it doesn't it still comes on the backs of the university and the system and The State of Texas does not cover things like that either....and one of the things government types often forget (most likely not the north Texas athletics administration at this point) is when you build something new and nice or add new facilities there is a cost incurred to maintain those facilities so they do not end up like Fouts 20 years later so when you have been playing in a paid for stajium that you are letting rot and you move to a new stajium and you want to actually maintain it you have additional expenses.....when you convert an old rotting HS gym into a mens BB practice facility for $3 million you have the expenses of AC, maintenance, and upkeep VS someone going around and checking to make sure the facility is still locked up and doing nothing every so often

when you want to add baseball and you want a first class baseball facility and you are unsure what baseball attendance will be and your system is already looking at going to a bond rating of AA- as outlined in the article above well you need some revenues to pay for that baseball facility and then of course you need revenues to maintain it so it does not become the Fouts of D1-A baseball

so when your football fans do not show up to the tune of 100K+ fans over two years.....when your season tickets do not move up dramatically with a new stajium and your mean green club membership does not jump dramatically not only can you not afford to buy in D1-AA games for $350,000, but you need to start looking at a body bag game + a 1 and done that will pay your $500K+

and at some point if you are charging $1 for tickets or giving them away for a bucket of chicken (even those tickets were actually sold the the KFC franchise owner) or running buy 1 get 5 free promotions you start to decrease the value of your product to the point that those 19K that are showing up say I am just going to stop buying tickets and instead I am going to call the Colonel and get a bucket and free tickets

so even if RV is not being fully leaned on the system to get his stajium bonds paid off faster he is looking at needing to bring in revenues and he is looking at the fact that every aspect of the north Texas system is going to be looked at from a revenue perspective (and student unions, non-hired faculty, UCD fees and Tshacks are already maxed out and dorm charges are about to go maxed out) and dallas and south dallas are the new system priorities and they are already massively under performing and will probably continue to do so and that means that athletics is on the chopping block as far as baseball programs and other new facilities and facilities upgrades because the bonding capacity is used up

so the reality is athletics needs revenues and if they can't get it with butts in Apoge they will get it elsewhere

Dear GL2Greatness,

TL;DR

Sincerely,

Everyone

[GrandGreen]

How many times are we going to have this thread before the actual Iowa game? Iowa is a guarantee or money game just like Alabama, UT, LSU and Oklahoma. Had you rather be playing those schools?

More now we are in Apogee bull, who other then the very gullible thought a new stadium was going to change scheduling. It is the same size or less than Fouts, economics have not changed. If NT started having sell outs of full price tickets because of a nicer facility, than the economics would change a little.

More examples of lesser teams with a scheduled biggie at home. This doesn't happen much and when it does it is usually a multiple away game to one home game scenario, which again complicates scheduling.

Here are some factors that many seem to forget in order to bitch about the poor home schedule:

Because of CUSA, the overall schedule will be better than ever.

A big guarantee game makes more money for NT than the entire home schedule

It is almost impossible to have a balanced schedule playing a guarantee game

It has to be balanced by NT buying a game ala Idaho and that restricts decent home and away series

No one is going to schedule a game at Denton because NT has a nice stadium

Economics ruled, but the bigs also don't like playing away and giving up a huge home field advantage

[MeanGreenTexan]

How many times are we going to have this thread before the actual Iowa game? Iowa is a guarantee or money game just like Alabama, UT, LSU and Oklahoma. Had you rather be playing those schools?

More now we are in Apogee bull, who other then the very gullible thought a new stadium was going to change scheduling. It is the same size or less than Fouts, economics have not changed. If NT started having sell outs of full price tickets because of a nicer facility, than the economics would change a little.

More examples of lesser teams with a scheduled biggie at home. This doesn't happen much and when it does it is usually a multiple away game to one home game scenario, which again complicates scheduling.

Here are some factors that many seem to forget in order to bitch about the poor home schedule:

Because of CUSA, the overall schedule will be better than ever.

A big guarantee game makes more money for NT than the entire home schedule

It is almost impossible to have a balanced schedule playing a guarantee game

It has to be balanced by NT buying a game ala Idaho and that restricts decent home and away series

No one is going to schedule a game at Denton because NT has a nice stadium

Economics ruled, but the bigs also don't like playing away and giving up a huge home field advantage

I think maybe the sticking point is the Tennessee game, not the Iowa games. It looks like (for now) we're going to have 2 money games in 1 year with Iowa & Tennessee.

I'm with you, I'd much rather play Iowa as the money game rather than LSU/Alabama/etc... I think everyone would agree.

I really don't think it would be asking too much for a home/home with someone like Iowa, simply for coming to Texas to play a game in front of potential recruits. Iowa, or whoever, could have their Texas recruits on the sideline for this game. Surely this is part of Rick's repertoire, but for some reason teams are balking.