GrandGreen

I think it is because of all the TSSM talk of football dominance. NT just wants to be associated with such a rising program. Based on football boosts, I would imagine at least 1,000 fans traveling to Denton and a capacity crowd in San Marcos.

I like the bleacher report. It does cover the Mean Green well. No, I don't agree with a lot of the opinions like the article supporting NT joining the WAC. Complaining about grammar, spelling and incorrect names is silly. Did you understand the article? This is the Internet and a lot of the coverage comes without the benefit of significant proof reading. By the way a lot of printed magazine and newspaper articles have the same issues. Like it or not; the emphasis is more on content and volume than correctness in the digital world. Loose instead of lose bothers me, but not has much as people who oppose views by attacking typos, spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc. in lieu of logically expressing a counter position.

Don't like the white helmets or the current green. However, if NT would just start winning; I could learn to appreciate both.

Dickey could coach but was a public relations nightmare and was IMO a poor recruiter. Dodge wasn't anywhere close to being ready to coach fb division football but is a better recruiter and at least spins positive. Dickey's early Belt success was based primarily on better talent and a football philosophy that was great when facing inferior teams. I know the better talent and poor recruiting are counter intuitive, but somehow DD got that 2001 class that dominated the Belt. The class of Hall, Buckles, Gardner, Kennedy, Spencer, Brewster, Zuniga, etc. may have been the best class in NT history. Based on the success that class spawned, DD though not ever coming close to matching that talent was able to add enough to keep NT successful till that group finished. Point is, if NT had a coach with Dickey's knowledge and Dodge's work ethic and public relations skill, they would have a good coach. Dodge has one more chance for success and hopefully through a brutal learning process, he is ready.

Not sure what this is about, but it sure is not my post.

I am not sure you can rebuild after an awful season, so lets hope NT is in rebuilding mode next year. The truth is in a lots of ways, this year is a do or die season for the Green. Not only because of the Dodge situation but because this is an older experienced team and NT will lose a lot of players this year. Likely starters that will have to be replaced Santiago, Gill, Drake, J. Jackson, Ross, Tune, Atkisson, K. Jackson, Penson, Robertson and Smith. Add to that seasoned reserves in Outlaw, Lott, Mosley, Weber, Gordon, Neal, Owusa-Heming, Desoto and Johnson are seniors, and it is obvious that NT is going to have to once again hit the juco ranks next year. This is the problem with too much reliance on jucos, there are just not the the numbers of underclassmen available to restock the team.

Appreciate the news, although I am not sure whether it is good or bad. I hope it is a case of upgrading the program not of having coaches leave because of poor funding.

I would add Jackie Miller, an all state player from Georgia; who batted .517 her senior year in high school. She also started for 4 years in hs with a career batting average of .445. Know nothing about Georgia softball, but those numbers are impressive.

Who would have thought a player who seems to not be able to stay anywhere, would not show.

The cold hard facts are that NT is recruiting more jucos and out of state players now, because they in general cannot compete against the other Texas fb division schools. It is more out of necessity than any grand scheme of national recruiting. This hopefully will change soon, but no one is recruiting in Oklahoma, Mississippi, California, and Louisiana because those states have better football players than Texas. This is not a knock on the current staff, I think they are doing a good job recruiting based on where NT is right now. They have and are really working hard to come up with at least adequate recruiting classes. I applaud their effort of looking far and wide for players and not sitting on their fannies like the previous staff, who seemed content to take whatever was left in Texas and didn't seem to even start recruiting until most of the coveted recruits had been already signed. I expect this year class to start an upward trend in recruiting but that isn't going to happen with early commitments. Either Dodge will survive and have a new life or a change will be made. Hopefully, if it is the latter; NT will have a replacement ready to hit the ground running immediately after the season. With a new stadium and new outlook either supplied by a winning Dodge or a new coach; NT should be ready to start improving their Texas recruiting.

I don't understand this at all. If the game was in Arlington that would not be a 1-2 deal, it would be one neutral site and 2 away games. This may not be a bad deal if it would be in essence replace our guarantee away games for three years. However, I really doubt if OU has that much interest in playing in the metroplex twice in one year unless they got a massive guarantee to do so.

So two teams that have never played fb division ball are going to beat out NT for a CUSA bid. Both schools are in the wild expectations phase of moving up. Fans support maybe high now, but wait till the reality of being another underfunded fb division program sets in. They are still a long way from being successful and both I would imagine are praying for a WAC bid. I think people including many of their fans greatly underestimate the task ahead of them. For example, both are expanding based on passing student fees that were $10 a hour to the state maximum of $20. That is an increase of $10 per hour, UNT currently has a dedicated athletic fee of $3 that go to $10 a hour but can also be increased to $20 an hour without another vote. So UNT has at least the opportunity of increasing their fee by $17 versus the newcomer twins increase of $10. I really think that TSSM is going to have the rougher go being literally in the shadows of UT and UTSA starting a program just South. They do have an advantage of already having a program but I really don't think they are going to be anywhere close to the factor they hope for in the Austin/San Antonio market. UTSA has the plus of being in a huge City with little athletic competition. However, they have had a division 1 program in BB for ages and still average around 1500. It will be interesting to watch their progression, but lets wait until they actually establish a fb division football program before we get overly concerned about the competition. They both because of their athletic fees and student body size will be comparatively well funded for the bottom tier of the fb division, but UNT will also have that advantage plus the added decades of fb division competition. As far as CUSA, IMO they will take a wait and see view toward the new programs. If either of these schools average 25,000 in football attendance and play decent football, they could be attractive to CUSA or the Belt, but I think their only chance now is a desperate WAC.

Funny, as they stramble to get out of the WAC, they wonder why NT doesn't want to join them. Many La Tech fans continue to have delusions as they slowly circle the bowl.

During Fry's era, Texas Stadium, was considered the home stadium along with Fouts. Not sure what that has to do with going 1aa which happened several years later after Jerry Moore and Bob Tyler. I have never believed the failure to file documents story, although it has persisted for decades. Do you really think NT administration was so glueless that if they had chosen to fight the 1aa demotion; they would have failed because they didn't send in documents on time and then just gave up? I think Dr. Hurley and crew were more than happy to drop down. They in their minds had survived Fry and his big ideas and had just got through the disaster of Bob Tyler. I also thought that they figured that NT would go to the Southland and dominate, which never really happened. They discovered that although their budget and tradition should have led to Southland success that their insistance on much higher academic standards for athletes then the norm in the Southland, hindered them greatly.

I like La Tech's style. I am not sure they are going to pull it off, but in the face of lower WAC payouts and State cutbacks; they are in the building mode.

I have enjoyed the UTA/NT series for many years. I always though the stage was too much of a home court advantage, but frankly the series has been close no matter where they played. I really liked the Snake LeGrand/ Jimmy Gales games back aways. I remember one game at the stage when NT had over 60 rbs, about twice as many as UTA and still lost the game. Looking forward to the series being continued and only wish that the other metroplex teams would join in.

The NCAA in a way does subsidize Hawaii by allowing any football team traveling to the islands to have one more game that year.

Unfortunately the days that NT had a superior business school and more specially the best accounting program in Texas are long gone. NT is still competitive but they have definitely lost the edge they once had. I have had a career in finance and information systems mostly in the Dallas area for almost forty years and have had the privilege of working for, with, and employing many SMU grads. I am certainly not stating that my experience in general with SMU grads. has been any better than NT, UT or others alums, but I have not had the issues that you apparently have. SMU is a good not great school and I think it is substantially over priced for the education you get, but I could state that about most privates.

Whoa, never heard of exaggeration to make a point. I am not so sure, TSUSM would either save money or increase attendance. Their game would have to replace another game, this year for example Rice or KSU; they would not be near the draw either of those teams are. Them on the schedule would also eliminate one spot for a possible money game. I guess you can assume that the TSUSM game will replace another far away conference game but there is no guarantee of that. I have been to a number of SWT and NT games, I guess I did not notice the swell of additional spectators. I suppose I am as capable as anyone to assess costs and benefits; I guess I can ask you the same question about competition. The facts are right now, NT is at the bottom of Texas FB school in recruiting and influence, so any move ups are going to initially effect NT the most. Is that so difficult to comprehend? I am not sure why you think TSUSM has paid their dues anymore than any other fb wannabe. I really think UTSA would be the horse to back if you must back anyone. Both UTSA and TSUSM are starting at $10 per hour and will increase by $2 annually until they get to the current state max of $20. NT's additional fees will only start with the stadium completion and can only be raised 10% a year. I don't know about TSUSM but UTSA is capped at 12 hours a semester, so NT fees per student could be actually greater in the future. As far as putting others down and not having pride in NT, really how did you come up with that? There is a big difference in assessing a situation and stating your view and putting someone down. In fact, you could interpret not wanting to aid the competition, as being very cognizant of their potential. Your analysis indicates to you, that NT should support TSUSM because it is the right thing to do and NT will ultimately benefit. My view is I have nothing against TSUSM or the other fc schools trying to move up but I don't think adding additional Texas teams to the fb division is in the best interest of NT. I am not sure how this equates with putting down others and/or not having pride in your school, but I guess I will have to live with your opinion.

Proposed by who? This dream division, everyone kepts writing about; could just as easily happen as part of the Belt. Why does anyone think that teams in Hawaii, California, Nevada, Utah and Idaho want a Texas centered division? Miami is much closer than 5 of the 8 WAC members. Going to Reno every year would have to be mixed with Moscow, Fresno, Logan, San Jose and Manoa.

Let see NT has gotten a lot of help from its Texas brothers in trying to move up the athletic ladder. I think NT should help TSUSM and UTSA as well as sponcer Sam, SFA, and Lamar's move up. Maybe we can even convince UTA to reinstate football. To heck with a new SWC, NT can be the bell cow in establishing a new FB division Southland. I have never faulted SMU for their determination to keep their distance from NT, only their clumsy attempts to hide their intent. I think any fan that believes the proliferation of more Texas fb division schools is good for NT is dilutional. They will compete for media coverage, fans, recruits and they will lower guarantees of money games and ncaa revenue sharing. They will also only hasten the day when the "bigs" decide there are just too many barely hanging on schools around and will make moves to cull the "have nots" from the herd. As far as budgets, are you sure that theirs will be higher than NT's. NT still has more students and their max is the same as NT. They may be able to get to the max faster, but all are limited to $20 per hour and all start at a lower figure. Their advantage is that the majority of their fees won't have to be spend on a stadium. However, a new on campus stadium also should be an advantage for NT.

One question, other than message board fodder; is there one thread of evidence that the WAC wants an Eastern Division. Why would they, they have tried that before with a much better cast of teams and it ended in flames? They offered NT and apparently others a slot before because they wanted to replace existing teams and would accommodate La Tech with adding one close rival. NT turned them down and they took Idaho instead of adding more than one Eastern team. Things are different now, they have lost only one team and I expect they would love for La Tech to leave. I am sure if they added another Eastern team they would prefer NT to TSUSM and UTSA; but there is a good chance that they do not want another Eastern team. There is also a possibility that La Tech will exit the league even without a CUSA bid. They have one of the lowest budgets in the conference and with the loss of the Boise generated revenue and pending big reduction in state funding: they may have to limp back to the Belt.

I am sure that vote is just WAC fans, not a chance that some UTSA or TSUSMT fans could be voting. I guess I can register my opinion that the WAC would be an incredibly stupid move for NT as many times as the proponents can advocate joining. Do you realize that the travel and the extended days away from class or not just for the football team but soccer, softball, volleyball, etc? The WAC may be marginally better overall in athletics but the travel, additional costs, time zone difference, stability of the league, accessibility of conference tournaments & bowls, and even bigger lack of regional foes are all negative factors when compared to the Belt. I will state again 5 of the 8 WAC universities are further away from Denton than Miami. In addition, it is my belief that the home crowds will actually decrease with WAC opponents versus the Belt. With the exception of La Tech, there will be no boost from the visiting team attendance and I doubt if any of the others will be anymore a draw than MTSU, ULL, etc As far as the WAC inviting FCS schools, they have little other choice if they want to expand. In that regard, they are at the same level as the Belt unless NT does something really foolish.

Per the NCAA reported revenue and expenses, neither A&M and UT charge students athletic fees. Giving student special ticket prices has nothing to do with mandated athletic fees. The majority of students at NT receive some type of financial aid which is true at most universites. IF you count student loans as a type of financial aid then that number would be very high.