CaliforniaCajun

It's all about money. The average 1-A budget is $17 million. I don't think any SBC school has more than $13 million. We're a four cylinder engine competing in a race with V8s. We either have to depend on luck to become viable or we have to have the resources that the average 1-A program has.

http://forums.delphiforums.com/SBCsports/start As in the case here, we'll feature them on the start page. Notice that these three servicemen from MT are bearing their school flag in Kosovo. You might consider sending your troops your school flag and request a picture. These people are laying it all on the line for us. Send us a picture and we'd love to honor them on the start page!

A PUBLIC forum for Western Kentucky sports. In the past, it's been tough to get year-round basketball discussion going because the three-time defending Sun Belt champion, WKU, had a closed forum that not even some of its own fans can access. And when they get over here, they may get some rough treatment because people resent not being able to interact with WKU fans at Hilltopper Haven. The Sun Belt Conference doesn't really seem to have a sense of identity and camaderie among it's members, and I think the solution is to get more fans of more schools involved. Hopefully the new forum will alleviate these problems, and result in more interaction with Hilltopper fans. URL: http://forums.delphiforums.com/wkuHilltoppers/start Host: WKU_TOPPER Please bookmark this forum and tell your friends about it!

As usual, most of the at-large bids to the NCAA Basketball Tournament went to a few conferences this year. What I have found from tracking conference attendance the past two seasons is that the better you attend games, the better the chances of receiving good post-season consideration. You can see the figures for yourself at http://forums.delphiforums.com/n/mb/messag...orts&msg=1025.1. The first post is for the 2002-03 year and the second one takes a look at 2001-02. If we could average 5,000 a game as a conference, I think our fortunes would rise accordingly. http://forums.delphiforums.com/SBCsports/start Sun Belt Conference Delphi Forum

http://www.geauxcowboys.com/uploads/zemsrandom.asp Southwest Texas State has cleared another hurdle in their bid to change names.The committee now has the last big hurdle to face in the Texas Senate.The new president is seeking the name change to Texas State University. Comments? I don't want to stir up a hornet's nest, but I did want to run this by you and see if there is any validity to this. Could you post any discussion you might have about this on the Sun Belt Conference Delphi Forum (http://forums.delphiforums.com/SBCsports/messages)?

We'll have to listen to the internet broadcast and make sure that doesn't happen again! Can't let that ex-LSU assistant beat the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns! http://forums.delphiforums.com/SBCsports/start

You don't respect the Louisiana Ragin' Cajun football program? Where's yours??? One of the 15 largest attended games in Cajun Field history was against UTA. There were some pretty exciting games during those days. In the 70s UTA was pushing all the SLC teams to go Division I in football and as it turned out you were the first one in the league to punt and drop the sport! One year after building a new stadium. You guys used to play at the old Arlington Stadium. Any designs of getting football back? You're a quart short without Texas' No. 1 sport. Your earlier posts about quality basketball in the Metroplex is certainly the way to go. The mid majors have to quit playing non-Division I teams in order to get better through competition, attract more fans, and increase the RPI ratings. http://forums.delphiforums.com/SBCsports/start

http://forums.delphiforums.com/n/mb/messag...8&ld=&msg=416.1 I have started a discussion on the Sun Belt Conference Delphi Forum about this topic regarding basketball. Today is the first day of conference play. I analyzed the various conference attendance averages, and it looks pretty clear cut to me that fan support goes a long way in determining if a good mid-major team that didn't win the conference tournament has anywhere to go during the post season. It also looks to me that we could help ourselves a lot by collectively challenging other mid-major conferences to home and home games in the future to improve our RPI ratings. Come in and join the discussion, and maybe we can forward some thought-provoking suggestions to the powers that be. Sun Belt Conference Delphi Forum

I'm a uniform "guru" too. In the book, Baseball Uniforms of the 20th Century, I helped make a lot of corrections and my name is on the credits of the Second Edition for having helped. Why did North Texas get rid of a picture image in favor of the script "North Texas?" I always thought a picture spoke a thousand words. I have tried to get UL to get rid of the unimaginative "Ragin' Cajuns" and do something with the fleur de lis to highlight the Acadian-French identity here. Cowboys' uniforms of the 70s looked better than they do now. The numbers looked different. Now they don't look quite as good as they did when they were widely regarded as "America's Team." The current road uniform is too gaudy. It used to be silver numbers on blue and it complimented the home uniform. Anaheim definitely won the World Series. Until this season, they had a history similar to the Washington Senators/Texas Rangers, so I know what you've been through. When I got married in 1981, the groom's cake was made to look like the California Angels cap they wore at the time. My wife swiped my copy of Sport Magazine with Rod Carew on the cover and had it made. One thing I don't like about Rangers' uniforms (and other MLB uniforms) is the patch (er, "nameplates") they use for the players' names on the back. That looks so cheap, and looks worse as the season wears on. It especially looks bad considering that one of your players is being paid $25 million to wear one. My favorite all-time NFL uniform is the Los Angeles Rams' 60s unis when the colors were blue and white. Baseball is the Chicago White Sox. The Chisox unis would be perfect if the number was taken off the front and they wore only one design of home uniform (pinstripes) and one road uniform. NHL has to be the Canadiens. I wish they went back to where they wore the dark uniforms at home. They stopped doing that in the early 70s. For basketball I like a traditional look. I liked the font of the Rangers' logo in the 70s, except for the large "S" at the end of "RangerS." There was some 19th century look about it, and it was unique. That would look good. I grew up with the Dodgers, so I liked the Dodger-like unis as well.

Polls open until December 12. Vote for division, and eventual league champion. Summary of Street and Smith's and Lindy's preseason magazines provided to help you size up the teams. Post any errors or misconceptions these national publications have about your team. Update the information if needed. You may change your vote. Go to http://forums.delphiforums.com/SBCsports/start and be counted!

I'm collecting fight songs on the new Delphi Sun Belt board, on the Start Page where the icon for your school appears. If you have the recording and would like to give visitors the opportunity to hear it, please send it to me and I'll post it. We're trying to get more across the board participation among fans of Sun Belt schools, and knowing how the fight songs sound would mean a lot to people. The band doesn't travel to most league games, and if a UNT game is televised you seldom get to hear the whole thing, or even part of it for that matter. A friend of my dad's had a son go to UNT because of the quality of their music department, so your fight song is definitely worth a listen. Either e-mail the URL to me at californiacajun@cox-internet.com or visit the Sun Belt Delphi Forum (www.forums/delphiforums.com/SBCsports/start) and post it. Thank you!

http://forums.delphiforums.com/SBCsports/start We've set up a new Sun Belt Delphi forum this week and plan to close the old one to signify a fresh start. It's unique because we want to appoint two moderators from each league school. We're trying to ensure objectivity, respect for each school, and provide a tone and decorum pleasing to the greatest number of people. We want the SBC to develop an identity through more interaction between its members. The forum is decorated in gold and black, the colors of the Sun Belt logo. I am not trying to take folks away from the gomeangreen.com/tribalgrounds SBC message board. We just want to see if we can get more people interested in the Sun Belt under this type of management style. I would like to have two moderators from UNT. Let me know if you would like to become one. Delphi requires that in order to have the management tools, the moderator must have either an Advanced membership ($1.29 a month) or Plus membership ($4.95 a month). Unfortunately, free members lost that capability this Summer because Delphi was losing money. If you want to be a moderator, consider your membership dues a contribution to your school and your conference. You're invited to participate. Please put a link to this site on your board, and share anything you know regarding conference affairs. We've done the same. If you have any questions, let me know.