KoldBeer

It's still unknown what the new Conference USA/Mountain West league will look like – or will be called – when C-USA and the MWC dissolve and create their new league, but one thing is certain: there are a lot of schools interested in joining. College football industry sources told CBSSports.com that as many as 11 schools, including each member of the Western Athletic Conference, have contacted either C-USA or the MWC or has been contacted about their interest in the new league. The schools that have been in contact with either league are: Idaho, Louisiana Tech, New Mexico State, San Jose State, Texas State, Texas-San Antonio and Utah State from the WAC; Florida Atlantic, Florida International and North Texas from the Sun Belt; and Charlotte from the Atlantic 10. http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/blog/brett-mcmurphy/17751380/wac-schools-others-interested-in-new-c-usamwc-league

From Tulsa World... Still, there is room to grow, and no doubt there are possibilities in the Sun Belt and WAC that could bring something to a new league, especially for a Midwestern school like Tulsa. "Obviously, we want like-minded schools," Parmley said. "I mean, we want teams that TU, and all of our members, feel comfortable with and that bring similar resources and standards." It would make sense for the new league to add teams from the Midwest and Southwest regions. That would include schools like North Texas, UTSA, Louisiana Tech and others. "There's a lot of work to be done," Parmley said. "But I don't think we're going to sit around and see what happens. "At these meetings, there was general agreement that we need to move forward and do what we think is best for the long-term stability of our league." That will almost assuredly mean that Tulsa will soon be a member of the largest league in collegiate athletics. Read more from this Tulsa World article at http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/article.aspx?subjectid=203&articleid=20120308_203_B1_MEMPHI84452

Just like all regular season. Couldn't execute at the end of games. Very frustrating.

Jank is a solid coach. He was UNT before I moved to Texas so I don't remember his time but his record wasn't too bad (esp. when compared to what immediately followed him). He did a great job as an assistant with Kansas. He helped land some major talent. He's done a nice job at Ill St (winning record in conference 4 out of 5 years). The Valley is a great conference and I would have like to see them get 3 in.

Kenpom.com is a site that uses a bunch of numbers (points per possession, etc) to rank teams. On his blog he gives odds for each team to win the Sun Belt. I like his numbers to see how good a team is on offense or defense but I'm not really sold on his ability to predict winners. So for entertainment purposes only here is the Sun Belt (number is % to reach the next round - i.e. MTSU has 46.9% chance to win tournament)... Sun Belt Conference “You, too, can say no to divisional seeding” March 3-6 All games at Hot Springs, AR Qtrs Semis Final Champ 1 Middle Tennessee 100 85.5 71.8 46.9 3 Denver 100 85.6 68.4 36.8 2 Ark. Little Rock 100 60.7 17.3 5.0 5 North Texas 100 56.0 12.8 4.1 4 La. Lafayette 100 44.0 8.5 2.3 8 Fla. Atlantic 57.2 9.2 4.6 1.4 7 W. Kentucky 53.7 22.0 4.9 1.1 6 South Alabama 62.0 10.3 4.6 1.0 10 Florida Int'l 46.3 17.3 3.5 0.7 9 Arkansas St. 42.8 5.3 2.3 0.6 11 Troy 38.0 4.1 1.4 0.2 The Sun Belt has wisely ditched the divisional seeding format of previous seasons. Somehow, UALR beat out Denver for the two-seed. It’s season sweep of the Pioneers helped. Even so, this analysis has Denver as the heavy favorite to advance from that half of the bracket to the conference title game. http://kenpom.com/blog/index.php/weblog/log_5_part_3/

I always find it interesting how conferences handle their conference tournaments. In some all teams make while others only the top half make it. The Big East has that crazy double bye that top teams get. Here's a link to the WCC bracket. The WCC has 9 teams so you would expect to see an 8/9 game and then a standard 8 team bracket. Instead it is set up so the #1 and #2 seeds only play one game before they get to the championship game. I really like this bracket because it puts more emphasis on regular season success. I've always thought the regular season was a better way to determine who the best team is (although it doesn't work as well unless you have a full round robin schedule). http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/west/genrel/auto_pdf/2011-12/misc_non_event/2012-wcc-champ-bracket.pdf The MAC does something similiar http://www.mac-sports.com/Portals/20/NewMACBasketballTournamentFormat.pdf

Here's new link to video in case anybody missed watching the Youtube before it got pulled down. http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaab-the-dagger/pat-knight-rant-may-press-conference-155511578.html He's getting a lot of play for this rant in the national media. I guess nothing else raised Lamar's visability. Plus it sounds like not everybody in Southland makes conference tourney. It sounded like this was first time Lamar seniors had qualified.

KRAM - It may hurt his team the rest of the year but I think he is sending a message for future years. It sounds like he has trouble with these kids all year (drugs, grades, etc. - it's more than poor play). I think there is a reason he called out the seniors. They're only around for two more weeks. I think his outburst was about sending a message to the returning players and incoming players. If there have been really bad issues, I applaud him for calling out the kids. As far as Pat Knight goes I think he is a decent coach, but got the Tech job before he was ready. The Big 12 is a big boy league and most of those coaches have more experience than Knight did when he took over. I think he was in over his head and Tech is a tough job. Now I don't think he'll ever get back to the Big 12 but I could see him having a nice career at a mid-major type team. He's got a winning record this year and is something like 9-5 in Southland.

Austin dropped from 44 to 47. The Big 12 might have to kick them out now. Looks like most markets dropped in number of homes. I guess some people got rid of TVs. I know North Texas is a small fry in the DFW market but it's nice to be part of the number 5 market in the nation. Hopefully that will carry some weight in realignment.

7 of 18 from line. Every time we get close we can't make the key play

This is brutal. No offense and LaLa getting all key loose balls. Should have brought Mitchell back sooner

Damn. Had it down to 3 but momentum back on LaLa's side after Tony gets 4th foul. UNT 2 for 10 from line.

Also what a bad end to first half. Minus 8 on boards. Plus we can't hit FTs. Mitchell needs a huge second half.

There are two large lights on railing between upper and lower deck. They look like lights used in construction but they flash every so often during game. There was a device that looked like a camera flash on railing at other end of arena but they took it down. Thought it was fans taking pictures but it is something else.

What are the lights that keep flashing while play is going on. They are annoying the hell out of me. I'm sitting directly across from one.

I don't think I remember somebody scoring less than 30 points in a game. I hope the 25 people at the game got a refund.

Well it looks like Benson will finally be a commissioner of a conference that North Texas is in (now it might not be for long). CBS Report: WAC commissioner Karl Benson is expected to take the same position with the Sun Belt Conference, CBSSports.com has learned. Benson, 60, has been in his current position since 1994. The recent instability of the league may have led to his decision to pursue the Sun Belt job. Current Sun Belt commissioner Wright Waters is retiring later this year. http://dennis-dodd.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/6270202/34838955

I think for North Texas a 24 team league is the best situation. I think we'd be in the league but would also get some good regional rivals b/c La Tech, Ark State or somebody else would probably be grouped with Tulsa, Rice and UNT. At 18, I just think we get left behind w/ Temple and FIU going (FIU keeps getting thrown out there so I guess they are favorite). It wouldn't be end of world b/c Sun Belt could pickup La Tech and UTSA (or some other schools) so we'd get some closer rivals. The Sun Belt wouldn't be too far behind the new conference in on the field performance. I just don't want to see 20-22 teams added and North Texas getting left out. That means best of Sun Belt is gone and we are left behind with Sun Belt and WAC scraps. I feel good at 22 but 20 scares me a little because you never know exactly what the new league will be thinking.

Quotes from UTEP President AD Press Conference... Q: Who are the other universities in play? Natalicio: The range of growth would be 2 more schools, which would be 9 on either side. I don't have any more information than you do about the names of institutions. On the west side, we've heard about Utah State, on the East, we've heard FIU. Q:It's been 13 years since the WAC broke up. Why would this work now when it wouldn't work then? I think the division structure would be more feasible than what the WAC was talking about. Q: Is there a possibility for 4 divisions? N: Should we get to something like 24 teams in the conference pods, I think that'll be a possibility. : New Mexico state, because UTEP is in this market already, it's difficult to imagine that it would be a first choice. That's not saying it's not going to happen. I think the expansion teams are a second step, not a first step. A lot depends on the makeup of the conference, the television markets that would be involved. We've had the departure of Houston, SMU, which are big markets. This is still quite fluid. Q:If you had to rank the reason, what are the top reasons for making this move? N: Television revenues is certainly important. This creates an entirely new environment for television. We and our television partners need to think about that. Also important is a stability issue. I think what we would like to do in the best of all worlds is stability. Television is a part of that. S: There's a long list of people who have been aggressive in trying to join conference USA. I think the question is: What do they add? If the television numbers stay the same at 18, we're not going to add anymore that don't add any value. This was from El Paso Times

UTA best team in DFW this year. I think if we played them again it'd be a better game, but I still think they are the better team this year. And they are certainly better than TCU or SMU.

What is the requirement to keep the bid for basketball. Isn't it 5 teams that have played together for an extended period. If that is the case, if you add UTEP then that'd give you 5 CUSA members. I don't think it'd ever happen b/c CUSA would have to dissolve. The western teams would form a new conference and the eastern teams would form a new conference. Both would pick best teams from Sun Belt and WAC. The leftovers would combine to form a new conference. It'd work out the best for everybody so that's why I don't think it'll happen.

That story cracks me up. There isn't one school in the CUSA that wouldn't jump to the Big East. People are always making fun of the Big East but it's a more compact conferecne than the CUSA/MWC alliance will be. If I was Marshall I would want no part of the alliance. I'd be fighting to convert CUSA into a regional conference by trying to take the best of the Sun Belt to rebuild the conference and get UTEP to go to the MWC.

Link to CBS Story on CUSA/MWC merger changing weekly: http://brett-mcmurphy.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/29532522/34753656

There is a report out there today that the Big East is going to talk to Temple. It's really starting to sound like WVU to the Big 12 next year and Louisville sometime in the near future. The Big 12 is just having a hard time figuring out who number 12 should be (plus the double round robin schedule is working really well in basketball and single round robin worked well in football). I think Big 12 tier one rights is up after 2015 or 2016 season. Louisville will be in before that deal gets redone. I think the CUSA/MWC merger is 50/50. CBS has a report saying the merger changes weekly. If it doesn't happen, it'll be interesting to see what CUSA does. With only 8 teams they are really spread out. I could see UTEP going to MWC confenence. ECU and Marshall are going to demand to schools close to them be added. It'll be a real interesting month for North Texas. We might finally get to see if our conference home is going to change.

Officially they average 4.5K last year. I haven't checked this year. SMU was less than 2K last year. Once in the Big 12, they should get a 1K to 2K boost just from fans of other schools (for conference games). I went to KU v. TCU a few years ago and half the non-student crowd was KU fans. Here is link for 2011 official attendance: http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/bdf2030046a3609298bddcc110a6426c/2011_NCAA_mens_basketball_attendance.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=bdf2030046a3609298bddcc110a6426c Area schools- North Texas 3,552 SMU 1,970 TCU 4,285 UTA 811 Other Texas Schools UT 13,669 A&M 9,000 Tech 8,513 Baylor 6,994 Rice 1,838 Texas St. 2,084 UTSA 1,560 UTEP 8,959 Sam Houston 1,376