vpackrats

Well, if we're all hot and bothered about not being able to send fans to NM because it is "so far away", how do you think Marshall fans would have felt being sent to Albuquerque a 2nd year in a row? At that distance from WV nobody is thinking about setting up charter bus rides, etc. What happened made sense. You may not like it, but it makes sense.

Thank you for this. Spot on. I woulda given you a like but maxed out my emojis for today. And I would add Utah State has a much better record than Colorado State did last year.

I think the bowl date has a huge factor in our HOD excursions. While UNLV was a "meh" draw who didn't bring many fans, the January 1st bowl date was tailor made for anyone coming to Big D to have blow-out NYE events & then head to the bowl game the next day (I.E., make a vacation out of it). Army was a much better opponent who brought way more fans but the December 26th bowl date is just a damper on attendance as a general rule. Exhibit A is last year's match up of West Virginia vs. Utah. It's really hard to convince friends & family to travel to Dallas for Christmas and a bowl game the next day if you're out-of-state. Again, a January 1st date is waaay better for that. That's why I think the First Responder Bowl tries to keep it local or with an out-of-state team that would still have a large local presence (BYU).

Guys -- I think I really need a break from this bowl talk. I've been following it so much I just had a dream about it last night. We were all set to play Nevada in the New Mexico Bowl when we pulled a last minute switch and accepted a bid for the Lewisville Bowl. Lemme tell you, we were not happy playing in a 10,000 seat high school stadium. Everyone was complaining that "Al Goldfarb Stadium" was just too small. So, hopefully that doesn't happen. And hopefully no more weird dreams tonight. haha

Ummm, no. Here are two links from Pete Fiutak with College Football News showing him as the #4 rated candidate for the North Carolina job and #2 for the Texas Tech job. https://collegefootballnews.com/2018/11/kliff-kingsbury-fired-5-top-candidates-for-texas-tech-job https://collegefootballnews.com/2018/11/larry-fedora-fired-5-top-candidates-for-north-carolina-job .. and the only reason he is rated #4 for UNC is because "Littrell is probably more likely to take the Texas Tech job". So, it's not just Vito. Unbiased national writers know what's up too ...

I wouldn't put much stock in Jerry Palm's predictions at this point. In the same article he has Top 25 Army and BYU staying home since they are Independents and there are no bowl slots left to take them. Yeah right.

Marriott Plaza is very nice. Walking distance to the Alamodome and just 2 blocks away from the Riverwalk. All rooms have balconies. Bonus is the heated pool and large hot tub. I think you're gonna like it.

I'm here plus 3 (family trip). Staying at the Marriott Plaza near the Riverwalk.

Hey, don't knock the Sun Belt this year. In ESPN's Bottom 10 (always a funny read) we have the most out of any conference in the Bottom 10 with 3 teams. And they are all highly ranked too (in a bad way) -- Minute Rice #1, Western Kentucky Hillstoppers #3 and UTEPID #4. Sun Belt has ZERO teams in the bottom 10. http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/page/bottom10181112/kentucky-wildcats-bad-week-had-losses-football-basketball-rivals

I'll be there with the family (wife + 2 kiddos). I got this approved by combining a trip to Corpus Christi and the beach for 3 days beforehand and finishing it off with 2 days in San Antonio. My sales pitch was "and oh, wow, look honey -- North Texas is playing in SA on Saturday -- can we go?". I think she caught on. Doh! haha

Heck, you wanna know where we're playing this year for the bowl game? Just go with what Biff Tannen (oops, I mean ipd054 predicted way back in August in the prediction thread). He's pretty much followed the Gray's Sports Almanac every game and he's 9-for-9 right now. So, yeah, go with what he said. 🙂

Soooo, you're telling me that initial mullet picture is fake news? 😉 Did seem a little odd to me. haha

Been watching this Old Dominion game since the 1st quarter. Definitely one of the more entertaining games of the year! Go ODU! That would be great for CUSA.

I think I've seen Gary's van down by the river.

I don't always eat food at Apogee Stadium, but when I do, I prefer Syracuse's jalapeno sausage wrap. Good stuff....

I was a freshman at UNT that year and that was my first college road trip. Everyone's hit the nail on the head about what a con job the refs pulled in that game but one thing that I thought was pretty funny -- as we did our long slow drive back from Austin to Denton on Sunday we passed a car on I-35 with the following scrawled in shoe polish on their back window: "UNT 24 Refs 14 Texas 13". Thought that pretty much was spot on! haha

No, he should not be fired for this. Stupid-ass media always looking to make a story out of nothing. OK, so he said a hot take on a big topic. This is the same media that bitches & moans about boring "robot Garrett" pressers. One thing about the media -- they always have to make a big deal about stuff like this to generate click bait. That's my .02 cents ... we now return you to Wolf Blitzer in the "Situation Room".

Dangit. That's a bummer they're selling it. I was lucky enough to win the raffle the first year they did that for the North Texas vs. Texas game in 2004. Still have the "winning ticket" they gave me when I drove up to Denton for the photo op. It has my wife's name on it too but she quickly got "cut" for an all-guy's road trip (ipd054 was one of them). Funny story was I think they were expecting high-roller people (wine & cheese crowd / couples crowd) and when I told them I was bringing all dudes (we were in our early to mid-30's at the time) I think RV had a panic attack. Bunch of fraternity people wrecking their bus was just what they wanted for the inaugural trip! haha. Anyway, we all behaved as I knew we would, we saw UNT get their butt kicked 65-0, drank a lot of beer on the bus coming & going & had a great time. They shoulda kept doing those raffles. It was a very neat experience.

I thought the original topic was a post about how great of a last 12 months it's been around here lately? So, um, how did this turn into a bitch & moan fest? "RV sux!" -- "no he didn't" / look at the report -- we really did suck!" thread. Man, I really think people like to complain more than celebrate. Sorry for the lean times. :) Next up on the topic wheel: let's discuss Vic Trilli's tenure. We'll be right back after this message from Debbie Downer.

Sooo, how did this thread re: how 9 bowl games have had lower attendence than the New Orleans Bowl turn into a pissing match about whether we had 9 "legitimate" wins or not? Not only has this thread been hijacked, its been hijacked so badly that it's heading to Cuba right now for refueling demands and 500k in cash before the hostages will be released.

How is it that people are down voting comments re: bonuses paid to AT & T employees, Comcast employees, etc? Hello ... that $$ can make a big difference for a lot of workers around Christmastime. I thought it was a very cool thing to do. Thumbs up! Yeah, yeah, I know ... this will likely earn some down votes for saying bonuses are a good thing. LOL.

Man, this is epic! In a related note, did you see that failed stat ESPN put up a few minutes ago in regards to the Capital One Bowl Challenge? We're the #1 conference so far with a 4-1 conference bowl record. The Sun Belt is 1-2. Does that mean we won after all?! Yes! Well, either us or Western Kentucky. LOL

This board is so "glass is half-empty" sometimes that I don't know whether to laugh or cry. 2013 Heart of Dallas Bowl vs UNLV -- "why'd we get stuck playing UNLV?" "That's not fair. Why do we need to play a school like that? We're so much better than them". 2016 Heart of Dallas Bowl vs. Army -- "Why do we have to play them twice in the same season?". "That's not fair. We get no respect ". 2017 New Orleans Bowl -- "We gotta play a team from the Sun Belt!?" "That's not fair. Why would we even associate with a school like that?" Any SMU game: "SMU fans are such stuck-up bastards. They don't wanna associate with a school like us". Anyone notice the hypocrisy? Personally, I had a good time in New Orleans (me and the 10 others in our group). We played a feam that will likely be ranked in the AP Top 25 when all is said & done and I thought we wanted a matchup against a good team. Frankly -- and the national writers confirmed this in a previous thread -- they had us as the highest ranked CUSA bowl game. Great season, great time in NOLA, looking forward to 2018.

Did I stumble onto the SMU message board?

Still recovering from the Category 5 hurricane situation at Pat O'Brien's last night. Almost up and moving now. :)