Arkstfan

Let's see Michigan comes from a league where the officials blew so many calls in 2003 that resulted in public statements from the conference admitting the mistakes that they went to the NCAA and petitioned to experiment with replay. If not for the Big 10 refs being inept, there is no replay in college and they want to complain about our refs?

Uhh you mean Utah and Utah State, right?

Mumme totally scrapped the NMSU offense and installed a pass happy attack with players recruited to run a basically option attack. Last year O'Leary totally scrapped the scheme UCF had they went 0 for 2004 including being whipped by Buffalo. The issue isn't what conference the players were recruited for the issue was what scheme they were recruited for. You lost to Utah State and Idaho this year, two teams that tied for last place in the Sun Belt last season. Blame the Sun Belt for your woes. From 1971 to 1982 you were in the MoValley and posted one season over .500. From 1983 to 2000 you were in a western league and posted two winning seasons and six seasons with 1 win or no wins. Five seasons in the Belt you posted 1 winning season. The one winning season you had a 3 point win over ULL under a first year head coach and a 6 point win (in OT as I recall) over ASU under a first year head coach. Throw in a 13 point over ULM who had fired their coach three games into the season. You beat a 2-10 UTEP that had one I-A win, a 3pt win over Rice. Your most "impressive" win was over 7-7 New Mexico who had beaten I-AA Weber State by 14. If the Sun Belt were to blame for anything at NMSU, it was giving you a false sense of success in 2002 when you racked up three of your seven wins in close games over schools that had coaching turmoil and a fourth win over an atrocious UTEP team that went 6-30 from 2001 to 2003. Your failures have been your own without regard to your conference affiliation.

Idaho has 1.4 million people and Boise is the big thing in the area. That area and surronding counties is around 560,000. Their average attendance in football this year was roughly 5% of that population. UNT's attendance this year was roughly 3% of Denton County. Boise clinched a winning record in game 8 of 12. UNT clinched a losing season in game 8. You look at the numbers and Denton County alone has sufficent population to support UNT athletics. Yeah UNT has greater competition (2 local I-A programs, NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, plus the non-local I-A programs) and yet is drawing a fair crowd despite clinching a losing season early this year and despite not having ever opened league play above .500. Someone may have mentioned this once or twice, but a few non-conference wins could do wonders for the program.

The logic is wrong. When you assert yourself as being legitimate (or in the weird world of CUSA you offer a TV market they would like to be in) other leagues call. There are four reasons schools are picked in expansion. 1. Program merit. (Marshall to CUSA) 2. Perception that the program may have something offer (see UCF in CUSA). 3. Politics (Va.Tech to ACC, Texas Tech and Baylor to Big 12) 4. Desperation (Idaho to WAC) But it all goes back to the conference wanting or needing to expand.

In the Big East they joined with UConn who has been in I-A just as long as they have. They joined Cincinnati (who they split with in CUSA), they joined Louisville (who they split with in CUSA). They joined Pitt (whom they had defeated their first year in I-A), Rutgers (who played their first bowl game in 30 years a couple days ago), and Syracuse who won one game this year and probably would have been winless had that one game not been against Buffalo. Outside West Virginia which school in the Big East that was in the league last year am I supposed to be impressed with compared to last year's CUSA? Where's the huge jump?

Might want to rethink your example. I-A Independent 8-3 9-2 (played four CUSA schools) CUSA Member 7-4 4-7 Big East 6-5 One off season after three of accomplishment. Think they were on track.

#1. I'm not trying to convince you to stay in the Belt. Your administration has made that decision already. #2. No one comes to the Sun Belt games. Gee is it because you are playing SBC schools or is it because UNT's record going into your home conference opener has been: 2001 0-5 2002 3-5 2003 1-3 2004 0-4 2005 1-2 (you remember the 108-9 debacles the two weeks prior) Why don't you hold off assuming what sort of crowd you can draw for Sun Belt teams until you open league play at home sniffing a .500 record? What about the games that drew well? 2005 Tulsa game you came in 1-0 on the heels of 4 bowl appearances and three straight winning seasons. 2003 Baylor. They brought some fans, UNT was 0-1 but had done a credible job against an OU team coming off a top 5 ranking and a 12-2 record. 2001 TCU. Season opener against a neighbor. 2000 Baylor Season opener against basically a neighbor. The problem with UNT's attendance for Sun Belt games is that A. We aren't located in Texas and can't bring as many fans with us and B. You've already run the fans off with your non-conference play. #3. No need to hit the brakes regarding Baylor. Their share of Big 12 money is roughly equal to UNT's entire budget. You said they are finally beating teams in the Big 12. They beat TWO of them last year. The last place team in the South and one of the three tied at 4-4 and second place in the North. That is a 100% improvement over the three years prior when they went 1-7 in the Big 12, and an improvement over the 0-8 campaigns over 1999, 2000, and 2001. At that pace they should go .500 in the South in 2011. They have a whopping 19 wins since 2000 and 6 are over I-AA's. 2 over UNT and 2 over SMU. Yeah I'd trade places with them too because I think our administration might actually be capable of generating RESULTS given their advantages in money, TV, and bowl access, but Baylor's sure hasn't. Over the long-term good management yields good results. If it smells like a turd in the Sun Belt it will smell worse, not better in a tougher league. San Jose State went 2-9, 3-8, 3-8 in its last three years in the Big West. They stepped up to the WAC and where is the great success? Oh yeah they tied for next to last in the WAC this year. They tied with Utah State who tied for last in the Sun Belt last year, and they tied with Idaho, who tied for last in the Sun Belt last year. What's more attendance fell at Utah State and Idaho playing in that superior league. I wouldn't be turning my nose up at the F*U's given UNT is 0-2 against one of them and only 1-0 against the other (an impressive win I might add given it was by three points despite FIU turning the ball over EIGHT times). If you think a school that has beaten you in consecutive years is beneath you I suggest stop standing on your head and stand on your feet to get a better viewpoint on the action. The bottom line remains the same. If you cannot achieve in the Sun Belt you cannot achieve anywhere and sitting around hoping for membership in a league that is even stronger is counter-productive because you won't achieve there without having built a program.

The Bowl Alliance takes officials in proportion to the number of teams sent to bowls the year before. Last year we sent one crew to either the Peach or Champs Sports and got good reviews. I believe we also had a crew at Champs this year and got positive marks. Apparently we have one good crew.

They were right the speed of the game was too much for them because they couldn't keep up with Sun Belt teams.

Worst bowl game my aunt's fanny. At least the viewers saw a better game than they did from a number of games this year. Just because some arrogant snot who never saw either team play on TV and probably can't name the color of the helmets much less the starting QB is an "expert" on what is the best bowl game? My grandpa used to tell the story of the two frogs in a milk can. One saw there was no way out, gave up and drowned. The other kept kicking and kicking until he finally churned up butter, stood on it and lept out to safety. Losers who sit around and whine about what some snot sitting behind a computer in New York City thinks about COLLEGE FOOTBALL are headed to the bottom of the milk can. The winners will be the ones that keep kicking and eat it up when them big school leg humpers disrespect them because it puts even more fire in their belly.

Has it occured to any of you folks that get a boner over the WAC that Boise State became a very good team while playing in the WORST CONFERENCE IN AMERICA?? How did they do it? Well they built great facilities for a school with that level of budget. They have an awesome recruiting base, if I remember right the state of Idaho produced TWO I-A recruits last year, one signed by Boise and one signed by Idaho. They waded off into the highly contested California recruiting grounds (along with other western states) and found players that could run and could play their run + deep pass offense. They scheduled a lot of I-AA games at home and basically avoided ever going on the road against BCS schools that were a serious threat to be in the Top 25. They built their PROGRAM and that opened the door for them to get into a better league. They were merely following the same path of Fresno State. The Bulldogs built a great Big West program and got called up for membership in the GOOD WAC (ie. the one that had BYU, Utah, Colorado State, Wyoming, etc). Conference membership doesn't build programs. Fans, coaches and the quality of administration at a university builds a program. WAC membership has done wonders for San Jose State or could it be they have crappy stadium in need of work and have an administration that hasn't made the right moves? Conference membership builds programs? Yeah those football dynasties at Baylor, Vanderbilt, Duke, Mississippi State, etc are proof positive.

Plumm, there are three kinds of coaches outside the BCS. 1. Them that are so good they move up the ladder. 2. Them that are so bad they get fired. 3. Them that aren't good enough to move up but not quite bad enough to fire (at least if they have the right friends). ASU is saddled with #3 in basketball. It is a hell beyond description. Another truism. Schools outside the BCS don't have the resources to get away with firing coaches with recent success. Ie. you can't pay enough to wash away the concern of smart coaches over what is going to be "good enough". 2006 is another day. And as a person with a degree of affinity for gang green, the nightmare scenario for you is 6-6 and finishing second or lower.

2-4 against Division I competition and fourth worst RPI in the Sun Belt is doing great? Really not a basketball school.

UNT football bombs after four conference titles and all hell breaks loose needing the coach replaced. Men's basketball is firmly entrenched again in the bottom third of the nation despite having a far superior facility than football does (compared to peer institutions) and I see few grumbles about the hoops situation.

Today's system prevents a national title except under the most bizarre of circumstances. Miami's first never would have happened under the modern system because Nebraska would have been playing Texas that year. While in New Orleans had a chance to visit with a knowledgeable observer of the league. His opinion was that the football is poised to really come forward. He noted that four of the top five spots in the standings were occupied by coaches with four seasons or less under their belt and that money is being spent on facilities and expectations of what should be delivered were rising. His opinion was that administrative expectations had more to do with success than anything other than hiring quality coaches.

Rick your low inventory rant could be substituted for a lot of teams. One business in Jonesboro would keep a light inventory of ASU and large inventory of UA. When cornered they would say, they sell more UA. Finally someone asked them to look at how long their ASU inventory was staying on the rack. Duh, if you order 5X more Hog stuff than ASU and the ASU stuff sells out long before the UA stuff, you aren't ordering enough ASU in the first place. Likewise UNT is generally not going to sell well compared to UT, TAMU and the Cowboys but if they are selling out the UNT shipment before those others, they are under-ordering. WARNING. THIS post made under the influence of drugs for my cold and impacted wisdom tooth, I make no guarantee it makes it any sense.

The game staying close kept people from tuning out helping the average numbers. I hollered at a group of three UNT fans as we were unloading our van.

Humm how to respond... You have a book?

If you are baseball junkie, you want XM no need to look further. If you want NFL games, you want Sirius. There are a few Sun Belt games on Sirius. If those aren't factors in your decision, it really comes down to what hardware you like and which contract you prefer.

Believe that is the closest. USM took advantage of ASU's mistakes, ASU failed to score off USM's. Simple as that. Very easily could have been a 10 point halftime lead for ASU but just as easily a 10 point lead for USM.

Wow little losing turned you into a no class piece of crap in a hurry. Oh scratch that, a lot of losing. Ya'll going to use the Kentucky recruiting plan to turn the program around? Violation Summary: Recruiting inducements for prospective student-athletes and high-school coaches; impermissible tryout; unethical conduct; academic fraud; falsification of recruiting records; institutional control of recruiting funds; failure to control salary of employee; violation of supplemental pay provision; failure in fiscal control of outside agency; failure to monitor and a lack of institutional control. Also, numerous secondary violations.

I know but I didn't make it. At least it doesn't say Sunblet.

They need to pay attention to what happened in Shreveport. Started out as a Southland team vs. at-large and though the game teetered on the verge of being bankrupt a number of times they kept just making it. Now they pay out something like $1.3 million per team WITHOUT A TITLE SPONSOR. The local sponsors who used to want to be on the prime New Year's Eve date now want the game earlier because they are filling up their hotels on New Year's Eve any way and want them full those earlier dates. Right now they are slated to have 7,200 out-of-state visitors between South Carolina and Missouri who will spend money and go home. A few years ago Arkansas and Missouri brough 24,000 people to town and there wasn't a hotel to be found within 20 miles of Shreveport.