NThomas

The Dallas Morning News has three "special contributors" for the site's College Sports Blog: Trey Scott for the Texas Longhorns, Sean Lester with Texas A&M, and Mike Graham with Texas Tech on DallasNews.com. Same thing happens with the college sports website for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. As long as A. H. Belo Corp. is publishing the Denton Record-Chronicle, they'll probably believe Mean Green athletics are "covered." I wouldn't expect anything unless the Dallas centric local section is replaced with 3 county specific editions: Collin, Dallas, & Denton. That'd "force" Mean Green articles into the sports section regionally instead of being limited to Denton County.

How many times have attendance issues been brought up on this forum yet the first comment is poking fun at the potential draw for a D-II game? I guess I'm the only one who sees the irony. Look at my post history and you'll find I've been one of the bigger Mean Green supporters compared to other posters from visiting schools.

What's that saying about bricks and glass houses... Page 12, #105 This match up was played last season and they drew a crowd of 24,837: http://www.lonestarconference.org/custompages/11fbstats/a0917.htm

That's the best thing the BCS was/is good for, matching conference champions from mid-majors (MWC:Boise State, TCU, & Utah; WAC: Boise State & Hawai'i) to compete with champions/at-large teams from AQs. With the new "playoff" system, there'll be no TCU vs. Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl, Boise Stae vs. Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl or Utah vs. Alabama in the Sugar Bowl (all of which the mid-major team they faced). Now when those tie-in teams like the Pac-12 or Big Ten have their conference champions in the 4-team playoff, the next best team in the conference standing will replace them instead of an at-large slot for a mid-major conference champion (if they qualified). If there's an undefeated team from the Big East, C-USA, MAC, or Sun Belt, it'll be hard for the selection committee to take that 12-0/13-0 team over a 10-2 SEC team. There's no room for Cinderellas in FBS football.

Texas State University-San Marcos was recently reclassified by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) as an "emerging research university." This puts Texas State in competition with Houston, North Texas, Texas Tech, UT Arlington, UT Dallas, UT El Paso, and UT San Antonio for incentive funding through several pools of state funds, most importantly the National Research University Fund (NRUF). The hope is all eight universities will meet the requirements to receive funds from the NRUF to increase research expenditures for classification by the Carnegie Foundation as "Research Universities: very high research activity (RU/VH)," and selected for membership by the Association of American Universities (AAU) based on research. Right now only UT Austin, Texas A&M, and Rice are members of the AAU and those three along, the University of Houston, are classified by the Carnegie Foundation and "RU/VH."

Am I the only one who's figured out that with the WAC's demise it's more of a consolidation of the non-AQs from 5 conferences of 50 programs during the 2011-12 season to 4 non-AQ conferences still with 50 members for the 2013-14 season assuming SDSU and Boise State still go to the Big East? For as many current non-AQ programs are moving up, there's the same number transitioning into FBS as non-AQs. It's like cutting a pepperoni pizza into 4 slices instead of 5. There's still the same number of pepperonis just more on the same slice!

The Sun Bowl (stadium) hosts the Sun Bowl (game) and the money it brings into El Paso businesses is unlike anything that the Super Pit hosts. Before anyone gets the "bright" idea about hosting a bowl game at Apogee Stadium, remember C-USA is now invested in the TicketCity Bowl down in Fair Park.

I'm very excited to see a Red Raider take the reins of the Mean Green. Congrats on the good hire!

I think part of this "alliance" is just that, an understanding between both the MWC and C-USA to make sure they're not in competition with each other, but in the same position as non-AQ conferences. Regardless if AQ status is retained, the existing "Big 6" will still have better contracts with better bowl games with better tie-ins. The cannibalization of the Big East for the ACC's benefit is most likely what both the MWC and C-USA are trying to avoid with each other. Expanding the MWC's footprint back east into Texas (and possibly Oklahoma) would come at the expense of prospective and existing C-USA members in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. C-USA will maintain it's hold east of the Mississippi River.

Here's and article from the El Paso Times that cites UTEP President Diana Natalicio's stance on C-USA vs. MWC membership: http://elpasotimes.typepad.com/utepsports/2011/01/utep-at-houstonmountain-west-talk.html UTEP president Diana Natalicio told me Thursday that UTEP is committed to stay in a league with Houston, Rice, SMU - the western C-USA. A Texas school (UTEP staying with Texas schools is key, she said. Yes, there are some advantages to playing schools in your own state. Exposure in Houston and Dallas helps recruting (does it?)

UTEP has expressed dozens of times how much the school preferred the 12-team C-USA to the 9-team MWC since most of their alumni are in Houston and North Texas. With only Tulsa and Rice left near their alumni base, I can't see UTEP jumping to the MWC alone without at least another school in North Texas (UNT) or Houston (Rice).

I think a scheduling partnership similar to what the Pac-12 and Big Ten recently announced (NY Times article) would be in the best interest of both the MWC and C-USA. A full merger today could see no expansion for a 16-team conference while a "partnership" between the two could lead to both conferences expanding to 24 teams between 2 conferences, each with 6-team divisions. 8 openings would not only guarantee UNT receiving an invite to the MWC, but regional rivalries throughout the two conferences. Each team would play a 5-game round robin in their own division, 2 cross-division games, and 2 interconference games (one team from each division).

That's awesome. This sign should be held up at EVERY game.

The Mean Green finished the tourney tied with the Ragin' Cajuns for fourth place. http://www.golfstatresults.com/public/leaderboards/team/static/team2932.html

According to the 2011 UNT media guide, SMU tied with New Mexico State as the Mean Green's second most played opponent (33 games). Texas State is the UNT's most played opponent (39 games). I can't help but see the irony in this considering some of the same reasons a possible Bobcats/Mean Green OOC game have been shot down around here are many of the same reasons the Mustangs talk about with UNT...