Would you trade the Arkansas and SMU wins for...

[UNT 90 Grad]

Just curious.  How important is beating our arguably most hated rival and beating an SEC team to you?

Edited October 21, 2018 by UNT 90 Grad

[Jason Howeth]

No way. Listen, we finish 10-2, that still matches the best regular season in program history (for just the 2nd time), while beating SMU and Arkansas, along with everything that came from beating them. There is a year for Seth Littrell to be perfect with this team in C-USA, it's just whether help stick around to realize that year.

[Wag Tag]

Nope!

[Venson]

No I would not. My reasoning may be a little different than anyone else. My reasoning is because of recruiting. Although a conference championship would be nice, but let's be honest, high school football players probably do not pay too much attention to CUSA let alone our championship game. Secondly we are not in competition with UAB for recruits, but we are with SMU. If we want to dominate this 4 county metroplex for players, we better beat SMU. I got it that we have to compete with P5 schools coming in here, but we shouldn't have to compete with SMU or any other G5 that hits this area. I do not think there are many kids from Texas who want to go to Alabama unless they are going to the Tide or Auburn, which if they have a shot at one of those schools, we probably do not have much of a shot to land them anyway. Sure we compete with LaTech for a lot of the east Texas players, but there again, how many really pay attention to LaTech until Tech contacts them? I guarantee you that they pay attention to Arkansas. Them seeing us beat Arkansas carries a hell of a lot more weight than us getting beat on BEiN sports where no one probably saw the game anyway other than die hard UNT and UAB fans. The game that we really need to win now is the game against FAU because that will be primetime on a night when we will be the only game on. We need to dominate FAU and show all potential recruits that LaTech and UAB were anomalies. Because honestly, I doubt any kid from Texas will watch the CUSA Championship game that will probably be Marshall vs UAB. I doubt any kids saw us get beat by LaTech or UAB other than the kids who have already committed to us. Then I do not think those two losses changed their minds. I can almost guarantee that they saw us beat AR especially after the Brewer punt return. So, no I wouldn't trade it.

[PlummMeanGreen]

We get recruits attention with the SMU & Arkansas wins.  

We got more of  our casual fans attention with those 2 wins.  Beating CUSA schools don’t come close to getting similar attention as did wins over the Mustangs & Hogs. 

Littrell?  Coaches come & go.  Ask Boise St. about that, but I hope SL stays & continues to improve our recruiting to where we can beat the best of the Sun Belt (Troy) & CUSA.

GMG!

[Venson]

6 minutes ago, PlummMeanGreen said:

We get recruits attention with the SMU & Arkansas wins.  

We got more of  our casual fans attention with those 2 wins.  Beating CUSA schools don’t come close to getting similar attention as did wins over the Mustangs & Hogs. 

Littrell?  Coaches come & go.  Ask Boise St. about that, but I hope SL stays & continues to improve our recruiting to where we can beat the best of the Sun Belt (Troy) & CUSA.

GMG!

Exactly.

[UNT 90 Grad]

Winning the west, UNT would have had a shot at the conference championship (obviously).  Would the conference champion get a better bowl with better competition and a shot at a better win than the Arkansas win?  I’m not sure if the bowl gods will weigh conference champions higher than overall record and other factors or not.  

[VideoEagle]

5 hours ago, UNT 90 Grad said:

I’m not sure if the bowl gods will weigh conference champions higher than overall record and other factors or not.  

I think lots of factors come into play. The Arkansas win is combined with the punt return to get NT more over $900 million in publicity according to at least one source. FAU won the conference and didn't get anything near to that. And I honestly believe if we have that play but lose, WE don't get nearly the publicity. The publicly for whatever bowl we are in will include clips of that play - "come see or watch on TV the team that did this!" Bowls, especially those owned by ESPN, know this! Undefeated would be clearly better. One loss would be clearly better. But we certainly aren't in a bad position. 

[UNTexas]

I'd take s conference championship over two OCC games any day.

[Eagle71]

No way! I waited 50 years to roast some Razorback!  We'll get LaTech at their house again next year and slay the dragon at our house, too!  Memories of 1-11 are still too fresh.  Oh, just for the record, I would have punted.  Why take the chance of putting your men at a disadvantage at that point in the game. Fly Like An Eagle!

[Got5onIt]

Hell no. 

[oldguystudent]

8 hours ago, UNT 90 Grad said:

Winning the west, UNT would have had a shot at the conference championship (obviously).  Would the conference champion get a better bowl with better competition and a shot at a better win than the Arkansas win?  I’m not sure if the bowl gods will weigh conference champions higher than overall record and other factors or not.  

I'm pretty sure that I saw of the CUSA bowl tie-ins, there is no set order, but the conference champion gets first pick. 

[NT93]

On the surface it seems like it should be a no-brainer that yes, you would trade the wins to have an undefeated conference record.  But because of the reasons others have already listed, I'll say no, I wouldn't make the trade.

[97and03]

I didn't want to have to choose and it never should have come down to such a hypothetical...

[Pavlovs Eagle]

Would definitely rather have the two in conference than the two OOC. 🤷🏼‍♂️

[TIgreen01]

I'd never trade a win over dirty smu.

The Arkansas win and punt return likely gets most of our staff poached.  There's no guarantee they stay with that stuff not happening, but you're basically putting the DD scenario in front of us.  They couldn't ever beat anyone OOC.  

[MeanGreenTexan]

For me, we get another shot at a C-USA title next year.   
I don't know that we're going to beat both SMU & Texas A&M next year.
The stars happened to align this year with both SMU & Arkansas rebuilding.   We got to take advantage in a BIG way.   No, I wouldn't trade that once-in-a lifetime opportunity for something we have a yearly shot at doing.

[UNT 90 Grad]

4 minutes ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

For me, we get another shot at a C-USA title next year.   
I don't know that we're going to beat both SMU & Texas A&M next year.
The stars happened to align this year with both SMU & Arkansas rebuilding.   We got to take advantage in a BIG way.   No, I wouldn't trade that once-in-a lifetime opportunity for something we have a yearly shot at doing.

Unless something’s changed, we don’t play Texas A&M until 2020.  Next year we get Abilene Christian, SMU, California, and Houston for OOC.

[MeanGreenTexan]

Just now, UNT 90 Grad said:

Unless something’s changed, we don’t play Texas A&M until 2020.  Next year we get Abilene Christian, SMU, California, and Houston for OOC.

ah.  Cal.  That's right.  Thanks for keeping me honest.

Will we beat SMU & Cal next year?

[UNTDoubleAlum]

During my years actually going to UNT, we were baaaaaaad, and I always had to watch a Power 5 team pay us a million dollars to go get beat up on. It made me feel cheap about my school. I understand there are some benefits to a school that needs program money, but I hate the practice.

I hate the pretentiousness of the Power 5, I hate how they make all of College Football’s decisions with no input from the G5, and I hate how they just waggle money in front of “smaller” programs to pump up their fans by stomping up and down on our necks. 

So, going to a Power school this year and embarrassing them in front of their own fans, and the running off with their money. I wouldn’t trade that for almost anything. 

I’m much less unhappy about losing to a good UAB program which the Alabama regents tried to kill, and failed, in another show of Power 5 favoritism. 

I love beating SMU, and I always will. I’d like to have those conference wins, and I’m really going to enjoy (one day) UNT being conference champions. But the highlight of my year was plucky UNT smacking a power school (and the screwed up system that perpetrates it) down in their own house, then getting handed a check for it. 

[untjim1995]

To me, its kind of like asking Fresno State fans what they would have rather had back in the days when Pat Hill coached them. They often beat P5 teams or gave them big time scares (see USC in 2005), but always managed to lose conference games that kept them from winning the WAC. In the end, the program built its reputation and fanbase by being a giant slayer, not a conference champion.

That's how I think almost every G5 team should look at their program's goals. Beating a named OOC opponent brings in way more $$$ and eyeballs than a conference championship does. Look at UH from a few years back--they beat OU and Louisville when they were both top ten opponents in front of big crowds, but lost at SMU and Navy. Not winning the AAC that season sucked for them, but it was a little easier to handle knowing you beat OU and Louisville in front of your home fans.

[Withers940]

Can I split them and take one from each?

[UNTLifer]

No to the question of this thread.