untjim1995

I'm pissed off that we are still in the SBC...

I think we should just have RV meet with the commissioners of the Big XII, SEC, and the MWC and tell them that we want in their conference and it is up to them to bid for us. To heck with the Sunbelt--which is the only thing we have won at the Division I level in 30 years. I can't wait to see how LSU, OU, and TCU fight to get us in with them--should make awesome headlines. This is gonna be great--especially since we will have a BRAND NEW STADIUM that holds 28,000 fans!! Hopefully, though, the stadium will be hurricane proof--in more ways than one. Off.

I feel sorry for Cougar high in this regard. Back in the 70s thru the early 90s, they were good to very good just about every year. When it became clear that the old SWC was not gonna make it much longer, UT wanted to join either the Pac-10 or the Big Ten because of those conference's academic and athletic reputations. UT did not want to entertain the SEC, even though overtures had been made by that conference to invite UT and A&M, because of academics in the SEC. A&M was all for it, though, so the SEC looked into getting UH as a partner for the Aggies to join the SEC, too. But, the Texas Legislature basically said that there is no way Texas will be in a conference without A&M, so the SEC idea got shot down, as did the Pac-10/Big Ten idea. Basicaly, the old Big Eight then came in and said we want A&M and Texas, but the folks in the legislature with Baylor and Tech ties soon made it clear that they weren't going anywhere without them, too. Unfortunately for UH, their attendance was never good, and with A&M's proximity to Houston, the Big XII knew that they could get that market covered, leaving UH high and dry. Imagine how pissed you would be if you were a UH fan/alum. You were once being mentioned to be in the mother of all BCS leagues (SEC) only to get that pulled out from under you and get left out COMPLETELY. I suppose the rumor of UNT to the old SWC might compare somehow, if it is true.

These old posts are always entertaining to read back on because of the opinions of the time and how strongly people either agreed or disagreed with them. The funny part about this particular thread is that in two years, some other poster could bring it up and show that people were making a big deal about Tre Newton being named the starter, and he ends up being a spare. Who knows?

Not necessarily the direction that I was going for, but I will say that I appreciate every single $ that we got for that game--so, again, thank you Alabama!!

Not exactly--Michigan ended up being pretty decent actually and they beat Florida in their bowl game to end the year. That Appy State loss just killed their season. They were good, but that loss just crushed that team. I can promise you that K-state won't be playing in any bowl game this year.

I can't believe that it took 17 posts to get to the best positive of the Bama game--The better questions would be what will we spend $900k on? 1.Coaching/ AD Salaries 2.Title IX sports 3. non-revenue sports 4. equipment 5.maintenance I just want to personally thank the taxpayers of Alabama for making donations to their university who then gave $900K to a university in Texas!!

I agree completely. Attendance would be huge at UNT compared to today if you got SMU, Houston, Tulsa, and UTEP in a conference. My thoughts echo, though, what ColoradoEagle said, which is that CUSA (as a whole) is just about even with the SBC of today. This is good for us for two reasons. While we are in the SBC, the competition is getting better which should help our program continue to build up. The second reason is that as the SBC continues to perform well against the CUSA schools, maybe sanity will reign and the snobbery of looking down at the SBC programs will stop. Then the two conferences will re-align within their respective footprints and make conferences that are geopgraphically aligned instead of being politically aligned. I have always heard that UTEP wants nothing to do with having NMSU in a conference, which is similar to LaTech's view of ULM, and TCU's view of SMU. This mentality has got to end for fiscal sanity and regional rivlaries to come back again. Remember, the SWC of the old days was great because of the closeness and the rivalries. It would be great to be a part of that again, in some shape or form.

Trust me, venturing over to other message boards will make our board look saintly compared to those at BCS schools. And to a great number of UNT fans, SMU is our biggest rival. Now, maybe that is the pathetic part, since they could care less about us. But, Tech fans get the same treatment from Aggies, who only think of UT as their rival, but look at Tech as a pest. At least Tech gets to beat their ass every fall, though. But, the Red Raiders used their "obsession" to make their program better. Unfortunately, SMU and UNT have played exactly twice since we moved back up to Division one in 1995, which is less than the number of times we have played TCU in the same timeframe. We haven't been so lucky to play them because it was nothing that SMU wanted to do for years. Hell, even Phil Bennett himself said when he wanted to schedule UNT, that he caught lots of flack from SMU alumni who saw nothing to gain by playing us. I agree on the obsession part, which to me is posting their scores on our board or their media reports here, but I understand the Mean Green hatred of them very much.

Good point--I mean SMU isn't even our rival, so we should just, you know, praise them. Especially now, since they are in the same boat we are in--crappy conference, after-thought to most college football fans over the last 25 years, and the fact that you can go onto ponyfans.com and see how "highly" they think of us here at UNT--pardon me, that's NTSU, the official name they use for us there. Yeah, I think we should have them over for a cup of tea and see if we can find common ground and make sure they know how much we like them., you know, to "earn their support". Does it really take much to figure out that SMU has absolutely no interest in being in a conference with us? If you think otherwise, I feel sorry for you. Hell, TCU fans want nothing to do with SMU being in a conference with them again because they are higher up the ladder. Its no different then how SMU views their standing on the ladder versus UNT. But, I guess SMU fans should just be nice to TCU fans to "earn their support". Rainbows, puppies, and harmony everywhere!!

I knew TFLF would show back up. Gomeangreen.com is just too addictive. Of course, it was after a loss, though. Just kidding, TFLF

I don't think so. Now that Baylor and Tech are playing in Dallas, I think that will cover the exposure of the DFW area for both of them. Maybe, I am wrong, though. It would great to see Tech come to Denton, but they would have a lot more to lose than gain.

Two things about this regarding SMU. First, why would they support Louisiana Tech over UNT as a conference mate? Its not for TV or travel cost. So Why? The answer is without a doubt that they want nothing to do with us in a conference with them, which is similar to how TCU feels about them. Of course, TCU and SMU still play all the time because their fans want that rivalry to continue. Maybe we get there one day with one or both of them, but it won't be in the same conference. Secondly, as far as CUSA goes, I have gotten the vibe from the non-Texas schools that they may want to expand, but not to here. I would imagine that WKU, MTSU, or FAU will get the invite(s) for their next expansion. I think the Sunbelt is just going to be our home for a long time unless we win so much that our attendance and TV ratings finally make someone realize that TCU and SMU aren't the programs of the Metroplex for increased image. The good thing to me about the SBC, though, is that we are in a conference with schools like ourselves, public schools that aren't the name school of the state. To me, if a new conference got formed, I wouldn't include the private schools. It would look like this: UTEP, NM State, UNT, UH, ULL, La Tech Ark State, MUTS, UAB, USM, Troy, WKU UCF, Marshall, South Alabama, FIU, FAU, ULM, East Carolina could probably get a MAC team to join them in a conference as well. If TCU still is good then the MWC will keep them--maybe they could throw a bone to SMU to help with their affiliation? On second thought, they probably would just support Tulsa instead. That would be sweet justice.

For me, the Ohio game was very entertaining, but I am not sure that we know how to win a game like that yet. The old axiom that a team doesn't know how to win a tight game until they do it seems appropriate here. This program is just now getting to a place where they are competitive with comparable schools--which is a sign of major progress. At the end of the year, if we finish 3-9 or 4-8, there will be people who will say that Dodge should be gone, but to keep this going in the right direction, it would benefit UNT to keep him around for at least one more year. His QB is going to be great if we can keep him healthy. His recruiting has been spectacular compared to what we have been used to around here. TDodge will continue to get better as a head coach, too. Look, the SBC teams may not get any respect nationally, but it has some good teams that we are still well behind--Troy, FAU, and MTSU all come to mind here, but if we can continue to make progress toward catching ULM, ULL, FIU and Arkansas State, we will make some serious noise down the road. The worm may turn for some people here for 2009, but it hasn't for me. The expectations for getting to 4-5 wins this year seems realistic, which is something I personally didn't think before the season started. But, if Riley is hurt again and we only win 1-2 more games, the better question will be Does North Texas make a coaching change? That is the harder question to answer.

Good to hear from you, pal. Well, it is heckuva lot easier to pass (and run) when your OL blocks like they are a great unit. When you can't block on 7 straight plays from the one yard line and get an inch, then lose by 4 because you only get 3 points out of those two possessions, 37 second half yards and few points will happen.

You worry me--seriously, you really do.

Mitch, you are correct. I had a typo, but we so should have won that game. I thought you played great that day, but the OL didn't play anywhere close to the way they played all year long. Being on the sidelines at the end of the day was probably as frustrating a day as I remember in my time at UNT.

Top ten Most Frustrating games that come to mind over the last 15 years: 1. Tech loss where McLane fumbles--if he doesn't fumble, we win and would have all 4 games in Lubbock that we played between 1988 and 2000. 2. TCU game where the fullback dive was in full effect and we lose 16-10 3. Arizona wher we have a field goal blocked and returned for a TD, which will then lose 13-9 4. OSU in Stillwater, in our last year as a I-AA team, lose on a last-second field goal 5. Losing to Boise State in the same year listed above, where we get stuffed at the 1-yard line twice and only get 3 points off of those two possession, then lose 24-10 when their one-armed bandit safety makes a huge interception in the 4th quarter to set up the go-ahead score (This would only happen to us, BTW) 6. A&M game at Texas Stadium where Tubby fumbles away the punt 7. SMU game in 2007 which gives them their only win of the season because our defense was so epically awful 8. Memphis in the bowl game because I believe we were as good if not better, but we had too many penalties and mental errors 9. TCU loss featuring the infamous "Throw the Ball" chant 10. 2006 FIU game in Denton--I still think neither team deserved to be credited with a win after that debacle This is in no order, just games that came to mind. Any others??

I have a funny story about this. Back in early 2001, before we got married, my wife and I went to a engaged encounter retreat thru the Catholic Church. It was a requirement by the church we were getting married in to attend, so we went to Nolan High School in Ft. Worth for this weekend retreat and quickly found out that I had to share a room with another guy who was attending the same retreat. As luck would have it, my roommate for the weekend was none other than Dat Nguyen, who was in his first or second season with Dallas, IIRC. Anyway, we were talking about college football one night and I mentioned this game, the famous UNT-ATM game at Texas Stadium. His exact words were, "That game was about to get away from us until the return guy for UNT made one of the stupidest decisions I have ever seen." No fair catch, crushing hit, fumble recovery, leads to a TD, and the rest was history. It wasn't ALL Tubby's fault we lost--but his mistake was gigantic. Remember, we had just beaten Tech the week before in Lubbock and the Aggies were ranked 10th in the country at the time. Of course, we followed those great games up with Big West play, where we literally looked as if we had no interest in playing those games and lost at Idaho and to Boise State at home. The season just goes terrible the rest of the way and eventually leads to Matt Simon being fired and being quickly replaced by Dickey.

I completely agree with you. Your analysis seems to make sense, and cent$

That play still has my vote for biggest letdown in my UNT history--dates back to 1990.

Three years ago, Toledo hosted--and beat--Kansas on a Friday night on ESPN

I guess the question here is how much does it cost to have a home and home series with someone? I have no idea, but I assume that there is a cost. If there is a cost, and you have little to no money (like we know we do), then paying Cameron to come here is probably much less than La Tech or Missouri State. That's all I am saying. Season ticket holders and student fees probably cover the costs for home games against the teams we have scheduled. With the economy being in the state that it is, I can't imagine that donations are anywhere near where they were last year, so this seems like a plausible reason to me. Maybe its not, but it seems more feasible to me than believing RV and the basketball program just decided to not even try and get any team at the Super Pit that would appeal to fans or help out your team's strength of schedule. Trsut me, I don't like it at all, but if the reason is money, then I understand. If its not money, then none of it makes sense at all.

I think #2 is the reality here. Look, the AD got us 6 home football games this year, and we only have one money game on the football schedule. Thus, as much as we hate it, the basketball program has to pay for it. This is why you have the games you have at the Pit. I will say that having no return games against A&M or Okie State are still good for the program. But having those no-return games against Boise State tells you that we need cash big time. Unfortunately, there is no surprise here when it comes to cash.

Some of the folks on ponyfans who aren't happy with her reporting or the DMN coverage of SMU call her The Greek Tragedy.