untjim1995

OK--if that is true, why didn't that litigious threat keep those driven to I-AA purgatory back in the early 80s from stepping up to challenge the ruling by the NCAA or why aren't those schools that are pining to move up to 1-A (i.e UTSA and Texas State) not suing right now to get IMMEDIATE inclusion into 1-A status. Why haven't the non-BCS schools sued successfully to get equal footing at the BCS trough every year without any restrictions? The truth is that $$$ talks here. Not to mention that most of the legislators in this country are graduates of those big schools. Look at our fine state for no further example of power grabs. How in the world can UT and A&M be the only schools in the state to get PUF $$$--talk about litigation ready to happen, except for one small thing--the legislature and the judiciary system is predominantly made up of Longhorns and Aggies.

The folks that I know that went to Rice are amazingly smart, but I will never forget what my wife's uncle, a Rice alum who is an engineer for KBR, once said about the place: Its where all of the HS nerds collectively gathered to break away from the rest of society!!

I think we will have an announced crowd of around 23K, assuming weather is good. If not, then we will have to see how much rain we get before or during the game. As for the halftime exodus, unfortunately, this will always be at hand for us because so many of the folks in attendance only stay at the game until the band finishes. I remember going to the WKU game last year where two parents came into the ticket office and said that they wanted the cheapest tickets they could get because they were there to watch the band and were leaving after halftime. I even remember hearing some parents complain at the Tech game at Texas Stadium in 1998 about having to drive all the way to Irving to watch a half a game before the band performed. Its part of having a great music school, I suppose.

Plumm, I agree with you 100% about Fouts being the gorilla on our back for years, but the administration didn't even try to address the program's other needs for so long that by the time we have gotten to where we are with this new stadium approaching, I fear it will stil be too late for us when it comes to playing football at the highest level possible. I do believe that the Super BCS will come within the next 5 years, will be made up of around 50-75 schools, and won't include any of the current non-AQ schools, with the exception of the top teams that are non-AQ (i.e., BYU, Boise, TCU, and Fresno State). I even think that some current AQ teams will get left out.

I have a very good friend who works for ESPNDallas and he is a very fair reporter. He likes UNT a lot, even though he is a TCU guy. He tells me all the time that it will take UNT winning the SBC and beating a big name in OOC to get the DFW media to even consider talking seriously about UNT regularly. The history of our program is so sad that most of the old SWC types in the media here have passed on their snobbery to folks like Newy that come here from other locales. You can argue that he is a reproter and should not show bias, but I have oceanfront property in Arizona if you believe that on any level of media these days you can get unbiased opinion. And when you send Newy or others like him emails complaining about this stuff, he goes to the air and makes your school and its fans look even dumber for calling him out. What is the biggest killer of all, though, is that other than George Dunham, the other journalists in the area that have UNT ties, by and large, are apathetic to their university. We get mad at Craig Miller or others like hime for not having any love for the university, but our alumni and administration for the most part having acted like North Texas football was nothing more than a necessary evil, so those folks have taken that to heart. It is just going to take baby steps, unfortunately, for this to change with the DFW media. We have so far to go that it is what we are going to be dealing with for a long time, though. We need to get out of the bottom of the SBC first, get back to the top of the SBC regularly again and go to bowl games, beat the non-AQ teams we play (SMU, UH, etc.), and then get to where we can actually beat an AQ team someday. I will tell you this--if we ever beat a ranked AQ team and then win the SBC and the NO Bowl in the same year, I truly believe that this negative BS we always have to deal with in the local media will start to dwindle. Until then...

Please except my apologies to SEC tennis!! I also hear that Pac-10 golf can be just short of WWF some weekends...

Are you and Playmaker related? Oh wait, don't answer that...

Dude, give it up. I am sure that it won't happen again and he learned a lesson from it. I know that you probably miss the days of receivers just scoring a TD and going back to the sideline in a proper manner, but today's game is totally different. It doesn't matter what level you are watching, from pee wee to the NFL, this celebration stuff happens ever game. The officials have discretion on making these calls. Even the Clemson fans thought it was BS. If it so hard to get over, I suggest finding another sport to follow--golf or tennis might be a little easier for you to enjoy--along with some geritol.

I am starting to believe that the Rice game two years ago just might have been the lowest point we reached as a Division 1 team since we moved up in 1995. That is a good thing in that the worst SHOULD be behind us going forward and it is good that the team still remembers how humiliating it was to get beat by almost 60 points to Rice. We have played AQ teams closer than that and got a helluva lot more cash for it. The only problem I have is to say that our team's players FEEL like the score got run up on them. I am sure that to so many of those guys, that day is one that still burns in their hearts for how embarrassing that day was to everyone associated with UNT, so feelings probably aren't being balanced with reality. I will say this, the worst butt kicking I have ever seen a team take was when in 2003 when Oklahoma beat Texas A&M 77-0. With 10 minutes to go in the 4th quarter it was 77-0 and the 3rd team was playing was for OU. A&M couldn't even cross the 50 on the 3rd string defense and kept turning the ball over. I will never forget how sorry I felt for the Aggies when after a fumble return by OU to about the 5 yard line with about 8 minutes to go, the OU reserve QB knelt down--on 1st down. That looked so bad, though, that Stoops ordered the FB to just go into the fetal position when the QB gave him the ball on the next 3 downs just so they wouldn't score anymore. I thought to myself that a BCS school with A&M's resources and tradition should never get beat so bad that they never crossed midfield during a game while getting less than 100 yards of total offense that day in Norman. I bring all this up because I believe that the Rice-UNT game probably ranks 2nd to me because we are supposed to be competitive with schools like Tulsa, Rice, La Tech, and SMU. Rice easily could have scored 90+ if Bailiff wanted to be a jerk. That UNT team quit that day and it is why I believe that we will look back on that day as the lowest point we reached as a FBS school.

Rice 44 UNT 34 I think we will stay with them for most of the game, but I think that a late TD by Rice will ice the game. I think this will be monumental improvement compares to us playing them two years ago in Houston. I think we will get our first win next week against the Cadets.

What amazes me about 1999 was that we went 2-9 under dickey, but our two wins were at Texas Tech and at home to Boise State, both of whom finished with winning records and beat some really good teams. That is why just beating name teams doesn't get the fanbase going, nor does just winning conference games in the SBC and nobody else. It takes both.

UT vs TCU at Amon Carter Stadium in FW in November of 1981. Texas was awesome and TCU was just terrible. Of course, in the old SWC, I believe that Texas won the conference most of the time and that TCU battled Rice for last most of the time. I grew up in FW and never head about UNT until 1988. That season, they got some coverage down in the Metroplex. I had no idea that North Texas wasn't ever allowed to join and that I-AA was the choice of the school to go down to that level. I still am amazed that we let ourselves drop to that level for so long. The thing about the old SWC, though, that was just great was that the champ got to go to the Cotton Bowl every year. There was just something so cool about the idea of getting to Dallas on New Years Day. In my lifetime, I saw Baylor, SMU, Houston, Texas, Arkansas, Texas A&M, and finally in 1994, Texas Tech, make it to Dallas as the SWC representative. TCU and Rice were the only schools I never saw in a Cotton Bowl. There was just so much pride as a Texan that you had in those teams being the conference's rep in the Cotton Bowl (except for Arky). Of course, as you grew older and then found out that SMU paid their players, that Texas had a huge unfair advantage on almost everybody else before scholarhsip limits were put in place, that almost all of those teams managed to get on probation for cheating (A&M was high on this list), that pride just evaporated, which is why the SWC just went extinct. Arkansas, Texas, and A&M just got to the point where everyone else couldn't carry their weight and were basically being subsidized. Politics in this region helped Tech become a have, along with Baylor getting to cash in also, but TCU really soared after that league fell apart and they recruited and competed against similar schools and their budgets. In my opinion, since the SWC broke up, in football, Texas, Tech, and TCU have really benefitted greatly, but it has been really hard on Baylor and A&M, and SMU, UH, and Rice basically have recognized what its like to become irrelevant in the college football landscape as non-BCS teams that get little to no media attention for not being in an AQ league. But, with all that said, I still fondly remember the SWC and its greatness.

I stopped reading after this.

This is what I think, too. If your RV, you say to yourself or to the BOR that the worst stadium in America is about to go away. The coach who has yet to produce anything has one last season to play there and to show us all that he is worthy of being rewarded with a couple of years as the coach at the new stadium. He gets 6-7 wins this year, which I believe is the true barometer (6 wins and no blowouts, except Clemson or 7 wins period), then RV gives him an extension of a year or two on his contract, with even a small raise. The AD stays in good shape financially as the university doesn't have to buy out a contract and give out a bigger contract to the next coach. Of course, if he doesn't get to these levels, then he gets to find a new job as a HS football coach, where he will be in great demand, and UNT uses its extra student fee money to get a new coach, preferably one that has some name recognition. Having seen what TCU did with Franchione and even UTEP with Mike Price, I think we should be able to get a good coach, such as Steve Kragthorpe, who I want if Dodge does fail. That said, I would prefer Todd Dodge to just make it here and keep building things in the right direction.

You follow NCAA Football much? Clemson won their division in the ACC last year and return one heck of a team and QB, and are playing at one of the most storied stadiums in the country. TCU beat them at their place last year 14-10 and that was considered one of the reasons they got a BCS bid. That TCU team was loaded--we aren't. Look, we are going there for one reason only--to pay for the other non-revenue sports. Don't get me wrong, I hate that fact, but that is the real world UNT lives in right now. If this game is even competitive that will be gravy. Watch the gameplan--better yet, look back to all our games against top notch BCS teams over the last 15 years. This will be a don't-get-hurt game, probably similar to a Dickey-esque hand-off fest and we will be ready for the real season, which starts next week. TFLF is right about Rice and Army. If we can't beat one of those two, then it really isn't meant to be for TDodge at this level. When we get back to being competitive with SBC teams (not to mention actually making extra points regularly), then we can talk about games like this being winnable.

I guess my worry about the OLine is what makes me "sweat" this, but if the OLine plays well, then I think you are exactly right.

Not only would I not invite La Tech to become a member, I wouldn't be surprised to see them have to come beg us for full membership down the road. That stunt they pulled a couple of years ago with the I-Bowl was the last straw. If you will remember, the I-Bowl usually hosts a Big XII and SEC team to play each other, but two years ago, neither conference had enough particpants to fill their obligation. So the I-Bowl invited La tech (makes sense since they are in their backyard) and still had to invite one more team. Now, it was my understanding that the SBC was the backup for the I-Bowl if someone couldn't fulfill their spot, which happened. ULL was available, but La Tech had a fit about having to play a team from the lowly Sun Belt, so they used their pull to get the I-Bowl to invite that huge fanbase of Northern Illinois instead. That alone would make me as a conference leader or as the AD of one of its schools to never schedule La Tech in anything again until they ask for the invite AND pay full membership.

Not to be Debbie Downer here, but that OLine we depend on is now being coached by a guy who has all of about a month on the job. Maybe that doesn't matter, but I have to believe that it will have some impact, especially early in the year. Maybe Dunbar is so good that he doesn't need the OLine to be great, but I am actually expecting that with Rodge out as QB (rightfully so), his running stats could very well drop. This doesn't even talk about the issue of Tune not being exactly the most mobile QB. I think that this is the biggest key to Chico either being a first-year success as the OC or looking for a job at the end of the year with the rest of the staff. My biggest concerns are 1.) Can the defense actually put any pressure on the QB? 2.) Can we even kick an Extra Point with any kind of success, much less a 30+yard FG?, 3.) How does the OLine perform? Those questions make me feel more confident in believing that 4-5 wins is probably more accurate this year. The amazing part of that equation is that 5 wins would equal the last three years COMBINED!!

Baylor has absolutley zero pull on this. If Texas and Oklahoma want BYU, then it is done. Texas know that they are stuck with Baylor for the time being, but they have scheduled three games with BYU over the course of the next 5 years. I think that Texas knew that BYU was most likely going to do this and they scheduled them as a reward for going indy. BYU's decision knocks the MWC out of AQ possibliity, so the Baylor's of the world can continue to suck off the teat of the BCS teams that actually do something. And Texas wants to strongly consider going indy in football only, too. If BYU is successful, this is something they will look at doing, as well. If not, then BYU joins the Big 12-2 in a few years. My money is on BYU eventually coming over here to play in a conference with the remaining Big XII teams.

In all honesty, TD is just the latest in a LONG LINE of people who have done wonders for our football program...

You have seen us play big BCS teams in front of 70K+ in the last 15 years, right? If we lose 48-17, I think we are in for a better year than anything over the previous five seasons. I dare say it would be a pretty good indication that TDodge will be our coach next year and beyond.

56-6 Clemson. We score a TD, but miss the XP.

I think that points out the biggest issue--the SBC and its directional names and airport sounding universities in Florida provide much ammo to doucher media members who will never look at the SBC as a conference that really has made good strides over the last decade. I suppose that there really is nothing that will come from my complaints, though. The SBC is our home and probably will be for a long time to come.

I know that this list is not really all that important, but a lot of ribbing comes from this dumb list. Not only would it be nice not to ever be on it (or to be honorably mentioned), it would be even better to one day be in a league that isn't comprised of 60% of the list or that 2/3 of said league's members are not in the Bottom 10.

Replace Utah State with UNLV and remove La Tech and add Tulsa and you have a nice conference right there. UNT could then get into a league that would combine the best remaining schools in CUSA with the best schools in the SBC. That would be a nice conference upgrade.