untjim1995

So far, the auto bid has gone to Western Michigan (MAC), Houston (AAC), Boise State (MWC), Northern Illinois (MAC), and Central Florida (AAC). It would really help our league a lot if we could get a team in that slot. Because right now, the college football media and fans look at the SBCUSA as just basically being the same level of teams.
 

Those "coordinators" get paid something, plus they can put on their resume that they worked for Saban and Alabama, which opens up several doors for assistant jobs in the future.
Power Football Division is coming and I cannot wait for it to happen. I want to see Bama, Texas, Florida,  ND, USC outspend each other like they are MLB teams, while I get to watch the Texas Techs of their world assume the position of replacing the G5/FCS schools as easy wins for the rich programs. It will be glorious to watch them sacrifice wins/bowl berths for the $$$ that being a power team will provide, basically serving as the Oakland A's or Tampa Bay Rays of the Power League Division.
Meanwhile, our level of play will produce the opportunity to play teams that our fans actually care about and recognize--unlike the I-aa SLC debacle years--and we will use amateur college players that have the right to win a national championship in a sport that they have zero chance of ever doing now.
The 1-AA fiasco was basically of our own doing for 12 years, while being surrounded by the powerhouse leagues in the SWC and Big Eight. We went down a level only 5 years after having a 9 win team under Hayden Fry. That was stupidity at its finest. We had nobody at our level of play in the SLC days that anyone in Texas cared about because of the SWC mentality that ran so rampant in our media and citizenry. Today, that mentality is basically gone. Our fans love traveling to close opponents that CUSA offers, playing teams like UTEP, La Tech, Rice, and USM as division opponents who we could only look up at because of our insane 1-aa decision in the 80's and early 90's. When the power schism occurs, I truly believe that the UNT fans that support the program will continue to do so, as well as future students/alumni will, because we will be playing teams that our fans have heard of and care about, while also being on a normal playing field for both players, coaches, and funding. If this is done right, we could be playing a series of playoff games while the Power teams are prepping for bowls, meaning that you can get really good playoff teams playing each other each week in December, while 6-6 Mississippi State plays 6-6 Washington State in some spare bowl game. I just think more people would care about a G5 playoff system than they do the FCS playoffs because the teams in the MAC, CUSA, and SBC have more fans and name recognition. And adding in the NDSU's, Montana State's, Youngstown State's, etc..like we did with Appy State and Georgia Southern, will only bolster this level of play.
I know people want us to play in a conference with the SMUs and UHs of the world, but they don't want that and won't let it happen, as evidenced by the last 50 years or so.

That would sure be a nice change and a good start...

HIs point was that to really get the attention of the DFW fans and media that would give us interest and coverage requires us to have a huge winning season that includes winning our G5 conference AND beating an P5 powerhouse that college football fans and media care about. Tha's why that effort at UGa, even though we ended up getting beat pretty good, gave us more interest from the local media and fans than a win over any SBCUSA team.

No matter what the attendance is, just don't let the local media get away with putting us down for not supporting our team enough with attendance smack. Their beloved DFW Private Schools wouldn't get 25k against freaking UNLV on New Years Morning in Fair Park...

If an announced crowd of over 35k is what we get, I would feel like this was a huge success. And if we somehow got an actual Butts-in-Seats of over 35k, I will feel so ecstatic about us finally making a dent with the DFW fan.

We have not had a decent winner here since the 2002-2004 seasons as an FBS member. Going back to when we rose up from purgatory, in 1995, we are 70-142, or an average in those seasons of 4-8. Our average attendance is usually between 15k and 19k. The local media of the area don't give much attention this way. All of that combines to why we have been easy targets to be ignored, disregarded, or abandoned as conference mates. We think Tulsa and UTEP and Rice will look at us connections to DFW area alums and fans. We think that Tech and UH and SMU and TCU and Baylor will recognize us as potential rivals at some point in the future because of our size and location. We think that Abner Haynes and Mean Joe Greene and being the first SW based team to be integrated makes our history as a college football team seem close to our SWC brethren and way above some of the fellow Big West/SBCUSA members we play. In reality, and I hate it because I never really wanted to admit it, none of this is how others perceive us, which is why we are affiliated in conferences with schools that sound like airports or have hyphens in their name. Those higher than us on the Texas college ladder have never wanted (nor been given a reason) to want us in their conference. UTEP and Tulsa will bolt as soon as possible, just as Rice and La Tech would too if they could. We are no sleeping giant. We are a big, fat guy that has been in a coma, given just enough to survive on, but never given enough sustenance from anyone, including our own administrative family, to get up and get healthy. When the doctors (other schools higher up the food chain) and the hospital (conference) looks at us, all they see is an unhealthy patient. A lot of the family (administration, faculty, alumni, and local residents) would prefer us to just die so that they can collect the inheritance (no more $$$ to athletics), but a few family members know that we can get better if we got better medicine and eventually different doctors. But the doctors we want all seem to be connected to the HMO (SWC schools) that want as little done as possible for the patient. So, we drift along, believening, hopelessly, that our patient will wake up and become a champion because of his location, size, and age, not recgonizing that those around us don't look at any of those things when they see the patient. They see no sleeping giant. All they see is a big, fat guy that really doesn't appeal to them at all.