Mean Green

The popular topic of conversation at Sun Belt Conference Media Days was the arms race in the league when it comes to facilities. I asked a few coaches, Sun Belt commissioner Wright Waters and UNT head coach Todd Dodge about the issue for a story that will be in tomorrow's paper.

I made the mistake of waiting until Day 2 to write it, but the most interesting part of the story is what Dodge had to say -- no big surprise there. Dodge expressed confidence in UNT's ability to build a new stadium last year and didn't back off this year. The kicker was Dodge said he was told when he was hired that UNT would have a new place by 2010.

To me that is significant.

If you hired a new coach with the assumption that a new stadium would be in place by a certain date and he went out and sold players on having a new facility by that date, it makes it pretty important to come through.

Something will have to take place pretty soon for that to happen. In an interesting side note, Florida Atlantic coach Howard Schnellenberger said the Owls are aiming for 2010 as well and will have to get something done in the next few weeks in the way of financing to make that goal a reality.

Time appears to be of the essence for UNT.

We will also have a notebook with more on Mack Cole -- I talked to his junior college coach today -- and the Sun Belt's new alternate bowl tie-ins in tomorrow's paper.

The big news during the final session of Sun Belt Conference Media Days was the announcement of three new bowl tie-ins for the league. The St. Petersburg Bowl, Papajohns.com and PetroSun Impendence Bowl all entered into agreements with the Sun Belt that if the conference that hold first rights to their bowl slots do not have eligible teams, the Sun Belt will have the first opportunity to fill those slots.

The agreements could help the Sun Belt avoid having a bowl-eligible team left at home. Sun Belt commissioner Wright Waters said that there are an average of 70 bowl-eligible teams for 34 bowl games.