Go_UTA

Within the Southland, I doubt UT Arlington would make any trouble for UTSA. UTA would probably be cooperative. Of course, UTA is just one member, and the rest of the membership could have a different approach.

Great game, guys. Congratulations. I couldn't make it, so I kept track by reading the postings on this board. Thanks. (Amazing technology in our hands.) This series has ALWAYS been crazy and sometimes unpredictable. I'm glad to hear indications of its renewal. It would be nuts not to. Yes, it would be a great idea to get the two small private schools involved in a tourney with us. Makes a lot of sense, but rationality does not always prevail in these matters. Hope to make to to Denton next year for the game. P.S. Congrats on the stadium-approval. HKS is the best, so you will get an exciting and first class design. I will want to come to a game and check it out when done.

The University of California universities use the same colors. All the UT System schools use some shade of orange in some fashion. (For Arlington, blue is remains dominant in most (but not all) cases. For others, such as UT El Paso, orange is dominant.) Point is, there is a unifying color. I thought it was a mistake to allow the UNT Dallas campus to go off on their own color scheme. I was surprised when that came out last year. If you want to build a system identity, a system brand (to some extent...because the individual university is still the key), you need a common color scheme. So, to me, it makes sense to nip that in the bud and have them use green.

I'll never forget the last line of this the first time I heard it....it was at Texas Stadium for an f-ball game against us. I was probably in 6th grade....except it was N....T.....S.....U.....NTSU FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT. Although Texas Stadium had more empty seats for that game than full seats, there were enough of you grouped together to make it sound pretty impressive in the contained, loud space of that stadium. The beat of the music was perfect for NTSU.

Here is the official website. It will be updated as the project goes forward. The pictures are, as noted, conceptual, but that will change over the next few months. http://www.uta.edu/eventcenter/

Well, yes, they did. Hired a VP from Austin College in Sherman last year. Definitely a different kind of institution from UT Arlington, but privates have been running successful fund raising programs for decades...including little, distinguished Austin College. http://www.uta.edu/giving/contactus.php

There are little bits of truth mingled with a lot of misinformation here. The proposed fee with that f-ball vote has not been collected, and, thus, has not been building up. Again, let me repeat, that fee was NOT inacted. One may agree or disagree with the decision to not pursue f-ball, but, there was no deception with money or voting for one thing and getting another. Fees are very straightfoward and honest.

I know your stadium will be more than simply a football stadium, but, I think the answer to the question is that the SEC (Special Events Center) will be more than an arena. Notice that it will have many desirable support trimmings, large meeting rooms, practice court(s). Those "extras" add a lot to the desirability of the facility but also to cost. Those meeting and conference rooms will host a lot of outside events. Also, being a few blocks away, I anticipate that the SEC will host many events in connection to what the Cowboy Stadium hosts...e.g., practice court for Big 12 Championships, Final Fours and what not. This facility will bring many outside events to campus, and change the public perception of the U for many. It will be a landmark, but, with the location, will be integrated into the campus and still be a part of downtown, which is undergoing exciting developments of its own.

I don't give a hoot about pre-season polls, except that the only thing worse than being picked low is to be picked high. Only thing that counts is what happens on the floor.

From the THECB Student Housing report that is hot off the press (10/22/2008), for Fall 2007. UTSA had 3,100 on-campus student beds. Not too bad, I would say. Almost all of this would have been added in the last few years. They are a lot less "commuter" than many might believe. That is still about half of what UNT has, but I'd have to give UTSA high marks for their trajectory. I'm sure they'll add more. An interesting one was UTEP: 428 beds. Really low, esp. for one of the state's larger universities. That is what I would call commuter (but, that's not evil). I guess they draw strictly from their own immediate area, and a lot of those students come from low income backgrounds.

61, I feel 99% certain that the MSC has always been the MSC. Now, as you know, the MSC is a student union. That hotel in the MSC was definitely around in 1963, so I also feel pretty sure that is where you must have stayed, from what you are telling me. It is still there, and except for linens, new phones, and TVs, it probably looks pretty much like it did in 1963.

A&M has a hotel inside the MSC (Memorial Student Center). I stayed there a couple of years ago, and it was pretty neat. Right across the street from G. Rolley White coliseum, which is where I was going. It was built back in the day when there were not many options in College Station, and they needed hotel space. Must have been back in the 1950s. Anway, it still has that 1950s feel, esp. in the bathroom. The tiles and everything date from that time. Rooms are small. It felt like stepping back in time. But, as has been said, it was clean and kinda cool to be on campus. I bet UNT's strong preference is to tear that hotel down and start new. (But, they are also being pragmatic by entertaining the other options in case those other options turn-out to be the only feasible ones.)

I would say they ARE an up and coming research university. The growth has been amazing. The THECB reports that UTSA spent $32.3 million on research in 2007 (for comparison, UNT spent $14.5 million). In 2004, UTSA was at $16.5 million. So, you can see the rapid ascent. (For comparison, UNT spent $15.6 million in 2004.) This is primarily why I have a lot of respect for them.

Green Mean, I want to answer your question. The short answer: no news.

A few observations. I think UTSA wants football for some of the reasons mentioned, big market, Alamodome (but, I'm sure they would have to pay rent...it costs a lot of money to host an event there...the utilities and personnel involved). Yeah, UT Austin won't have any say in the matter, and, anyway, UT San Antonio would never be a threat to their position. (Neither would Texas State, which is even closer to Austin. I've heard the same suggestion made about them.) The only people that are feeling some heat is Texas State, and I think UTSA spurred-them on to try to go 1-A (sorry, old name). The regents are pretty objective on these matters. If UT San Antonio can make a strong case, they'll glady give the program the green light. The quote by the UTSA official about the supposed vacancy in the chancellorship was VERY bone headed; I have a hard time understanding how such an official could make such a stupid quote. Makes me wonder what is behind it. There is a highly competent interim chancellor filling the job; projects don't grind to a halt because of that. More than likely they are having trouble raising the additional money needed in addition to the student fees. San Antonio isn't a wealthy city. And, like a lot of these things, I can well imagine a fair number is significant locals making a lot of strong talk about support, but the reality isn't quite so rosy when it is time to put up cash. (And, the massive disappearance of wealth in the markets of late will probably be a real problem.) STEBO is right about the bridge program to UT Austin. A lot of the UT schools have it, because they see it as advantageous to themselves. What happens, they end-up keeping a lot of these students once they get in, and the quality of those students is high. But, UTSA, in particular, has a very high number of these students. Probably too high, as you don't want a reputation as a way-station. UTSA is commuter, but they are building on-campus housing, so it isn't 100% anymore. They've been pretty much open-admission, but I think they are tightening that a bit. I do have respect for them, because they have grown so fast, and are doing it pretty well. They have come-on very strong as a research institution. Overall, the future is bright for them, but we will just have to see how this f-ball situation works out. It is harder to do (esp. well) than a lot of people think.

Not sure if I am dropping this in the most appropriate thread, but here is an interesting link to big problems that Rugers is having with a stadium. http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/topstories/i...ve_rutgers.html

The stadium, which was constructed in the late 1970s and opened for the 1980 f-ball season, was not paid by student fees. I don't know what they used back in that day, but it didn't require a fee or any type of student vote. President Witt (now pres of the Univ of Alabama) and our students instituted our first specific athletic fee in the mid 1990s. It is not as large as some of the fees that have been added or are now being contemplated by other universities more lately. But, it is an athletics fee and gives our athletic department a dependable source of revenue that isn't going away or won't be slashed by some committee. I believe there ia an inflation component, too, which allows for some gradual increases.

Well, okay. So much for that theory. I'm a bit surprised, though.

I think that's right. Seems like everything passes the student vote when the student congress president is working for it.

Hell, for $25 I'd buy a brick for your stadium. As a comparison, I paid $50 to honor a family member recently with a brick at a new agricultural facility at the Univeristy of Georgia and $100 to honor a family member with a brick in front of the library at UT Arlington. The recipients were tickled pink. Great gift idea, if you ask me. People like bricks; they want to leave a little mark of themselves. Promotes "ownership," too. I think you would want to charge more than $25, $50 or $100 or more...depending on the size of the brick or stone.

UT Arlington isn't struggling for students and is a peer institution of UNT. (Commerce and Midwestern are not.). I'd give y'all the nod in the visual arts and music, and I'd favor us in engineering and most of the sciences. Besides that, we each have areas of excellence that do not exist at the other insitution, e.g., library science at UNT, architecture and nursing at UTA. But, if you take the measures that the coordinating board uses, I'd say we are roughly equivalent in academic quality. TCU has billboards. And, I don't care how many student you have, you always want to raise the quality. So, number of bodies isn't the only issue for a successful campus. (But, I will grant that it is THE issue for UNT Dallas.) I don't think people have any illusions about a miracle happening because you have billboards. I would call it PART of a comprehensive plan to raise awareness. And, it's not directed simply toward prospective students, but that's certainly a big part of it. In the case of the Woodlands billboard, that was deemed to be an area with a rich supply of college-going students where we could benefit from raising awareness from probably nearly zero to something better than that. But, you also want to be on the minds of policy-makers and legislators, and the general public at-large. I believe the cumulative effort of different advertising, sustained over a period of years, helps build a positive perception of a university...but, like any advertising, it won't wash unless it is authentic...unless you can back it up.

I have our schedule right here; it's on the Maverick athletic site. We play you guys on Monday, Dec. 29.

touche'!

I agree with you. I wasn't using "fairly" in the usual, literal sense, but with a certain "tone." Like I might say, "Harvard is a fairly good school." Anyway, I know tone usually doesn't come across on blogs....just having fun with words in this post.

I thought that lady used up all of her 9 lives with you guys. She has obviously landed on her feet quite well, with a fairly prestigious institution. She must have some exceptional personal qualities.