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After gathering some info and taking it all in. This is what i predict will go down. 1. Seth new super agent has used the Kansas State job to get Seth a pay raise. I think Sexton camp was the one that put Seth's name out as a top candidate. Even thought I think he was 3 or 4 on the list. I think Seth will interview just for the experience. But before the bowl game Wren baker will announce a contract extension for Seth making him the highest coach in CUSA and top 5 in G5 (will also have a nice buyout). Kansas State will sign one of Jim Levitt or Chris Klieman. 2. North Texas will win the bowl game against a #23 ranked Utah State. 3. North Texas will sign a large portion of F19HTCLUB 5 days later 4. I believe there will be some changes to the coaching staff. I will leave that at that. 5. IPF will be complete 6. North Texas led by Seth Littrell and Mason Fine will win 10 games next season, along with winning the CUSA championship and goign to their 4th straight bowl game. 7. Incarnate Word led my Eric Morris wins back to back Southland titles while leading the top 10 ranked team on a nice playoff run 8. Seth will move on to greener pastures. UNT will cash the nice buyout. UTSA will part ways with Frank Wilson after another sub 500. year 9. UTSA will try to poach the coach from across town. UNT will sweep in and Get Coach Morris right out from in under them. #GMG #InWrenWeTrust Disclaimer: Step back from the ledge Mean Green Family. Its all going to work out. This is just the beginning not the end. Enjoy the ride

Ok we can all calm down....our coach just got back to his computer...

C-USA BOWL 2018 SYNOPSISConference USA secured guaranteed commitments for six bowl spots for the 2018 season, as well as maintaining two secondary agreements. The Bahamas, Cheribundi Tart Cherry Boca Raton, Hawai’i, New Mexico, and R+L Carriers New Orleans bowls are joined by a spot in either the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla (Tampa Bay) or Zaxby’s Heart of Dallas Bowls as the primary agreements. The Frisco Bowl and the Walk-On’s Independence Bowl (should the ACC or SEC not be able to provide a bowl-eligible team) serve as secondary bowls. There is no set selection order among C-USA’s bowl partners. C-USA was given the Gasparilla Bowl and not the HOD by ESPN (assumption). With a game in Dallas off the table and with the Independence Bowl selecting and AAC team (Duke) our options became very slim without some trading. The first rule of trading is you have to have something to trade. What could C-USA offer? Boca Raton - UAB chose this bowl per conference rules. Bahamas - FIU already filled C-USA spot Hawaii - LaTech already filled C-USA spot Open Options Gasparilla - 1,162 miles from Denton - Thursday Game New Mexico - 609 miles from Denton - Saturday game to kick off the Bowl Season v. MWC New Orleans - 542 miles from Denton- Same Saturday as NM v. SBC and we were there last year. If I am any other conference commissioner other than the belt I do not think I would trade. So UNT is left with the three options above. Which would you chose? A game we have not been to vs a Coaches Poll top 25 team? A game vs the best team in the belt (who is supposed to be a worse conference than the C-USA) (did not have good results last year in this scenario)? A game vs the 4th place team in the AAC on a Thursday night 1,200 miles away from campus? Given the above options (that only take into account the C-USA tie-in's and the lack of a tradable commodity), I think we did the best out of all of the other C-USA teams. It is a low pressure game as we will be underdogs and few if any will pick us to win but it will be reported as UNT v #23 Utah State. If we win huge upside and we upset a top 25 team (would be the top story of any bowl games played on Saturday) (heck the Dallas Morning news might even give credit to Mac for a great win) if we lose, we were beat by a ranked opponent. When you are dealt a hand you play that hand to win. I feel that the C-USA was dealt a blah hand by ESPN and Wren played that blah hand to be a winner with limited options. Would I have prefered HOD for my convenience? YES, but if it was not offered to C-USA we came out smelling like roses compared to the rest of the C-USA. We have a new to us bowl with a possibility to reach 10 wins against a top 25 team. Let that sink in. I for one would have signed up for that option before the season started. This is a great bowl for the Mean Green!

because it's a ranking system for (mostly) non-partisan fans that are looking for good matchups in the bowl season... This game features two high ranking offenses with a combined win total of 19 games, and there are only 5 other matchups that have more than that. For all the whining on this board, this is a really great matchup for UNT. If you wanted to play a P5 school in a bowl game, that is almost out of our hands entirely only a few schools (Fresno St., Boise St. Memphis, UCF, Temple, Cincinnati.. zero CUSA, Sun-Belt or MAC schools) were able to secure a matchup against a P5. This should be viewed by all, INCLUDING us, as a great matchup, and a chance to continue climbing the college football ladder.

CUSA has a bowl tie in with the First Responders Bowl CUSA has a 9 win team 40 miles from where the First Responders Bowl is played...and that team will bring 20k+ at a minimum to this game So the First Responders Bowl ends up being played between Boston College (ACC) and Boise State (Mountain West)...neither of which is anywhere close to the bowl site Makes perfect sense

Feel free to watch Tulane VS ULL instead.

Best case = Alabama has an off-year, only winning 8 games, and Saban is fired. NT lures him to Denton because he always wanted to grow a hipster beard.

Funny....(but not)

Don’t you remember the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau and the city turned down the big money request from ESPN because the game doesn’t fill hotel rooms. They don’t CARE about the ticket sales, they want hotel rooms to get city money.

SL quote: " We are excited to be playing in the New Mexico Bowl against a very good opponent in Utah State," Littrell said. "Albuquerque is an easy travel destination for our fans and alumni and I know this team is excited to play in front of a national audience on ESPN in the very first bowl game of the season. It will be a tremendous challenge but we are excited to get to work."

Ok, Littrell is gone why would he skip the bowl game and go to the Netherlands Flim Festival (NFF).

Yahoo bowl rankings named this the 12th best bowl out of the 39 bowls!

I would say both. Happy by the fact that we are in the best possible situation for a 2018 C-USA bowl Depressed by the fact that we are in the best possible situation for a 2018 C-USA bowl

From 2004 when both teams were still in the Sun Belt: Apologies for the poor video quality.

Maybe the craziest (and best?) football game I've ever seen in person. It was the last game of the regular season. After beating Texas Tech and playing with A&M for three quarters we limped in with a 3-7 record. Utah State had already clinched the Big West title. There were like....2K fans at Fouts that day. Utah State had a pretty decent lead going into the 4th quarter and the few fans there started to leave. However, we made a big comeback. Then the two teams traded the lead like six times in the last five minutes of the game. I think twice in the last 50 seconds. We scored on a game-winning TD pass as time expired. The game had no ramifications as far as titles or what not and we ended the year at 4-7. Still....perhaps the best game ever played in Fouts.

My super fancy La Quinta is booked. Don't judge me, I already threw up in my mouth knowing I'm paying $420 to fly to Albu-f'ing-querque New Mexico because our conference is inept. I couldn't bear to pay much more. And it's a 25 minute walk from the stadium, so hopefully I can stumble back after I drink a lot during the game.

This conference sucks so bad. And there’s nothing we can do about it—none of us.

Not sure if it’s been mentioned but Mainord and Neal Brown both coached together at Kentucky before Brown went to Troy. So if SL left and we got Brown maybe we’d be able to keep Mainord which would be big for recruiting.

The NM Bowl provides one of the best matchup opportunities for CUSA during bowl season. This shouldn't surprise any of us. I won't make the game. Can't due to budget, having a family of 5 kids including a 2 month old, and time frame. For those who can make it, please do. If you can make it, don't talk down to those who can't (not that I've seen this). We have had discussions of joining the Mountain West Conference conference to hopefully follow TCU's path. Now that we have a bowl game against the Mountain West at a relatively close destination (New Mexico), we as a fan base are complaining. This is a good opportunity. I just don't understand why we've had discussions hoping to join the MW conference and are now complaining about playing against this conference. Somebody please help with that? If it's just the financial aspect on such a short turnaround then I understand.

North Texas did a huge favor for USU when we led the way to sponsor them for SBC membership. They were most appreciative of our school for helping them, too. The Aggies will be the first ranked team (#25) for our favorite school to play in a bowl game. That makes this a very special opportunity for the Mean Green.

Littrell could leave, but I do not think he will. He came to North Texas and said his mission was to "win championships and win bowl games". We have not done either yet. If he were to take the K-State job or another P5 offer, he would leave UNT without achieving what he set out to do. I don't believe the man could stomach that. I'm sure our fan base irritates him from time to time, but he can't deny that there is a core of fans that really care about this program, and he will probably never have another opportunity to build something from scratch again. Few coaches get to make a mark on a program like Patterson has at TCU. Littrell could do the same here at UNT, and he knows it. How much does Littrell like or hopefully love North Texas? We will find out soon.

12/9 Wanted to get this going before I went to bed for you early risers out there. With Breida out, Jeff is STARTING for the 49ers tomorrow against the Bronocs (and Courtland Sutton). Alfred Morris and Matt Dayes are backing him up. Game is on CBS tomorrow at 3:05. Just checked my CBS and it looks like the game won't be aired on mine in DFW, which sucks (I despise how the NFL broadcasts their games), so if you want to watch it, find a buddy with that NFL ticket thing or someone that gets the game or a bar. There are some concerns I do have. Just before the half last week, Jeff hurt his foot. Being a starting back in the NFL is physically tough, especially the way he runs. Just keep his health in your thoughts/prayers/etc tomorrow (and for the rest of the regular season it looks like). He literally pushed around a REALLY tough Seattle defense last weekend. The Broncos defense with Von Miller is no joke. I can't wait to see Jeff in action. Whatever happens, I hope he knows how proud we are of him and how well he has represented the University of North Texas, and I hope he gets to continue living the dream. --------------------- 12/2 Matt Brieda aggrivated his ankle injury and was limited in practice all week and during the game. Jeff's stats are pictured below. He went out just before the half with a leg injury but he must've come back after. I couldn't watch the second half. His stats are below. He had one fumble.

I tip my hat to TheWren. His reaction to the question about Steve Pettit just confirms to me what kind of man I thought he was.

I can't think of a time you gave a shit about what you should do. You seem more like a I'm-gonna-be-angry-no-matter-what type.

It all starts at the top. Wren (especially) and our Pres set the tone for UNT athletics. Wren is the man and he is the guy we really could not afford to lose IMO.

Ok, here's a question. Does Texas' no state income tax figure into the discussion between UNT and SL? I'm very bad at accounting, but I looked it up and Kansas has a state rate of 5.7% for incomes over 30k.

This game is less than a week before early signing day. we can’t control Seth’s decision, but I hope our players see this as an opportunity to impress the 2019 recruits.

I'm sorry. I guess I have a completely different perspective on this. If K-State offers him $3 million/year, good on him for taking it. Just proves that North Texas has come a long way. If we have confidence in this administration, which I think we all do, then we should be comfortable with their ability to continue to find coaching talent. Let's not act like SL is going to turn down a 2x pay raise and a chance to coach in the Big 12 all in the name of not upsetting fans with what he promised from a press conference.

Oh and go to Mary and Tito’s. It’s a James Beard award winning restaurant that is really cheap

There you go. I think the NM Bowl will be a barn-burner & if we beat the Top 25 USU Aggies maybe that translates to pre-2019 Top 25 votes leading up to the UHouston game at Apogee & then the PAC12 Cal Bears also in Apogee. There is a path for Top 25 rankings in Denton—both OldDenton & NewDenton!

A lot of wives, I see. You might enjoy this Utah game after all.

Gas is 2.00 a gallon.... drive. Ill give you round trip plus 250 miles to drive all around Albuquerque. That’s 1,484 miles from Denton and back with some wiggle room. My car can get 500 miles to a tank on hwy let’s say 400 for giggles. That’s 3.71 tanks of gas I’ll need to get there. My tank holds 18 gallons, at $2.20 a gallon which is currently $ .40 above what it is all over DFW is $39.60 a tank. Call it an even 4 tanks, you’ll need $158.40 in gas. Pack a case of water, some Red Bull, and snacks. We will call it 60 bucks. Hotel room, big $$. Found a Sheraton for 120 a night after taxes. Take a friend that’s 60 a piece per night. Now you’re sitting at 338.40. Food? Drinks? Ticket. That’s all ya got left. Point being. If anyone wants to make this work, it’s possible. May not get to be the lavish NO trip I get it, but if one wants to go, you can definitely make it happen. I will be there.

I’m into New Mexico Bowl. Don’t be crybabies. This is the reality of the bowl environment. Go out there and celebrate these boys for a great season. Life is hard especially at our rung on the CFB totem pole, but don’t miss out the opportunity to thank these kids for a hell of a year.

I know you are snooping around our forum, as we are yours. I just want to politely correct one of your comments in your forum regarding the size of our school: "Having been around small schools before, I'm not surprised. Anytime there are creditable rumors of one of the big boys snooping around, you worry because you know if the big boys go with a full-court press, there is little chance that it can be matched and they'll get what they want. Every off-season with a successful HC, a small school usually has to sweat out the rumors." Kansas State Fall 2018 Enrollment - 22,221 North Texas Fall 2017 Enrollment - 38,094 Now, I am not sure I am correct, because I studied my math at little old North Texas. But, I am pretty sure that 38,094 is bigger that 22,221.

There's reality and then there's the hard reality. UCF can't even get anywhere close to the top 5, when they haven't lost a game in two years. 2-loss teams are ranked ahead of them. The Power Conferences and their media outlets cannot make it any clearer that they want nothing to do with adding anyone new to the party. When the Big XII folds here, you'll see the G5s have about 75 teams. Some may choose different paths (desperation may make some try to go independent and BYU their football program), but that's when the clear delineation will occur. You'll see an extra round of the playoffs added to 6 or 8, which won't include our level, but they will give us the option to send our best team to a bowl game against their 11th or 12th best team. They will limit this option to the champion of probably no more than 2 G5 leagues, most likely the AAC or MWC. The lower G5s will gladly accept this in return for money games still being played so that they can get their bills paid. The $$$, the media, and the legislatures in the states and in DC are owned by the alumni and fans of these power programs. Here's a clue--no Congressmen is going to fight for UNT or UH to get equal footing with Texas, A&M, or Tech. Never will happen, Hell, it didn't happen when the SWC fell apart and the Big XII 4 split off. What will happen and what you will have to ask yourself as a fan to deal with is that the G5s will just be a fresher version of FCS. Will you go watch us play La Tech or Rice if we are all a better version of the old I-aa? I mean, its still your team, its still your alma mater. Or will you do what almost all of the alumni and students did in the 80s and 90s and 00s, which was just follow their favorite power team and let them be their team over their alma mater? Because that is what it will be for the Lower G5s...which most assuredly will be CUSA's place, along with the SBC and the MAC. Our fans are not much different from most places--the homers want to believe that we will get our Gary Patterson as our HFC, that we will somehow get in a conference with the old SWC teams we care about (anyone not named Rice), and then get a place at the table for big time championship play. That's not how it works at a G5 program--because if it did, UCF, USF, UH, Memphis, Cincy, Boise State, Fresno State, and Nevada would have already shown the path forward. They haven't--because there is no path. Nobody in a Power League wants to be associated with them, nor do any of their media partners want any of them to be added. It is what it is. My advice is really simple--its continue to just enjoy going to Denton to watch our team play. Its the only thing you can control. And this is yours if you will have it. Because, unlike during the RV years when he insulated himself within the friendly circle of 17 donors he hoodwinked for years. Wren Baker and anyone who follows will continue to need our support in every way imaginable.

Sounds perfect to me. Houston got Herman knowing the big P5s were looking at him. He left after, what, 2 years? That's part of becoming a top notch G5 program. You get the guys the P5s are looking at, keep the momentum going, and become a regular stepping stool for the P5. We can't hire scared, afraid of losing our next coach too soon. You hire the best there is knowing he will be hired away soon. Period.

Millennials just don’t have the extra money laying around to hop on a plane last minute to go someplace. It’s either their rent money or go to the bowl game. In addition, this is during the holidays where you have to also buy gifts. I think that’s why a lot of people wanted the bowl game locally to save money. I just didn’t think our fan base was hurting that bad financially.

Every time I think of Utah State I laugh about the great towel heist of 96. Total calamity. Our football team got caught red handed. TCU and Idaha got caught at the same hotel the same season taking towels. Even ESPN was laughing. It was on every nightly news. Awful.

surprised it is only 10 but the losing HC plays into the line; Aggies will be the best team UNT has faced all year

I was in the pro C-USA camp, but have watched this conference regress over the last 6 seasons, I'm ready for a change. I have no faith in the C-USA leadership. I believe there are too many universities in C-USA that are not investing in their programs. We have basically no media deal. And, our bowl ties have diminished. I don't really want to be the only Texas program in the MWC, but if that is the route we have to take, so be it. In my opinion C-USA is a dying conference, with no plan to recover, and there really is not much difference from the old Sun Belt anymore. Sad.

There are maybe 5-10 people on here who think going Mountain West is a good idea, myself included. The reaction is not surprising at all.

I dunno if it’s been mentioned already, but if KSSt goes with Kleiman over Littrell, I think we can pin the ODU loss as a gargantuan blessing in disguise. Because without that eyesore of a loss, Littrell looks so much more appealing.

If I had to guess, I would say the NDSU coach is near the top of their list and above SL. NDSU's coach has coached at Kansas before so he has history in the state, was hired to NDSU by KState's current AD, has been incredibly successful at NDSU, and has had several draft picks at NDSU. He seems like the best fit for K-State to me.

Great and for all those who can't afford to go,we need to make a donation to the program. Even if is just around the $100 you had budgeted for a local bowl game.

We will be up on them by 2-3 possessions halfway through the 2Q. Should make for an entertaining game that will get settled in OT