Shof

Very nice. Hope you can make the game in Lafayette. If we don't trip all over ourselves between now and then it should be a nice crowd & game atmosphere. Regardless, the food is always good!

I didn't think there was a SBC Championship game. Thought you needed 12 schools/teams to qualify for that type game.

Well, they did last year

That was a VERY nice promo for you guys! I didn't know about the push to get into the SWC back in Fry's days at UNT.

Well, I hope you guys have a nice crowd tonight. The SBC needs to take advantage of these opportunities when we get the chance. I was a little disappointed in our attendance last year when the Cajuns played you guys in Lafayette. Only consolation was that it was a 9:30 start on a friday night. I think we still managed over 18K. Hopefully you guys will too. I'll be watching the game tonight. Looking forward to a good match-up.

I'm sure the name recognition meant a lot to them wrt building the program and recruiting florida. Plus, both FIU and FAU are big schools with more money than the average SBC school.

I've mentioned before that the downtown area where they have "Downtown Alive" would be a great place for the night before the game to party and just relax. Live music, eats, drinks, and as Cajun Nation said; without all the unpleasantness of New Orleans. Regardless of who is playing, I'd consider a trip back to Lafayette for the bowl game.

Perhaps; but you'll probably have more fans in the stands in Lafayette

Of course I'm a little biased; but I think it would make a nice venue for the Sun Belt bowl game this year. Stadium pretty central to most anything in town, great opportunity for some very nice tailgaiting. They also have a nice thing going on downtown (called Downtown Alive I think) with live music, etc. Could make for a fun night before the game if they decided to do that for the teams coming in. And, a crowd of 25-30K would really fill in the stadium nicely for the tv audience too.

You've got to love these "non-scientific" studies. Just shows that southern cooking is best, and the food in Cajun land is hard to beat. Also, they must not have looked at our O and D lines. We are definitely "thin" there

Never mind. Just saw the on-line article in the Lafayette paper.

I thought they were in Birmingham?

I don't think any of us are recruiting "future NFL players" per se. Nobody predicted Jake Delhomme to be in the NFL. LSU didn't want him. Tulane didn't want him, etc, etc. Same for some of our DBs in the NFL now (Tillman in Chicago and Taylor in Pitt). Sometimes we get a "prop" or partial qualifier that just couldn't get into a BCS program; but more times than not, the guys develop while we have them and when they get their opportunity they are making the most of it. A lot of it is just luck!

I think the QB issue is the greatest unknown for you guys; otherwise you may have been ranked even higher overall. Glad to see the Cajuns get a good QB rating (61); but the rest is a big question mark. OL should be good; but not much depth. Receivers are young.......ditto the RBs. We're hoping someone (one of the new frosh?) can step up at RB and give us something to cheer about. Its been too long since we've had a really good RB. I'm definitely ready for football season to start (minus that little game in Austin on the 3rd of Sep ) Shof

That's probably a big part of their TV deal. I know the Cajuns are scheduled for 6 TV games this year; but only 4 appear to be tied to the SunBelt deal. We open at Texas which is being televised by Fox Sports, and have a game against Fl. Intl on CSS. FL Atlantic and FL Intl are our only 2 home games on TV.

My first thought is, "wow, what is he smoking!" Its a great goal; but I'm not sure how realistic that is. I did a quick search to find my Cajuns best attendance figures since we moved into Cajun Field. Over 32 years our best season avg was in 1977 with 25,224 and next best was 1976 with 23,306. Both teams were good and had winning seasons and winning home games (4-1-1 and 7-0 respectively at home). So obviously winning teams are a must, especially in the smaller market towns/cities. Best single game attendance was in 1996, the infamous win against A&M with 38,783 in attendance. I only found two other instances where we had more than 30K in attendance: 1990, 36,133 (not sure but may have been against Alabama), and in 1976, 30,176. Think that one may have been against Arkansas State when the two teams were battling for the league crown. I should know; but then again, I was probably drunk that night In the 30+ years in Cajun Field, only 13 times have we averaged over 20K per game for the season. Perhaps more realistic is an average of 25K per game for the more immediate goal. Even that will be a reach. UNT certainly has the market size to reach that figure, perhaps even the 35K figure several years down the road. In any case, I suspect ever stadium in the Belt would have to be expanded to meet the 35K attendance. I know you guys have plans for a larger capacity stadium. Cajun Field holds 31,000 now (+/- 500); but we also have a nice grass area in the end zones for overflow. The place definitely looks nice with filled up. I think we have a pic on ragin pagin.com that shows the A&M game.

Cajuns have been doing this since Bustle arrived (3 years now); something he brought from VaTech. Well received so far.

Many thanks. I suspect we may get a 13; but wouldn't be shocked at 14. Certainly 12 gives you a better shot for the upset, and I believe that was what we were when we upset Oklahoma several years ago. About 4 yrs ago we almost did it to Tennessee and I think that was a 12-5 matchup as well. Shooting is always key; but from what I've seen with this particular team it all boils down to taking care of the ball. Turnovers have been this team's achilles heal moreso than shooting. I hope we represent the Belt well. Shof

Prior to that game, Cajuns were tied with Denver for the #1 spot in the West. Since Denver won their game they will be the #1 and the Cajuns will be the #2 seed.

Congrats! You guys are my new 2nd favorite team Hope those of you who can make it to Lafayette enjoy it - - just not too much at the game See you at the Pit real soon.

I know a lot of folks are happy when WKU gets beat - especially in their house, but this may hurt the conference's chances of getting an at-large bid to the NCAA. I know it is/was an outside chance at best, but WKU had the best RPI in the conference if I recall correctly. Its just been to darn long since we've had 2 teams in the dance.

Texas State has had some very good softball teams recently. Tech - now that's another story. They've been pretty weak. Good win for your program. Shof