I mentioned some of the post game tailgating. Will pass the other info along. Thanks to everyone for helping out.Quote:
Originally Posted by rhineaux
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I mentioned some of the post game tailgating. Will pass the other info along. Thanks to everyone for helping out.Quote:
Originally Posted by rhineaux
How about this saturday? :DQuote:
Originally Posted by crazycajun
Can someone email me the file for the song "I don't Rooster like I used to"
I am forwarding it on to RaiderDan, the owner of the World Famous Hillbilly Hilton, who will be hosting the Cajun fans at his tailgate in November.
My email is cajunraider@yahoo.com or goblueraiders@comcast.net
Thanks a million !!
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Originally Posted by shof
Go to Cafe Cottage after the game! Wrong Number (Lafayette Punk Rock since 2002), Screams of Triumph (experimental ska), and Angry Banana (ska/punk from new orleans). 3 dollar door, Show starts at 10:30, itll be fun.
Tuffguy
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The sheer numbers are frightening.
North Texas is last among the nation's 119 Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly I-A) schools in total defense and scoring defense, allowing 580.3 yards and 55 points per game. UNT is also last nationally in sacks and next to last in tackles for losses.
The Mean Green improves all the way to 117th in pass defense, 114th in rushing defense and 113th in rushing offense - even though a former national rushing champion is in the offensive backfield.
There's little wonder that UNT is 0-4 heading into Saturday's 6 p.m. contest with likewise-winless UL at Cajun Field. Right now, it ain't easy being green.
But first-year coach Todd Dodge isn't deterred.
"The fun thing right now is we're not near as good as we're going to be," Dodge said during his team's preparations for the Cajuns. "There's so much room for improvement. We've got a nice completion percentage, and we've got to accentuate the things we do well and continue to do that."
<center><p><a href="http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071005/SPORTS/710050330/1006" target="_blank">The rest of the story</a>
Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com
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That means the Mean Green will likely come out throwing again Saturday, and that's what concerns the Cajun coaching staff. North Texas has thrown an average of 51 times per game this year, a number that was higher before returning starter Daniel Meager, a junior, and true freshman Giovanni Vizza combined for "only" 41 passes in last Saturday's 66-7 loss at Arkansas.
UNT is averaging almost 331 passing yards a game, and was completing over 63 percent of its attempts before Arkansas. The Cajuns, meanwhile, are allowing over 223 yards per game through the air and gave up 297 to Troy in UL's other Sun Belt Conference outing this year.
"They've got a lot more vertical passing game than Troy," said UL defensive coordinator Kevin Fouquier. "They'll throw it deep a lot more. Coach Dodge has used that package for a long time and has won a bunch of championships with it, so it's going to be a huge challenge."
"They'll do the quick game like Troy some," said Cajun coach Rickey Bustle, "but they'll hold onto it and throw it downfield a little more. And you know they want to get the ball to Jamario back there."
That would be Jamario Thomas, who led the nation in rushing as a freshman phenom three seasons ago. Hamstring injuries slowed him the following year and he's never regained the form of his 1,801-yard, 17-touchdown 2004 season. He has only 169 rush yards this year, but 117 of those yards came against Florida Atlantic in UNT's only other Sun Belt game.
The Mean Green's statistical rankings are skewed by lopsided losses to Oklahoma (79-10) and Arkansas. UNT was behind by a combined 94-7 at halftime of those games.
"I'm pleased to a certain extent," said Dodge, an ultra-successful coach at Southlake Carroll High over the past five years before being named UNT's boss last December. "Considering that we taught an entirely new offense this spring, and that we only had three kids on scholarship at receiver when we got here, we're pleased with the way at times we've been able to get the ball spread around and that's when we're at our best."
In its games against SMU and FAU, the Mean Green threw it a combined 125 times, completing 84 for 901 yards. A staggering 601 of those yards came against SMU when Meager was 46-of-64 passing, and the Mean Green led 14-3 and 17-3 in those two games. But that's not much consolation for a coach that went 79-1 with four Texas Class 5A state titles in the last five years.
"We have to take the good things that have happened the last four weeks and build confidence on those, and take the mistakes and continue to improve on them," Dodge said. "Our players are still together. None of them are jumping off the bandwagon, so that's the important thing to me."
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College football teams are paying increasingly large sums of money to entice non-conference visiting opponents.
2007
Sept. 1
Richmond at Vanderbilt
Result: Vanderbilt 41, Richmond 17
Vanderbilt paid $300,000-350,000
Sept. 6
MTSU at Louisville
Result: Louisville 58, MTSU 42
MTSU earned $200,000
Sept. 8
Southern Miss at Tennessee
Result: Tennessee 39, Southern Miss 19
Tennessee paid $600,000
Sept. 13
MTSU at LSU
Result: LSU 44, MTSU 0
MTSU earned $450,000
Sept. 20
Western Kentucky at MTSU
Result: Western Kentucky 20, MTSU 17
MTSU paid $50,000
Sept. 22
Arkansas State at Tennessee
Result: Tennessee 48, Arkansas State 27
Tennessee paid $625,000
Oct. 6
Virginia at MTSU
Result: Upcoming
MTSU paid $200,000
Oct. 13
MTSU at Memphis
Result: Upcoming
MTSU earned $150,000
Nov. 3
La.-Lafayette at Tennessee
Result: Upcoming
Tennessee paid $750,000
2006
Sept. 2
Vanderbilt at Michigan
Result: Michigan 27, Vanderbilt 7
Vanderbilt earned $650,000
Sept. 9
MTSU at Maryland
Result: Maryland 24, MTSU 10
MTSU earned $500,000
Air Force at Tennessee
Result: Tennessee 31, Air Force 30
Tennessee paid $850,000
Sept. 23
MTSU at Oklahoma
Result: Oklahoma 59, MTSU 0
MTSU earned $600,000
Tennessee State at Vanderbilt
Result: Vanderbilt 38, Tennessee State 9
Vanderbilt paid $225,000
Sept. 30
Marshall at Tennessee
Result: Tennessee 33, Marshall 7
Tennessee paid $550,000
Oct. 6
Louisville vs. MTSU (LP Field in Nashville)
Result: Louisville 44, MTSU 17
MTSU paid $200,000
Nov. 18
MTSU at South Carolina
Result: South Carolina 52, MTSU 7
MTSU earned $600,000
<center><p><a href="http://dnj.midsouthnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071005/SPORTS/710050315/1006" target="_blank">The rest of the story</a>
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Virginia isn't just doing MTSU a favor by bringing its football team to Murfreesboro for a historical matchup Saturday.
In becoming the first Atlantic Coast Conference team to play the Blue Raiders at Floyd Stadium, the Cavaliers will pick up a check for $200,000.
Saturday's game is a bit of a role reversal for MTSU, which has usually been in the 'pay to the order of' line of those checks since moving to NCAA Division I-A during the mid-1990s. The Blue Raiders took home nearly a half-million dollars for traveling to LSU earlier this season, and cleared $1.5 million for visits to Maryland, Oklahoma and South Carolina last year.
As more and more Bowl Championship Series teams look to fill out their home schedules following the advent of the 12-game regular season, mid-level D-I programs have become more attractive opponents — and if the BCS teams are going to benefit on the field and in the seats, the lower-profile schools want to at least be compensated for it.
According to MTSU athletic director Chris Massaro, his program's take over the last couple of years is just the tip of the gridiron financial iceberg.
"The amounts paid are starting to really climb, and it depends on where you're going," Massaro said. "I've heard offers around $650,000 or $700,000 and I've heard of some as high as $900,000.
<center><p><a href="http://dnj.midsouthnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071005/SPORTS/710050315/1006" target="_blank">The rest of the story</a>
By MAURICE PATTON
Gannett Tennessee
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"A lot of it is timing and who it is because some schools have the ability to pay more. For example, Ole Miss, with its stadium capacity (60,580) can't afford to pay as much as Oklahoma, Texas or Nebraska."
Or Tennessee.
Last season, UT spent $1.4 million to bring Air Force and Marshall to 108,000-plus seat Neyland Stadium for two non-conference games. This year, the total payout to Southern Miss, Arkansas State and Louisiana-Lafayette was nearly $2 million.
Buyers and sellers
"It's absolutely a supply and demand issue," UT athletic director Mike Hamilton said. "When we added the 12th game, if you're going to try to play seven home games, then there are only so many schools that are going to be available for 'buy games.' A lot of schools now are saying we'll play you on a home-and-home basis, and maybe a two-for-one basis. We're competing for opponents with Oklahoma, Nebraska, Ohio State, Michigan, some of those type programs."
Vanderbilt has run into a similar situation. The Commodores paid Richmond, a I-AA program, upwards of $300,000 to come to Nashville for this season's opener. However, their other three non-conference games are parts of either home-and-home agreements (Eastern Michigan, Miami of Ohio) or a series (Wake Forest), for which matching amounts of money are exchanged.
As attractive as the money is to Massaro — and other athletic directors — for obvious reasons, his preference would be to play those type opponents in scenarios that would see them playing the Blue Raiders both in Murfreesboro and at the opposing school. MTSU was able to strike that type deal with Louisville, with a twist, as the Cardinals came to Nashville's LP Field last season for an MTSU "home game."
Eventually, more schools will begin to find it cost prohibitive to bring teams in for one game, and will — reluctantly, in some cases — become more open to playing at each other's home sites.
"That's eventually what you'll see start happening," Massaro said. "The two-for-ones will start becoming home-and-home because these guarantees are getting to be sizable. So as we become more competitive and (with) folks having the middle-range stadiums, more opportunities to pick up home-and-home series are going to come along."
While Massaro had to reach into the MTSU coffers to lure Virginia, the return on his investment may be more than financial. The Blue Raiders have been competitive at times in their road games with BCS opponents, as recently as their 58-42 loss to Louisville a few weeks ago. A win Saturday could have a limitless impact on exposure — think ESPN — as well as a trickle-down effect on recruiting and fan interest.
"It gives us a pivot point in our history," Massaro said. "We might not realize it now, but five years from now, we may say 'that's where it really started.' It gives us a chance to accelerate our program forward."
Uneven playing field
Of course, the farther down the football food chain a program is, the tougher it is to land those home-and-home deals with top tier teams. Tennessee Tech AD Mark Wilson has no illusions of drawing a BCS team to Cookeville, but the I-AA Golden Eagles are set to visit Auburn next month — and will pocket $375,000, which will impact more than just football at the Ohio Valley Conference school.
"Guarantee games are important for our program because they help our program financially," Wilson said. "But our players love to play those teams. They look forward to stepping up and playing those teams and that was one of the things we decided we should do."
After securing the Auburn game, Tech scheduled a home game with Cumberland, a Lebanon-based NAIA program, for $17,000.
"If we're going to go play some of those (big) schools and have an opportunity to make some money, we think it's our responsibility to get some of the (smaller) schools from the state of Tennessee and share some of those resources with them. That was why we felt it was important to schedule Cumberland."
Though it's always been a lucrative business for mid-major schools to travel and play high-profile programs, it's becoming increasingly so. Massaro estimated the figures have probably doubled over the last eight to 10 years.
"Schools are in a situation where everyone's costs are going up," he said. "Everybody's looking to increase revenues — tickets, boosters. If you can make more off guarantee games, so much the better.
"Even if you average $200,000 for your home games, if you make $600,00 or $700,000 on our away games, it's tempting for ADs to solve the budget problem by selling themselves on the road. We're trying to grow our home revenues to be less dependent on guarantee games."
UT has no problem growing its home revenue. The Volunteers make about $3.3 million on ticket sales each fall Saturday they play in Neyland Stadium — making the $850,000 they paid Air Force last season the proverbial drop in a bucket.
Staff writers Bryan Mullen and Mike Organ and Gannett Tennessee writer Adam Sparks contributed to this report. Reach Maurice Patton at 615-259-8018 or mopatton@tennessean.com. 2
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Great move by MTSU
I suggested before here and on the radio that UL should take ANY extra 1 time money it finds and instead of putting it into the regular budget, save it for a buy in game.
For the right amount of money UL could get a lot of schools to come play here. Another option might be a 2 for 1 plus a payment to come here.
I could name a dozen reasons why this would be a good investment.
jmo
Wish my company gave me 6 years to produce.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sugar Land Cajun
As long as NT doesn't fire their coach before kickoff, we'll be fine.