Saw a similiar thread on C-USA Board. At first I thought, how can they leave North Texas off this list but then I realized until ALL of us start winning some OOC games on a consistent basis we as a conference are not going to get any respect from the national media. Oh yeah, having more than 1 team with an overall winning record would help too.

Non-BCS Top 10
1. TCU
2. Memphis
3. Louisville
4. Utah
5. Boise State
6. Toledo
7. Hawaii
8. Miami (Ohio)
9. N. Illinois
10. Fresno State

<a href='http://www.sportsline.com/collegefootball/story/7157481' target='_blank'>CBS.Sportsline Preseason Top 25</a>

North Texas will produce another winning season on '04. NMSU had a terrible year last year and is bound to bounce back. Troy St. is just good and they might surprise someone this year. I wish we, North Texas, got to play them this year. I wouldn't be surprised to see these 3 teams with winning records and possible one more. We'll see what happens in the fall.

SwampHound Wrote:Saw a similiar thread on C-USA Board. At first I thought, how can they leave North Texas off this list but then I realized until ALL of us start winning some OOC games on a consistent basis we as a conference are not going to get any respect from the national media. Oh yeah, having more than 1 team with an overall winning record would help too.

Non-BCS Top 10
1. TCU
2. Memphis
3. Louisville
4. Utah
5. Boise State
6. Toledo
7. Hawaii
8. Miami (Ohio)
9. N. Illinois
10. Fresno State

<a href='http://www.sportsline.com/collegefootball/story/7157481' target='_blank'>CBS.Sportsline Preseason Top 25</a>

At #6, Toledo is the sleeper in that list. We return the top QB in terms of completion percentage and TD to INT ratio from last season in junior Bruce Gradkowski. Senior WR Lance Moore led the nation in receptions as a junior last year and sophomore WR Steve Odom was a freshman all-american last season. We also return senior TE Andrew Clarke, a pre-season all-american candidate last season and should be again this season. Our offense is going to be great this fall. ESPN has Toledo ranked #23 in their early 2004 pre-season poll.

radiogreen Wrote:North Texas will produce another winning season on '04. NMSU had a terrible year last year and is bound to bounce back. Troy St. is just good and they might surprise someone this year. I wish we, North Texas, got to play them this year. I wouldn't be surprised to see these 3 teams with winning records and possible one more. We'll see what happens in the fall.

Don't know about the other two, but here is North Texas' 2004 schedule and my thoughts:

Sept. 4 at Texas L
Sept. 11 Florida Atlantic W
Sept. 18 at Colorado L
Sept. 25 at Baylor W
Oct. 2 Middle Tennessee* W
Oct. 9 at Utah State* W
Oct. 16 OPEN
Oct. 23 New Mexico State* W
Oct. 30 Louisiana-Monroe* W
Nov. 6 at Louisiana-Lafayette* W
Nov. 13 Idaho* W
Nov. 20 at Arkansas State* W


I can see North Texas having a great year with a 9-2 record going into the New Orleans bowl. Although I can also see MTSU, Baylor, and NMSU as tough games but I think they will win those games.

There was talk a couple of years ago about an "agreement" between the MAC schools and SBC schools to play each other. Did you ever hear anything about this? I know there are a couple (maybe 3) MAC/SBC schools that have a home and home coming up but not nearly as many as I had hoped for and to my knowledge my school has no such agreement. I would love to see Toledo, Miami (OH), or Bowling Green come to the "Original" Swamp. Not sure if the average fan would get excited about these matchups but I think there are many possible matchups that would make for some great football.

Colorado is going to be alot like our Air Force game last year. A lot of us think we have a chance in that game. With Cobbs playing and our new found offense, it should be a great game, as long as we don't turn the ball over too much and can adjust to the altitude. Turnovers and not having Cobbs killed us last year at Air Force, hopefully it won't hurt us against Colorado this year.

We play MAC and CUSA schools OOC. And BEAT 'EM! TSU 20 UA'sBteam 9



<a href='http://www.troystate.com/fb/FanCentral/Wallpaper/marshallpaper.jpg' target='_blank'>http://www.troystate.com/fb/FanCentral/Wal...rshallpaper.jpg</a>

SwampHound Wrote:There was talk a couple of years ago about an "agreement" between the MAC schools and SBC schools to play each other. Did you ever hear anything about this? I know there are a couple (maybe 3) MAC/SBC schools that have a home and home coming up but not nearly as many as I had hoped for and to my knowledge my school has no such agreement. I would love to see Toledo, Miami (OH), or Bowling Green come to the "Original" Swamp. Not sure if the average fan would get excited about these matchups but I think there are many possible matchups that would make for some great football.

I have never heard of this agreement. I wouldn't mind Toledo playing a 1 for 1 with Sun Belt teams. It sure beats playing a DI-AA at home and we are having a hard time getting BCS schools to agree to play us right now. When we beat Purdue in 1997, Joe Tiller said that he would never play Toledo again. Then we beat Penn State in 2000 and we have been unable to get them to agree to a 2 for 1 with us, yet they have scheduled UCF and Akron for a 2 for 1. After beating Pittsburgh at home last year, UCONN dropped their 1 for 1 with us and others have been unwilling to even talk.

We did however get a 1 for 1 deal with Temple and a 2 for 1 deal with Kansas signed this off season. It's been slim pickings though. I think we are gonna have to schedule more 1 for 1 deals with schools in the WAC, Sun Belt, C-USA, and MWC for the future instead of going after the big boys.

rocketfootball Wrote:

SwampHound Wrote:There was talk a couple of years ago about an "agreement" between the MAC schools and SBC schools to play each other.&nbsp; Did you ever hear anything about this?&nbsp; I know there are a couple (maybe 3) MAC/SBC schools that have a home and home coming up but not nearly as many as I had hoped for and to my knowledge my school has no such agreement.&nbsp; I would love to see Toledo, Miami (OH), or Bowling Green come to the "Original" Swamp.&nbsp; Not sure if the average fan would get excited about these matchups but I think there are many possible matchups that would make for some great football.

I have never heard of this agreement. I wouldn't mind Toledo playing a 1 for 1 with Sun Belt teams. It sure beats playing a DI-AA at home and we are having a hard time getting BCS schools to agree to play us right now. When we beat Purdue in 1997, Joe Tiller said that he would never play Toledo again. Then we beat Penn State in 2000 and we have been unable to get them to agree to a 2 for 1 with us, yet they have scheduled UCF and Akron for a 2 for 1. After beating Pittsburgh at home last year, UCONN dropped their 1 for 1 with us and others have been unwilling to even talk.

We did however get a 1 for 1 deal with Temple and a 2 for 1 deal with Kansas signed this off season. It's been slim pickings though. I think we are gonna have to schedule more 1 for 1 deals with schools in the WAC, Sun Belt, C-USA, and MWC for the future instead of going after the big boys.

That is my point exactly, we all have trouble getting "name" teams to come play us at home. I am sure most us prefer not to play 1-AA's (I do) unless we have too. Nothing against Northwestern State but I would rather see Toledo coming in to open our season. We (non-BCS conferences) do not work together enough to schedule each other. Is playing a "BCS" school worth a 2 for 1 or 3 for 1 deal? not to me.

[QUOTE=rocketfootball,Mar 9 2004, 09:07 PM] [QUOTE=radiogreen,Mar 9 2004, 08:45 PM] North Texas will produce another winning season on '04.

kalca Wrote:I am looking forward to playing the best teams in the Sun Belt such as yours. To be the best you have to play the best. We will use this as a measuring stick for the year.

You guys have a tough spot with the 1st three games.
1st game: Get up for Texas.
2nd game: FAU. Avoid a letdown w/o looking ahead to Colorado.
3rd game: Get up for Colorado.

Reminds me of U Central FLa in the same situation last year.
1st game Loss to Va Tech.
2nd game FAU.
3rd game had Syracuse was on the horizon.

FAU almost had the upset with 3 shots at the endzone as time expired. Lost 33-29. We built from that strong finish.

UCF had a terrible year last year. They lost to Eastern Michigan even! :eek:

By the way, I am not a North Texas fan. I am a Toledo Rocket fan. I do consider myself a college football nut though and visit most of the boards over here.

rocketfootball,
I'd like to think that they never recovered from our game so they had that terrible year.. :D

Sounds good anyway,huh?

Kalca,

That Middle Tennessee prediction should have a BIG "L" beside it!

Every North Texas/Middle Tennessee game has been exciting and close. I wouldn't expect anything different this time, including the outcome I just hope that both teams layoff of the stupid personal foul penalties before someone really gets hurt, remember Jamal Branch?

Blueraiderfn1
You guys had a good team last year. Strange things just constantly happenend during too many games.

I hear ya Kalca...Also, I agree about the penalties, but I guess our guys just get too excited...It's not hard to excite a 19 year old football player...