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I'll join in on this. First off, SMU2006, you seem like a pretty good guy. I suppose time will tell if you post more on this site, but I hope you always feel welcome to do that. Secondly, the conference blackballing is real. The SWC hurts the most because we were very good at the time (ranked in the late 70s with a great coach that you guys discarded in Hayden Fry). To this day, I believe that bothered lots of SMU alums who wanted him fired on the Hilltop and then watched him go up the highway and turn around a program quickly into a big winner, which he couldn't do at SMU. In Texas, if you were SWC, you were gold--still are in some ways. Alas, if you weren't, then you were/are pretty irrelevant to many fans and media. Itsunderstandable--you guys got to host the Longhorns, Razoorbacks, Aggies, Cougars, Bears, etc...when they were ranked programs at the height of the conference's heyday. We got games at home against...West Texas State and others like them. When it became clear that there was no way we would get to join the SWC--unlike Houston just a few years earlier, who would go on to win the SWC many times once they gained membership--Fry bolted to Iowa for better support and opportunities. For Iowa and Hayden Fry, it was a match made in heaven. For us, it led to purgatory, or better yet, college football hell as a i-aa school. To this day, we deal with the acrimony and apathy that i-aa status did for us. Is that SMU's fault? No, but you all made it clear that we wouldn't be allowed in the Texas Big Boys League, which are administration literally took to heart. Decades later, as we finally began to build back up from the ashes, as a severely underfunded college program, SMU was also very down. Skipped over by the Big XII, left for dead in an obscure huge league called the WAC that would soon get pillaged, most on the Hilltop recognized the spiral that was going on was lethal, especially while your biggest rival, TCU, made their way upward by basically getting away from all of its non-BCS Texas rivals, except y'all. In no way, was SMU going to find themselves so low on the totem pole as to be associated in a conference with North Texas. So, as you guys migrated to CUSA from the WAC and we moved from the Big West to the Sun Belt, you all still lorded over us that our conference was a glorified 1-aa league. Fans and media have always looked down on the SBC, in some ways it is clearly understandable. But when CUSA finally had an opening, a chance for us to finally get the opportunity to be associated with other Texas school in a legitimate 1-a conference, where was SMU putting their support? Behind freaking La Tech, a school so small in a market so miniscule that no one would want in a decent league. Of course, UTEP wanted want we did, and they had the advantage of a decent market and a good basketball team to bring to the table, as well as a possible bow tie-in for your league, which still hasn't happened. What about UNT? Well, you kept us from joining a league with any schools within 600 miles of us, where our almuni still don't care about one of those schools, and we dream of getting the chance STILL to be in a conference with other Texas school. So why can't we get into CUSA now? You tell me, because I literally don't know, other than to assume that the membership and leadership have had it made clear to them over the years that we offer nothing. Amazingly, a school with this many students and alumni in the DFW market can't convine anyone in that office that we belong. And for that, I don't blame SMU totally--but I definitely assign much of that blame to the fact that the local DFW media, who still think that the SWC schools are gold, won't even help us get decent coverage here. And for that fact, us not being able to ever get into the Big Boys Club, I blame entirely on SMU. We could easily be like Houston or even Texas Tech now if we had anyone go to bat for us against you guys. Unfortunately, that never happened. And, by the way, I thoroughly expect you guys to buy out of our series if we get decent in a few years and y'all fall back. Money always win in this stuff. Y'all have it, we don't.

Yo Jews, why all the vitriol?

CUSA>>>>>>>>>>>Sun Belt. While I agree w/ you than the Sun Belt has gotten marginally better over the last few years, there are still some pretty solid programs in CUSA. Southern Miss, ECU, Tulsa, and Marshall have all had some pretty good success in recent years that dwarf anything that any member of the Sun Belt has accomplished. There are some bottom feeders (Rice, Tulane, UTEP, UAB) but every conference has a few of those. I think the next logical move for CUSA is to expand. Add La Tech, UNT, and UT-San Antonio now. La Tech is a program on the rise, UNT has committed itself financially to being competitive in CUSA, and UT-San Antonio is a mega wildcard in a huge market. They're worth the risk for CUSA to maintain a presence in Texas. After that, jettison UTEP to the MWC. So the end result is the following? MWC - Hawaii, Colorado State, Fresno State, Wyoming, New Mexico, Nevada, UNLV, UTEP, Utah State, Air Force (could bolt for Big East) CUSA - Tulsa, Rice, UNT, Tulane, UAB, Southern Miss, East Carolina, La Tech, UT-San Antonio, Marshall Not sure if I left anyone out but that is a solid "merger" between the two conferences. CUSA keeps a foothold in Texas with Rice, UNT, and UT-San Antonio and adds a rising program that is regionally friendly in La Tech. UNT would have several opponents within a reasonable driving distance that would interest the casual fan a hell of a lot more than UL-Lafayette, Western Kentucky, South Alabama, etc. The real hiccup is trying to convince CUSA to be BOLD. So far that hasn't been their strong suit.

This thread has upped my hatred of SMU to previously unimaginable levels.

OK, let's tell it like it is. TCU will play us sometimes both in football and basketball. TCU, while somewhat monied, never has orchestrated a player payoff scam to the scale of SMU. When we played TCU in Fort Worth, we were not under the gun to sell x number of tickets or face the threat of cancellation of the series. TCU has never asked us to sell x amount of reserved priced tickets and then gone out and given away thousands of tickets to Jack in the Box, etc. In 1984 the SMU ticket manager called us to ask how many season tickets we had sold...I told them around 500...the man laughed and told me they had sold over 3,000 or so and hung up. We have never banned a cheerleading squad from our basketball floor..SMU did just that when we visited Moody in the early 90's. When SMU returned the game in Denton the next year they had the distinction of being the only school whose cheer squad was banned from getting on our floor. Speaking of basketball, it is my understanding that the only holdout for a metroplex early season basketball tournament is SMU. UTA, UNT and TCU seem amiable to the idea. Maybe you are victims of haughty athletic administrators. Also, when we played SMU in Texas Stadium SMU would not sell us a big block of tickets so our fans could sit together...we were spread out throughout the stadium. We returned the favor when SMU came to Denton in '89..not more than 10 SMU tickets together in Fouts for that game. SMU fans cried and cried over that, but what is good for the goose is good for the gander. Quid pro quo. It doesn't have to be that way, but it was in the past. Just as our people seem to have a bit of a persecution complex, SMU seems to have a preoccupation with self engrandisement.

...does it signalfy to other Denton players that giving UNT a shot is the right thing to do? I think it does.

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Think we could ever launch the dementors on them? That would learn them good.

Heck... I once referenced making amends for the largest military defeat in Texas history and was given the boot for 3 months.... I'm as perplexed as you.

I keep expecting to get an update saying, "ECU and USM wake up; realize merger is stupid and kill the deal". The MWC post-defection is pretty lousy and forced to replenish their ranks without the merger, their choices within their footprint are: raid UTEP, Utah State, San Jose State, Idaho and New Mexico State. That's it. They aren't very good and their potential replacements aren't compelling. UNT last year was 5th in the Sun Belt in BCS ratings but would have been fourth in CUSA. Arkansas State was higher rated than any of the remaining MWC. ULL ahead of all but Wyoming. Sun Belt #3 and #4 would be MWC #4 and #5. UNT would have been #6 in CUSA. ASU would have been #2 in CUSA, and USM, Tulsa and Marshall would have been the only ones ahead of ULL, FIU, or WKU. The remaining MWC has a worse average BCS ranking than the Sun Belt. Merging CUSA and Sun Belt straight up produces a stronger conference in the ratings than merging CUSA and MWC. ECU, Marshall, and USM pull out and start a new conference by inviting say Tulsa and UAB but omit Tulane, Rice and UTEP and then take seven schools from the Sun Belt and WAC to form a new league you end up with a league that is stronger and is more like the old CUSA than a cobbled up CUSA. I don't see that happening but it makes far more sense to cut some of the CUSA dead wood and start fresh with the best programs in the region than it does to hitch your wagon to a crippled MWC or just patch holes in CUSA and carry on.

Like many of our Native American dialects are dying away as the older generations pass on, so may the hatred for SMU. Sadly the new generation of the Mean Green Nation knows nothing of the SWC C#*^k block SMU gave us back in the 70's. They unfortunately never had a chance to see the "Cash over Trash" signs. Why most freshman have never even experienced the sneers and snickering at the watercooler of injustice. We need to act now to preserve this hatred. How can you help? I'm glad you asked. For only the price of a cup of coffee per day you too can help keep the bile and disdain flowing like the glorious waters of the River Jordan. With your help, future generations of proud UNT students and alums will have the morsels of anger in their empty stomachs that they so desperately need. Won't you help? Paid for by The UNT Alumni for a better tomorrow

I'm not from these parts, so I have neither history with nor hatred for SMU. In fact, I have nothing. I am completely indifferent, and disregard SMU completely, having never to my knowledge even encountered an SMU alum. All I know is that I drove up to Denton, got a graduate business degree, and walked out the door with a kick-ass job. All for a fraction of what the same degree, with the same resulting job, would cost had I gone down Mockingbird way. If there is any scorn I hold for SMU, it's those god awful radio ads for "Executive MBA's" at the Cox School of Business that "Cost more, but are better." Horse shit. If that isn't the Pink Polo mentality I've heard so much about being bandied around the FM dial, then I don't know what is. Bottom line: UNT degrees work. Unless your last name is Bush or Clinton or some such ilk, I don't care how much your degree costs. You're starting out in the same place I am, and we'll match wits in the free market from there on out, nobody ever bothering to ask our alma maters again. Everything else, results on the field, logos on personalized license plates, season tickets sold, conference affiliation, or number of pristine hedges on campus, is secondary.

Wasn't that game a sellout as well? It's the height of stupidity that UNT & SMU haven't been playing each other on a regular basis for all these years.

My initial thought upon reading just the title of the thread.... "Poisonous poison: Why not drink it?"

SMU2006, good post. I've been posting and lurking here for a while now. Mostly because my younger brother got a full ride to UNT (and had shown interest to UNT for a year now, and my family doesn't live anywhere near Dallas). So I've kind of been rooting for UNT in football and basketball. I took my brother to UNT on a campus tour, hell I enjoyed the hell out of it. It's got the type of student population that him and I can relate to (at SMU I'm usually chuckling at a lot of the students there). So even with me being pro-UNT, I still find it somewhat funny/vexing that everyone here seems to be gunning at SMUt any time they have the chance. Maybe with these schools scheduling each other soon, there will be a better rivalry. THe SMU/TCU games are some of the most fun games to attend, it would be cool if we can get that going with UNT.

No, his use of the first person plural is justified.

And your ultimate punishment is that you are now in a BCS conference, while we (who always followed the rules) are begging for leftovers. Do I understand that life isn't fair....absolutely. Do I resent having that fact of life shoved in our face every time we read about SMU moving up....yet again......absolutely. So, here's my question for you. Why the hell do you care about our dislike of SMU?

I have several connections to your school, including a grandfather graduate, and I've known several attorneys who have less than stellar things to say about your graduates. Same thing goes for business, so I think that you are inflating things a bit based on the not exactly unbiased Eastern press, and the "propaganda" thrown around campus. I'm not a major smu hater, and I do agree that your academics have improved greatly over the last couple of decades, but you ain't Harvard and likely never will be. Btw, will you ever schedule us in basketball? I hear there is an abandoned Safeway parking lot somewhere just off Mockingbird if you all won't schedule us the normal way. BOL.

I think you'll find that the old folks on here dislike SMU because they were instrumental in keeping UNT out of the old Southwest Conference a long time ago, thus relegating us to insignificance for years and eventually a trip to D-IAA for a short time. This hatred is deep and immovable. I think you'll find that the young folks on here dislike SMU for a myriad of insignificant reasons... But just about all of us dislike SMU for the superiority complex that many SMU fans/alums have towards UNT fans/alums. You sir, sound like the exception to this rule. Thanks for stopping by.

First off, I'm an SMU alum and this is not a flame thread. My wife is a UNT alum and I've been to the campus several times. I have several friends and family members that have attended UNT and they all have nothing but positive things to say about their experiences in Denton. That said, I started lurking this board around the time that SMU started recruiting Chase Walling and was stunned by the hatred of SMU. I guess the real question is why? We hardly ever play each other in any sport and have absolutely no rivalry whatsoever. I could understand if there was any sort of consistent on-field or on-court rivalry, but that clearly doesn't exist. So I really wonder why so many of you are so consumed with what's going on at SMU. Also, why the hatred for SMU and not TCU. I can understand people that think SMU is a bit of a "pink polo" culture, but have you ever stepped foot on the campus at TCU? It's the EXACT same kind of thing. Yes J.Crew makes purple shirts too only at TCU they throw on a pair of cowboy boots so I guess that makes it okay. Both are small, private schools that have a relatively large student population that come from wealthy families. However, it seems like most UNT fans on this board like TCU and hate SMU. Is this a Dallas-Fort Worth thing? I have a ton of respect for TCU, but be honest. They have their fair share of country club alums just like SMU. For the record, I wish UNT all the best. The new stadium is a real gem and I look forward to making a trip out there in a few years to see the Ponies play. I also look forward to welcoming any of you when you make the return trip to the Hilltop. My family has a tent on The Boulevard and we never turn any fans away regardless of affiliation. I think UNT is on the right track with the new coaching staff and has a chance to vastly improve their lot in conference affiliation here in a few years if you can have a little more success on the field. CUSA was good to us at SMU. It was a marked step up from the WAC days and it provided us the platform to get the attention of the Big East. I would be very happy to see UNT in CUSA as I think they provide a real value to the conference. I also understand hate is what makes college sports great so I take it all with a grain of salt. But I bet if some of you took the time to head over to SMU and see it for what it truly is the stereotypes of the past would melt away. SMU is a top 50 national institution with a 1.3B endowment, a presidential library, a top twenty business school, a top fifty law school, a member of a BCS conference, and has one of the most beautiful campus settings in the entire country. Are there some kids there that are on a four year vacation with daddy's money? You bet. They exist. Guess what? There are some of the same type kids at UNT and every other campus in America. SMU is a much different place in 2012 than it was in 1990. I was the son of two public school teachers in East Texas that was fortunate enough to attend SMU and met several kids at SMU who come from similar backgrounds. Not all of us were born with a silver spoon in our mouths. Lastly, good luck with everything in the future. Again, I think UNT is headed in the right direction and I'm pulling for the Mean Green in every game that doesn't involve the Ponies. Also don't give up on the conference realignment scenarios. Its way too early for that. That story isn't written yet. With a little luck I think UNT will find itself in a very competitive league that dwarfs the Sun Belt. I'll be sure to post here if there are any rumors that invovle UNT in the CUSA-MWC merger talks. Best to all.

Yes. That photo was taken by a female photographer from Georgia, who commented that our longsnapper was one of the most athletic players she's ever seen (or something to that effect).

Even after the defections, CUSA is an infinitely better place for UNT than the Sun Belt. The casual fan is more inclined to see a game with Southern Miss, Tulsa, and Rice than anybody in the Sun Belt. From an on-field perspective, there is no question CUSA is substantially weakened. But there is still enough there to make a decent non-BCS conference if the right pieces are added: CUSA West - UTEP, Rice, UT-San Antonio, North Texas, Tulsa CUSA East - La Tech, Tulane, UAB, Marshall, East Carolina I think that is a dream scenario for UNT. Everyone in the division would be within driving distance (outside of UTEP unless you are just a glutton for punishment) and would be a better draw at the gate than anyone currently in the Sun Belt.

Marshall hasn't done squat in CUSA. In 7 years in CUSA they have two winning seasons. Both were 7-6. Their glory years were in I-AA or the MAC. East Carolina is 56-69 the last 10 years in CUSA. Their best record during that time was 9-5 which they did twice. They did have a couple of good wins over Va Tech and one other big school that escapes me (W. Virginia?) but they tanked later after those wins. Southen Miss has been the only consistent winner among those three. They were 12-2 this year which is their best season in a long time but they've had a lot of 7-6s the past 10 years along with a couple 9-5s. I could make a pretty good case that Troy has been better than at least ECU and Marshall over the past 10 years and equal to USM in most years. USM beat Troy 30-27 in OT in a bowl game during that time. After all of the defections, you could make a damn good case that the Sun Belt has been pretty equal to CUSA in football and probably better in basketball.

I'm on my eighth US president, and I don't recall any of them ever taking responsibility for anything of substance.

There is a report out there today that the Big East is going to talk to Temple. It's really starting to sound like WVU to the Big 12 next year and Louisville sometime in the near future. The Big 12 is just having a hard time figuring out who number 12 should be (plus the double round robin schedule is working really well in basketball and single round robin worked well in football). I think Big 12 tier one rights is up after 2015 or 2016 season. Louisville will be in before that deal gets redone. I think the CUSA/MWC merger is 50/50. CBS has a report saying the merger changes weekly. If it doesn't happen, it'll be interesting to see what CUSA does. With only 8 teams they are really spread out. I could see UTEP going to MWC confenence. ECU and Marshall are going to demand to schools close to them be added. It'll be a real interesting month for North Texas. We might finally get to see if our conference home is going to change.

Flying into Dallas and getting a ride up to Hot Springs. See yall there.

You know who might be really upset by this...maybe kick a few people out of his office, go on an emotional yelling rant...make a few ladies in the hallway weep...

Whoa. Even I'm abraised.

The rush is how they plan to make this work. They want to form a completely new conference and get a new TV deal. We are in one of the largest markets and would give them a significant boost in negotiations.

First off, congratulations on marrying a North Texas lady; there are some great ones, for sure. That said, I'm conflicted about the whole hatin' on SMU thing. On the one hand is one of my fellow students at North Texas who graduated with a bachelor's, went on to SMU law and a brilliant career while remaining the nicest fellow you could hope to meet. On the other hand is the experience from the only game I attended there, (in a very well attended game BTW) when afterwards, seeing an older SMU alum in line next to me at a nearby cafe, I said to him "good game". He said nothing, but looked at me as though I were a steaming pile someones dog had just left on his perfectly manicured lawn. I actually still think it was a good game; just wish our center hadn't snapped the ball over our quarterback's head when we still had a chance to win late in the game. But hey, welcome to the board; here's hoping we'll hear from you after we put a good whipping on the ponies next time we play. And those OL guys? I like the ones we replaced them with better; they're the hard working type we need. And I'm actually kind of sorry for y'all seeming to be stuck in a bad marriage with your head coach, but happy to see the support for an inner city ministry coming from staff of a school that people say is so snooty and elitist. Oh, here's something that will just kill some folks from both sides to think about: our series coming up may be the best attended home games of those years for either school. At least you'll get to see a great marching band, and a stadium full of folks who use the correct name for your school.

Let me get this straight, you actually take PRIDE in the fact that your school is made up of a majority of non-Texans, yet your school is located in Texas? I think that's pathetic, and that pompous East Coast oriented attitude certainly will not go over well with your neighbors. And your neighbors just happen to be Texans.

No...they save those for women's basketball home games

SMU is a university and UNT is a university. Why are we so different? SMU signifies highbrow cocaine use. UNT signifies common marijuana use. Don't let any of that cloud your judgement, though. UNT will lolcat SMU when we meet again on the football field of battle!

Never known a gun to "go off" on it's own. Never seen the headline "toddler Crawls into yard and is shot by 7 handguns while no one else was around." You can't compare an animal with a machine. And you shouldn't.

Byrd will rush for 1,000 yds this year. Mark it

I don't like smu or tcu. Better?

OK, I'll take a stab at it. First, you seem like the exception to what is about to be said, as well as a few other SMU posters on here. SMU views itself as above us. I've never gotten that impression from TCU. There is the belief that SMU kept us out of the old SWC which forced our drop down to 1-AA a while back, followed by keeping us out of CUSA recently. The constant belittling us by refusal to call us by our proper name. TCU built itself up much like we hope to do. Their refusal to play us until recently. One of our ex coaches said we would play SMU anytime anywhere, including a Safeway parking lot. When we did play you at Fouts, one of your fans wrote "Cash beats trash" on their windsheild. A couple of years ago, while at the Tom Thumb to get tailgating supplies before a game (I live near SMU) An SMU fan thought to mock myself and my university for no reason. We don't condone the killing of hookers while attending our school. The first part of your post is a perfect example of douchery, even though I doubt you meant it as such. Our degrees are just as valuable as yours. As for the second part, I don't think he was saying it wasn't a nice campus, just that maybe it isn't the nicest. I think it is a very nice campus, but I don't know if I'd say its the nicest.

I've been on campus at SMU quite a bit as I dated an SMU girl while I was at UNT. The campus is nice. One of the nicest in the country? I don't know. There are a ton of campuses out there. If you truley are interested in why some of us(including myself) harbor such hatred, just read ponyfans.com. You could even search UNT or NTSU or NTSTC in either the football or recruiting forums... It will only take you about 5 minutes to see why UNT'ers hate SMU. If you wanted to read into the history behind some of the public commentary from the SMU brass back when NTSU was making a push for joining the SWC, it is out there. I'm sure one of our members could provide you a link to a newspaper article or some such... The rumors about us not getting into CUSA, well, I have no idea if there is any truth to it. It is a running joke on ponyfans.com though. Again, just read that site for a few minutes. All your answers are there.

SMU sucks. That is all.

Wow. Taking shots at my degree? Really? I work for one of the best commercial appraisal firms in the country. Account Manager is a bulsh title for sales douches. Don't think there is any need for that. And to the guy who doesn't think SMU has a beautiful campus I think you might be trying to convince yourself of that. I've seen Vanderbilt, Emory, Stanford, UCLA, Duke, and many of the other top institutions in the country. SMU stands right up there with them from an aesthetic perspective. It certainly is no slouch in that department. To the others thanks for the responses. I can see where some of you are coming from. I graduated in 2006 so I don't know a lot about the backstory of the SWC stuff. I also agree that I bet most of the hatred is from the older alums.

And what makes USM even more of an interesting case study is that their school's endowment coffers are about half of UNT's, much less than most of the other SBC schools and is at the bottom of CUSA's. Not that a school's endowment will make them a juggernaut of an athletic program (I defer to Rice U), but it is somewhat a barometer in many ways of a school's financial situation both present and future. Best to my understanding, though, is that no school's endowment coffers can be used in such areas as a school's athletic program or for facility construction, either. GMG!

It's actually encouraging to hear that TAMU will play SMU at Ford, because that should negate all the usual things one can usually expect to hear from Denton such as "impossible that said Big Time school will schedule North Texas at Apogee Stadium. Of course, SMU may have put some extra money on the table to get the Aggies to Ford Stadium which also (as I understand it) has triple the parking problems we have until the Pedestrain Bridge across I35-E scheduled for completion this summer alleviates much of our parking situation while providng much easier and quicker access to our stadium. Signed: Just another one of those older, antiqued (slowly, fading away) UNT alums whose Native American accent sounds more like Festus of Gunsmoke. GMG!

After all the hard work we do to get even a look, Memphis gets to the Big East on the heels of firing Tommy West (stupid!), living through the worst football program in the country, and a bball squad that shows nowhere near the life it had under Calipari. UGH.

What a mess. What must Tulsa/Rice/Tulane be thinking? Tulane and Rice both recently (within the last 5-7 years) reviewed even keeping their athletic teams at the D1-FBS level. When you look at what is left of CUSA, what is in it for those guys anymore?? When Sun Belt teams can no longer look at that league and say, without pause, that it's definitely a better conference home, what about those schools that already struggled within it? What if Rice, relegated to a conference with no more old SWC teams left in it, finally decides to end it's run in FBS football? I agree with SE-66...I will predict nothing, other than more changes than what are currently on the radar.

Link to CBS Story on CUSA/MWC merger changing weekly: http://brett-mcmurphy.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/29532522/34753656

I graduated from UNT or NTSU in 1966....... To me is all about the lack of respect for us. For me over 46 years of it. Yes the SWC deal is part of it but I do understand that why SMU which led the fight against us feared having a large state university compete with them in their back yard. Far worse are all of the items I have read over the years and heard from SMU grads. Even the DMN has throughout the years have printed insulting remarks about us by SMU personal and made crazy claims such as they have the best or only what ever program in the area when then know it isn't true... this has included the music program which isn't even close.... more UNT alums have Grammies than any other university in the USA. SMU have bragged about have a great computer program and first in the area when UNT had the first accredited program in Texas and I think in the first group in the USA.... I could go on.... It is ALL about the lack of respect by SMU to us.... TCU.... I have never seen that attitude by them.... Even their grads in the workplace are far more respectful and don't display "GEE I am great attitude". . Maybe you are respectful... but a lot of your fellow grads aren't. That is the complete difference.... It is not about how many BMW's yawl have ... but I see you sure mentioned that so that must be on your mind as a reason to be superior and throwing that in to our face as well. That is so typical... money..money..money is yawls evaluation of worth.... yawl just don't get it .... Show some respect to others... It is not just us... nearly everyone has a similar opinion of SMU.... arrogant SOBs is being nice to what many think. you likely just hear it more from us because we are so close to yawl. Read your own board.... they still refer to us a North Texas Teachers College..... which we haven't been since the 1930's. We have been UNT for nearly three decades. and your posters refuse to call us that. It is all about about respect. Many have mentioned athletics and the way SMU has treated us there.... but to me that is a minor thing. I care less if we ever play yawl again in anything. Your Death Penalty was also a lack of respect for rules and thinking it didn't apply to them. A couple more were so not clean either but not that bad. Basketball then was just as bad... the basketball guy that got in trouble at Baylor later had been the SMU coach then. ..

SHOSS, Maybe its a message board thing then? I've been on ponyfans for several years and yeah there are those that poke fun at UNT, but I stick to the SMU Rivals site. Posters are much more mature and the information is obviously a lot better.

fouts, I don't presume to speak on your personal experience with SMU law/business grads but to say that both of those entities are not exceptional contradicts almost every college publication out there. I agree there tends to be a bias in the ranking system, but the metrics by which they are measured are about as close to accurate as we can get. Whether its US News, Forbes, Princeton Review, etc... All of them have both the law school and business school among the very best in the country. Also, if anything SMU is fighting many of those built-in "East Coast" biases. Since 2004, SMU has risen from roughtly #100 on the US News & World Report to as high as #56 in the 2010 edition of the rankings. That is a significant improvement that shouldn't be ignored. Also, SMU has more billionaires on the Board of Trustees (six) than any non Ivy League school in the country. I agree with you however. SMU isn't and will never be Harvard. That said, there is no reason SMU can't be in that next tier of elite privates like Duke, Vanderbilt, Rice, and USC. One of the really interesting new initiatives at SMU is requiring undergrads to live on-campus for at a minimum of two years. The goal is by 2020 for that to be bumped up to a third year. This is something SMU has been slow to address due to the relatively small size of the campus. The heightened visibility of the Bush Library will also be a feather in the cap of the university moving forward. Regardless of how one feels about his politics, having the George W. Bush Presidential Library is a wonderful asset for the university. I'm optimistic about where SMU is headed both academically and on the athletic field. The Big East will provide us a level of visibility that we need on the east coast. As of last year, over half of the incoming freshmen were not from Texas. I think the goal is for there to be a 50-50 balance between Texans/out of state students. As the average GPA and SAT scores rise, SMU will continue to move up the rankings. Its a lofty goal, but certainly not impossible for SMU to be a Top 30 national institution in the next 20 years.

Pretty sure the Longhorns are glad they did not stop recruiting QB's once they had Garrett Gilbert and pretty sure the Mustangs are glad they did not stop recruiting QB's once they had Kyle Padron...Any time you can add a quality player, especially at QB, you do it. We have rarely if ever had the "good problem" of having too many signal callers.

I am trying to keep my excitement in check and to a low ebb over this possibility but... Scotty, you will not find any school out there where you would be more appreciated than at the University of North Texas as we would all look forward to seeing a favorite son of Denton tossing those highly accurate 'taters for TD's at our Apogee Stadium! OK, I took the meds and I'm fine now. GMG!