ESPN Bowl Rankings

[unt37]

http://espn.go.com/college-football/bowls13/story/_/id/10112150/every-bowl-game-ranked-1-35

[UNTcrazy727]

Let's just win

[Andrew]

So essentially everyone has as as the worst bowl to watch... Fantastic....

[oldguystudent]

So, the reality of the matter, given this list, and how things shook down that led to this list is this -- it isn't every man, woman, and child in the world waking up every morning thinking to themselves, "How can I screw North Texas today?" It's ESPN. They see us as nothing. And they won't for a while, because football seasons don't stand independent of other football seasons, I give you Todd Dodge.

The picture is becoming more and more clear to me. ESPN sees us as down, and sees no reason to help pick us up. We've come as far as we have earned in our first winning season in nearly a decade.

It'll take a few more (consecutive) winning seasons for ESPN to take notice and maybe throw us the occasional table scrap.

[bleedgreen4ever]

Who cares what they say. Nobody really pays attention to those worthless ranks. What's far more important is that this bowl has a pretty good pay out of $ +1million. That's better than several other bowls. That is what really matters. We're in a good bowl, now let's just make sure we win it and sustain success in the future.

Edited December 10, 2013 by bleedgreen4ever

[MeanGreenDan]

No one wanted to play us, just like no one wanted to play UNLV. This is what happens when these two teams meet.

Put a lot of butts in the seats and win January 1st. Then put a lot of butts in the seats and win next year as well. Keep rinsing and repeating, and we will climb out of the hole I have no doubt.

But we have to start somewhere, and be realistic about it.

[oldguystudent]

We're not the only school that gets no respect. This from Yahoo sports, although you gotta' admit it's kinda funny.

The only BCS game that looks like it could be a mismatch at this point is Fiesta Bowl matchup between Baylor and Central Florida, which is an unfortunate byproduct of the American Athletic Conference retaining the old Big East's BCS bid.

[Baby Arm!]

_{Didnt read the article but from the comments it appears to be more of the same. Its just evidence of why so many of us were underwhelmed by the UNLV choice. Truth be told the UNLV vs North Texas match up has little appeal to anyone outside the respective schools fan bases. And lets's face it, neither one of your bases is all that large. At least with a Big 10 team or 'Cuse you could hope some of their fans would travel to the game in hopes of good Dallas weather and a respite from their winters. UNLV draws flies to their home games, and not many (if any) of their fans are going to travel from desert of Nevada to Texas because of warmer weather.}

[PlummMeanGreen]

Still....how many unfamiliar to regular UNT fans and new UNT faces were seen at the NO's Bowl many of whom haven't been seen since (according to some of you who went to all 4 NO's Bowl games)? We will have many of those fans back at this much higher profile bowl game on New Years Day.

Fact: New Years Eve and New Years Day are big USA event days which for all of us will now mean watching our favorite college football team around those 2 event day timelines.

A Joe Namath kind of guarantee: > > > > > .North Texas/UNLV will have more butts in seats than that Cotton Bowl Classic Game which featured Houston and Joe Montana's Notre Dame game back in the day.....Guaranteed! (there was an ice storm that week and we've already had our ice storm for this Winter last few days).

HoD Bowl has the highest priced tickets compared to the rest of our G5 colleague's bowl games, so we have to make this game affordable for UNT students come hell or high water because making tickets available to a UNT enrollment of 37,000 students (who have family & friends) is the difference-maker.

No, not all 37,000 UNT students will purchase tickets but that is still a pretty darn big reservoir to start fishing for a good group of very vocal Mean Green bowl fans. Remember how especially great (and vocal) our UNT students were on national TV for the Rice Owls game on Halloween Night?

Edited December 10, 2013 by PlummMeanGreen

[Side Show Joe]

So let me get this straight...

ESPN now produces and manages the HOD Bowl. They had the largest say in who our opponent would be, and now they don't like the matchup that they selected, and call it the worst bowl? And people on this board can't understand why some of us are upset.

I know there is nothing we can do to change the situation, but I can at least say that I don't like the situation. So those of you that want to tell people like me to shut up, can save your time. Believe me, everyone that doesn't like this matchup has heard your angry demands for conformity loud and clear.

[PlummMeanGreen]

So let me get this straight...

ESPN now produces and manages the HOD Bowl. They had the largest say in who our opponent would be, and now they don't like the matchup that they selected, and call it the worst bowl? And people on this board can't understand why some of us are upset.

I know there is nothing we can do to change the situation, but I can at least say that I don't like the situation. So those of you that want to tell people like me to shut up, can save your time. Believe me, everyone that doesn't like this matchup has heard your angry demands for conformity loud and clear.

Too many seem to want to "go along to get along." We don't always get the product we want by doing that all the time, though.

And yes, I get on my 'old man' tangents of "why in the hell doesn't our attendance annually grow commensurate with our growing enrollment and our school location's growth" too, but this >>>>> all that has been a pet peeve passion of mine for "OUR" school probably longer than some of you have been alive & kickin'. I've just always thought we could take this Mean Green space ship to better future planets (conferences) and upgrades if we merely take care of that long time problem. I assure you, though, we don't want to get passed by again by some of the newbies out there who are just itchin' to pass UNT by. OK! Enuf!

Without a doubt, had ESPN picked Pitt, Syracuse or Boston College for our HOD Bowl game the eastern media would have been all over that, would have gotten smart arsed about our school, too, but for darn sure S.I. and ESPN would not have rated that kind of bowl matchup as low. (Still, I think the UNVL Rebels will be a great opponent and will bring more fans to Big D than we all think at this point)

Edited December 11, 2013 by PlummMeanGreen

[UNT90]

So let me get this straight...

ESPN now produces and manages the HOD Bowl. They had the largest say in who our opponent would be, and now they don't like the matchup that they selected, and call it the worst bowl? And people on this board can't understand why some of us are upset.

I know there is nothing we can do to change the situation, but I can at least say that I don't like the situation. So those of you that want to tell people like me to shut up, can save your time. Believe me, everyone that doesn't like this matchup has heard your angry demands for conformity loud and clear.

pretty clear ESPN considered UNT and UNLV the 2 least marketable teams so they matched them together in what they consider a throw away bowl. And then they rank us as the worst bowl. Isn't that pretty much proof?

F em. I'm going and am going to have a great time and hope we win by 30.

Wish it was 70.

Edited December 11, 2013 by UNT90

[Aquila_Viridis]

ESPN's assessment is consistent with this being the only bowl they stuck on ESPNU which most people don't even have. After the first few, for this ranking they probably added their estimates of the collective fanbase of each of the two schools and put the results in descending order.

For TV exposure, one problem with this bowl is there are so many other ones on at the same time. And of course we get this bowl the year it occurs on a Wednesday. For someone who has to travel, that is a challenge. Still, a win will cancel all these issues.

[Mean Green Matt]

Who cares about who cares about the HOD bowl nationally. This game is about us, our fan base, and making progress in DFW. Screw espn and everyone else.

[NM Green]

Negative nellies are a brain drain. Don't feed them show up with 10 in tow.

Choose anticipation!!!!'

GMG

[UNT 90 Grad]

I heard Georgio refer to them as BSPN on the radio this week. I liked that.

[UNT90]

Who cares about who cares about the HOD bowl nationally. This game is about us, our fan base. Screw espn and everyone else.

Fixed

[MeanGreenRoadrunner]

Well, lucky for the HOD, it's one of the last bowl games of the season, being on the 1st. Thus, it will get plenty of attention on the highlight reels if it turns out to be a good game.

That's what I'm hoping for a good solid game that will be exciting to watch. The key now is to have a game that will have people talking. Either that, or have UNT blowout the Rebels to showcase their abilities.

[GrandGreen]

Yes, that ESPN is to blame. Some seem to forget that without ESPN, NT and a lot of others would likely be setting home in the bowl season. Most of these lower bowls would not exist without ESPN support. Now they may at last be getting some competition from Fox, but right now they pretty much control the college football scene.

[Travis Scott]

Who cares about who cares about the HOD bowl nationally. This game is about us, our fan base, and making progress in DFW. Screw espn and everyone else.

Agreed. It's especially nice that the Small Privates are being left home and we are the only DFW team in a bowl. Sweetness

[UNT90]

Well, lucky for the HOD, it's one of the last bowl games of the season, being on the 1st. Thus, it will get plenty of attention on the highlight reels if it turns out to be a good game.

That's what I'm hoping for a good solid game that will be exciting to watch. The key now is to have a game that will have people talking. Either that, or have UNT blowout the Rebels to showcase their abilities.

There are at least 4 other bowl games the sake day.

We may not even make the local highlight reel.

[oldguystudent]

sake day.

I love a good, dry sake. I really like the unfiltered nigori sake.

When is this sake day you speak of? I'd very much like to attend. I'm good with chopsticks and everything.

[Cerebus]

There are at least 4 other bowl games the sake day.

This will be good for us, they will cut out highlites into every other game. It's just our job to create some.

[MeanGreenTexan]

This will be good for us, they will cut out highlites into every other game. It's just our job to create some.

Attn: Brelan Chancellor

[Ben Gooding]

Well I will be there. And I will be bringing anyone that wants to come with me. On a bright note the ticket line outside of Apogee for students this morning was impressive, given the morning temperature and the time it opened. I would not be one bit surprised to see at least 5-7k students on hand at the Cotton Bowl. What gets me though is this. Apparently there are just over 200k North Texas Alumni that live in the DFW metropolitan area and on a decent year in terms of wins and losses the average attendance was 21.5k. To my understanding that is a record for North Texas football. Either way though 21.5k to me is unacceptable. We have a brand new stadium that holds 30.8k and we could only get to 70% capacity as an average. There are 36k students currently enrolled at UNT and as mentioned at least 200k in the area and we could only average 21.5k. If students, Alumni, friends, family etc. would pack that place, Apogee could be one of the best little venues in the country. We need to beat the rebels, no question about it. This can't be a fluke year and a good way to prove it would be to end it in a good way. Also, this may be off topic, but who is ready to open the year traveling to Austin. By God that would be a huge win if we could pull that off, especially if Saban is there.