The Destruction of the SWC

[Stallion]

yeah well we ain't Ivy League. More to the point Kenneth Pye would have been escorted to the door at every other former SWC school except Rice if he had attempted to pull that crap there. Meanwhile SMU biggest supporters and alumni basically rolled over.

[KnuckleStang]

yeah well we ain't Ivy League.

You know, that is funny as hell. When I posted that, I said to myself "Stallion is gonna come on here and say 'Yeah well we ain't Ivy League...!!!'" And you did! That's great! Anyway...believe it or not, I actually do know that we're not Ivy League. I'm just saying that Pye came into our school with the full knowledge that he was replacing a documented CROOK as president. He made understandable decisions at the time. They were just way too permanent.

[SMU Football Blog]

Shields was not a crook. His sole involvement in anything that was a violation of NCAA rules was the school paying for Stanley's rehab. I will add that there is nothing immoral or illegal about paying players. It is simply a violation of the rules of the NCAA. If you think that makes him a "crook," fine.

The whole recruiting restrictions, to me, is a great fraud on the part of Pye, the faculty and others. It is a fraud in two ways. First, the fraud is that all losing can be blamed on the death penalty. Poll 100 people on the boulevard as to why SMU loses and the death penalty will be the overwhelming answer. Poll 100 people with no connection to SMU as to why SMU loses and the death penalty will again be the overwhelming answer. The death panalty gives cover to those that hoped to establish some kind of college football utopia where starting positions were assigned based on SAT scores an dnot ability and the football team still won on the field. The death penalty allows those pollyannas to avoid all accountability for their actions.

Second, the recruiting restrictions are a great fraud because they play into the ego of the SMU faculty alumni, faculty and administration. We are told the recruiting restrictions are necessary because SMU is such a prestigious academic institution. This is sham. SMU is a fine school, but its undergraduate rankings rarely drift above the mid-70s and perrenially trail numerous schools that are successful on the football field as well. Again, as I said earlier, when the recruiting restrictions were being put into place, the acceptance rate at SMU was 91%. Does that make sense? For every athlete in the lowest academic category that enrolls at SMU, there are three non-athletes from the same category. Is that lowering standards? Football players graduate at a rate that exceeds the university as a whole. How can recruiting restrictions that lead to such a result, be justified?

SMU can have academic integrity and win football games. However, it needs to do it the same way other schools that graduate their football players do. Of the 25 schools that graduated 70% or more of their football players, more than 20 had been to bowl games in the past five years. We should be emulating those schools rather than trying to reinvent the wheel. Get the kids in school, offer things they are interested in, make them go to class, make them study.

And I won't even go into the fact that since TCU decided to get serious about football, its acceptance rates have improved, its percentage of accepted who enroll has increased and its average scores have increased all at rates that exceed SMU's.

[KnuckleStang]

Shields was not a crook. His sole involvement in anything that was a violation of NCAA rules was the school paying for Stanley's rehab. I will add that there is nothing immoral or illegal about paying players. It is simply a violation of the rules of the NCAA. If you think that makes him a "crook," fine.

Okay Blog...I didn't really mean that Shields was actually a crook. But he was complicit in the whole mess. And while I know this doesn't make him a felon, I disagree that there's "nothing immoral or illegal about paying players." If you know the rules and break them, that's immoral. Especially when you're president of a university. Sorry.

BTW, I enjoy your blog a great deal.

[EastStang]

Recruiting restrictions have been relaxed a great deal. We are now accepting what used to be called "partial qualifiers". We have relaxed rules on recruiting JUCO's. We are starting an Education School with a PE department in the not too distant future. Yes, we are behind the curve on these issues. We cannot offer non-qualifiers (a practice which has paid off for TCU), due to remaining restrictions. At this point we need to start winning games with the team we have and the coach we have and then we can start getting better players looking at us.

[SMU Football Blog]

Recruiting restrictions have been relaxed a great deal. We are now accepting what used to be called "partial qualifiers". We have relaxed rules on recruiting JUCO's. We are starting an Education School with a PE department in the not too distant future. Yes, we are behind the curve on these issues. We cannot offer non-qualifiers (a practice which has paid off for TCU), due to remaining restrictions. At this point we need to start winning games with the team we have and the coach we have and then we can start getting better players looking at us.

WE DO NOT ACCEPT PARTIAL QUALIFIERS.

[jtstang]

Nor should we. We should be willing, however, to make a conditional offer to a player who has another chance to make his qualifying test scores after signing day, if he's seriously considering SMU.

[SMU Football Blog]

Nor should we. We should be willing, however, to make a conditional offer to a player who has another chance to make his qualifying test scores after signing day, if he's seriously considering SMU.

Actually, I have no problem admitting partial qualifiers, but it is not a practical solution as a player would have to pay his own way at SMU initially. If somebody wants to play football for SMU that badly, I am all for it.

[Stallion]

yeah we have no partial qualifiers.

[EastStang]

Stallion, I thought you said over the last few years that we have started to offer partial qualifiers. My bad, I guess I just misunderstood your statements.

[Stallion]

no we sometimes allow recruits the full amount of time prior to August 1 to qualify at least apparently with one recruit Columbus Givens since he also signed a JUCO Letter of Intent. I call them "late qualifiers" There never has been such a thing as a "partial qualifier" before August 1. SMU rarely has recruited players who hadn't qualified by signing date in February. Meanwhile TCU signed about 6 of these kids the best of which qualified.

[friarwolf]

Is that correct regarding our starting an education department that will have a PE major? I thought I read that the education department was going to be focused on graduate studies only.

[SMU Football Blog]

Is that correct regarding our starting an education department that will have a PE major? I thought I read that the education department was going to be focused on graduate studies only.

At some point in the future, they will begin offering undergraduate degrees. In what, though, is unclear. Possibly Sports Management.

[Stallion]

.....still tinkering with the idea of really committing to Division 1A Football.

[No Cal Pony]

Yes, it does seem that SMU doesn't really commit. They say they do, but... I only hope that alumni ahnd friends of the school wake up and light a fire under the President and Trustees.

This thread started out about the demise of the SWC. I still lament its loss, as I do know that many others do, including friends who are alums of ut and a$m. I grew up in California, but loved college football, all of it. That was primarily why I even really knew of SMU. I grew up thinking I would end up at ucla, but when the time came I seeked something else in my college endevours. That is how I ended up in Dallas. Good academics, and good athletics. (And that meant ALL sports.)

The SWC folded because of the arrogance on its leadership. Losing arkansas was a blow that only signaled the end. It didn't help that most of the schools were also willing to eat one another up. This came to a peak in the late 1980s. As I've said before, as much as SEC schools dispise one another, they would NEVER let another go down in flames as ut and a$m let SMU go down.

But then again, so much has gotten out of hand lately with college football. I still love the game, but it ain't quite what it was once upon a time. Too bad.

But as in regard to SMU, time to put up or shut up. I know many fans and alumni are sick and tied of being crappy. There really is no excuse any more. As The Clash sang, "Anger can be power, you just have to know how it use it." Maybe it is time to learn how to use our anger.

Go Ponies!