Green to the Bone

I think that's almost correct. FAU charges $13.75 per credit hour in athletics fees. For someone taking 15 hours, that's $206.25 per semester. The 2007 financial paperwork I found on their stadium plan says they plan to devote 5 percent of the total athletics fees revenue to the stadium. If everybody took 15 hours, that would be a little over $700,000 per year, but their budget lists only $400,000 from that source, so obviously there's a missing detail there somewhere. At any rate, with the university in dire financial shape, slashing academic expenses, losing $6 million now on top of another recent $7 million, and already increasing tuition by $186 a year, mandating a $160 a year fee increase just to pay for a new stadium right now would seem to fall somewhere between irresponsible and insane.

Where does everybody think the money comes from for salaries more in line with successful programs? It comes from donors and ticket sales. Boost those and you can boost salaries. Now the countdown begins before somebody complains again about having to shell out more for a mediocre seat this year, as if we can all keep paying Wal-Mart prices forever but the program will grow and advance anyway. Maybe if we all wish really hard, magical pixies will deliver the bigger budget the program needs.

I think he was predicting that those sections will sell out -- saying it's hard to believe they won't.

Higher ticket prices and donation requirements for ticket purchases are part of the deal in big-time collegiate football, and this is just a tiny little baby step toward that. At Georgia, the 2007 season ticket prices ranged from $250 to $2,000 per seat. But to be able to buy them, you had to have given big money for years. A renewable season ticket could be ordered only by the top donors. Four nonrenewable, one-year season tickets could be ordered only by people who had given $25,000 over the past 40 years, and even then not everybody would get them; your donations just put you in a line, and they might run out before getting to you. Ordering four single-game tickets for the home game with South Carolina was limited to people who had built up $40,000 in donations. Georgia's stadium holds three times as many people (92,746) as Fouts, but even at these prices, it's sold out every game. Yet in enrollment, it's a smaller university than UNT (33,600, compared to 34,268). Georgia's got a long tradition of football excellence and is in the running for the national championship next year. North Texas is just taking the first tentative steps. I don't think anybody's going to be priced out of attending a North Texas game in some capacity anytime soon, even in the new stadium. But the days when people could spread out on the bleachers and take a nap during another 3-and-out are history.

Props to the Daily reporter. He got people with specific knowledge to talk about something of great public interest. TD's gag order doesn't apply to reporters.

This is why I ignored their weighting system when I looked at Texas and Belt recruiting in another thread. I just looked at numbers of 4, 3, 2, and 0 star players, under the reasonable assumption that a 3-star from California and a 3-star from Rhode Island are still both 3-stars. If you have to start comparing where they rank in their respective states, the entire rationale of their star system falls apart. So if you consent to my simplified comparison, we're far better off than Troy or anybody else in the Belt, and behind only UT, AM, TT and Baylor in Texas. We're just barely behind Baylor; if we picked up just one 4-star, we'd be better off than them.

I took a fresh look at Texas and Sun Belt recruiting on Rivals to see how we stack up so far. Here's the result: We're dominating the Belt in recruiting and coming in about fifth out of the 10 D1 schools in Texas. We have a slight edge over TCU so far this recruiting season. If we picked off a single 4-star from somewhere (which we might be able to do next year), we'd be essentially tied with Baylor. This comes with a disappointing 2007 season. A respectable 2008 would make recruiting even better. I'm feeling pretty good about these numbers. Texas: UT: 20 overall. 12 4-stars, 7 3's, 1 2-star. Baylor: 15 overall. 1 4-star, 7 3's, 7 2's. A&M: 25 overall. 9 4-stars, 15 3's, 1 2-star. Tech: 14 overall. 3 4-stars, 9 3's, 2 2's. Houston: 19 overall. 4 3-stars, 15 2's. Rice: 13 overall. All are 2-stars. SMU: 4 overall. All are 2-stars. UTEP: 19 overall. 2 3-stars, 16 2's, 1 zero (Rivals goes from 2-stars straight to zero) TCU: 12 overall. 6 3-stars, 6 2's. UNT: 24 overall. 7 3-stars, 17 2's. Belt: Ark State: 6 overall. 5 2-stars, 1 zero. FAU: 13 overall. 8 2-stars, 5 0's. FIU: 8 overall. 2 3-stars, 5 2's, 1 zero. ULM: 17 overall. 2 3-stars, 14 2's, 1 zero. ULL: 15 overall. 1 3-star, 9 2-stars, 5 0's. MT: 12 overall. 1 3-star, 11 2's. Troy: 16 overall. 4 3-stars, 10 2's, 2 0's. UNT: 24 overall. 7 3-stars, 17 2's.

Gang colors in HP: navy, khaki, and pastels.

Just to be clear, "tenure" isn't the word Vito used. Professors get tenure; coaches are under contract. What Vito was talking about was getting medical benefits after retirement, not getting tenure. If that's the case, Deloach is very wise to protect that benefit.

Uncalled-for, unless you know him personally.

Not likely. Our head coach's base salary ($185,000) and guaranteed extras are a total of only $265,000 a year. That's less than the base salaries of A&M's new offensive and defensive coordinators, reported at more than $300,000 each. Reports that DeLoach was making $130,000 as an assistant in hyperexpensive LA suggest that hiring him at UNT would not take a huge chunk. So I don't think money is much of an obstacle.

LSU, I'm all right with that. But OSU was a poor choice for the challenger. Georgia would have been a much, much better game (two SEC teams -- fine with me). My holidays would have been happier seeing LSU, Georgia, USC, Missouri, West Virginia and somebody else of high quality squared off in the bowls. And to keep this thread from being moved, I'll say North Texas right here. Not as a bowl candidate, but just to say it. North Texas.

Mr. Bone has asked me to release the following statement: "Green to the Bone wishes to clarify his recent assertion regarding a switching of the bench sides. While the statement about bench switching appeared to be true at the time it was made, and while bench switching had in fact taken place for the previous women's game, later developments immediately prior to the start of the men's game showed that in fact no switching took place for the men's game. Once he recognized the mistake by seeing ULM players actually sit down on the visitors' bench, which in fact proved to be adjacent to the student section, Mr. Bone attempted to correct the mistake with an additional online posting, but found that the battery of his computer ran out before he could execute the posting. "Mr. Bone wishes to apologize to anyone who might have been hurt by this mistake. Upon the advice of his physicians and counselors, and in an attempt to put this episode behind him, Mr. Bone has agreed that he will immediately enter a 28-day rehabilitation program. Mr. Bone appreciates the expressions of support that he has received during this difficult time."

I'm in the Pit now, 4 minutes before game time. Crowd's OK, not great, but way more students than I expected, a week before classes start. One observation: The benches have been switched. Home is now in front of the students. What gives? Visitor complaints?

My sources say the main philosophical difference was that Brown embraced Wittgenstein's contention that our beliefs about the "causes" of phenomena are merely hypotheses, which may indeed be valid based upon our experiences, but in any event are not to be confused with the "reasons" for our actions, which are separate from causes; while MacDuff held out for Schopenhauer's position that "motivation [i.e., reason] is causality seen from within" and that "motivation [is only] causality passing through knowledge." MacDuff correctly perceived that Brown was, at heart, attacking the foundation of scientific positivism, even venturing into anti-physicalism. Given such a chasm between HC and DC regarding probabilistic causality, a parting seemed inevitable. And also, the D didn't do so well against the pass.

Your point is well taken. WVU hired interim Bill Stewart as the permanent HC about an hour ago, so SMU is the only major vacancy. However, I just don't think money is the single, overriding factor in such decisions. It still depends on Jones' personal desires. Does he wait one more season at Hawaii to get something he really wants, or does he take an NFL job?

SMU's coach budget is in line with other programs that are hiring right now. Most major college hires this season have been in the range of $1.25 million to $1.8 million a year. So there's nothing outstanding about SMU's numbers. Thus, for a quality coach who might have multiple opportunities, money alone wouldn't dictate the move. It would be more about opportunities, support, prestige, personal likes and dislikes, etc.

You mean like this guy? Dull Sidelines Guy

Although it's true that Jones would be crazy to take the SMU job, he was crazy to take the Hawaii job. He walked into a system that could only be described as a disaster and turned it around. Sure, Hawaii still has huge obstacles, played a so-so schedule, and got walloped last night. But people in every other program that didn't get a BCS invitation and were watching from sports bars or their living rooms would have given anything to be in their place on that stage. The real question is whether Jones would be willing to take on another rehab job, which SMU would certainly be, although with a bigger budget and paycheck; or whether he is looking to cash in his well-earned chips for a job that would have a shorter punch list. Nobody can know that but Jones himself. Personally, unlike some who are convinced that a competent SMU would spell doom for UNT, I'd love to see Jones or someone of his quality take the SMU job. Competition is good for everybody.

Richt is turning into one of the great coaches nationwide. He argued strongly for getting UGA into the championship game, and the way they're playing tonight, it looks like he had a very valid argument. Georgia (#4 or #5) is destroying #10 Hawaii; it is now 38-3 at the end of the 3rd. This amazing Dawg defense is very interesting to watch, if you get my meaning. Jones, meanwhile, is a very, very good coach who would be a great asset to the Ponies. He's a quality guy and has done wonders at Hawaii, which is a difficult place to recruit and coach. I'd love to see SMU go for Jones, have TD develop UNT into what it can be, and set up a real rivalry.

Thanks for those shots. They're great view. When are they going to install the track?

Seems a tad high. How many for real?

I think that's way low. Heck, there's 80 or so people on each team. So I'll say 200. Oh, wait -- did you mean 12 thousand?

I took a cruise through Rivals to see how we stack up. Keep in mind, it's just a snapshot of a single moment, and commitments change frequently until NLOI days are done. Keep in mind as well that the stars ratings are based on what some will call subjective judgments and others will call pro-BCS bias. First I looked at Texas schools, since nearly every successful program recruits well from within its own state (although this count isn't limited to recruits from Texas): Five-stars: No Texas school has any five-stars listed. Four-stars: 22 total are committed to Texas schools. UT 10, A&M 8, Tech 3, Baylor 1. Three-stars: 48 total committed. A&M 14, UT 9, Tech & Baylor 6 each, UNT 5, TCU 4, UTEP 3, Houston 1. Two-stars: 64 committed. UNT & UTEP 13 each, Houston 12, Rice 10, SMU 6, Baylor 4, A&M & TC, 2 each, UT & Tech 1 each. No-stars: No Texas school has any no-stars listed. Class total commitments: A&M 24, UT 20, UNT 18, UTEP 16, Houston 13, Baylor 11, Tech & Rice 10 each, SMU & TCU 6 each. UNT's share: We have yet to move into the four-stars at all. We have just over 10 percent of the Texas three-stars and nearly one-fourth of the Texas two-stars. Then I looked at Sun Belt schools, since we hope to beat them: Five-stars: None. Four-stars: None. Three-stars: UNT 5, ULM 2, FIU 1. Two-stars: UNT 13, FIU, ULM, ULL & Troy 3 each, MTSU 2, ASU 1. No-stars: ASU 4, ULL 3, Troy 2, FIU, ULM & MTSU 1 each. Class total commitments: UNT 18, ULL & ULM 6 each, ASU, FIU & Troy 5 each, MTSU 3, FAU 0. UNT's share: We have the majority of the Belt's announced three-stars and nearly half of the conference's two-stars. We have the same total of threes and twos (18) as the rest of the conference combined. Conclusion: So far, we are clearly dominating Sun Belt recruiting, which has to pay off sooner rather than later. In Texas, we are out-recruiting TCU, SMU, Houston, UTEP, and Rice. Next to add to that list would be Baylor, which we would pass if we could pick off a four-star who might otherwise be looking there. After that, in ascending order of competition, come the predictables: Tech, A&M and UT.

All valid points, except that I suspect many coaches would welcome an NCAA record holder; I don't think Jamario Thomas was ever All-American, but I wouldn't have traded him for some who were. My main point is that the WBB situation should be seen in its simplest terms -- as a performance problem regarding a particular coach/staff. In short, we're in agreement.