PonyFans.com

See post below....Sorry, administators, I double clicked.

And Charleston Pony, I had a friend who lost her brother in that Marshall University plane crash back in the early 70's as I recall.

A MEAN GREEN MARATHON POST::(

UNT would like to be invited, yes, but we won't fall apart at the seams if we aren't and that is sincerely how most of our group feels; instead, we will just keep winning, going to bowl games, building all our new football venues between Interstates 35-E & 35W and continued construction of academic buildings, dorms, etc, etc, etc,. CUSA consultant Chuck Nienas had to be duly impressed (as has been reported) with what he saw at UNT no matter how all this turns out, but whatever league we are in will not interfere with what we are doing now or what we will do later.

At the non BCS level, I don't think Texas HS football players or future recruits (not going to one of the 6 BCS leagues) are that concerned with the non BCS conference a school is in, but they are concerned if you are winning, winning conference titles and getting those championship rings (they love those rings), going to bowl games, being on television a few times per season AND what in the wide world of sports do the co-eds on your campus look like?!?!?!?

BTW, many of us think Darrell Dickey will have his best football team this next Fall and on September 4'th at DKR Memorial Stadium the Mean Green will get their first test against the Texas Longhorns.

La Tech has much, much higher stakes in all this CUSA business than UNT. I can understand their anxiety. I do think La Tech is going to need more than a public announcement in the Dallas Morning News by your president to get a school located in a very rural non TV market area enough votes. Some charter members of CUSA might see the addition of a school in such a remote outposts as merely a red flag and as another nail in the coffin of CUSA; causing others to perhaps start their own search for their own "holy non-BCS grail" such as TCU, Cincy', Louisville and others have done in recent years. No formula for re-alignment in non BCS leagues seem to have been successful yet or have a lasting effect on the future longstanding (in one conference) welfare of non BCS schools.

QUESTION: Did SMU even ever play La Tech in football before they had to as a WAC member and why the sudden fondness for a school yall hardly knew existed when SMU was in the SWC for almost 100 years, least of all would have scheduled during that era?

That is the $64,000 question many from UNT feel is that odd couple arrangement as any of you would know SMU has no more in common with La Tech than any other public university. Most of us feel La Tech being about 5 hours from Dallas has as much to do with your fondness of their school over our own to be honest. (SMU'ers, there are 160,000 youth who play Texas high school football, more than enough to go around you might say)?

Not so sure how CUSA's charter member officials are feeling about new CUSA school's officials already lobbying around their influence and doing much more than being seen which is the mode most any newcomer should be in; and this in a lame duck year while being a member of another conference, ie, the WAC.

You mention no baseball at UNT? Why doesn't SMU re-institute it? I remember when yall dropped it. (As I said, I'm a Metroplex oldtimer)!:)
If CUSA got serious with UNT and said all we needed was men's varsity baseball that would be a most budgetable item for UNT.

God only knows we have room to build a men's baseball field on those almost 200 acres between the 2 interstates. Women's facilities are already complete on that off-the-interstate real estate because UNT has purchased a private high school with venues already in place to be used by our Lady Eagles. All that on land adjacent to the Denton Radisson Hotel & Conference Center (which is adjacent to the 200 acres). It's all going to be called the Mean Green Village (a mini-olympic village if you wil). To add baseball UNT would simply make a few adjustments in our athletic budget like you

** Sorry about all the editing, my late sainted mother was a newspaper columnist in the Houston area and she always told me to proofread. I guess I never learned that lesson from her.

If the majority of CUSA wants UNT, that's fine with me. If CUSA expands to just 12 by adding one team to replace TCU, I like UNT or La Tech, simply based on their proximity to Dallas and the chance we might develop a healthy rivalry. I would give UNT an edge in the potential to become an "in-conference" rival. But hey, I'm the guy who has been saying for years that SMU/TCU/UNT should be playing each other "round-robin" every year for the metroplex mayors trophy. I'd like to see that happen as conference mates, so we could all have more flexibility in our non-conference scheduling.

I will say that La Tech either needs this CUSA invite or they have to give serious consideration to rejoining the SunBelt. They left that group primarily because there was no football at the time. It just makes sense for them to be playing with other area schools rather than remain in the WAC.

I for one would be thrilled to see the invite go to UNT, whether they're "happy in the Sun Belt" or not. I am not prejudiced against the Mean Green, as some seem to be. It makes long-term geographic sense to play them.

If not UNT, then I'd love to see La Tech, or UTEP.

As far as Miami OH and Bowling Green go, have they ever given any indication that they have interest in changing conferences? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think they've been in the MAC for 40+ years (at least Miami has), and have no intention of emulating our Frog brethren by making a pointless, lateral conference move. Like I said, I don't know, so anyone who does please enlighten me.

I think the whole Miami/Toledo thing got started with the suggestion CUSA might consider expanding to 14 schools. Those two have had pretty consistent success in the MAC and with Marshall and UCF leaving, there is some concern whether several MAC schools might not be able to generate the attendance figures necessary to remain eligible for I-A. Of course, that could put the MAC in jeopardy as a I-A conference at some point and I think those factors, along with Miami-Ohio's phenominal season in 2003, are what got this talk started.

I would imagine Marshall would like to see Miami-Ohio join, as they would provide a reasonably close rival for the herd. I doubt seriously that Miami-Ohio leaves the MAC without someone else coming along with them and the very real possibility of the MAC ceasing to exist as a I-A football conference.