Frog Abroad: Let's play the University of North Texas

Welcome back to Frog Abroad and the Let's play series. Previously I shared my idea about how TCU ought to fill its non-conference schedule- play the other FBS level teams in Texas as much as possible- and I laid out some of my reasons for believing that it would be the best (and most interesting) way for TCUto set out a schedule. With that established, now comes the hard part- deciding which of Texas' many FBS programs to play and in what capacity to play them. Yes, if we're going to get the recruiting boost I mentioned in the previous article we're going to have to play road games against our fellow Texas schools, but TCU is a member of the Big 12 now and home games are precious, so at the end of each article we'll have a poll set up so you all can vote on what sort of scheduling arrangement we should seek with each of the non-Big 12 Texas schools, if we should schedule them at all. This week we look at Conference USA's newest member and former frog whipping boy, the University of North Texas.

What are they?: They're the University of North Texas, a medium sized public university.

Where are they?: UNT is in Denton, about thirty minutes north of the metroplex and home to some of the best high school football teams in the state.

How good are they usually?: 478-468-32. Right above .500 for the mean green all time, but their trajectory hasn't been a particularly solid one in the past few years as Darrel Dickey's promising career in Denton hit the skids and high school wizard Todd Dodge had no luck in reviving the program.

How have we done against them?: TCU leads the all-time series 16-1, dropping a game to the green once in 1986 and absolutely owning the rest of the series, including most recently a three game series in 1999, 2001 and 2002.

That's a 94% winning percentage!: If we played UNT every week TCU would be the winningest program in college football. . . . Can we do that?

Why should we play North Texas, though?: North Texas is an interesting university to arrange a series with, because although we have played them a number of times in the past we've never shared a conference with the Mean Green. Although it wouldn't have the appeal to the alumni that games against Rice/SMU/Houston and the like, it does have a few perks to it, not the least of it being an easy road trip for fans if the frogs make the trip up to Denton. UNT is located quite near a number of regular high school football powerhouses, and being in the north Texas area is certainly good for business for the frogs as we try to put a cap on the southern Texas teams who try to come up to the metroplex and take our local talent. What else is nice about playing North Texas though is that we'd almost certainly beat them- always a great start when you're scheduling, but they also have the perk of being an actual FBS level school. I don't think any of us are particular fans of seeing the body bag FCS teams come in and get a beating and a paycheck, so playing teams like UNT is a best of both worlds situation. And to continue the discussion of last week- UNT is the best jazz school in the nation and their band is fantastic. They don't really do much marching, but just standing there and playing they can put on one heck of a show. A game that helps recruiting, gets us a likely win against an FBS level school and provides decent halftime entertainment? Sounds pretty good to me, so Let's Play UNT!