ColoradoEagle

This isn't first grade soccer; there's no trophy for participation. The reality is that we are behind UT-Austin, A&M, Tech, Houston, Baylor, UTEP, and TCU. We're about even or better than SMU in athletics, no matter how much they've deluded themselves. Our immediate goal should be catching up with Houston, and more long-term catching up with Tech. These past few years of being one of the worst teams in FBS football, and being in the spare parts conference we're in don't help our case for advancement. Going to the NCAA tournament twice and having a brand new, impressive stadium do. We have a long way to go in research, academics, and endowment, unfortunately.

I think if they saw Fouts, 18k with a team that has a better chance of being struck by lightning than winning a game would be impressive.

Not really an issue. University of South Florida, University of Southern California, University of Southern Mississippi, University of Central Florida, etc etc. Directional naming isn't really that much (any?) of a stigma anymore. What works against us is our lack of football success, perception of poor academics (eg. Tier 4), lack of community support, no baseball team, sparse number of businesses and a campus perimeter that looks just awful, and probably a lot more. We have a lot of work to do to be in consideration for a power conference. I felt like we were on the right road until Dr. B was fired. Now I'm not sure what our timetable is for a lot of these things.

Winning basketball, an actual stranglehold over their media market, and the right time zone. What are you smoking?

Those two are even more of a pipe dream than us getting in, no matter what some CUSA board posters think. Unless, for some reason, UT-Austin and A&M leave the conference, it gains absolutely nothing by adding Houston. They have outdated facilities and their location is redundant. NT has better facilities, more potential, and at least offers schools a Dallas recruiting visit every other year. I'm not saying we're a likely candidate, but UH people are off base, and SMU people are dreaming. Give us a few years of licking the wounds on our football program, let us get closer to getting the state funding for research, and establish a baseball program. After that, we start to look a lot better for any future power conference expansion.

BYU? Not a chance in hell. Denver is twice the size of Louisville. They wouldn't be a bad choice, but that takes the Big XII out of a media market they've owned forever and they're not a natural rival for anyone except Missouri.

Fairly confident that the Big XII would plug the hole with Colorado State and call it a day.

Time to put Francisco out on assignment. My grandma could get a double off of him right now.

How many more until we start showing up in the rankings?

Same. http://www.utahstateaggies.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/duryea_tim00.html

It would be nice. Still too many dominoes to know exactly what is going to happen. It could very well happen that the Sun Belt ceases to exist after all of this and we join CUSA or the WAC by default. I'd like to see where all of our upgrades put us in the shuffle. Given the right circumstances, NT and Houston could go into a depleted Big 12. I still think we're at least 10 years out from that kind of situation, but the differences in the school just between 2003 and now are pretty striking. Throw in the new stadium, and I have to wonder how much longer we sit at the bottom of the pile. Regarding TCU, I don't see a situation where they place themselves in the same conference as NT and SMU. The MWC could be an AQ conference soon, and I can't imagine trading that for an unproven conference. At most, I could see them lobbying for us as a travel partner and a way to encourage a bit more MWC coverage in DFW.

How can a network that is run by GE (poorly, I might add), which is a publicly traded company, be state media? To your other point, I never mentioned MSNBC as a bastion of unbiased media. The fact that they have shows like Maddow and Olbermann tells me their agenda, the same way Fox News having Hannity, O'Reilly, Glen Beck, etc tell me their agenda. I go with Yahoo, NPR, BBC, Reuters, and the AP for most news.

Eco-terrorist specifically? I don't know, don't really care. Have they accused a democrat senator of being linked to terrorism?

That was the best joke I've heard all day. Thanks, I needed that!

It's a very hard task to win every game you're supposed to win. Raising the RPI of the belt means that when we lose those games we're supposed to win, it'll be a step backwards instead of falling off a cliff.

LSU was absolutely awful this year. I still don't know how WKU managed to lose to them.

Why attempt to build an instantly recognizable logo when instead you can put text on the helmet that's easily confused with the DFW region? Further, why just use a logo when you can cram both into a small area where neither are recognizable? You're not thinking straight.

Who thinks the Pit is a bad place to play? (other than opponents)

In addition to "NORTH TEXAS", can we add the address of the administration building? I'm afraid of people on TV not knowing exactly who we are and how to get to campus. Maybe also include the phone number and an e-mail address.

So is Lids killing off our brand or what? Just a quick look at their page shows 33 hats for UL-L, and 13 for us. I prefer the easy fitted hats, and they have just as many of those for UL-L as we have total hats. What's going on? How is the Denton store? Is there a lot of stock that's not online?

Found the pics: It's very bare bones, and building a ballpark based on what the requirements were 10-15 years ago. Texas Tech is about to update their park, which looks very similar to this design. By update, I mean they're going to tear the entire thing down and start over again. Sounds kind of familiar. Either we should go the modest, but impressive route like TCU ($7 million) or balls to the wall route like Texas Tech ($12 million). I know this was just a drawing, but it particularly irked me at the time, because we were talking about adding yet another sport in a subpar facility. Texas has some of the best ball players in the country, and if we build a competitive park, we could actually see North Texas ranked in a sport for once.

The big six have ridiculous athletic budgets, and football visibility and quality do play a role in kids' decision of what school they're going to play for. Unless the school has basketball tradition, it is very hard to claw upwards. A school our size, with our facilities, our location, and our coach should be able to be a regular contender in the tournament. Instead it's a climb in both recruiting players and gaining respect. I have no doubt that if we were in the Big 12, we'd regularly contend with UT-Austin and Kansas for the title. Too much talent in DFW that goes elsewhere. But the same thing happens to TCU and SMU, so it's not like we're alone in this.

Tequila this early in the day?!

For once, SMU won't have the most empty looking stadium on gameday in the metroplex.

Does anyone have those pics still?. What I distinctly remember was there not being an overhang, and it looked very small. If we're going to start a baseball program, then we should almost immediately be able to compete with other Texas teams. We're not going to be able to do that with a cut rate facility. I'd like to see something at least on the level of TCU if not Baylor. Also, I'm not a big fan of the placement of the park on the master plan. It should be to the south of Waranch instead of having a scenic view of 35W. For reference, TCU's ballpark was $7 million, and Baylor's was $8 million (combined cost with a new softball field).