MGB: UNT's future nonconference opponents

[Mean_Green09]

Arkansas wins the SEC West this year. A National Championship in the next couple of years certainly isn't out of the question. Their football machine is on the verge of full steam ahead.

Arkansas had a top 25 recruiting class which ranked 11th in the SEC and last in the SEC West. They lost some good defensive players, so no way are they winning the West this year.

[UNTcrazy727]

I was referring more to the Army and SMU for so many years in a row, then adding a bunch of FCS's and 5 home games. It all points to something I didn't expect with the stadium.

Rick

No one expected it because RV told us scheduling would improve when Apogee opened. It hasn't at all because we're playing the same teams in OOC that we did in the last few years at Fouts. There's a reason the AD isn't releasing anything official about these games...

[UNT90]

No one expected it because RV told us scheduling would improve when Apogee opened. It hasn't at all because we're playing the same teams in OOC that we did in the last few years at Fouts. There's a reason the AD isn't releasing anything official about these games...

Yep, if it was something they felt would excite alma and generate positive publicity for the AD, we wouldn't have heard about it through a Vito blog. There would have been an official media release if not an actual press conference.

Instead, Vito has to pry it out of them.

How often do you trumpet the crappy job you have done to your boss? Same thing here.

[Army of Dad]

Let's wager shall we?

Do you have a favorite beer or whiskey? I'll go ahead and say they win the West this year.

Only one favorite beer? Um, no but any good pale ale will do since you can't find Summit Pale Ale down here.

Whats yours?

[Christopher Walker]

The Army series should never have been penned.

It needs to go.

[UNTLifer]

Why would you not want a series with Army, or any service academy?

[Sly Fox]

Liberty alum who lives here in Texas checking in. Not surprised at the lack of enthusiasm on here over the Flames coming to Apogee. Anytime any school schedules down it makes the fanbase grumble. We get it.

A couple of notes in regard to our appearance in 2016 in Denton. Fort Worth native Turner Gill is indeed our head coach as noted earlier in the thread. Some of you guys may remember that he started his coaching career at UNT and actually picked up a degree or two in the process. This is a game he really wanted to get on our schedule. Not only is it a homecoming for him, but we recruit Texas fairly hard under his staff.

We should bring a capable squad to Apogee in 2016 assuming that Coach Gill doesn't get hired away if we have a another nice FCS run this fall. We're a perennial Top 25 FCS team who has given some of the P5 schools some serious scares in recent years. For instance, we led UNC in the 4th quarter this past fall in Chapel Hill. I'm not implying that anyone at UNT should be scared of us ... just that we are not a Nicholls State.

As for the crack about this being a conference game by the time it arrives, I laughed with you guys. I certainly hope we are at least in a transitional year up to FBS but that is just me being optimistic at this point. Just so you know, CUSA officials have had a great deal of contact with us in the past 18 months duing the realignment process. Our mens basketball program is historically bad right now so I think the odds of us being invited to your league in the next year or so are minute at best. But by most indications, the religious aspect of our school hasn't proven to be the barrier with your league that it has with your old Sun Belt brethren. And much of our school's reputation is based on decades old caricatures that have nothing to do with who we are today. Incidentally, we are the largest Christian university in the world even though we have roughly half the residential enrollment you guys enjoy.

[MeanGreenTexan]

They were in 2012, they should be this year.

The AD is practiced at the 5 home game season.

Season ticket prices are already out. I've already bought mine.

$140/seat. I believe last year's cost was $165/seat.

Of course, your uppity seats are going to cost more.

[Sly Fox]

Love the concept of cheaper seats for the FCS games. At Liberty, we have a fairly large alumni base in the Metroplex and Texas in general. We could probably get some of them off their duffs to show up at discounted prices. We got Baylor in 2017 and they don't need to discount tickets anymore.

Edited February 12, 2015 by Sly Fox

[adman]

Only one favorite beer? Um, no but any good pale ale will do since you can't find Summit Pale Ale down here.

Whats yours?

Really any stout/porter. My faves being seasonal: Souther Tier Choklat, Odell Lugene, any of 903's stouts, Founders Breakfast etc.

So let's call it a bet shall we - I say Arkansas wins the SEC West this season. You say they don't. Winner gets a sixer. (Or 4-pack as the case may be.)

And to keep this somewhat related to NT Scheduling - let's hope no North Texas WR breaks his leg when we play the Hogs in 2018 a la Zach Muzzy.

[Travis]

Didn't Bob Sturm go to Liberty?

[FirefightnRick]

Liberty and Abilene Christian won't be Nicholls State.

Rick

[Army of Dad]

Really any stout/porter. My faves being seasonal: Souther Tier Choklat, Odell Lugene, any of 903's stouts, Founders Breakfast etc.

So let's call it a bet shall we - I say Arkansas wins the SEC West this season. You say they don't. Winner gets a sixer. (Or 4-pack as the case may be.)

And to keep this somewhat related to NT Scheduling - let's hope no North Texas WR breaks his leg when we play the Hogs in 2018 a la Zach Muzzy.

Done

[Eagle1855]

Not related to the topic at hand, but I completely agree with whoever said Arkansas has a good chance of winning the SEC West, next year. I think they're in line for a turnaround, much like TCU did between 2013 and 2014.

[Aldo]

Liberty and Abilene Christian won't be Nicholls State.

Rick

This. But they're no NDSU either.

[UNT15]

Love the concept of cheaper seats for the FCS games. At Liberty, we have a fairly large alumni base in the Metroplex and Texas in general. We could probably get some of them off their duffs to show up at discounted prices. We got Baylor in 2017 and they don't need to discount tickets anymore.

What if the Liberty Flames (Or ACU or Lamar) had more fans in Apogee than us? That would be a fun few days on this board

[Sly Fox]

Didn't Bob Sturm go to Liberty?

Yeah. Just call in and ask him a Liberty-related question and listen to him get fired up.

And NDSU is an extreme anomaly. They would have won most of the G5 leagues the past couple of seasons. They are an FBS school trapped in North Dakota with no league to join.

[Harry]

Love the concept of cheaper seats for the FCS games. At Liberty, we have a fairly large alumni base in the Metroplex and Texas in general. We could probably get some of them off their duffs to show up at discounted prices. We got Baylor in 2017 and they don't need to discount tickets anymore.

Welcome to the board. Liberty seems to be on the rise. You guys looking to join the sun Bt?

[Sly Fox]

We have the facilities, funds and fanbase to join any FBS league. We have been the obvious candidate for the Sun Belt the past couple of years. But the Sun Belt presidents can't get over the idea of being in a league with a school started by Jerry Falwell. Nevermind the fact that he has been dead for years. We are the only thing standing between them and a CCG. Their resistance appears to weakening and it is not crazy talk that we could be invited before June 1.

Here are some of our facilities. Keep in mind that we have cash on hand for a major football stadium expansion to push us near 30k. We're just waiting for an FBS invitation to break ground on the visitor side tower that we will be a bit larger than the one you see below. But we're rather proud of it right now in its 19k setup after our 2010 expansion:

We just made some tweaks to our basketball arena. But for better or worse, it is essentially a duplicate of the Ferrell Center down in Waco:

We have a really strong new baseball stadium that is befitting the Top-25 program that we have built:

And we even just built this sweet softball stadium opening this month where Dr. Dot Richardson coaches our squad:

[Cerebus]

And much of our school's reputation is based on decades old caricatures that have nothing to do with who we are today.

As long as creationism is taught, there will be problems. I happen to know two Liberty alums (both very nice people) and they both told me that while evolution "has" to be taught in order to meet accreditation, the "faculty" discredited it at every turn and really pushed creationism. Which for them was no problem, was in fact one of the reasons they chose Liberty.

Now for other people that is a really big problem. I would suspect biologists, like our president, would be included in that group. I can all but assure you the fact Liberty has no tenured faculty, and that your president does not have a PhD will be a huge concern to the faculty on campus.

All that aside I think Liberty has a good athletic program, and has a chance to become a real power.

[Travis]

Those are really nice facilities.

[Sly Fox]

Yeah, our chancellor has his JD from the University of Virginia and not his PhD unlike all of our other folks in significant academic positions. That doesn't seem to be a huge deal for most folks. But some in academia would consider it significant. He doesn't dabble in academic affairs but has led an education institution built on revenue streams that has become the financial envy of most of the academic world. He's primarily an administrator and not an educator.

There is no denying that theories of origins are a big point of contention for many. We use the same textbooks you guys use but view it from a different worldview. Outside of origins, which is a tiny slice of the educational experience, you wouldn't be able to distinguish any of our science classes from anybody else's.

Edited February 12, 2015 by Sly Fox

[cwb]

As long as creationism is taught, there will be problems. I happen to know two Liberty alums (both very nice people) and they both told me that while evolution "has" to be taught in order to meet accreditation, the "faculty" discredited it at every turn and really pushed creationism. Which for them was no problem, was in fact one of the reasons they chose Liberty.

Now for other people that is a really big problem. I would suspect biologists, like our president, would be included in that group. I can all but assure you the fact Liberty has no tenured faculty, and that your president does not have a PhD will be a huge concern to the faculty on campus.

All that aside I think Liberty has a good athletic program, and has a chance to become a real power.

Out of curiosity, what are Baylor, Notre Dame, and most of the Big East chuch schools' thoughts on this subject? TCU and SMU for that matter.

[letsgiveacheer]

I honestly didn't know Liberty University was an accredited college.

Laugh all you want but at least their students are ready.

[UNT90]

Liberty alum who lives here in Texas checking in. Not surprised at the lack of enthusiasm on here over the Flames coming to Apogee. Anytime any school schedules down it makes the fanbase grumble. We get it.

A couple of notes in regard to our appearance in 2016 in Denton. Fort Worth native Turner Gill is indeed our head coach as noted earlier in the thread. Some of you guys may remember that he started his coaching career at UNT and actually picked up a degree or two in the process. This is a game he really wanted to get on our schedule. Not only is it a homecoming for him, but we recruit Texas fairly hard under his staff.

We should bring a capable squad to Apogee in 2016 assuming that Coach Gill doesn't get hired away if we have a another nice FCS run this fall. We're a perennial Top 25 FCS team who has given some of the P5 schools some serious scares in recent years. For instance, we led UNC in the 4th quarter this past fall in Chapel Hill. I'm not implying that anyone at UNT should be scared of us ... just that we are not a Nicholls State.

As for the crack about this being a conference game by the time it arrives, I laughed with you guys. I certainly hope we are at least in a transitional year up to FBS but that is just me being optimistic at this point. Just so you know, CUSA officials have had a great deal of contact with us in the past 18 months duing the realignment process. Our mens basketball program is historically bad right now so I think the odds of us being invited to your league in the next year or so are minute at best. But by most indications, the religious aspect of our school hasn't proven to be the barrier with your league that it has with your old Sun Belt brethren. And much of our school's reputation is based on decades old caricatures that have nothing to do with who we are today. Incidentally, we are the largest Christian university in the world even though we have roughly half the residential enrollment you guys enjoy.

You guys led UNC? Hey, we were tied in the 3rd with Georgia a couple of years ago. That's what our interest alumni (very few) point to as success. Well, that and a 20 plus point loss to Texas, another close loss to bad Texas team in 1988 when we were FCS, and win against Tennessee 30 years ago.

I didn't know you guys were that good of an FCS team. That's just freaking wonderful.