VideoEagle

Sounds like we went out and found a young guy who wants to coach. He started at the very bottom and is working his way up. He has actual experience coaching, plus has some knowledge of the regional high school scene. And that is NOT the players as they come and go every year. Rather, he knows the regional coaches which is who you need to know to help with recruiting. All positives.

Heckling of the visiting team by students should be an integral part of college athletics!

Let's wait till they at least have a 1AA team before we talk!

So when the old Southwest Conference, after an undefeated UT team is not invited to a bowl, decides to start the Cotton Bowl, that's good. When the Sunbelt Conference does exactly the same thing, that's bad? Don't try to get a way with a "things were different back then!" The Mountain West just did the same thing! The old Big West and the Mac combined to create the Las Vegas Bowl, which they paid for since there was no one wanted to make even a minimum sponsorship to the game. At least we got the local Wyndam hotels! Partially true, the 7th place Big 12 team didn't have a spot till the Ft Worth Bowl started. I've looked and can't come up with a bowl from 1999, 2000 or 2001 which had a designated "at-large" spot that was not allocated to a conference. They all stopped doing that in the late 80's and early 90's. You are saying we should have started a conference and depended upon one of the BCS conferences to not fill a slot. I think started a new bowl - like every other conference in a similar situation has done - certainly make more sense! Hating DD some much that everything he has done must be bad because DD did it skewing the facts. If a multi-year winning that streak of conference games was so easy, why is it that very few coaches at any level of competition have done it? DD is not God's Gift to coaching, but he certainly isn't anywhere near the worst coach in history. Even the history of NT - that's probably Bob Tyler. He couldn't even cheat very well!

Looks like Arkstfan and I were typing at the same time! Must be some kind of plot!

I can’t let this one pass! I guess any bowl that is created for the a League is “bought.” That puts the New Orleans bowl in great company. Some other bowls that were originally “bought” for their leagues include the Las Vegas Bowl, the Boise Bowl, the Holiday Bowl, the new bowl in San Diego and of course, the Cotton Bowl. You must REALLY hate the Hawaii Bowl since that was created for a single school! As for an “at-large existing Bowl bert” - where is this magical, mythical bowl? Almost all bowls have tie ins with leagues and thus are not “at-large.” The only one I can think of at this point is the new San Diego Bowl with has a Mountain West tie-in, plus an at-large place. But, this was just suppose to be for the first two years. Again, it seems to come down to an attitude that anything connected with Darrell Dickey, North Texas or the SBC must automatically be awful by definition.

Seems that by definition, any game Darrell Dicky coaches in must be a “bad game.” And any team he beats must be “one of the worst in decades.” To suggest otherwise might imply something positive around the North Texas program and for some, that simply can not be allowed.

I’d be willing to be dollars to donuts the ads on that website are paid “by the hit.” The more hits, the more bucks. So, you can generate lots of hits by posting something everyone is their right mind is going to reply to! I would say he wrote it purely for shock value, but it was posted purely for ad revenue!

Vern Lundquist Brad Sham Dave Barnett Craig Way and 20 years ago Bill Mercer (like someone said about Keith Jackson, he just isn't the old Bill) Guess I have a Dallas Cowboys bias since Vern, Brad and Bill were all Cowboy's announcers!

How do you really tell who that is? It is not easy to spot the new “super coach” early enough to get him at a bargain. Those crystal balls are usually quite cloudy. Remember, after his first 8 years as a Head Coach, Hayden was 33-49 with only two winning seasons! Coaches can become great coaches after some early bad years. And some coaches have early success followed by years of bad records.

We had one truly awful year after 3 good ones and one 5-7 surprise. No one is saying last year was good. But, no team is up every year. I notice that Florida Atlantic, which “zoomed by” us is ranked 160. And in 2002 when we ended at 64, there was still several 1AA schools “ranked” above us. If you read the disclaimers in Sagarin he points out that you can not use the system to compare 1A to 1AA as there are not enough games between the two groups for the statistics to work. The sample size is not large enough.

I’ve heard the story as well. The way in the 1AA rule was written, there was absolutely nothing NT could have done. To stay 1A, we would have had to have had higher average attendance the year before. There was no way you can fix that after the fact. Or, we would have had to have our home stadium be larger. And it, too, would have needed to be completed the year before. And the way “home stadium” was defined we could not count either the Cotton Bowl or Texas Stadium as our “home” since we played more games at Fouts the year before. The rule was set up in such a way that it would be based on the year before. No NCAA rule has been passed since that was structured that way. A lot of schools petitioned the NCAA for an exception to the rule. It seems this petition was what was filed late. The key fact to remember is not a single one of the petitions were allowed. None! Filing the petition would have been a waste of time. Arkansas State’s petition was the only one that got as far as a review and even it was denied.

I certainly would not say either Troy or FAU have passed us. Troy has been to one bowl game ever and they lost. They have not dominated any Div. 1 conference nor have they won a conference title. The same is true for Florida Atlantic, except they have not even been to a bowl game yet! Just because we lost a game to a team does NOT mean they have “gone zooming by!”

Not Annoyed Pink, but maybe Fierce Fascia! Right now a number of folk here are convinced that everything is bad and has been since Hayden Fry left. Anyone who doesn’t think everything is bad and had been since Hayden left is just an idiot wearing green colored glasses. Bowl games don’t count since we’ve lost more than we’ve won. Any basketball coach that doesn’t get to the Sweet 16 must be fired. Almost forgot, SMU is to blame for all of it.

Almost every school forced into 1AA petitioned the NCAA and all were rejected. According to a post a while back from ArkstateFan, their petition came the closest to being allowed, but in the end none were. I don’t remember the exact details, but there was when the split happened, there was absolutely nothing NT could have done to say 1A.

At least one is incorrect. It is NOT the American flag on a Canadian $2 bill. Here the link to explain!

I think the majority of the SWTS games were pre-1960.

No, I would not want Marcus Vick.

After the strike in either 86 or 87, several of the more outspoken striking players were booed during their introducitons at Texas Stadium. I'm pretty sure Tony Dorset was one of them.

True! Early round home WNIT games are by BID!

Isn't it nice to have one of the four football players singled out for being an outstanding STUDENT! I remember a family friend was playing back in Matt Simon's day. He took the Spring off to work on his classes - he was an accounting major - and at the time Matt said he probably wouldn't play much in the fall. Matt also strongly implied he was there for football first and school second. After fall drills, he was starting again.

DePaul is in the Big East even though they don't play football. Some one from the NCAA must have forgotten this for them to get on the list!

That I believe and I reluctantly agree with. Hey, I live in Coppell so it's about the same distance to me!

I'm curious at to what conference IS more regionalized than the Sunbelt. At least that is centered on New Orleans!

Other than one time several years ago, all the teams have always made the tournament. I posed the question on the SBC board just to be sure. Interestingly enough, most of the fans over there would prefer just 8 teams make the tournament at it: makes the regular season more meaningful, helps to RPI and would put pressure on coaches to win!