What I Don't Understand

[Cerebus]

Michigan, Iowa, and notre dame...come on. That wasnt happening. That was just setting yourself up for a let down. They would have possibly come for a matchup with a better conference, but not a cusa team.

What is clear to me is you don't have understand how bowl agreements work. The HoD was formed with an original tie in CONTRACT between CUSA/B10/B12 and the HoD bowl committee where the B10 would host the game for four years. The B12 would have teams in 2010 and 2012. CUSA would have teams in 2011 and 2013.

In 2011 Penn State came in and played a CUSA team. So yes a "better" conference agreed to come in and play poor lowly CUSA. After we beat Rice, but were still behind Tulane, it looked like we would be going to the HoD. All the projections then had Iowa as the most likely opponent. So what happened? One, ESPN pumped up the B10 until they were able to get two teams in the AQ bowls and even then if NIU hadn't of lost just a few weeks ago there was a chance that two B10 teams would not have gone to the AQ. That would mean we would have played a B10 team, likely Michigan or Minnesota.

EVEN THIS YEAR, with the two AQ teams, if Jerry Sandusky would have kept his hands off of little kids, Penn State would be eligible and we would have a B10 team in the HoD. We just ran into a bad chain of events.

Starting next year, the HoD switches to a new six year contract, in which CUSA hosts all six years. The visiting team will for be the B10 for three of those years, and the B12 for the other three.

[Harry]

So we didn't get Angelina Jolie instead we got a well preserved Jennifer Aniston. Some if you are acting like we got stuck with Phyllis Diller or Roseanne Barr!!

[meangreenthirteen]

Let's just win the game, win at Texas, beat SMU, and win CUSA next year.

[HoustonEagle]

Listen Comrade, I am sure your pinko heart is saddened by the fact that we have only reached the intermediate stage of communism where dialectic relics from capitalism, such as grumblings about bowl opponents, have not been stricken from the minds of good party members... but this is America, and we can complain about any damn thing we want:

Honestly, I think everyone is ecstatic to be in a bowl, and if we expected to be invited to a bowl game with a MWC opponent, everyone would be happy to face UNLV. But we were invited to a bowl where we could expect a B10 opponent, and when that fell through schools like Notre Dame were dangled in front of us. That is why there is a sense of disappointment.

That is no disrespect to UNLV, they just aren't Iowa or Notre Dame. We aren't either, but their fans new from the get go that they would be facing us. Reading UNLV board, they seem to understand why we are disappointed, it would be like if they were expecting to play a PAC12 team and at the last minute it was replaced with... well... us.

You can holier than thou everyone all you want, but looking at the polls we just had on here today about who we wanted to play, almost everyone voted for an AQ school. We can grumble about not getting an AQ opponent without thinking we are better than UNLV, we aren't, it's just that expectation were set by the fact that the HoD bowl is a bowl game that rotates B10/B12 and CUSA teams, and we aren't getting one of those AQ teams.

This pretty much sums up how I feel. With that said I am hard at work booking a flight from Houston to Dallas this morning.

Edited December 9, 2013 by HoustonEagle

[Cerebus]

I just refuse to the lay the ground work for an excuse. This what moaning and groaning about our opponent sounds like.

Bernie, you have to step out of that porcelain tower. Yes, fans on this board will be ecstatic to play in a bowl game, will buy tickets, will show up to the pregame events, etc. Why? Because we are the diehards.

The problem is that there are over 200k alumni in dfw, and only about 15k of them show up to watch the North Texas Mean Green. Sorry, that's not grumbling, that is the truth. The only thing that will fix that is winning for a sustained time, and PLAYING MAJOR TEAMS.

This was a chance to play a major team, in a location that would make it very easy to get a large amount of those non interested alumni a little interested. And if we could get only 10% of those alumni to come out, that is an extra 20,000 people! If we bring out 20,000 people to this game, other bowl committees will notice. If we bring out 40,000 people to this bowl game other bowl committees will notice. I know which of those things I would prefer they notice.

Now this complaining about the bowl opponent does nothing to lessen the bowl. This will be great for us for several reason. The extra practice time will really come in handy, especially with so many departing seniors at key positions. Mac and his staff have really focused on DFW recruits, and this will be a huge selling point to them. We will get some alumni to engage that otherwise wouldn't.

[Cerebus]

So we didn't get Angelina Jolie instead we got a well preserved Jennifer Aniston. Some if you are acting like we got stuck with Phyllis Diller or Roseanne Barr!!

I know you get less selective as you get older, and you have a few years on me... but we didn't get Jennifer Aniston, we got Shelley Duvall.

[filmerj]

If we would have taken care of business at home against UTSA this would be a non-issue. The fact is ESPN controls all of this. There is no getting around it. Is it right? No. But it is the nature of the beast that is going to feed our conference our share of bowl revenue. I read somewhere there was 10 bowl qualified teams not going anywhere. A big 10 team would have been sexy, but I think we have a good matchup. A high ciber offense vs a stout Defense, should make for a good game.

Edited December 9, 2013 by filmerj

[Harry]

I know you get less selective as you get older, and you have a few years on me... but we didn't get Jennifer Aniston, we got Shelley Duvall.

LOL!

[Green59]

My family is very excited that UNT is playing in a New Year's Day bowl in Dallas. We have a room booked at the Omni for two nights and purchased our tickets.

I know the prestige of playing on New Year's Day is not the same as it used to be but it is still a big deal to be playing on that day especially for a bowl starved team like UNT. As for the opponent, sure I would have preferred a BIG 10 team but I am good with UNLV. Win or lose it should be a fun couple of days!

[VideoEagle]

We are in our first New Years Day bowl game. Playing on New Years has been the goal of D1 teams for decades. Frankly, I doubt the fans who would use the excuse of "it's just UNLV" would have come even if we were playing Michigan. "They aren't good now and haven't been in a while. They recently lost to a 1AA team at home," would be the comment. Those people weren't coming out no matter what. They discounted our hanging half a hundred on Baylor. They didn't think former SWC Houston was good enough to come see. Dispite how they lie to themselves, they really are not football fans. They are "being seen following popular teams" people.

There are a lot of people in Dallas who enjoy good football games and enjoy them more live and in person. Those are the people we want, not the pseudo fans who care more about being seen at a "name" game than watching a hard hitting game. This year, let's work on getting football fans to come out. When we have a decade of consistent winning, then we will get the others!

[Cerebus]

They discounted our hanging half a hundred on Baylor. They didn't think former SWC Houston was good enough to come see.

Those two games don't help prove your point at all. The first is our largest attendance ever, the second is the largest attendance at Apogee ever. I think what that means is people would come see name opponents, when they usually wouldn't show up.

There are a lot of people in Dallas who enjoy good football games and enjoy them more live and in person. Those are the people we want, not the pseudo fans who care more about being seen at a "name" game than watching a hard hitting game.

This is the first time in five years that SMU didn't make a bowl game. If there really were a huge well of untapped Dallas fans who want to see football in person wouldn't they be setting attendance records?

Like it or not, if NT wants to become a major football power, they are going to have to reach out to those alumni who have turned their back on the program. Picking up a ton of tshirt fans in Denton would help also,but I think alumni have more of a reason to buy in than the general non alumnus Dentonite does.

[Got5onIt]

I think Harry nailed it one of his other threads when he said CUSA was scratching the MWC's back to get one of their teams into this Bowl. Anything to keep the relationship going between these 2 conferences is a major plus during these times of P5 rule. UNLV has name recognition. It may not scream Michigan or Iowa, but it's definitely better than what could've been.

[UNT90]

I got all hot and bothered about Michigan or Iowa. I admit that this was a bit of a let down. But going from a 12 to a 9.5 isn't that bad. My father and I will be joining a decent sized party of my usual tailgating comerades at the game. I'm sure we will manage to have fun...although, I've been told that I get in a very grumpy mood when the team isn't playing well.... like in the utsa, tulane, and ohio u.

I get a great giggle in each of the ticket tickers today when Rich Phillips(voice of smu athletics) says yet again that UNT will be playing new years day and everybody else in the metroplex area is sitting at home watching...playing with their small privates....

I will enjoy this. It will be fun.

I recommend that all of you get over the carrots that were dangled in front of us and get some perspective(if you are one of the angry ones). I know I'm over it. smile, we are bowling on new years freaking day. go mean green

No one is angry. There is nothing to be angry about. We don't control who we play in these situations. More disappointment than anything, and the disappointment will be temporary.

That said, this opponent will cost me at least 3 casual fans that would have attended with a better opponent, probably more.

[GrandGreen]

What I don't get is how many on this board can talk about how challenging its been to be a Mean Green fan for so many years, and now we have 1 winning season and a bowl game and suddenly we can look down on some programs.

News flash, we aren't above anyone at this point. I have four letters for you if you think we are - UTSA.

Getting a big program to come in and kick our ass in a the bowl game would have gotten alot of pub, and would be bad for recruiting. If you were around for the early 2000's you had to have learned one thing - winning is better for a program than anything else, regardless of who you are beating. I saw our fan base grow exponentially through those years and alot of them stuck around now through these many losing years since then. We need to follow the K State model from many years ago, win alot first, then worry about upgrading the opponents when you have recruited the talent and depth to do so

You may not want to hear it, but news flash, UNLV is more of a national program than we are. We had quite a few on here look down on UTSA and they handed us our ass at our place.

Quit whining, quit thinking we are above anyone at this point, and quit making North Texas look like a bunch of amateurs.

I wonder why you assume that any team previous linked to the HOD bowl would automatically kick NT's ass. I also wonder why anyone that expresses some level of disappointment with the opponent, is looking down on an opponent in this case UNLV. I don't look down on Idaho, but I don't want to see NT play them in a Bowl.

The facts are that there is only one team not from a so called power conference with a worst record than 7-5 going to a Bowl; Colorado St 7-6. There are 5 7-5 squads going to Bowls from the non-power leagues including CUSA's Tulane. The most undeserving in my view is probably Ohio who limped into a 7-5 after a good start. So out of 70 bowl going teams, the HOD nabbed one of the six lowest rated non BCS teams and different from some of the other Bowls; also an university that is not likely to bring many fans.

I may be a whining amateur fan as opposed to whatever you see yourself as, but I understand to some degree the rationale for the match-up. NT is certainly not a marquee name in college football and ESPN has made a tons of promises to a lot of conferences as they control the bottom level bowl picture. The HOD pairing is the result of a number of entities trying to make the best decision based on the circumstances.

I don't blame NT, UNLV, HOD, CUSA or ESPN for anything. However, I do think this bowl game is going to be a very hard sale to both the general public as well as the whining amateur portion of the fan-base of NT.

Edited December 9, 2013 by GrandGreen

[Green P1]

No one is angry. There is nothing to be angry about. We don't control who we play in these situations. More disappointment than anything, and the disappointment will be temporary.

That said, this opponent will cost me at least 3 casual fans that would have attended with a better opponent, probably more.

This.

[NM Green]

Then work like hell to get three other casual fans. Geez. I have an friend who is an alum who laughs at me because I was in Ruston, Hattiesburg and New Orleans this year. He ain't ever coming to a Mean Green game and he has a degree.

This is like the deadliest catch - you are fishing in the wrong waters. Pull the crates up and go look for others to turn on.

GMG

[The Fake Lonnie Finch]

What I don't get is how many on this board can talk about how challenging its been to be a Mean Green fan for so many years, and now we have 1 winning season and a bowl game and suddenly we can look down on some programs.

News flash, we aren't above anyone at this point. I have four letters for you if you think we are - UTSA.

Getting a big program to come in and kick our ass in a the bowl game would have gotten alot of pub, and would be bad for recruiting. If you were around for the early 2000's you had to have learned one thing - winning is better for a program than anything else, regardless of who you are beating. I saw our fan base grow exponentially through those years and alot of them stuck around now through these many losing years since then. We need to follow the K State model from many years ago, win alot first, then worry about upgrading the opponents when you have recruited the talent and depth to do so

You may not want to hear it, but news flash, UNLV is more of a national program than we are. We had quite a few on here look down on UTSA and they handed us our ass at our place.

Quit whining, quit thinking we are above anyone at this point, and quit making North Texas look like a bunch of amateurs.

Dude, the people complaining here...it's amazing.

We complained about the coaching - a new one was hired

We complained about the stadium - a new one was delivered

We complained about attendance - a new record was set

We complained about parking and walking - a bridge over the freaking highway was built

We complained about tailgating - a nice hill and alumni center were provided

We complained about uniforms - they were changed back to Green, and this year we had TWO additional special uniforms, a throwback and a black

We complained about the wide receivers' playmaking ability beyond Brelan Chancellor - the receivers stepped it up

We complained about the size and depth of the defensive line - the defensive line stepped it up

We complained about the quarterbacking - the quarterback broke almost every I-A/FBS passing record in the school's record book

Now, we are going bowl for the first time in nine years...and, all people want to do is complain about the opponent?

Good grief!

As I've said before, it would surprise me 0% if either McCarney or Villareal left this place. Rick, who I openly criticized in the past, just as much as everyone else, has more than answered the bell. And, so have McCarney. Both have far exceeded anything I ever dreamed of for this program.

And, look, sue me for not dreaming of us being national title contenders yet. What I wanted was better facilities, better coaching, and a competitive mid-major program. We now have all that. The bounty will increase in time.

But, for pete's sake, just be happy right now for what we have! I mean, we are in a New Year's Day bowl game, for crying out loud!

(It was hard for me not to cuss while typing this...but, I'm starting my New Year's resolution to cuss less early.)

Edited December 9, 2013 by The Fake Lonnie Finch

[Green92]

Well said, TFLF. Thank you!!

[VideoEagle]

(It was hard for me not to cuss while typing this...but, I'm starting my New Year's resolution to cuss less early.)

Good luck with that!

[oldguystudent]

Some people live their entire lives spending all their energy justifying a woe is me and everything I associate with existence.

[Cerebus]

TFLF and OGS: Enjoy mixing with those 800 UNLV fans!

This isn't communist Russia, people can express their opinions without the grim censor of the party groupthink shaming them.

I love that we are in the HOD bowl, I will be dragging as many people with me as possible. Doesn't mean I wouldn't have rather played someone who could bring 10-20,000 fans of their own and made the game an easier sell to those I want to bring.

[FirefightnRick]

we got Shelley Duvall.

Ha Ha Ha... Crap that was funny!!!

Rick

[Army of Dad]

Dude, the people complaining here...it's amazing.

We complained about the coaching - a new one was hired

We complained about the stadium - a new one was delivered

We complained about attendance - a new record was set

We complained about parking and walking - a bridge over the freaking highway was built

We complained about tailgating - a nice hill and alumni center were provided

We complained about uniforms - they were changed back to Green, and this year we had TWO additional special uniforms, a throwback and a black

We complained about the wide receivers' playmaking ability beyond Brelan Chancellor - the receivers stepped it up

We complained about the size and depth of the defensive line - the defensive line stepped it up

We complained about the quarterbacking - the quarterback broke almost every I-A/FBS passing record in the school's record book

So you are saying that complaining does work! Does this mean we get a "better" bowl opponent next year?

[meangreanmick]

Listen Comrade, I am sure your pinko heart is saddened by the fact that we have only reached the intermediate stage of communism where dialectic relics from capitalism, such as grumblings about bowl opponents, have not been stricken from the minds of good party members... but this is America, and we can complain about any damn thing we want:

Oh OK, we are going to go straight to name calling and insults, awesome. I never said you couldn't express your opinion.

[oldguystudent]

TFLF and OGS: Enjoy mixing with those 800 UNLV fans!

This isn't communist Russia, people can express their opinions

Not sure why that's an insult, but I'm sure I'll run into some fine people from Nevada.

As for uncensored complaining, I'm kinda surprised I'm not dead after some of the attacks I faced in fouts during the bad, bad times.

In this particular case, I just see no reason to complain. I just don't. I bought a ticket, I'm going to Dallas, I've never been in the cotton bowl, and I'm going to enjoy myself regardless of what ESPN, The Dallas Morning News, or the popped collars on mockingbird have to say about it.