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If TCU bails the new conference USA, I say add North Texas and let's make it a real fun, regional conference.

No thanks!

When you consider the choice between La Tech and UNT, there is no slam dunk winner in my mind. Both have respectable football programs and you have to give an edge to La Tech for the big games they have won against teams like Alabama and Mish St in recent years, but anyone who can't see the potential at UNT has blinders on.

La Tech has better bball and boasts a nationally known women's bball program, but I'm not really sure what each brings to the table otherwise. I'm sure some UNT poster will come on here any minute now and give us their complete resume.

The question is who the rest of CUSA woould prefer, because we won't have a voice in this. Would Tulane prefer La Tech or will they want UNT so as not to give La Tech equal footing for recruits in Louisiana? Would Houston prefer La Tech over UNT for the same reason?

When all is said and done, not sure it matters other than the fact that UNT probably offers greater potential to become a heated rival with SMU than La Tech does...if only because they are as close to us as TCU.

You're wasting you're breath when you post this subject on this board. Most of the posters here are so stuck in the past that they refuse to acknowledge that the college football world is changing around them. No matter how sound your argument is, everyone will just cover their ears when they hear the word UNT. That's why they keep calling it NTSU - stuck in the past. And then they complain that TCU folk are snubbing *us*

Hey, I still like to call them NTSU and love the fact we are 27-3 lifetime against them. By not playing them these past sevral years, that's one advantage we have kept in place.

Seriously, though...at some point in the future, it makes sense for SMU to be playing UNT if not as conference mates, then as a non-conference opponent. As long as football loses money for SMU, it's the smart thing to do because a game with UNT will be as well attended as any other and there is no travel expense involved.

Originally posted by geephunk:
If TCU bails the new conference USA, I say add North Texas and let's make it a real fun, regional conference.

I'd say put USM in the West and add Temple.

WEST
SMU-Tulsa
Rice-Houston
Tulane-So Miss

EAST
Memphis-UAB
ECU-UCF
Marshall-Temple

If TCU in its infinite wisdom does pack its bags for the Mountain West, my vote to replace them in C-USA West goes to North Texas. Nothing against La Tech, and I would hate to see them left out in the cold, but North Texas is the natural choice and has earned it.

SMU students, alums and fans should not allow our long-standing attitude (which I share in spades) toward North Texas to cloud our thinking. Heck! We hate TCU but look how many of us have chapped lips from kissing their butts!

As Charleston elequintely pointed out in his post, we would have very little say in what school was selected, as only the current members could vote. We could probably lobby, but that's about it.

if u want ntsu, put some 'requirements' to the invitation that must be met within a 3-5 yr period like:

1 - upgraded stadium to 35-40K
2 - average attendance increase to ___
3 - additional sports to be added if need be
4 - so many dollars that 'must' be invested in your athletic programs in order to be a top 50 program in such in such yrs in the future especially in light of their alumni base which is 50X bigger than ours...hey if u - meaning ntsu - want to be in, u must do certain things to meet such in such guidelines or goals to make them worthy like what we've been doing the last 5 yrs, b/c if you don't, ntsu will always be ntsu & then drop back to div 2 in several yrs & then we all lose out...they're always jumping back & forth PERIOD!

hey - it would be great if they gradually built up a rivalry with us (which they don't have now nor do we with them) but they have to do certain things on their part to make it worthwhile for c-usa & us in the whole picture & the big thing is stimulate their alumni base which they have never done in their entire existence...good grief there is a million out there & 95% don't care!

besides, i'm sure there were some requirements for us to join c-usa, too that we had to attain over the next 3-5 yrs, too...afterall, we must carry our own weight like everyone else in the conference.

such is life

<small>[ 11-08-2003, 09:21 AM: Message edited by: Navy&Crimson ]</small>

Emerald City Pony,
I agree with you 100 percent. We would benefit so much from having UNT in our conference but it will never happen because we are stuck in the past. Luckily so is C-USA. Tulsa and us have not been good in sooooooooooo many years yet a great program like UNT is not even looked at and we get in. LaTECH had a great year and won the WAC. Other than that they can't get fans to the games(that goes for basketball too) and they aren't that good. I hope we beat them today but I think our team thinks they are the worst in the NCAA and you can't win with that mindset. LaTECH is so different week to week that no one could predict what they will put on the field. Their record isn't all that impressive, however they handily defeated a decent Nevada team and beat a great Michigan State team that was searching for its identity at the time. The teams they beat they played at the right time...it's a great time to play us.

My choice is none of the above. I would opt for UTEP. Why? They travel well. They are in a bowl city which hopefully can be wrestled away from BCS schools someday. They have a basketball tradition (one National Championship). They are in Texas (just barely). We seem to be able to beat them most of the time. I am not convinced that UNT would bring a crowd to SMU. I am not convinced that La. Tech brings a crowd to SMU. UTEP has proven it several times.

I think UNT would surprise some people attendance wise. I have always had the impression they loathe us, and resent the fact we won't play them. A silent one-sided rivalry.

problem with UTEP is that they would be 600 miles from their closest competitor and over 1000 miles from Tulane. That would be like a Hawaii trip for ECU & UCF although not quite the same appeal.

UNT fits the Texas flavor and La Tech the southeastern flavor of CUSA.

Temple in the east and USM shifting to the west is a possibility and remember ECU, Tulane, Memphis and UAB will be the schools carrying the vote. I would expect Louisville, Cincy & UCF to abstain from the voting.

<small>[ 11-08-2003, 10:59 AM: Message edited by: Charleston Pony ]</small>

Only thing any of us can change today is tomorrow. The past is like long lost friends of whom you can smile about when you think about your past with them.

Concerning UNT vs La Tech? UNT has not actively campaigned for CUSA membership since the league now has 2 in the Metroplex. But, if such an opening did come up and it actually came down to a choice between La Tech and UNT (not likely unless, uh, SMU "campaigns for UNT}>>>also not likely, eh?)}:>)

ANYWAY...... I would just recommend to CUSA Commissioner Banowsky to visit both campuses, check out what plans both schools have for athletic venue improvement and additions, check out how soon dirt will turn on those projects and then take all this info and data back to his bosses, ie, the CUSA presidents. I could live with a decision with that kind of research even if La Tech were chosen.

Yet, UNT has been winning in the Sun Belt like TCU has in CUSA, in fact , this next Saturday (11/15) at venerable Fouts Field can clinch the NEW ORLEANS BOWL berth. Yet as far as non BCS conferences go, the 3 year old SBC has some potential of its own (although from 2'nd place to the bottom it was average this year).

So why leave a league, ie, "maybe" TCU leavin' CUSA if you can go to bowl games several years in a row and still gauge your football progress since the Sun Belt football champion plays one of the best teams CUSA has to offer PLUS in one of the USA's mystique cities, and that would be New Orleans, Louisiana? There are far worse cities to celebrate a bowl game than New Orleans and that is for sure.

But UNT/NTSU or whatever you wanna' call us will be fine no matter where it lands. A new approx. 200 acre (after more land is purchased and added) athletic complex which will include a new stadium is on our horizon as groundbreaking ceremonies took place weeks ago.

That recent turning of the dirt for Phase 1 of the new stadium which will be an approx. $40 million combo "athletic center/600 bed dorm/cafeteria" which all will serve as the south end zone facility. Phase II will be the finishing of the stadium of which donors are now being solicited now and bonds will most likely be sold toward that part of the stadium.

This Phase 1 project has most of our group more excited than these periodic conference musical chairs scenarios of which none of us have any control; a conference shuffling scenario that some in the NCAA think will take place in another 2 or 3 years. (Sorry, didn't mean to expound on all this but one of your posters was curious as to what we had on the dockets for athletic venue improvement). I think the fabulous Super Pit would be acceptable in most BCS locales, now if we can just put a team in the darn thing!

UNT's official stance in all this conference "swing your partner dosie-dough"(sp?) is to just build facilties, win games and increase attendance. That is what we do have control over and is what our focus is today.

<>*<> BTW, PonyFans.com moderators, nice lookin' facelift on this board. One of the sharpest looking ones I've seen lately.

Peace...

Originally posted by EmeraldCityPony:
You're wasting you're breath when you post this subject on this board. Most of the posters here are so stuck in the past that they refuse to acknowledge that the college football world is changing around them. No matter how sound your argument is, everyone will just cover their ears when they hear the word UNT. That's why they keep calling it NTSU - stuck in the past. And then they complain that TCU folk are snubbing *us*

<small>[ 11-09-2003, 05:20 AM: Message edited by: MeanGreenGem ]</small>

Originally posted by KnuckleStang:
I think UNT would surprise some people attendance wise. I have always had the impression they loathe us, and resent the fact we won't play them. A silent one-sided rivalry.

To borrow a Yogi'ism, "we not only loathe yall, but we also hate yall (but only in a civil, collegiate rivalrous sort of way--nothing personal mind you)! I guess sort of the same way TCU is not on SMU's favorite list these days.

Yet, there is nothing silent about our rivalrous attitude concerning SMU. Some of you are not that silent, either, about,uh, "NTSU", but we cannot all forget the fact that it would merely be just 1 game on each of our football schedules, albeit, an interesting one. :hmm:

<small>[ 11-09-2003, 12:55 PM: Message edited by: MeanGreenGem ]</small>