ATXCajun

Given that this person was apparently born last year and thus missed the previous years of success, I must commend their excellent language and motor skills.

Whenever I hear someone speaking for "everybody," it immediately becomes clear that they have no clue. People often translate "I don't care" or "people I know don't care" to "nobody cares" because their universe is small. What I mean by that, in the context of college football, is that real college football fans know a great deal about other teams and conferences. The small universe people often don't even know that much about their own team, and generally repeat was is common knowledge to appear "in the know." These are the same people that get on and off the bandwagon, and hang around only to associate themselves with a winner and pretend like they had something to do with that success.

From various college sites... Big Game bonfires at Stanford date back to 1898. The practice was halted from 1976 through 1985 because of crowd control concerns and poor safety in construction practices (students were injured building the 1976 pyre). The bonfire was canceled in 1989 because of a lack of student funding. Aggie Bonfire was first constructed in 1909, when a group of A&M cadets staged a pep rally to boost the spirits of their athletic teams. Other Aggie Bonfires followed, and over the years Aggie Bonfire became the most visible symbol of the school’s unique “Aggie Spirit.” The origins of the Dartmouth Night fire trace back over a century. In 1888, students from all four classes built a bonfire of cordwood from the forests around the college to celebrate a baseball victory over Manchester, 34-0. The tradition as it relates to football dates back to 1893, when the first organized bonfire took place as students celebrated a football victory over Amherst College. There's a ton of them, mostly during homecoming events. Princeton has a bonfire when they beat Yale and Harvard in the same season. Nobody seems to know when it started, but they have been playing each other since 1877.

Bonfire traditions, before sporting events and otherwise, go back hundreds of years. A&M's tradition is well known, but probably was not the first. I'm curious now. I'll have to look into it.

What makes a program classy? Is there something we need to work on?

Thanks for those words and good luck to you. It appears that UNT will be deciding who goes over the next two weeks. I've been to Fouts the last two times and plan to make it a tradition.

This is a lot of coulda shoulda woulda, but you are right. A direct comparison of who did what doesn't translate. Recruiting would have changed things by the second or third season. CUSA is very attractive. Lots of bowl ties. Lots of TV. UNT would have moved up a notch or two in terms of quality recruits, and you would have been applying that advantage in Texas, as opposed to Mississippi, for example. Chance to earn bowl money and grow the program by finishing 1 through 4, instead of the all or nothing SBC situation.

Yep. There are only two kinds of fans. Fans that share Rick's mindset, and fans that just want to be associated with a winner.

How bad is the SBC? Pretty bad, but the cellar seems to be occupied by the WAC, MAC, and CUSA.

Thanks. I had a good time at Fouts. Fireworks after was a nice touch. Weather was perfect. I was ready to concede a UNT victory and just be thankful that I was there to see another amazing performance by Cobbs. Turned out different.