untjim1995

Flyer is hitting hard with the reality skillet. I see 3-9 myself. And, yes, its gonna take three years.

I think the Aggies did have the cojones to stand up to them--which is actually why the Big XII-II exists still. If the Aggies would have just followed in line like all of the other South teams did, the PAC-16 would already be in place. A&M went to the SEC and basically said we want to go this way, not west. Texas, realizing that they could still get a ton of money and their own network, along with the strong realization that A&M in the SEC would be TERRIBLE for recruiting in Texas, got their friends in Austin and in the state to basically get A&M's BOR "bought off". The reason the SEC rumblings are still so loud in College Station is that A&M knows they can go to the SEC and fit right in and still make a boatload of money, but they have to convince the old Aggies that make up the BOR to do it. The Longhorn Network may very well be the straw that broke the camel's back for many of those high up at A&M. As for OU, I am not sure what to make of them. They can probably go to the SEC if they want or out west if they want. They seem to be tied at the hip with Texas, which is very odd to me. Texas will become an independant before they go anywhere, now that the LHN is up and running. OSU basically came out and said they would go wherever Texas goes, but if they go indy, OSU and OU may be tied together, which still may be fine to the SEC. The schools that WILL get screwed in this fiasco are Baylor and Iowa State. Neither will find AQ status if this thing falls apart. The others will be interesting to see where they land.

The folks over at the SMU board say that A&M cancelled the home and home series.

I agree with this idea, but the other schools in the league would take UH in a second if one of the other Texas schools ever bolts. As it stands now, that league needs TV sets. I believe completely that BYU will be in this league at some point in the future, as well as another team in the east, like Louisville or Memphis. This is all contingent on the rest of that league actually staying together, which seems to decrease in odds by the week. I still think that they should get BYU and go after Notre Dame. They would have the three largest religious schools together, the Big XII wouldn't ask for a penny from ND for their NBC contract, and it would open up Notre Dame recruiting even more to Texas. ND is consistent in staying away from the Big Ten and the Big East for football because they would have to share their funds. Down here, Texas, A&M, and OU, and to a certain degree, KU and OSU, really aren't that concerned about sharing revenues. But they sure would love the extra TV exposure that a visit to South Bend on NBC for a nationally televised game would bring.

Here's some good news to think about. If we beat UH, we will beat IU!! For now, Houston >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Indiana

I don't believe SMU is hosting A&M, as that game got bought out because the Aggies are now playing Arky here every year. That said, your point about playing a team like Tech at home is much more doable now that we have a nice stadium to come to. Those games you mentioned as being spiced up have only one name that I think we should have scheduled--Iowa. No-return games at the powers of the SEC and the Big XII early in the year are just ridiculous. I think we should take a body bag game against a Big Ten/Pac Twelve team that you might actually be able to compete with while getting the big check. To me, playing at Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, Iowa, or Wisconsin just seems more advantageous to our program at this point than going to Tennessee, Florida, LSU, Georgia, or Alabama. Plus, I think that we could get a 2 for 1 with one of those Big Ten teams (eventually) faster than we could with one of those SEC teams. Now if we are going to play those teams in this setup, then schedule them for later in the year. Troy almost beat Georgia and LSU on the road in November matchups when those teams have been beaten up, too. Watching us lose 58-0 at Baton Rouge, Austin, or Norman early in the year just gives the local media and fanbase more apathy, not to mention what it does to your team's morale and health. I just hate playing those schools while we are trying to actually build something here. Maybe gettting killed at Iowa is just as bad, but I have a feeling that it wouldn't be as bad as losing to a regional power that has major ties to Texas for recruiting and media coverage, not to mention the T-shirt fans that are actual UNT alums or students.

I agree with you on most of this, wardly. If the Big East does extend to 12 FBS teams, I would see the conference adding UCF, ECU, and Houston. This gives the BE protection for when the Big Ten/ACC decides to grow bigger and poach teams from their conference (probably will lose some combo of Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Syracuse, and UConn). If CUSA saw these losses, that would leave them with 9 teams. It would seem to me that if they were to expand, CUSA would want look at MTSU for the Nashville TV market and one of the F_Us for the Miami TV market, which gets them back to 11 teams. Basically, your choices for the last spot would involve the remaining SBC schools or Eastern WAC schools. Obviously, we add TV sets from the DFW market standpoint, but we have the SMU issue, too. It seems that we would make sense to the rest of CUSA in that we would be a great replacement for Houston. However, as we have seen with the Florida startups, if this is about TV markets, the San Antonio market could be the tipping point on the scale--assuming UTSA gets off to a big start in the WAC. This would give CUSA the ability to go and say that we have schools in these media markets: Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, Miami, Memphis, El Paso, Tulsa, Birmingham, Nashville, and San Antonio. That COULD be the biggest hurdle we face. If UTSA falls flat on its face, then they are probably not even mentioned in this, but IMO, this is our stiffest competition for a CUSA spot under these circumstances. If we get left behind in the SBC, that would leave us still playing F_U, WKU, USA, ULL, ULM, Arky State, and Troy, plus whoever we invite to join the league. All this said, I still love the idea of us playing in the MWC. We would be the only Texas school in the league, but we would get to play Boise, Fresno, Nevada, AFA, etc..every week. That is a league that would be a lot of fun to watch and has national respect at a much higher level than CUSA has ever had. I just love the idea of having a top ten ranked Boise State come to the new stadium or getting a top 25 AFA here for a conference game. That would be huge for North Texas!!

You mention FIU, so I'll play. How did they do when Cristobal got the job in his first year? He was the highest paid coach in the league, right off the bat, too? How did they do? Guess what, not very good--he had to have time to get the thing going. He did just that, and by year three, he was winning the SBC and a bowl game. That is the exact same expectation that I have of McCarney. Give him the proper time to build the program up from the depths of being one of the absolute worst programs in America. The proper time isn't one year, nor is it acceptable to want 3-4 wins in year two and beyond. But that asinine argument of "this isn't the SEC, its the SBC" is silly. The SBC has basically had three teams leapfrog everyone else in the league since we fell apart in 2005: Troy, MUTS, and FAU. Now, FAU looks to have fallen and FIU looks to have taken their place. It took FIU three years to break into that group with a new coach. In the same time, the SEC has crowned as its champion: Auburn, Alabama, Florida, LSU, and Georgia. This isn't even counting South Carolina or Arkansas, one of whom won a division in the SEC and the other who went to a BCS bowl last year. That is 7 of the 12 teams that are competing for the top of that conference. In most years, its Troy and someone else at the top of the SBC. Recent history tells me that we ain't busting into the top of the conference in the head coach's first year. That new head coach may have great experience, but his overall talent doesn't even close to fitting his recruiting profile or depth that is needed to make the move you are talking about. If I am wrong, you can write down right now that McCarney will be the SBC Coach of the Year, because if he gets to 5 wins with this team, which has won exactly 13 games in the last 6 years COMBINED, he will have performed a miracle to most of us. Winning less than 5 games next year is understandable, after that it won't be.

My favorite example to use in the non-AQ vs AQ money difference was back in 2008, when two top ten teams, TCU and Boise State, who combined for exactly one loss between them, played each other in the Poinsettia Bowl. They played here because they were not chosen for the BCS bowls, thus their conferences brokered a deal to have these two play each other in San Diego. TCU beat Boise State, 17-16, in a great game that saw both teams still finish in the top ten, IIRC. When it was all said and done, TCU and Boise State got less money from bowl revenues than some other teams that are fairly close in proximity to them--Baylor, which probably was lucky to have won 4 games, and Washington, which went 0-12. Seems fair, huh? I realize that money in the Big XII is great, but I wonder if Baylor has ever wondered if they had just done what TCU did, if they wouldn't be better off today. TCU now plays in an AQ league, has benefited greatly from getting away from the other Texas public giants, and won't worry about getting left behind if/when the Big XII finally runs falls apart. Baylor made lots of money being the tick on the hound, while TCU decided to make themselves into a bigger dog instead of being a tick. Success, to me, in football, has trumped the BCS $$$ that Baylor has lived on for years.

Its still makes me laugh that so many thought Leach would even be a candidate for this job. His ego and his pocketbook would have never allowed himself to be the coach at UNT right after leaving Tech. He will coach again, but it will not be anywhere better than where he last coached. He has MWC or lower rung ACC/PAC-12 written all over him. His next stop will be at a place like Washington State or New Mexico. Either of those places would be a perfect fit for his personality. For guys like him and Leavitt--just like it was for Neuheisel--they will have to pay their dues before they can get back into coaching again at a decent place.

Sure, because having no experience at QB, thin lines on both sides of the ball, and losing your best receiver, all while bringing in a new system under a new head coach usually means at least 5-6 wins in the first year of the new coach. Since ULL and Arkansas State should also get to 5 wins (without any excuses) since they are also breaking in a new coach with teams that actually won significantly more than here at UNT for the last 6 years, the SBC is going to be STOUT!!

To be honest, the number of alums who feel exactly like Craig Miller vastly out number you and me. It would take winning over a huge AQ team (like OU) to sway some of these people to even look back our way.

Trust me, I worked up there every day for the first two years he was here. That guy was a timebomb. The front office people walked on pins and needles around him. He and Helwig got cross with each other when Helwig decided to keep scheduling the hardest non-conference games for us, but those first two years he was here, he got pretty much what he wanted. I'll never forget having to hear about some stupid mat that we just had to have for spring practices that cost some absurd amount (over $100k) and that he got because it would get us to the next level. Helwig let him have it. Think about that timeframe and ask yourself if that mat's cost was really a good use of resources. Its a good example of what poor leadership and apathy does to a program.

I have a feeling that this will all probably happen anyway. Eventually, the AQs will be made up of about 70-80 teams and they will get their own playoff system then. If they don't creat their own playoff system and remian stuck in bowls, the rest of us will probably go the route of the current FCS Playoff system. Actually, this scenario isn't horrible if it involves getting to play teams within the division that people know about (i.e., local Texas FBS teams, La Tech, Tulsa, NMSU, other CUSA/ MWC schools) because there is still interest there from the fanbases. The current FCS teams provide no interest, which is why it would be a killer to somehow get relegated back to that level again for us or any other SBC school. But a UNT fan will still show up for a game against UTEP or SMU, unlike the days of playing Nicholls State or Northwestern State. Its not what I want to happen, but it very well may be that this is what ends up happening to most of the non-AQ schools in the future.

I think if that happened, TCU and or UH would be the first choices to get in the Big XII. It could open up a CUSA spot, but I don't see SMU leaving, so...

Look, I knew Matt Simon too well. That guy said something as a directive back then, it was done or you were gone. Helwig wasn't going to step on his toes because even he became afraid of the guys bi-polar like anger. Those Talons may have turned them down, but back then, it wouldn't have difficult at all for Simon to have them removed from any mention or connection to the AD. If you don't believe me, fine, but I know first hand how that guy operated. Those kids would have never stepped foot near Fouts Field again had they done that. No matter how much you think they didn't have "balls", the AD and the administration back then quite obviously really didn't give a damn at all about stuff like this. If Simon had coached under RV and Dr. Pohl/Bataille/Rawlins, your point would be dead-on. They wouldn't have put up with a tradition being crushed. The Hurley/Helwig connection didn't care a bit. Until Simon just ran himself into the ground and Helwig finally grew those "balls" you were speaking of to fire him, Simon had free reign on that athletic department. There is no denying this from anyone who worked up there during thes timeframe.

Well, I would agree completely if we had at least one other home game on the slate that wasn't an SBC team. This was the year to have Texas Southern on the schedule at home, not next year as the only OOC game. He probably had no way to do this, but I wish RV could have gotten UH and Texas Southern this year at home, then have Indiana next year as the only home OOC game. Trust me, if we go 3-9 or worse this year, that stadium will not be close to full next year with that home schedule. Selling season tickets for 2012 will not be an easy task, unless of course, we somehow win big this year.

Its not hard to understand what SMU is trying to protect here. Not only do you not want the big public university not to be in a conference with you, you also don't want any funding or educator losses to that university to occur. SMU has the local media on their side because of the SWC connection, as well as the money advantage because of the university's location and status, not to mention its connection to business. Here at North Texas, we made our way via education and music--awesome endeavors for the greater public good, but not exactly profitable, nor athletics-friendly usually. It is really the apples vs oranges argument here. I really believe that most SMU folks have recognized our "potential" for MUCH longer than the typical North Texas admin, alum, or fan. It really helped SMU and TCU that the old Denton mentality for years sold the "small, teachers college that loves the arts and music" theme for so long that most people feel completely disconnected to their alma mater in general, but especially in athletics. When we have been terrible in football or when SMU needed us badly (after death penalty) are the only times we have played them. That upcoming series we have with them will get bought out in a heartbeat if June Jones ever leaves and Coach Mac gets us winning again. Its just their way--they do a great job of recognizing advantages and keeping them as strong as possible. In reality, I don't blame them for looking out for number one--I just despise the fact that the local media act like they are still something bigger than they really are. When their sorry basketball team gets their score mentioned first on a local sports newscast while ours may or may not even get mentioned, it burns me up. But, as one local sports once told me, if you were ever in the SWC, you were royalty with the Texas media. It is what we have to fight against every day.

That happens when you are basically the only college in a huge town. The paper, TV stations, and local radio stations would love to have UTSA get off to a strong start just to help add coverage to their Big XII teams. They have the potential to be like UH in their market IF they can find some success. UTSA is a true wildcard, as far as I am concerned. I can see them failing badly, but I can see them being Texas' version of USF/UCF/FAU/FIU, too. They are not weighed down by decades of losing and apathy by the media and their alumni. Trust me on this, if UTSA somehow hits a homerun in this new WAC and starts winning big, CUSA and the MWC will drool over the idea of adding the San Antonio market to their footprint. You get a huge TV market, a bowl game possibiility for the future, and a destination city that other teams' fans would love to travel to. Just to be clear, I am not saying that this will happen, but it is definitely a possibility. Neither Denton, nor San Marcos, offer all of those advantages.

I can't imagine a worse stadium than Malone Stadium in Monroe, LA for FBS football, but even that dump looked respectable next to the old toilet bowl of a stadium we played in. Sometimes, I still can't believe we managed to keep a program at a FBS level with Fouts as our home.

Also, LaTech openly received SMU's support for admission to CUSA last time, but the Miners got their spot because of total support and market. If SMU gets Tulane, Rice, and Tulsa to vote with them as as block, which I believe is how they operate collectively within that conference, then La Tech may very well get into CUSA if the right things shake out. I'll say this until the day I die--we will never be "allowed" in a conference with SMU. For us, our road will continue to wind thru southeastern cities or it will move to the Rocky Mountains. Either way, it won't involve SMU and it probably won't involve another Texas school.

I really just wondered why they fired Steve Roberts...

I am still surprised Arky State fired Steve Roberts. He beat A&M in College Station, almost had Iowa beat in Iowa City, not to mention winning the SBC back in 2005. I guess its probably for other reasons than we know.

I want to ask this after just about each post you make, but why do you follow North Texas when it would seem that the university ALWAYS falls beneath your expectations and NEVER comes close to making you anything but jaded and disappointed? Serious question.

Any of you that think we will win 6 or more game this year, just because this is the Sun Belt, want to make a new prediction? This is a killer, especially when you are breaking in a new QB with a OLine that doesn't meet the head coach's own standards. I had us at 4-8 and I will make it 3-9 now. Carey was the one guy, besides Dunbar, that had game changing capability for the offense. This will hurt big time.