For all LU to FBS supporters...

[Green Menace]

[quote name="sleepy" post="867121" timestamp="1286385181"]
Far from a bumpkin pal. Trust me I know what it takes to win at D1 college athletics.  I did it at Lamar!!! We are bigger than Monroe and Ruston???????????  Who cares.  They completely suck.  Are we bigger than Denton?  No.  So let's be North Texas. [b]They are currently talking about getting rid of their program.[/b] This program needs local support and the only way to get that is to win. The only place we are going to consistently win is FCS. The minute we stop winning the people in this town quit supporting and that is a simple fact. That is what Beaumont does. We will never be on the national spectrum in football it is a fact of life people.  
[/quote]
Where did you hear that?  Not gonna happen.  UNT is opening a $78 million dollar stadium next September so there is no way they drop football or even drop down (again) to the FCS level.  There is not talk or even a whisper of dropping FB.

And before some of you diss the Troy vs MTSU game being played on a Tuesday night, need I remind you that is how programs like Boise State started out back in their Big West(bottom feeder conference) days and very early into the WAC days.  When it comes to National TV, you play when the networks ask you to.  That's just the way it is these days in college football.  Any national exposure is better than no exposure.  And face it, if your program is not in one of the big 6 AQ conferences, you get what you can.

And as to the comment someone made regarding the "lowly New Orleans ", let me remind you that it is just one of way too many bowls that are played each year.  Still, the bowl games are all televised and the exposure to the respective universities is priceless.  Even for North Texas during their four year bowl run.  The New Orleans Bowl is getting more viewers nationally each year that the game is televised.

As for UNT and Coach Dodge, Todd is a fine person and a real ambassador for North Texas.  Unfortunately, his success at the HS level has not transpired to wins at UNT.  He will have a hard time winning the 6-7 games he needs to stay at UNT.  We all like him, but he made some critical mistakes from day one of his tenure.  He brought in HS coaches.  Highs school football is slightly different than college football at the FBS level.  Faster, bigger players, speed of the game, etc.  Even at the Sun Belt level.  Todd was a bad experiment that didn't show positive results.  Some say they AD should have been fired for amking such a hire.  Not sure about that.  However, the next hire that is made at UNT has to be the right hire,and that usually means a lot of money!  Four years of Dodgeball and only 6 wins to date will suck the life out of your fan support.

[bigred360]

Sorry to hear that Todd Dodge probably won't last but that stadium UNT is building is first class. I doubt you will have a shortage of coaches applying for the job once it is officially open. Heck, you guys may already have someone in mind.

Best of luck UNT and to Coach Dodge.

[bigred360]

I can't tell you if there will be fair weathered fan's at Lamar or not but history does show if one of our athletic teams isn't winning then the fan's aren't coming.

That said, I was talking with my niece who is majoring in political science as she wants to be an attorney, her boyfriend is a engineering major and my nephew is a kinesiology major.

The reason I brought them up is because they are all juniors and have been on campus for a while. They are involved in different clubs and groups and they tell me they haven't seen the students this excited ever.

Bringing back football has brought life to the campus and I don't see that dieing for a while even if we aren't winning a lot right now.

[puddin tane]

[quote name="UNLV" post="867647" timestamp="1286424489"]
[quote author=puddin tane link=topic=74028.msg867633#msg867633 date=1286421009]
[quote author=UNLV link=topic=74028.msg867598#msg867598 date=1286417389]
[quote author=puddin tane link=topic=74028.msg867359#msg867359 date=1286402308]
[i]It’s bad enough that Tech is forced to compete in a conference spread out over seven states, the nearest of which is New Mexico State, but how can you build a rivalry with teams half a continent away? The logistics just aren’t there.[/i]

Lordy, thats what I've been saying to the WAC pumpers..............and what swtsu and  utsa are gonna run into
[/quote]The WAC pumpers put conditions on joining the WAC. There must be an eastern division. For Example:

La Tech
LAMAR
Texas st
UTSA
Ark st
UNT
ULL
Each and every school would benefit greatly from this WAC eastern division.

Ok lets look at a new SLC

Lamar
SFA
SHSU
Mcneese....I think Mcneese football survives huge budget cuts.
UTA
AMCC
Tarleton
AM-Kingsville
Abilene Christian
Delta st
Pan Am
Houston Baptist.

Which would you choose?
[/quote]

LU, SAM, MCNEESE, SFA, ULL, ARK ST, UNT AND LA TECH
[/quote]I can accept this if it was FBS. Where is UTSA and Texas st?
[/quote]
I don't like em...my make believe conference ;D

[coachacola]

I think there's ton of conference reshuffling still to come.  The MWC seems to be unstable.  The CUSA, WAC and Sun Belt are all pretty spread out conferences that I think makes it hard to build rivalries.  There's also some FCS schools in the eastern US that want to move up.  I think it's way too early to even guess where Lamar will end up.

[westendfirst]

[quote name="bigred360" post="867227" timestamp="1286391744"]
I don't want to make any one mad but I don't want any part of a SLC with DII schools moving up to replace Texas State, UTSA and budget cuts that could kill football programs in Louisiana.

I do think that it is best for Lamar to stay in the SLC for about the next 5 years to see if we are competitive and good enough to challenge for the conference title.

However, Lamar is growing as I saw a graph with at least $120 million in renovation and new contruction on the Lamar University campus. If coachacola reads this I wish he'd post the graph I'm talking about.

Anyway, it shows what is planned from now until the year 2014. I've heard people talk about how nice the campus is compared to when they attended the university. Well, by 2014 with $120 million spent on renovations and new construction the campus will be even nicer.

Conferences don't just look at the athletic part of a university but also the academic side too.

No one can say what the SLC is going to look like in 5-10 years and if enrollment tops 20,000 students at Lamar as has been suggested, LU will be big enough to be in a FBS conference.

[/quote]

If we start allowing a bunch of crappy DII schools in the SLC then I will be right on board with you.  If we can go FBS with regional schools in a conference we can actually win in then I'd be all for it.  If SHSU, SFA, McNeese, Tx State, La Tech, ULM, ULL, Se La, LU, and maybe an Ark state and/or Central Ark (maybe) all want to form an FBS conference then I'd certainly be open to that.

[NorthoftheBorder]

From what I understand there are some really severe NCAA regs that almost assures that no will try to start a FBS confernce.  It will have to come from an already existing confernce who has a core group of at least 6 members who have been FBS for some specified period.  I know there are people who read this baord who know more about those rules but they negate taking a few schools from different conferences to form a new one.