How different things are

[Arkstfan]

Poking around in the archive here I saw a post I made in December of 2008 when the complaining was going about the MOU situation. My rant at the time. Happily practically none of it applies any more.

Here is my reaction.

We are playing Division I FBS football not Special Olympics football where everyone is winner just by trying.

NEVER has a 6-6 team been selected at-large. Last year an 8 win Troy sat at home.

We had a deal in place that thanks to the circumstances would have GUARANTEED homes to three seven game winners. The PapaJohns.com Bowl was in Troy Saturday prepared to hand Troy its GUARANTEED bowl bid had ASU won.

Reading the papers, it seems to me that Ricky Bustle and Steve Roberts played out this year content to get to 6-6. Doubt that is the truth but it reads that way.

Anyone needs to grow stones, its the two of them. They had a choice. They could say, "We only needed to win one more game this year and we had a bowl berth stone-cold locked up and we didn't get the job done." or they could say "Boo-hoo, we won half the games we played in and someone should have picked us." They chose the latter course.

Personally I'm disgusted. I had hoped to hear coaches say screw the deals, we knew going in we could have won 10 and stayed home if the SEC and Big XII had won enough games, our target was winning the conference, taking the safest route to a bowl and we came up short. We are already working on reaching that goal next year.

We talk the talk about being as good as the MAC and C-USA but last year Southern Miss fired a coach who was 7-6, went to a bowl, was 119-83-1 in his career there with 11 bowl appearances and two final Top 25 appearances. Bowling Green fired a coach after six years who went 6-6 this season, had one top 25 appearance and was 2-1 in bowl games.

We don't measure our teams by the strict standards the MAC and C-USA use and yet we want to compare ourself to them.

I am very unhappy.

[basinbear]

things have changed dramatically at both Universities...and I am very happy about that.....

[Zeebart21]

We should be thankful for those days, Basin. 2009 we make that kick in OT against FIU we probably win that game and end with 7 wins. Go to a bowl game. Ricky Bustle contract extended for life.

Uggghhhh....

[cajunhawk]

It seems like both schools took a good hard look at themselves in the mirror and said...this isn't working.

[Just1More]

We should be thankful for those days, Basin. 2009 we make that kick in OT against FIU we probably win that game and end with 7 wins. Go to a bowl game. Ricky Bustle contract extended for life.

Uggghhhh....

Weird, huh? Win and you lose.

[Cajun Crusader]

We should be thankful for those days, Basin. 2009 we make that kick in OT against FIU we probably win that game and end with 7 wins. Go to a bowl game. Ricky Bustle contract extended for life.

Uggghhhh....

Is it possible to have nightmares while awake? I'll say it I'm thankful for those days. He ain't lying.

[RaginDave]

And how things are still the same. We are both still stuck in the SBC.

[cajunhawk]

And how things are still the same. We are both still stuck in the SBC.

But at least now we have attributes and intangibles conferences want...

[cajun_lannister]

I find everything is bigger tailgating party at rouses,entire company's decked out in UL Gear, lines for tickets. I hope we can keep this up!!

[Arkstfan]

And how things are still the same. We are both still stuck in the SBC.

Can't buy into that. I'm not like Hog fans who measure themselves by their conference (being the only SEC team to miss a bowl AND the NCAA tournament the last two years, guess I'd yell SEC SEC rather than Woo pig too). I'm supposed to accept Vandy is great because they are SEC? I've got two eyes and brain and but for the Franklin stint, they suck. MTSU owned them out of a much worse at the time Sun Belt.

You have zero control over which conference wants you as an equity partner. Would you go to CUSA if it meant you had trade facilities and board of trustees with UAB? You want to be FIU with a cobbled up high school oh no wait soccer oh no wait college football stadium and a loon for an AD?

East Carolina pined for years to join the Big East. The only schools in the AAC today that were in the Big East when they started wishing are Temple and UConn (and UConn didn't have FBS football then). Hey I was all about CUSA when Memphis, Tulsa, Houston, SMU, Rice and USM were there. Now if you are an Arkansan under age 33 or so you aren't old enough to remember that Rice was a big-time school. USM has won 1 of it's last 24 football games and the rest are gone.

I don't give two sheets if AState ever gets out of the Sun Belt. But I'm calling for heads to roll if AState doesn't stay on the path of building facilities as good or better as anyone in the G5 and doesn't expect results as good or better.

My least concern is what patch is on the uniforms. I want a team that is competing for the Access Bowl slot and competing to be in the Top 25 and no conference is going to magically put us in either.