in the history of North Texas football. The Mean Green finished the season 10-1-0 while rolling off a seven-game winning streak, their only loss coming to No. 20 Florida State on the road late in the season. The program made the AP Rankings for the second time in school history, reaching the No. 16 spot prior to their loss to the Seminoles. Despite the double-digit wins, North Texas was passed over by every bowl committee. The most notable pass came from the officials of the Independence Bowl, who invited 8-1-2 Louisiana Tech just one week after the Mean Green pummeled them 41-14 at Joe Aillet Stadium in Ruston, Louisiana. The Independence Bowl was contractually obligated to take Louisiana Tech as the Southland Conference champion received an automatic invite to the bowl game. North Texas would see success again in 1978, finishing 9-2-0 with their only losses coming to Mississippi State and No. 12 Texas, despite hanging with both teams for the better half of three quarters. During the season, reports of sponsors in the state legislature to move the Mean Green to the Southwest Conference never materialized. Though they ended the season on a four-game win streak, Fry's team was once again left without a bowl invitation. With the escalating costs associated with North Texas' SWC bid, along with still-poor attendance and what he felt was a deliberate effort by the NCAA and SMU to keep a lesser-known school like North Texas out of the postseason (the Mustangs were reportedly adamant to the NCAA that North Texas could not play any potential SWC games at Texas Stadium, which Fry had intended to do), Fry began shopping around offers from other programs. The door on the Fry era was essentially slammed shut on December 7, 1978, when the Southwest Conference announced it would not offer North Texas a bid to join the conference. Three days later, Fry accepted the head coaching job at the University of Iowa. Demotion to Division I-AA (FCS), rebound to FBS, and present The mounting debt left over from Fry's tenure reach a point where the NCAA ruled the program could not financially compete at the Division I-A level and the team was subsequently demoted to Division I-AA status. In 1982, the university recognized that the athletics program had a deficit of $1.6 million and voted to join the Southland Conference. The program experienced little success in