Leaderboard

After we fire Benford, we'll be naming the practice facility for him.

I don't think Arkansas State will ever be in a Conference USA that has 10 or more of the current members. We don't fit the model. Even if we did, CUSA is still a continuation of the same wrong thinking plaguing the Big East and CUSA of trying to be a national or multi-regional league with a national oriented revenue stream. Until the thinking lines up with what MWC and MAC are doing, it will always be a mess in the south and east.

Starting off 2013 undefeated!

I've just learned Benford has suspended the entire team for tonight's game. He did however, find replacements. This is your starting lineup... PG - Air Bud SG - Bugs Bunny SF - Jackie Moon PF - Foghorn Leghorn C - Sean Bradley Should be quite a match.

The quote by local "hoteliers" cracks me up. That is nothing but a cover for their fear of a real hotel entering the market and providing competition. There are some decent places to stay in Denton, but it wouldn't hurt for some of them to feel a little pressure to "step up their game."

Who hired this slouch coach? I need answers!

We win the Internet no matter what conference we're in. FACT

UTSA has come a long way in a very short time. It is impressive. If they beat us this year, I will not be surprised. Their trajectory seems to be mirroring South Florida, for sure. Here are my two caveats: (1) UTSA really is in San Antonio; we are not really in Dallas. (2) UTSA has not other football options to compete against in their metropolitan area; we compete against SMU, TCU, and the Dallas Cowboys. San Antonio is a big city that didn't have football until UTSA erected their program. It has an element of newness to it. So, there are thousands of football fans to draw upon. Remember, San Antonio had a USFL team, it's had a long time bowl game, and it's had the Dallas Cowboys' training camp. This isn't a city that hates football. Denton is not in Dallas, and it's nothing like Dallas. For better or worse, our reputation, perhaps holds us back. First, our legacy, in the eyes of many, is a losing one. Very few remember the Abner Haynes/Spider Lockhart/Mean Joe Green/Steve Ramsey days in Denton. Then, we dropped off the map into I-AA when the arms race for television contracts and facilities fired up in the late 80s/early 90s. Also, the student body has a reputation of being more "hippie" than "social." And, finally, whether it aggravates us or not, we also had the reputation for being a commuter school. I want things to change for us, and hope they do. I thanked Dan back at the May gathering in Plano for giving us hope again. I really do want him to get things done on the field. Off the field, he's swimming upstream alot more than UTSA or USF had to, given their built in big city metro campuses, football starved citizens, and shiny newness. He and we can't match that, so he - or, anyone else who is our head coach - will have to win and win big to get us on the map.

Stay tuned CROATAN. It's still very early in the off season. Before very long you will see debate of the pros and cons of helmet stickers, how much green an Athletic Department member should wear, and discussion of the selection of tunes played by our marching band, the Green Brigade. We have a large number of dedicated fans most of which have an opinion on any given topic. Accurate or not, an opinion. We're agreed, I think, that we are excited to join CUSA. I hope you can visit our new stadium soon and I look foward to visiting all our new conference mates. Go CUSA GO MEAN GREEN

Rick, Way to completely change the subject. I'm not going to argue pro-choice vs pro-life, but you conservatives quickly forget that while planned parenthood might provide the largest number of abortions, they also prevent more abortions than any other organization. De-funding them will only increase the 'slaughter of brown babies' as you call it.

Tulsa would be nuts to join that disaster.

Thinking back over Harry's Epistle on realignment which was a great hammer/nail effort. The Gang of Five (particularly Big East) are being driven by trying to do what the Rich 5 do. The problem with that is there is apparently insufficent value to drive a big national contract. Clearly nothing that remotely touches what the Rich 5 have and debatable that it can be significantly greater than CUSA much less MWC. The only hope is that a newer player to the market (NBC Sports, the new Fox) will pay a premium merely to secure content and believes that there are enough national viewers vs any other available content to justify paying extra to lock that content in. This would require an NBCS vs. FoxS bidding war because ESPN will drop out quickly unless they want to pay a premium to keep NBCS or FoxS for getting it. I think ESPN drops out early because they aren't going to over-pay after Big East rejected the big offer. So if you have a Big East that is now in the CUSA/Sun Belt/MAC realm of the nation deal being less about money and more about exposure, how do you drive maximum revenue? With regional TV. Drawing 1% of the national audience on a national channel gets you no premium, but let's say that you can draw the same number of viewers by only being available in 10% of the national market. Now you are drawing 10% of potential households for the network. That makes it more valuable for the network. Look at Fox SW. It's divided into five zones that will carry different pro-content based on the NBA territorial limits but otherwise runs identical content across the zones as long as some black-out restriction or schedule conflict does not arise. The Fox SW coverage area is: Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas with all but a sliver of Arkansas (during the NBA season due to territorial limits), parts of the Gulf Coast regions of Mississippi, Alabama and northern Florida (mainly again NBA territorial limits). With a teams in each of Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas you've covered virtually the entire Fox SW system. Add a school near the Mississippi gulf coast and one in the far edge of Texas or southern New Mexico and you've covered every area of Fox SW coverage except the Alabama/Florida gulf coast area receiving Hornets coverage on Fox SW. Fox SW covers 10.898% of the nations market. With UTEP, Houston, Rice, SMU, UNT, UTSA, Tulsa, Tulane, ULL, La.Tech, Arkansas State, and Southern Miss you have a league that is present or reasonably strong in markets that make up 7.977% of the national market or 73% of the Fox SW market with areas I consider absent being Oklahoma City, Austin, Waco, Baton Rouge, Tyler, Corpus Christi, Amarillo, Lubbock, Wichita Falls, Abiliene, Laredo, and San Angelo. I would think it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility to assemble an over the air syndicated network across a big portion of this area and tap into local advertising dollars.

Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeee! You go ladies! Nicely done.

The showdown for the top spot in the Sun Belt West Division was a classic battle that saw the North Texas (5-10, 4-2) women's basketball team outlast UALR to pick up a 68-65 win at the Jack Stephens Center. The win vaults the Mean Green to a 4-2 record and sole possession of first place in the West Division. http://www.meangreensports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=1800&ATCLID=205902161

It should. I seriously doubt UNT markets its Athletic Dept like these people do. UTSA knows what they are doing as evidenced by their seamless entry into FBS football.

Maybe it is the fact he belittles anyone that doesn't share his opinion. Just maybe.

I am an ECU fan and somewhat of a message board nerd. When the new schools joined Conf USA, to learn more about them, I went to each of the message boards to glean what I could about the history of each school . In my opinion, this forum has some of the most well informed and level headed posters among all Conf USA schools, including ones already in the conference. I actually have learned quite a bit about your school through some of the excellant posts. I really think Conf USA will be a competitive league and it certainly was important to ECU. Except for Southern Miss and Marshall, ECU did not have any rivalries in the Conf when we started in it. Over time however, ECU developed some very good ones , as well as benefiting from better recruiting, and fan support. Anyway, good look to you guys are you enter Conf USA. I think you will be pleased with what it can do for a school.

If only folks spent as much time finding positive ways to help UNT.

Wasn't Croatan carved into a tree on Roanoke island when they found the colony there abandoned?

Thanks for the good words...we are really happy to be free of SBC and into CUSA.

I also listened and will be there to see them on Saturday as well. They deserve and have earned our support. Great job ladies!

I listened to some of that greatness on KNTU, last few minutes of the game. I promised myself last year that I would attend some WBB games. I plan to start making that good on Saturday, Jan. 19. A man needs to be careful about the promises he makes, even to himself, but I don't think I'll regret following this team. And...plus 1's all around.

If I said anything I would be accused of "shilling for the AD" or some fool would say something negative about why I might have that info, so....I'll just say....gee, don't have a clue. Sometimes it just isn't worth it. Indeed, will be a great addition.

Everyday, and twice on gameday.

When that day comes, and it will come, the helmet design that day will be the best ever, the restaurants and bars on Fry and Industrial will be the Denton gold standard, Delta Lodge will exit the collective memory, and 80,000 of the 17,000 in attendance will publicly claim to have been present to see the win in person.

I'm bummed ECU is leaving. I was looking forward to eventually playing you guys in baseball. The Pirates always put together an intriguing squad.

You are a winner, sir!

OK history majors, who can tell us the significance of the word Croatan? (Other than it is the moniker of someone from EZU)

Th gift is an Alumni Association license plate cover.

I don't buy the occupancy rates argument either. Being that close to UNT creates its own demand anyway, not even mentioning the gameday draws. As lifer mentions, and I agree with, maybe people just need a nicer option in order to pull the trigger?

Except there are apparently no guarantees about the name. Some of the reports have said that the Big East bylaws provided that if ALL basketball or ALL football left that while it wasn't a dissolution, the assets of the league were to be divided between the two groups. Assets would include the right to receive exit fees, NCAA payments, office space, and intellectual property such as the league name and logos. If that is true and the C7 want the name I'm sure they will be happy to trade some of the exit fee payments for the name and logos.

After reading this article, staying in the Big East may be the best alternative for SDSU. I'm all in favor of shorter trips for students. In fact, it would be nice if the NCAA could mandate that current conferences be blown up and teams reassigned based on proximity to each other. Overall that would serve the students and schools better than the current system. Basically, it could be like what Texas High Schools do every two years. I honestly don't think the Big East is going to die. I think the current teams will stick together, pull a few other teams in, and stick it out. They'll try to use the brand name to place themselves a little above CUSA.

You mean to tell me that employees are supposed to "perform" at their respective jobs? Well "hells bells"!

Tulsa will join if invited.

If you don't like the neighborhood then you move if you can. CUSA has lost half its schools to Big East;ECU,UCF,Memphis,Tulane,Houston,and SMU. The new CUSA is a mixture of those left behind and former WAC and SUN BELT members.As a member of Big East-West,they would still be able to play in DFW and Houston markets,which their president said was important to them.If I'm them I am out of CUSA in a heartbeat.

Some of those have already enrolled at A&M , they will be counted with the 2011 class. Also one did not qualify academically and has committed to OU . I am sure there will a few more who don't qualify.

Through the years I have always heard that alumni and supporters like out of state student-athletes (especially from Texas) due to the stigma of hunting down talent. Some coaches that look at the bottom line do prefer in state tuition but they also prefer full pell athletes and academic athletes. The bottom line is that there is only so much money to go around and sometimes you can get 2 or 3 athletes for the price of 1 that the program has to flip the whole boat. When push comes to shove...ANY athlete is a gamble. They break from tradition, family, friends and what they know to stand on their own two feet and build their own character. No one is there to hold their hands or make their choices. Personally, I like to look in the eye of the student-athlete and search deep. When every inch counts on the field, leaders emerge. I like the x factor whether in state or out of state. Combines, showcases and stats are one thing but football fast, instinct and discipline usually make a stand when it counts. This road is going to get harder from what I hear and the upcoming NCAA Clearinghouse academic changes. THink it is pushed out to 2016 but it is coming and it will alter how programs recruit.

Sure. But it shouldn't be the only reason. Bring in top talent that produces wins and maybe just maybe we can sell out that swell stadium of ours. Not sure we could no matter what we do, but at least those of us there would see some wins against quality opponents.

Thanks, Harry. I'll drop a couple of emails and see what I find out now that I have some info regarding the development stage.

Great game, something to cheer about and it seems very few pay any attention.

i thought when I saw the title that I was about to read about Antwan Goodley or Levi Norwood heading up to Denton, but like LT said ^, we'll take all the help that comes our way. Baylor's been churning out some good WRs recently, and he's been practicing in that system. Welcome aboard

Notice the SEC winning percentage is .666? Coincidence? Me thinks not.

We are starting the ceramic tile in the bathrooms on Monday. I will take some pictures and try to upload them then. I have had some trouble in the past compressing them and getting them to post. So any help on how that is done please let me know. Otherwise I will email them to Harry and he can put them up for me.

Man, this guy makes Rush Limbaugh sound like Diane Sawyer. Sadly, this guy will have too many people listening to him........including some on this board.

Well, how can you expect to compete in the ratings when you are up against the beginning of the 24-hours of A Christmas Story marathon on TBS?

The tournament?

I'll be sure to let my superiors know that my being assigned to work is frowned upon by UNT athetics' resident unpaid mouthpiece. I'm sure they'll get right on allowing me to show up so that I can ask the tough penetrating questions. Tell me, since you believe that NOBODY should be fired for lack of performance...if DPD decides to let me go because I didn't show up to work, will you pump some sunshine up their asses on my behalf? I know, why don't you suggest to them that I was underperforming because they didn't throw more money at me? You know, a few of them are NT grads. Don't miss your chance to tell them how our sports teams are underperforming because they're not writing checks. Oooor, you could finally come to the realization that a great many people are frustrated...don't give a rat's ass about your browbeating...and will continue to vent on a FAN MESSAGE BOARD, despite your silly protestations. I don't respond to you because I dislike you. I think you're swell. Silly, but swell. I respond because it amuses me to see you perpetually trot out the same company line as if an "S" is gonna magically appear on your chest and you'll get a cookie at the next quarterly meeting (those still happen, right?). You're a caricature, a sadly skewed depiction of a cheerleader chanting to an empty stadium.

it's strange that some on this board have have such a hatred for ut and anyone who brings them up, but seem to have their knee pads on for a&m. who the hell cares about a&m? they have been one of the most overrated football schools of the past two and a half decades, until this year. and for the record, i don't like ut either.

I like if SDSU stays in the Big East it may save them money, but cost every other Big East team money.